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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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!Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

I recently scored a free box of wood scraps and in it was this fabulous old cedar block.  I decided to paint it and turn it into a “city block”.  I think it might be a good block for the Vintage Wood Figures to hang out with.Continue Reading

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...Continue Reading

My first craft column appeared in the new issue of LMNOP magazine today.  Pull toys have been making a come-back in our house, so I decided to make some box pull toys that slide across the floor.  They turned out to be really fun and very easy to make.  There are full instructions in the...Continue Reading

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,...Continue Reading

The kids love collecting things while playing outside, so we made a little mobile with some of their treasures.  It was very easy to make.  I just used thread to tie the items onto the stick, then tied fishing line to each end of the stick to hang the mobile from.  We had fun pressing...Continue Reading

A few days ago I made these little puppets with paper clips and cardboard.  The kids were really coming up with some entertaining stories for them.  If you want to try it out, they’re very simple to make.  First, bend the middle of a paper clip so it stands up.  Then cut out the puppets,...Continue Reading

A couple of years ago we bought some Stockmar Beeswax Crayons, and they came with a little plastic tool for doing Sgraffito.  Sgraffito comes from the Italian word sgraffiare (“to scratch”), and the technique works great with crayons.  All you do is make a light color background, then color a dark layer (black is best) over the...Continue Reading