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...Continue Reading
Here is a simple toy that I just made for LMNOP Magazine. It’s a no-sew, fleece version of my Play Squares for Babies. Making them takes only minutes, and an older child could even make them as a gift for a baby. All you need is some fleece (felt would also work) and some scissors, then...Continue Reading
Here is the music video for Mnemonic Sounds! I decided to go with an abstract art theme for the video. It ended up working quite well I think. The band came to my studio last week, and we had a great time shooting it. Everyone got to be involved, which made for a lovely variety of puppeteering...Continue Reading
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,...Continue Reading
My paintings are in the Daily Cafe through March if any of you in the Portland area want to swing by! Bring the kids too, they still have my coloring sheets at the cafe. I’ll post them again below if anyone’s in the mood for coloring now. (More info on the paintings at my art...Continue Reading
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...Continue Reading
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
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
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 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
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
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
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...Continue Reading
