I just finished a new music video for my sister’s upcoming kids album. The song is “When I Look Into The Night Sky.” It was a really fun video to make! I painted some paper and made abstract space objects, tied them to some thread, and basically did a puppet show. Our almost two year old seems to approve of the video. She keeps saying, …
Here is a little animated card based on my Paper City Paris design. Just pull the tab and watch the people walk down the street. It might even be fun for a Valentine’s Day card! I actually got the idea for this card a few months ago, but I never had the time to figure it all out. Then recently, my editor sent me a wonderful Pop-Up Cards book by …
This week, the kids and I had a fun time making paper snowflakes to hang in the living room. They were so excited to create more winter decorations for the house! They loved cutting them out, but hanging them was even more exciting. The kids were cutting thread, handing me tape, and following me around with the step stool. When finished, it really made …
My son is really enjoying dinosaurs these days, so in case you have any dino-fans around, I thought I’d share some of the activities we’ve been doing – paper clip cutout toys, building dino skeletons in the yard, a pretty awesome interactive dinosaur book on the iPad, and jurassic artwork. This first one is some simple paper clip cutout …
My wife took the kids to see the Pinkalicious musical today here in Portland. My daughter had a pink dress all picked out, but my son realized he had nothing pink to wear. So we quickly made this paper necktie together with an old cover of an Art Forum Magazine. It was very fast to make. We cut out the main shape of the tie, then glued on some strips …
Hi Made By Joel readers! I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here. My name is Phoebe and I’m a printmaking artist over at elSage Designs. Like Joel my boys and I like to create things. It’s pretty rad when the things we create can become useful beyond the project itself, like wrapping paper for birthdays and the holidays. We’ve …
Our new baby girl loves looking at the Modern Paper Mobile for Babies that I made awhile back, but her favorite place to relax is in her bouncy seat. So I made this simple stand with some scrap wood and wire. It’s very lightweight and sturdy, so I can carry it around the house along with her bouncy seat. She’s really liking it so far!
Here is a simple poetry river craft that I made for the newest Issue of LMNOP Magazine, which is all about books. We’ve been enjoying the book, A River of Words, which is a brilliant introduction to the poet William Carlos Williams. This book contains many of his wonderful poems and talks about beautiful things that are part of everyday life. …
Here is a project I did for Junior Magazine, and I thought it would make a fun craft or gift for Mother’s Day. They are standing paper flowers. The idea was inspired by a paper ornament from Ann Wiseman’s book, Making Things (One of my favorite kids craft books.) The paper pedal circles slide on and off without the need for glue or tape, …
I made an Easter version of an old tumbling toy for Disney FamilyFun Magazine. The toy uses marbles to propel itself. Usually, it’s a tumbling acrobat. It used to be popular in China, then in the nineteenth century it made it’s way to Europe and became a popular folk toy. It’s pretty clever, and really fun to watch. It works best …
I made a sketch for this idea awhile ago, and just came across it in my drawer this morning, so I thought we should give it a try. All you do is make the fish (using the template and the directions on the sketch below), thread the string through the straw that’s inside the fish, then tape the string ends to your wall. Once it’s on the string, …
Here is a simple ring toss game that I made with buttons, pipe cleaners, and thick paper. It takes only a few minutes to put together, and it works surprisingly well. The buttons add weight to the rings, so they fly through the air nicely. If you want to make your own, just get out some thick paper (or cardboard), tape, pipe cleaners, and buttons. Then …
Tiffany from Simply Modern Mom asked me to join her “Wrap it Up” party. I chose to do some more magazine wrap. I love digging through old magazines and finding fun pages to use. (Here are a couple more I posted awhile back.) You’ll find some great inspiration for more gift wrapping ideas at Simply Modern Mom if you want to check it …
LMNOP Magazine just released their new 2010 Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide issue. For my column this time, I made some little photo albums to display the kid’s favorite activity. I think the books will be a nice keepsake and they also gave the kids a nice sense of pride. If you’d like to make one there are directions and more photos in the …
I’ve seen people make trees of thanks and thought it would be fun to make a mobile of thanks. It was a fast and simple project, similar to the nature mobile I made a few months ago. We just cut out pieces of paper, drew or wrote things that we were happy for and taped them onto long pieces of thread. Maybe we’ll hang it near the dining room. …
There were some warm, windy days last week and many sticks were blowing off the trees into the yard. We had the spur of the moment idea to try making a kite. So we gathered a few sticks, cut some thick paper, got out the tape and string and in ten minutes we had a kite! I was really surprised to see that it actually flew. The best part was the …
The very kind and crafty people at HowDoesShe recently invited me to do a craft for them. I had just picked up a box of brads (the paper fasteners) and was excited to try making a toy with them. So here is the result. A funny little dancing deer. If you’ve never used brads or brass fasteners before, then go to the store and get some. They’re …
A few months ago Parents Magazine asked me to design the Thanksgiving craft for their November issue. I just picked it up at the grocery store last night! If you want to try making one then you can see the craft and instructions here on the Parents website. And I also have instructions for wooden spool birds in my book!
I’ve been wanting to try a paper cut-out mobile and ended up making this owl. It was an interesting design challenge, trying to make it look good no matter how the pieces spun, and the mobility gives the owl a lot of character. I think I’ll put it in the kid’s room. I only used thread and scotch tape to put it together, …
La Petite Magazine released their new online issue today that features some paper dollhouses I made. I had a lot of fun designing different houses and little pieces of furniture. Then I put them all in a mint tin so they can be played with on the go. If you want to try it out, you can look at my template below to get ideas on how to cut and fold …