We’ve been enjoying a lot of indoor paper crafts lately, and a few days ago we made some little slotted animals based on a wooden set that I made awhile back. Cutting the animal shapes out and putting them together was just the right amount of challenge for the kids. They were quite focussed, and really enjoyed seeing them stand up when they finished. …
After posting my Wooden Turkey, many of you thought it would be fun to make sometime similar out of cardboard. Good idea! I tried to simplify the design as much as possible so that it would be fast and simple to make. If you want to try it out, there are directions and a printable template below! Once it’s done, then you or your kids can paint …
It seems like Thanksgiving decorations are so difficult to find. Most stores just move straight from Halloween to Christmas and Hanukkah. So yesterday, I decided to make a little wooden turkey decoration for our mantel. As a child, I remember lying on my Grandparent’s living room floor and being able to pull things off the shelf that looked like …
Here is another worksheet to try out with your kids. This time I decided to spice things up a bit by making it a short story. After they’re done reading and writing, maybe your child will want to decorate their story by coloring it in! Click on the image below, then print! Click here for all other worksheets.
Our twins are starting kindergarten in the fall, and have been really excited about reading and writing. Yesterday morning at the breakfast table, I drew this worksheet to give them a little practice. They were very proud to fill it out. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun practicing over the summer! If you want to try it out, there’s …
I had so much fun making the Travel Sized Paper City Paris, and couldn’t wait to make more mini toys for on the go. I was getting ready to miniaturize the Dressy Cats, but decided that I was in the mood to create something a little different. So here are the Modern Mini Cats! (I’ll still make travel sized Dressy Cats too.) For the Mini Cats, …
I’ve been getting requests for a printable Valentine’s Day project. And I thought it would be cool to make a card that was also a toy. So here are some funny little Valentine’s card creatures. There is a small flap on the back so you can write a secret Valentine’s note underneath. We’ve been having a fun time with them …
I was drawing with some non-toxic fabric pens the other day just for fun. (See my favorite tools, if you want to know what kind of paint pens.) I’m not sure what I’ll do with all the drawings yet, but I made this bird into a little pillow toy. Kind of cute, and very fast and easy to make.
We got to spend all of last week at my mom’s house. Among the exciting fun with grandchildren, I got to spend some time with my mom too. We made this play mat for little E. I was lucky enough to somehow end up with this very cool strip of fabric from London that my mom bought in the late 60′s. It’s a fantastic elephant design by Neil …
Baby E got ahold of my son’s old giraffe toy that I made when the twins were little, and she is having a pretty good time with it. I just used some natural canvas fabric and drew on it with non-toxic fabric pens. It’s held up really well over the last two years. I might have to make another one now, so she can have her own. Nice!
The little Christmas Cat from the Holiday gift tags got the job of posing for my sister Lori’s little piano holiday album, “Playing for Christmas.” You can listen to it here on iTunes, if you’d like. Happy Holidays!
By Wendi Gratz (Giveaway info below to win these bags!) Hello again everyone! Way back in July I posted here about some basic info you need to start embroidering – and I shared some of the details about how I stitched up one of Joel’s Paper City designs. As soon as I saw Joel’s holiday designs on printable gift tags. I knew I wanted …
The Dressy Cats are here to celebrate the winter holidays with you! The kids and I had a great time making these sets. We did Christmas, Hanukkah, and two new kitty cousins that came over for the festivities. Templates are below, if you want to print them out and play. Happy Holidays! Templates: Click on the images, then print. (To get other Dressy …
Greetings readers of Made By Joel. I hope everything is tickety-boo with you. I am over the moon to be writing this guest post for this most wonderful blog. My name is Harry (I’m a girl). I work for the London based children’s publishing company, Made in Me. We are the creators of The Land of Me an enchanting, digital world for young children …
Lately, my daughter is enjoying dressing up and wearing accessories, like purses and headbands. Having never made a dress-up toy before, I thought it would be fun to make a nice family of cats that could be dressed up like paper dolls. We’ve been calling them, “The Dressy Cats!” My son especially loves putting on the accessories, using …
My son loves stripy pants as much as I like stripy socks. You can see in this old post that he’s been sporting these trousers for almost a year and a half. After finally wearing a hole in them, we tried to talk him into cut-off shorts, but he didn’t like the idea of his favorite pants being cut, so I ended up making a patch. It’s very …
My wife’s birthday was this week, and we made her some necklaces. The kids made bead necklaces, and I wanted try something with wire. It worked pretty well. I just bent sterling silver wire with pliers, and then gently pounded it flat, using a slightly rounded hammer. I took less than 15 minutes total. I need to practice a bit more, but it sure …
Here are the Duck and Goat coloring sheets that go along with the chicken! Also, many of you have have been turning Made by Joel coloring sheets into wonderful embroidery stitchings. I’d love to do a post to display them. So if you’d like to contribute, send me a photo of your stitching to joel (at) madebyjoel (dot) com. Thanks! Click …
I’m making some coloring sheets for a new urban homesteading store here in Portland. They wanted a chicken, duck, and a goat. I’m still working on the duck and goat, but here’s the chicken. Happy coloring! Click here or on the image below to print.
Underwater life has been a very popular theme in our house lately. So yesterday morning, while we were all drawing, I made this coloring sheet. I haven’t yet colored it in, so if you want to upload your colored versions to the Made by Joel Facebook Page, please do! I’d love to see them. Later on, I’ll upload my colored version there …