"Arms of Love" Octopus Valentine Mailbox

       This undersea animal is made in the same way that I would a larger version if I were to attach it to a recycled cereal box, except I have made it here in miniature. Students don't really need a pattern to make an octopus because the arms need not be all identical and it's head may be longer and more narrow if preferred. See the drawing and cut shapes below and then make your own cute version!

"Create Happiness" with an octopus mailbox.

Supply List:

• white puff paint
• white school glue
• solid and print decorative scrap papers
• black magic marker
• small box (doll size)
• permanent magic marker (ink pen)
  

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. The octopus will be attached to the front, wide side of a small box, but first, that box will need to be covered both inside and out with decorative paper. I covered the outside of my box with a red and white patterned paper and then the inside with plain, solid white paper, using white school glue.
2. Next, I cut a head for the octopus, from the dotted heart paper, making one end slightly wider. 
3. After this, I smeared glue on the back of the head and pasted solid red paper to it.
4. I did the same for the eight arms of the sea creature. You can see the size and shape comparisons in the photograph below.
5. The arms were then attached by pasting these behind and between the head and the box.
6. Afterwards, when the glue had dried, and the octopus was secured to the box, I curled the limbs of my sea creature and attached these tips of it's arms to the box with more glue so that they would stay in place.
7. Glue on the eyes and mouth.
8. Draw on the eye brows and eye pupils with permanent magic marker.
9. The last step should be the edition of your octopus's suckers with white puff paints. Squeeze small dots, spaced out, on to the solid backside of the octopus' arms.
   

Above are the arms and the head of the octopus Valentine mailbox. See the shapes that I have drawn.

 The Valentine
By Laura E. McCully

He made a little valentine,
And left it at her door.
A cavalier of six was he,
His lady-love was four.

He wrote, in baby letters round:
“Deer Elcie, I love you,
And when I’m prince in Maryland,
Yu’ll be the princess too.”

More Lovable Octopus:

• Octopus in Love by KidTako
• Octopus Clock Craft
• The Common Octopus

• Back to the Valentine Mailbox Contest index page. 

You can cast a vote for this Valentine mailbox entry in the Comments Box Below, if you'd like. It would be interesting to see if people/kids on the internet judge our doll's Valentine mailbox competition in the same way as the children judging them in our home.