At least, it’s time to learn and grow if you’re a small child living in southern Arizona, where school gets out in May and starts up again as early as late July. I missed my beloved bulletin board, but we are reunited once again.
I feel like, if kids have to go back to public school, the least I can do is instill in them a sense of magic and wonder about the situation.
This one took 8 hours: 1.5 hours at school on Monday putting up the background and outlining the butterfly, 3 hours at home Tuesday night cutting out the letters, and 2.5 hours Tuesday creating the “spots” and putting all the pieces together. For whatever reason, the school was only stocking 3 colors of butcher paper, so my background choices were black, brown, and yellow. I typically save the black ones for Halloween (for added creepiness) and the winter holidays (to make the idea of lights pop out).
These letter are hand cut (obviously). I just Googled “magic font” and this was one of the first ones that came up.
The quote came later that night, after I had settled on the butterfly. Typically, I pick a keyword, or a few keywords, and look for quotes that suit the idea, although sometimes I start with the quote or message and choose the illustration based on that. In this case, the keyword was “beginning.”
I use a ruler to draw guidelines so the letters are all the same height, then sketch and cut freehand. However, when the same letter comes up more than once, I use the first as a rough template to ensure that they look more or less alike.
I had an apprentice for this piece, and she’s finally reaching the age where her help is, in fact, helpful. My stepdaughter wanted the bulletin board to feature school supplies, which I originally vetoed, since I had already settled on a butterfly, but then I realized that the butterfly could more easily have a school supply pattern on it. Originally I intended to just make a torn-paper mosaic, but this was much faster and more beautiful.
My apprentice gets hands on.
In the past, she’s always wanted to help, which usually resulted in things taking four times as long, but she’s finally big enough to understand and follow directions. She applied the rubber cement to the paper and passed it over, which allowed me to assemble the collage more quickly. She also colored the tips of the pencils, applied the ovals to the crayons, suggested color and placement choices, and helped rip the paper.
My apprentice feels a sense of accomplishment, and possibly wonder.
I also dropped and broke a stapler in this process, so now I owe the library a stapler. However, I did manage to unjam the one I broke last May, but we’re still down one stapler.
Update 7/31/14
I think I’m off the hook for the stapler.
qwertyvsdvorak 
Good for you to have an apprentice! my children always want to help me, butI am a VERY impatient person and would rather just do it my way and get it right the first time. she’s a Very lucky girl to have such an awesome step-mom like you! Great job!
Thanks 🙂 I get impatient too, and when time or perfection is an issue, I don’t always have the head-space to work with her, but I keep reminding myself that this is how people learn. I’ve known her for almost 6 years, and I know that she’s helpful now because I allowed her to be inconveniently “helpful” in the past!