A special project that has hands-on practice for budding artists and even animators!

These little flip book animations feature a surprise flower sprouting that leaves plenty of room for variety, extras, and additions. It’s can be a very sweet and interactive gift as well! 

You’ll need:

• At least half of a light-colored post-it note stack or other small pieces of paper affixed together, like a little book (can be stapled or taped)
• Pencil(s)
• Optional: Color pencils, markers, or other extra materials to personalize your flip book
• Animation!

1. Start at the BACK of your post-it stack. Leave 2 pages BLANK, and then begin with a little crumbly line on 3. Starting at the back means you’ll be able to see your previous drawings underneath each new piece of paper. This allows you to trace over what you’ve already done and make it easy to match your drawings!
2. Your next 2 pages will show the sprout peeking through the soil, one as a little bump, and then one as it pokes out through the dirt.
3. From there, you will begin to make the sprout grow upwards and longer from pages 6-9. You can add little extra bumps on your sprout, on page 9, for where leaves will grow.
4. On page 10, add a little tiny bud and grow your leaves a bit more. The stem does not need to grow anymore; this is where the flower begins! If you want to color the bud a bit, you can show the flower starting to form.
5. On page 11 and 12, show the leaves growing out even more. The bud will also get much bigger and shaped like a flower bud, ready to open! Add color here for sure if you’re coloring your surprise flower.
6. On page 13, your bud can begin to open! Show your leaves now at their fullest, and peek open the bud a bit. Leave room to grow!
7. On page 14, open your flower even more! You can show a few little details if you want to start revealing your flower here. Is it a daisy? A rose? A tulip?
8. Page 15 is your flower’s final version! I like to make a copy of page 15 for page 16, since it goes so fast when flipping through the drawings. Now that your flower has grown, you can go and add color, decorations, or even personalize it with words! It would be perfect to grow a whole garden of flip-flowers.

This is an easy but very unique type of art project that can be very special for a young artist, and lends itself to a lot of personalization!

Happy drawing!

Ms. Catherine Knowles is a professional artist and illustrator from Memphis, TN and the senior graphic designer for the University of Memphis’ Athletic Program. As a life-long artist, Ms. Knowles enjoys all things creative including dance, theatre and music, and all of the fine arts. She is a published professional and regularly enjoys doing commissioned art work. You can often find her work on display locally and regionally at craft and art shows and comic cons.