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Build-Your-Own Unicorn Habitats

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Do you believe in unicorns?! My kids love ALL magical creatures, but unicorns are a favorite around here. So, when I saw THIS Etsy listing, I knew we had to try making them.

The first time I made them at home with my kids & nieces, I bought some craft boxes to put them in and, even though they turned out really cute and the kids had a lot of fun with them, I felt like the boxes were too deep and didn't give us enough surface area to work on. We had to put styrofoam and craft paper in the bottoms of the boxes to bring everything up to the top. So, when I decided to try them during a birthday party in the art studio, I remembered THIS post from Meri Cherry and I decided to use 6" terra cotta saucers instead, and they worked really well!

To make these habitats, I gave the kids a variety of items- things I had on hand or at the studio, plus additional things I purchased, like the gemstones. The only direction I gave was for them to glue down some moss first to act as the ground, and I just let them have at it from there. When they were done, everyone got to pick a unicorn to put in their habitat.

Except Theo. He's not all that into unicorns, so he made a dinosaur habitat instead.

WHAT WE USED

  • Craft boxes (from the dollar store) or terra cotta saucers (from Walmart)
  • Unicorns
  • preserved moss that I had on hand- similar here (you'll get 3-4 habitats out of 1 bag)
  • Large acrylic gems
  • Small pink acrylic beads
  • Small rocks
  • White aquarium gravel
  • Glitter that I had on hand
  • Paper straws
  • Silk flowers
  • Faux berries
  • Chenille stems
  • Cotton balls
  • Pinecones
  • Dinos

The best part about making these habitats was letting the kids have free reign with everything they had available to them. It's always really interesting to watch them explore the materials and try new things and see what they can create!