I loved felt boards when I was a kid, and when looking at some felt the other day, I thought it would be fun to make a simple felt board designed for babies. Infants, with their developing eyes, love to focus on high contrast shapes, so I used black and light cream for my felt...Continue Reading
After only three weeks, the Made by Joel Facebook Page is off to a booming start. It’s rapidly turning into a fantastic resource for all kinds of art, crafts, and kids activities. Here are a few of the photos that people have shared (used here with permission). A ring toss toy with multiple targets! Great...Continue Reading
I’ve been painting this week for an art show I have next month. Here’s one I just finished this morning. Stripes were inspired by my Paul Smith socks. Update: Some people have asked about prints for this painting, so I’ve just added it to the Zazzle store. You can buy prints in different sizes, with...Continue Reading
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...Continue Reading
My daughter loves flowers. And around the same time I thought of the branch tree idea, I came up with this flower building toy. I used some scrap wood and cut out shapes, then painted them. Then I drilled holes into a bunch of thick dowel pieces to make stacking beads for the stems. The...Continue Reading
I’ve been busy with a lot of art commissions lately. If you’d like a look, here are some images of a wire sculpture I’ve been working on this week. I designed a logo for a restaurant here in Portland, and am also making them this 5 foot long metal wire sculpture to hang from their...Continue Reading
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,...Continue Reading
I’ve created a brand new Made by Joel Facebook Page. The idea is for it to be a community space where we can all share art, crafts, design, toys, and projects for kids. I love seeing all of the photos and links to many of your crafts, or Made by Joel crafts. Now, if you’d...Continue Reading
We were getting out the Valentine’s Day decorations with the kids yesterday, and my wife was wishing we had a garland. She asked me if I wanted to make one for her present this year. I’ve never made a garland before, but I had to try! It was quite fun to make, although I have...Continue Reading
I’ve wanted to try making a thaumatrope spinner for awhile, and when I recently saw these on the Made in Me blog, I had to give it a try. I just finished a bird painting for a commission, so I used it for the design. When spinning, it almost looks like the bird is flapping...Continue Reading
We’ve been having some more windy days with small sticks falling into our yard. So I took a piece of scrap board and drilled some holes into it and made a little forest building toy. It was fun sticking the branches in to build the forest, but it was even more exciting when my son...Continue Reading
Last week I made this wooden catapult toy. I was originally going to have it toss paper balls but thought it would be cool to sew some instead. (Similar to the yo-yo balls I made awhile back.) It worked really well. The kids both had a real kick trying to make a basket. I made...Continue Reading
I’m very excited to show you the cover of my book that will be published by Shambhala Publications / Trumpeter Books next fall (2011). I’ll let you all know when it’s available for pre-order. I’ve seen some of the layout for inside the book, too. The design team at Trumpeter Books did an amazing job! “Made...Continue Reading
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...Continue Reading
Here’s another dollhouse! Duck Duck Green asked me to create a craft for their packaging. The box looked so much like a house already, I couldn’t resist. My daughter has been playing with it a lot, making up hilarious scenes and dialogs. If you’d like, Duck Duck Green has nicely laid out instructions and photos here. You...Continue Reading
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...Continue Reading
And the winner according to random.org is comment number 398! So it looks like the dolls will be going to Denmark. Congratulations! This was really fun! I also made another quick coloring sheet from one of my paintings so everyone can get a little something. Hope you are all enjoying the Holidays! Coloring sheet is...Continue Reading
My last giveaway was so fun I thought I’d do one more for the holidays. The prize this time is two of my wooden dolls, complete with vintage fabric doll clothes that I just sewed yesterday. The dolls are solid maple and finished with food grade beeswax. My kids, nieces and nephews have been playing...Continue Reading
Liz over at Say Yes to Hoboken invited me to do a craft for her BlogNog Holiday Series. She did a great job organizing a fantastic collection of holiday crafts, so keep your eye out over there for more BlogNog posts. For mine, I decided to make these reindeer cards! My kids love it when...Continue Reading
