I’m sure many of you have experienced moving with kids. Any tips or advice for the rest of us?

Hope you’re all having a good spring! I’ve got a bunch of crafts and paper toys coming up soon!

Making your own toys from things around the house is a fantastic way to help the planet. Very low carbon footprint, and when you’re done playing with them, they can even be recycled. Here’s a little round-up of some favorite earth-friendly projects.

Happy Earth Day!

Recycled Denim Ball

Tin Can Telephones

Wall Hanging Box Aquarium

Cereal Box Marble Run

Cereal Box Dollhouse

Earth Day Coloring Sheet

Click on the image below, then print.

Make tumbling paper bunnies with printable template and two marbles!

Weave your own simple baskets. Tutorial here.

For this first project, I told her to stitch wherever she wanted to create an abstract design. I also used felt, which was good because whenever she accidentally wrapped the thread around the hoop, I could just poke the needle backwards through the hole in the felt to fix it. No need to take the needle off the thread. Also, I quickly figured out that I needed to tie a knot to hold the thread onto the needle. That made it a lot easier for her.

Finally, when she was done, I asked her if she wanted to make a pillow out of it. I let her pick out some fabric for the back, then I sewed it on and stuffed the pillow the next morning while she was at school. When she came home and saw it, she was beaming with pride and excitement. Actually, I’ve never seen her so proud. It was great! She’s definitely hooked!

I would love to hear your tips and project ideas for hand sewing or embroidering with kids. Share them in the comments or on the Facebook Page if you’d like!

My son just wanted to watch the embroidering this time, and was very intrigued. He also gathered all of the scraps that were on the table, and made this little face design. Nice!

Hi Joel and readers, I’m excited to be here again! Our house has been a busy one with a 3½ year old boy who is seriously into creative dress-up play (mostly as a firefighter as you will see in the photos below) and a 10 month old boy who is on the move!

One of my favorite things is to make something out of nothing. These crowns were made from cereal boxes, the boys had a great time playing with them and they are crazy easy to make!

I’ve included a pattern for two of the styles, the Max and Fancy Crown. You certainly don’t need to use a pattern, feel free to let your creativity guide you and come up with your own style. One of the crowns is modeled after Max from the book, Where The Wild Things Are, this book has become a new favorite for my older son.

The whole project is super straight forward, I hope you enjoy watching how our crowns came together, and that you enjoy making your own.

Here we go:

Gather materials {cardboard (not too thick), glue gun, rubber band or elastic and decorating materials}

Cut out your piece(s), use the pattern (link here) or get creative on your own. Glue on strap if needed (Max crown or your own design).

Punch holes and decorate if you’d like!

Secure back with either rubber band or elastic. I ended up sewing elastic on my boy’s crowns because the sewing machine was right there and the elastic didn’t snag their hair.

That’s it! Pretty fun right? I can see these taking shape as flower crowns, or decorated with fresh leaves. They would make a fabulous birthday party project if you had the pieces all cut and guests were able to decorate them. You could add a little tulle for a girly touch. The possibilities are aplenty! If you make your own please put a link in the comments so I can check it out.

Phoebe Carpenter Eells is a wife, mama, artist and middle school teacher. She sells all kinds of handmade goodies over at elSage Designs and blogs from time to time too.

Very basic instructions below, if you’d like. One thing I thought of at the last minute was to make one long piece of vinyl that goes all the way through, as opposed to two small pieces. That way if she ever were to manage to pull it out, it wouldn’t be a choking hazard. Also, I ended up putting in some plastic from my printer paper packaging, for some crinkle sound.

UPDATE: I decided to swap out the vinyl with a more natural fiber. Strong cotton canvas, leather, or sturdy ribbon, are all great alternatives.

I sewed the yellow fabric onto the top piece just for color. Then placed the vinyl across the bottom piece of fabric.

Then I put the top piece of fabric onto the bottom, and sewed around the edge to secure everything in place. I left 1/4 inch of raw edge, to make it easier.

Then I did a zig-zag stitch around the raw edge to keep it from fraying. (See below.) That’s it!

For the Mini Cats, I used images from a few of my paintings, and created some colorful cats with little rooms for each one. Just print out the template below, then cut, fold, and start playing! They all fit into a mint tin too, so you can stash them into a pocket or bag.

Also, see if your kids would like to draw their own background designs for the cats, to cut out and fold. The Mini Cats need more environments to play in! They might need a kitchen, bedroom, or park! Upload photos on the Made by Joel Facebook Page and share what you create!

Template: Click on the image below, then print.

Template: Click on the image below, then print.

It was very simple to make. I’ll put some brief instructions below if you want to try it out.

Hope you can get some sleep!

I used two rectangles of fabric, about 4×8 inches each. Then rounded the corners and placed them right sides together.

Then I cut a 16 inch strip of elastic, and placed it between the two pieces of fabric. (See photo below.)

Now sew along three sides, leaving the end with the long elastic sticking out, open. (I also sewed over the other end of the elastic a few times to make it more secure.)

Take the other end of the elastic and align it in the middle of the open end of the mask. Sew over it, and leave one small opening so you can turn the mask right-side out.

After you turn the mask right-side out, just hand sew the opening closed, and get some sleep!

Thanks everyone!
Joel

Some friends of mine needed to add to their video portfolio, and I was one of the lucky participants. If you want a quick peek inside my studio, check it out!

Screenshots below:

As always, if you’d like to share photos of your creatures (or your other Valentine’s craft creations) on the Made by Joel Facebook page, it would be fun to see them!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Templates: Click on the images below, then print.

The play mat was really easy to make, because I let my mom do all the sewing. ha. (I figured it was her fabric, and I didn’t want to mess it up.) Anyway, it’s a big hit. E is really enjoying it. I also think it would be great across the foot of a bed, or even just hanging on the wall. Either way, it will be a fun thing to have around. Thanks mom!

We used some cotton batting to make the mat a bit softer. The printed fabric is face down on top, then the back panel of fabric is face up under that. And the batting is on the bottom. Then we (I mean my mom), sewed around the edges, leaving some un-sewn, so it could be turned right-side out. I also learned about the trick of cutting the corners a bit, so they turn out more square. (See photo below.)

Here is a shot of me and my camera assistant. Nice!

It seems like we’re always in the need of more kids activities for restaurants and travel. Shortly after I made Paper City Paris, I wondered what a miniature version would look like. Finally, this week I had the time to try it out. It was really fun redesigning and simplifying the folds and structures. For example, the people in this set are so small that I just made them into single strips of paper that bend in half. It ends up being even easier to make than the original. It’s also quite handy to have the entire set print out on only one sheet of paper. Great for larger groups of crafting kids. And when you’re all done, you can fit all of Paris into a mint tin, so it can be stowed in a pocket or bag.

Happy traveling, and amusez-vous bien!

Click on the template below, then print. (I printed on matte photo paper, but any paper works great.)

Today it was decided that we needed more people for the dollhouse, so I got out some scrap wood and had the kids draw figures on the pieces. Then I took my woodburner and traced over their drawings and made some “doll blocks”. It was so fast and fun that I had to try making a drawing, too. The dolls really helped spice up the doll house, and the kids had a great time acting out scenes with the characters they made. I also wood burned their names and the date on the bottom of the blocks too, in case they get saved.

If you’ve never tried wood burning, you should give it a whirl. Woodburners and very inexpensive, and it’s a great non-toxic way to decorate wood toys. (You can find out more about woodburner tools on my Favorite Tools page if you’d like.) You could also just draw or paint on the blocks too, which would also be great.