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, …
I have great memories of making these paper helicopters when I was a kid. They fly so well! The kids love dropping and watching them spin to the ground. My son also really likes toys that have people on them – so introducing Copterman! The amazing rescuer that can bend his elbows backwards! We’ve been having a hilarious time coming up with …
Ever since childhood, I’ve always enjoyed seeing the different Nativity sets displayed around the holidays. This year, I finally tried making my own Paper City style Nativity Scene to share with everyone. I had a great time playing around with different designs, and I think it will be fun to color in, too! So far the kids are really enjoying it, …
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. …
We’re having a beautiful October so far here in Portland, and the kids are very excited about Halloween! Most of the excitement is about making decorations for the house. My son and I were going to make some paper bats for the window, and I decided to turn one of mine into a puppet. Flying it around is quite fun – like a combination of a …
The kids and I found a cool how-to pop-up card book at the library. So this Father’s Day, we’re making animated fire breathing dragon cards for the grandpas! I drew a dragon out and the kids wrote on it, then tomorrow they’re going to color it in. Sweet! If you want to get in on the action, below are simple instructions for how to …
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 thought of this little circus unicycle rider awhile back. It’s easy to make, but requires pretty good motor control to wheel around, which is great for kids. If you want to try it out, watch the one minute video to see how to make them. There’s also a template below, but I encourage you and your kids to try drawing your own figures as …
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 …
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 …
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 …
I’ve been so busy for the last two weeks, I haven’t had time to make many new crafts, so we printed out the Paper City style trick-or-treat scene from last year. The fall leaves were so nice in our yard today, the kids took the paper people outside to practice up on their trick-or-treat lines. So if you want a little Halloween project, feel …
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 …
Voilà, Paper City Paris! I’ve been working on this for a very long time now and had so much fun creating it. My kids have been watching me draw and sketch for two months, and they’re now huge fans of the city. They kept asking me, “When are the buildings going to stand up, Daddy?” And now every time they see a radio tower while …
Disney FamilyFun Magazine asked me to create a design for their Badges of Fun summer activity game. I did the road trip badge, which just came out in their August issue. Below is a printout for the interactive version of the badge. You can also add it to the rest of Paper City Road Trip here!
Disney asked me to make a road trip illustration for a project of theirs. (More on that in a few weeks.) So I thought I’d turn some of the illustrations into a Paper City “Road Trip Pack.” I made road pieces, like train tracks, so you can build your own road. My son was very focused in this task, and ended up with a really great track. …
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, …
I was asked to create a Paper City addition for Art Month Sydney. To launch the festival this year, Sydney’s National Art School hosted an ‘Art Month Art Adventure’ event for kids. The project (named Itty Bitty City) was driven by LMNOP magazine, and was based on my Paper City, but also included many other decorations and various …
Today I made a memory game using images from some of my paintings. My kids were watching over my shoulder as I was working with the images on my computer, and they kept saying, “there’s a match!” every few seconds. Once it was all printed and cut out, they had a great time playing it, and collecting their own matches. There’s …