Vinny the Valentine Horse

When my daughter's teacher sent out an email asking for empty Kleenex boxes to be used as a Valentine mailbox, I assumed that the creating/decorating of said mailbox would take place at school. I was wrong. Instead, my daughter arrived home with an empty Kleenex box and a cheerful note encouraging us work together at home to transform the box into a receptacle worthy of the finest love notes.

She was excited to get started so I pulled out the usual suspects: stickers, markers, and glitter. She rolled a marker thoughtfully between her palms, staring intently at her Kleenex box and announced, "I want it to look like horse." This is not at all surprising. My horse crazy girl lives and breathes all things equine. "That's great honey! Draw a horse on the box," I exclaimed. She continued to roll her marker, chewing on her lower lip. "No Momma. I don't want to draw a horse. I want the box to BE a horse."

I wasn't sure how I was going to make a Kleenex box into a horse but I knew that I certainly would not be spending any money to do so. A quick internet search gave use a few ideas about what a Valentine horse might look like, and we set to work using what we had around the house. Vinny the Valentine horse (as he is so affectionately called) is an upcycled masterpiece. Standing proud his on toilet paper roll legs, Vinny's body is an empty Kleenex box that K painted hot pink. His tail, also pink, was made from leftover yarn. I made Vinny's head out of construction paper and glued it to a file folder for support.

K is beyond excited to take Vinny to class on Tuesday.And to tell you the truth, I'm pretty excited too. Who'd have thought a bunch of "trash" could make something so cute?!