Unicorn Ideas for Kids: How to Invent One That's Entirely Theirs
There are two kinds of houses: the ones the unicorn phase has not visited yet, and the ones that have surrendered completely. If you are in the second group, you have noticed the problem. Every unicorn printable on the internet is the same horse with the same horn, and your kid stopped being satisfied by that about two hundred unicorns ago.
The good news is that unicorns are the easiest creature in the world to invent, because nobody can tell your kid they got it wrong.
Five questions that build a unicorn nobody else has
Ask these one at a time, and write down the answers exactly as they come:
- What is her mane made of? Rainbows is the first answer. Ask what else it could be and you land somewhere stranger, which is where you want to be.
- What is the horn for? A horn that only stirs soup is a better character than a horn that does magic in general.
- What does she eat? Expect a strong opinion, firmly held.
- Where does she sleep? In a meadow, in a cloud, under your kid’s actual bed. Somewhere is where the picture happens.
- What is she doing right now? The last question is the one that turns a creature into a scene, so save it for last and let the others feed it.
You now have a unicorn that exists nowhere else, described in your kid’s own words. That is the hard part done.
A dozen scenes to start from
If the questions stall, start from a picture instead and let them argue with it:
- A unicorn baking a rainbow birthday cake
- A unicorn foal trotting across a bridge made of clouds
- A sleepy unicorn curled up under a sky full of stars
- A unicorn sharing cupcakes with woodland friends
- A unicorn and a butterfly painting a rainbow across the sky
- A unicorn carousel spinning at a fair
- A unicorn splashing through a meadow of giant flowers
- A unicorn who runs a lemonade stand
- A unicorn learning to swim, badly
- A unicorn braiding another unicorn’s mane
- A unicorn delivering the mail
- A unicorn hiding behind a very small tree
The pattern to notice: each one is a creature, an action, and a place. Hold that shape and almost any idea draws well.
Three small games for after it is colored
The coloring itself buys you twenty quiet minutes. These stretch it:
- Name her. “What’s her name? What’s her favorite food?” A page becomes a character, and a character becomes a story you will hear about for a week.
- Pick a color rule. “This one only gets warm colors.” “Every stripe is a different shade.” Coloring turns into a small, low-stakes game of choices.
- Add to the scene. Hand over a blank corner: “What else lives in the meadow?” Butterflies show up, then a sun with a face, then a snack.
None of it has to be structured. A page, a fistful of crayons, and a name for the unicorn is plenty.
Turn the invented one into a page
Once your kid has described their unicorn, you can have it drawn:
- Type it in one sentence. “A sleepy unicorn foal curled up under a starry sky.” The sweeter and more specific, the better.
- We draw it. A bold, printable page of exactly that unicorn, doing exactly that thing.
- Print it free. Make your kid’s unicorn, free — just your email, no card. Re-print it as often as the crayons demand.
It is the same screen-free, table-friendly twenty minutes. The difference is that the unicorn is theirs.
When the unicorn deserves a whole book
Unicorn worlds sprawl. If your kid’s has grown past a single page, CrayonBloom can turn it into a printed book — a bound story starring their unicorn, with pages to color and activities like mazes and connect-the-dots, printed to order and shipped to your door.
The pages are always free to try; the printed book is the only thing you pay for, and the full price is shown before checkout. Have a look at the books and pricing when you are ready.
And if you just want something to print tonight
Our unicorn coloring pages are free to download — foals, meadows, carousels and a rainbow or two, drawn in bold outlines for small hands. There are also three true things about unicorns on that page, one of which involves a whale.
More to read: custom coloring pages from your kid’s idea and how to make a personalized coloring book.