I don’t remember whether it was me, Susan, or Mason who suggested that we make an Angry Birds-themed Valentine’s Day box for Mason this year, but that’s what was decided on. This is our fourth (in as many years) video game-themed boxes. In 2011 we made an iPad, in 2010 we made a Nintendo DS, and the year before that in 2009 we made a Nintendo Wii.

Here’s how our Angry Birds Valentine’s Day Box turned out …

… and here’s how we got there.

We started with a “simple” paper mache balloon that didn’t turn out to be so simple. Because we started late Sunday night (with a deadline of Monday morning), we didn’t have enough time to let the paper mache dry properly. We tried accelerating the process with a heat gun, but when the balloon popped the entire structure collapsed. On round two we used another balloon, wrapped it in paper mache again, and then wrapped the entire thing in white duct tape.

We cut out a half-moon shape out of white paper and used that to mask off the white part of the bird’s belly. While I spray painted the rest of the bird red, Mason printed out the Angry Birds logo, and wrapped another box with green wrapping paper. We realized early on that this round bird wasn’t going to stand up very well, so we decided to mount it to a second box. Mason came up with the idea of using two wooden BBQ skewers to stick the two together, which worked great.

While I was spray painting the bird’s body, Mason drew these eyes and eyebrows free hand, and cut them out. We make the beak by simply rolling a piece of yellow construction paper into a cone shape and cutting off the excess.

Once the paint dried, Mason taped the eyes and beak into place. At this point we realized that the bird looked a little too round. We re-checked the game’s icon and found that the red Angry Bird had a “plume” on top of his head. Mason cut one (again, free hand) out of cardboard and I spray painted it red. Using a razor blade we cut a small slit and inserted it into the top of the bird’s head.

This was pretty much the final product.

Total supplies: a balloon, some newspaper and glue for the paper mache, half a roll of white duct tape, some cardboard, some paper, a sharpie, some scissors, and some spray paint. Like every one of these that we do, it took us around 2 hours the first time but I’m sure we could do it in an hour if we ever do it again.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!