I’ve been a fan of the Kireei blog from Spain for a long time, so when they invited me to make a craft for the first issue of their new online magazine I was very excited. The magazine is beautiful even if you don’t read Spanish. It’s free, and you can check it out here if […]
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 […]
Every year I make a calendar for friends and family with photos of my paintings. This year I used photos of my toys. It’s for sale in the Zazzle Store here if anyone is interested. Happy 2011!
I was very honored when Etsy recently asked if I’d be interested in making a new craft to post on their blog. I decided to make these fabric nesting dolls. The idea for them came after I painted a set of nesting dolls for a friend of mine. She said I should try making some nesting […]
Cheerios just posted the second video I made for them. Here it is. A rubber band box guitar! Very fast and easy to make, and also quite entertaining to play. Could be fun to decorate it with paint or stickers too!
Made by Joel toys are currently on display in a fun design exhibition in Krakow, Poland. It’s part of the Design Attack Festival and will run through the month of November. The exhibition is about socially engaged design, aesthetic education of children and 3R rules (reduce, reuse, recycle) in design. A very gracious person, Anna, […]
Harper’s Bazaar Magazine asked me if I could make a craft for their bi-annual Bazaar Junior supplement in Singapore. Cool! I just got it in the mail. The magazine is beautiful and filled with amazing things for kids. I wish they sold it in the US. If you don’t live in Singapore you can still make […]
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 […]
Cool news! Cheerios has sponsored me to make some crafts! They asked me if I could create some “how to” videos for their FaceBook page. Check out my first ever craft tutorial video: How to Make a Snack Box. Hope you’re hungry! My kids really loved it. Always exciting to make something new from a […]
I was asked to take part in the 2011 Play! Design for Kids calendar. My copy just arrived from Hamburg yesterday! It is a project initiated by EIGA and it’s filled with amazing contemporary children’s design – on the theme of play. I’ve looked through it a dozen times already. So many cool and inspiring ideas. […]
Recently we were going through our hats for cold weather. I decided it was time to get rid of an old fleece hat that I’ve had for many years. I was about to trash it, when all of a sudden a black sheep flashed into my head. I had to try it. My daughter has […]
The beautiful alex and alexa store from London recently asked me to design a Halloween craft to repurpose their great packaging boxes. I decided to create a Paper City style trick-or-treat scene for them. They were really fun to make! If you want to make one yourself, you can use any box you’d like. Then […]
After six months of creating, writing, and not sleeping much, I’m very happy to say that I’ve finished the final edit of my book! The whole process has been exciting, and I love working with everyone at Shambhala Publications / Trumpeter Books. The title is: MADE TO PLAY Handmade Toys and Crafts for Growing Imaginations […]
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 […]
And the winner according to random.org is comment number 34! So it looks like the puzzle will be going to France. Congratulations! This was so much fun and such a success, I’ll definitely do another one before the winter holidays. Thanks for playing everybody! I also decided I better make a couple of new coloring […]
I recently received a great gift of some beautiful vintage birch plywood from my wife’s grandfather. So to test the wood, I cut a smaller version of my elephant puzzle just for fun. It turned out being so cute that I decided to make two of them so I could try doing a small giveaway. […]
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 […]
It was a surprise to me when a very kind reader from Italy told me that Italian Vanity Fair did a small feature on Made by Joel in their September issue. And she even mailed me a copy! I’m on the “Style Tecno” page as an alternative entertainment to video games and television. For those […]
Last October my son was 2 1/2 years old and loved asking me to draw “scary cats.” See below. (I tried to make them as friendly as possible while still satisfying his requests for more claws and teeth.) So this year I thought it would be fun to use the drawings for another match game. Just draw […]
Artist Hazel Terry recently told me about Science Toy Maker, which is a site run by a brilliant technology educator and filled with great toy projects including this oscillating woodpecker. It’s such a fun toy! Easy enough for my 3 year old kids to use. Yet, there are some adjustments that can be made, such as how tight or […]