Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley? Meet Flat Stella.
A few years ago for a school project, Precocious was required to create a Flat Stella version of herself. She drew a purple dress, long golden hair, and chocolate brown eyes in a an adorable 3rd grade likeness of herself. We were assigned to ship Stella off, with an envelope and instructions to photograph Flat Stella wherever she landed.
First Stella went to our friends in Maryland. Flat Stella had a run in with the president’s motorcade in Washington D.C. and spent some time at historical monuments before she was shipped off to France, Belgium, and The Netherlands, and finally home to Utah at the end of the school year.
She was a busy girl, it took her almost 9 months to trot the globe.
Flat Stella has seen the Eiffel Tower.
I still haven’t seen the Eiffel Tower.
I’m not bitter.
Precocious thumb-tacked Flat Stella to her wall and only removed her last Fall when she felt she’d outgrown her a little.
I’m not kidding, if you can in any way do this, get on it. Flat Stella has in no small way inspired a love of travel for Precocious and opened up a whole new world when she was small enough not to understand how big the world can be.
Allison
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
Too awesome. I’ve never seen a Flat Stanley/Stella project where the kids drew their own – I’ve always seen printed cutouts.
That was my favorite part Cat, that it was her little drawing floating the globe.
So cool.
This is an adorable idea!
I still can’t believe we ran into one another at Alt. So happy you recognized me after all these many years. What a joy to reconnect as adults and see the amazing woman you have become. I wish we had more time to chat, but I think just about everyone at Alt has said those words. :)
I know, so cool! After all these years…..
I love that project! There are so many opportunities for COOL projects at school, I love it when they get chances to do something awesome.
I love it too. Whether or not it’s a class project for Charming in the next couple of years we’ll make it happen. My favorite so far.
I LOVE this idea! Now, I want to figure out how to flatten myself and mail Flat Emily all over the world. (Wait, “flat” doesn’t necessarily sound that good…LOL)
Ha!
Do it. Make a little Emily and ship her off to your buddies all over. Serious.
I love Flat Stella. She reminds me of Lola from the “Charlie and Lola” series (Lola, being a cartoon, is also flat.) Was wondering what my 8 yr old boy would do with this concept and think he’d be into it as long as a) Flat Stella was let’s say Flat Stanley and b) Flat Stanley had a big gun or samurai knife and was battling people in all the pictures.
Listen, I think Stanley should probably be drawn with a Samurai sword in the photo, it’s just appropriate, yes?
What an amazing adventure for Ms. Stella!
My nephews had flat Stanleys that they brought with them on a visit to us. My daughter (then 2) desperately wanted one of her own, so we made her one out of cardboard. He went exciting places like the playground.
Listen, the playground is exciting. More excitement than my kids have had for a long time.
I just think the concept is so cool, no?
Love it! I just did this with my 2nd grade class :) We mailed out our “flat friends” last week and are very much excited about seeing where they have traveled and learned about the different states (and countries) the visit. We printed a blank version and the kids decorated them to look like they do. We also sent an emailed version to Australia (no money in the public school budget to mail that far!)
Such a great way to introduce a new social studies unit! I remember doing it when I was younger.
How cool are you? Very cool.
My husband let off balloons in elementary school with notes inside and one made it from California to Kansas. So cool.