Our Colored Duct Tape Craft DIY's now on Parent & Child blog!

Remember our fun line up of duct tape crafts for Scholastic's Parent & Child magazine? Well you can now access them online here. So fun! Really great line up of fun indoor crafts you can do with your kiddos while stuck indoors this winter. So hurry and go check it out!

Modern Snowman Blocks

It's a serious winter wonderland outside right now. And that can only mean one thing...that it's time for snowman building!! And OK, yes the authentic frolicking in the snow and assembling Mr. Frosty with mittens and frostbitten noses is a great way to go...but I'm thinking once that in through, we need to come indoors for some hot cocoa and a much warmer snowman building of sorts.

And this simple modern snowman is just the ticket. I was over the moon to find these large blocks at our local craft store (thinking some more mix-n-match um's are in order with these puppies) and knew that our friend Frosty needed to come to life.

We kept it super simple with just a set of eyes, a triangle nose and some buttons. We made them with our favorite craft supply de jour, duct tape, but you can paint yours on if you like. Have fun with it!


My mother-in-law has a great after-Christmas tradition where she brings out all things wintery and snowman related to keep the after-holiday blues at bay. I love this idea. And our simple frosty block friend is just what we need to keep us merry and bright, even when the tree comes down.

What about you? Any after Christmas/New Year traditions that help keep your spirits up? I'd love to hear what you do and any great tips you might have. Thanks!

Magnetic Figure Skater Toy Download in the Shop!

School is out for winter break and if you are like me, you need fun activities to keep little hands busy, busy, busy. Well expert figure skaters, Sebastian and Sadie, are here and ready to help with that!

To get started, purchase the download here for only $3.99, complete with both figure skaters and three tree shapes. Print out the figure skaters (I recommend using fine art heavy card stock or taking the file to your local print shop for the best quality of print) and cut them out. Cut out support tabs and glue long vertical strip to back of skater for support. (I find it's also helpful to add a piece of thick foam or cardboard for additional support).


Now using hot glue, adhere magnet to the bottom of the flap of skater

Once the glue is dry you are ready to try out your new skater on the "ice"!

To create your ice rink, take a large discarded cereal box and place it on it's side. You may cover it in white butcher paper before hand if you like, leaving one end open. Create slits in the box where you'd like your trees to go. Print out tree shapes. (You can keep them as is or cover them in black duct tape as we did here). Place large tongue depressors to the backs of the trees. Now you are set to place your trees within the slits you created in your large box.

Place your skater a top the box and than place a corresponding magnet within the cereal box and directly below the skater. Magnets should meet up. You are now ready to move your skater around on the ice! So fun!!

These make a great stocking stuffer or craft/toy to play an create with friends and family members during these winter months! Hop on over to the shop to get started on your very own skaters now!

(download will be emailed to you after purchase)

Christmas Village with Duct Tape and Tissue Boxes

Good morning friends. It's snowing outside of my window as I type and it's looking like it just might be a white Christmas indeed. Yippee! Which means, after the snowball fights and snowman building, it is the perfect time to come inside, sit snugly indoors and create with my Littles.

I don't know about you but this time of year often brings about a case of the sniffles. Which means we have have number of tissue boxes lying around the house. Well the Littles and I discovered just the thing to do with them. Make a little Christmas village, using glitter and duct tape of course! So that is just what we did.

To make the structure of the roof tops, we just cut up a few other tissue boxes (or any other discarded cereal box, etc.) and created the roof shapes atop the tissue boxes. We then proceeded to cover them with the duct tape and then had lots of fun decorating them!

We were so excited to find this gold and silver glitter tape, from Martha Stewart, at Michaels, and knew right away that it needed to be used in our little village. I love how it makes the shingles sparkle and come to life (and an extra bonus - it's really easy to cut).

I also played around with our hole punch a bit and was able to create polka dots with the gold duct tape by spreading out the tape onto parchment paper prior to punching. With a little finesse, they turned out great! (In fact we have updated our duct tape cutting methods altogether. If you lay it out on the parchment, you can get a really nice clean cut with scissors and create just about any shape your heart desires! Best thing about it: the Littles can be more involved in the cutting stage now! Yippee! I'll have to do a tutorial of this new cutting method on the blog soon).

And our little vintage wooden angel is just the perfect friend to inhabit our little village. Makes me want to create a few more wooden friends for her to carol to.

And how cute would it be to cut out the window and door shapes and then add a few battery operated tea lights or even a strand of white Christmas lights on the inside? I just might have to do this variation in the next day or so. Would be so magical indeed!

Mountain Pillow DIY over at Design Sponge

Hi friends! Today I'm sharing with you my love for all things alpine and snow peaked with this cozy little mountain pillow for your home. Head on over to Design Sponge for the full tutorial!

Simple Paper Strip Wreath DIY

The boys and I have been crafting up a storm around here to get into the Christmas spirit. And there's nothing we like more than simple easy crafts like this paper strip wreath.

1. To make this we used the cardboard from the bottom of a frozen pizza (yes with the new little baby in the house we've been having one too many Papa Murphy's as of late...we all can't wait until mom gets back into the culinary swing of things...). We then cut up a bunch of strips from scrap paper we had lying around our craft room to be used as the foliage of the wreath.
2. A then traced a bowl onto the cardboard
3. and I used a utility knife to cut out the middle circle section.


4. To create the wreath A began by placing strips of paper along the center of the wreath
3. He then continued outward, choosing between a variety of green colored strips.
4. Until he reached the out edge of the cardboard where he finished off the wreath.

This was such a great craft for A (6 yrs) as he's really into repetitive patterns. And I loved it as you really can't go wrong. No matter what how you place things, it's sure to be appealing in the end


And we couldn't of course stop there. Little O wanted in on the action and we made this fun variation with a paper bag we had lying around the house. 100% recycled craft. Loving that.
 

And as you know I do love me a good circle punch, so I had to have a go at a snowball wreath as well. I'm just loving how all the textures of the papers pop out on this one. We then took the inside cardboard and made snowballs with them. Yeah, we got a bit carried away...but that is what is so great about these wreaths. The variations are truly endless and they are so easy and quick to put together, you just won't be able to resist doing all of them!

Duct Taping with Parent & Child Mag

Happy Monday friends! Have you seen the latest issue of Parent & Child magazine yet? It's full of some really great stuff. A few months ago they asked us to share with you some great duct tape crafts that you can do with your little ones (of all ages) and we are so excited to see it out.

Meta was my go-to for props and photography and she also had some great connections for little models. Like this twin brother and sister pair who modeled the belt and headband craft.

Are you not just in love with them?! They were really great to work with (in another lifetime I want to have twins :)).

And do you recognize this little cutie? She made an appearance in my Babiekins headband tutorial. Darling girl and a natural in front of the camera. She's seriously one of the best I've worked with.

And I have to say, this little cat purse just might be my favorite craft in the article (but it's so hard to pick just one!). Check out Parent & Child's latest issue, on stands now, for full instructions.

(Oh and Little O was excited to make the cut and finally see himself in a magazine as his older brother has had his own little dose of print fame. The above photo didn't make into the magazine but I think it's just oh so sweet.).

And as it is the season of giving, wouldn't these be the most perfect gifts for your kids to make and gift?! These are seriously some great, simple and affordable hand made gifts for you kids to get in on the spirit of giving! Something we all want to foster within our kiddos, right?!

Crafting for Rubio's Studio: First Installment, The Friendship Tree

Have you guys heard of the new kids show, Ruby's Studio?! If not you are in for a real treat! It's a great kids show that is perfect blend of fun, helpful, endearing, playful and, thank goodness, not too cheesy. Oh, and best test of all - Little O loves it.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when one of the founding mom's, Samantha Kurtzman-Counter, contacted me and asked if I would be interested in creating crafts for the kids to do on the show. After familiarizing myself with the company and the show, I felt like it was a perfect fit and couldn't have been more on board. And now I'm over the moon about sharing this show, and our crafts, with all of you!

Out now is a delightful episode about friendship, which you can watch now by purchasing here. In it you will see just what you need to create our friendship tree.

And as is always a thrill, I love seeing these little ones take this craft and make it their own. Seriously so great. Oh and can I just say that I want Ruby's studio. I mean isn't it the coolest? Perfectly designed to inspire creativity. Makes me want to get my craft on right now!


If you think you might be interested in this great show (and I know you will be!) take a look here. The premiere Feelings show is really great too. And stay tuned because both Ruby and I have a lot more episodes full of fun crafts for your little ones!

Crafting for Design Sponge: Bleach-Dot Clutch

When Kate Pruitt, of Design Sponge, asked me if I wanted to contribute a few DIY crafts for us older "kids", just in time for the holidays, I jumped at the chance. You know that I'm completely enamoured with kids crafting but I welcomed the chance to kick up the sophistication a notch.

This week I will be sharing with you how to create your very own Bleach Dotted Clutch. This would seriously make the most perfect gift and trust me, it's very easy to make.


Hop on over the Design Sponge for the full DIY. But be careful, you just might fall in love with this so much, you'll want to keep it for yourself!


(and OK, since I just can't help myself, you could do this with the Littles too - particularly the 8 and up crowd. Just supervise the bleaching part. Otherwise it's seriously a great "learn how to sew" project! Perfect little pencil pouch.).

A Simple DIY Thanksgiving Place Mat

I love Thanksgiving. Really I do. But I have to confess that I wasn't planning on doing much with it this year as I have been rather overwhelmed with work and the new baby. I actually like how Thanksgiving melts into Christmas as I feel like the spirit of thanks should be felt during the Christmas season so to me they naturally go together. I don't even mind the Christmas decorations everywhere and holiday music playing on the air mid November.


Well this got me thinking. I may feel this way but how are my kids going to appreciate gratitude if I don't do something to foster the spirit of giving thanks? So I decided to come up with this simple last minute place mat designed to give them a way to express their thanks on this special holiday.

You might notice that this resembles my gift to Jon I made a few years back. It's such a fun and simple idea I decided to apply it to the upcoming holiday. To make this I simply stitched together two sheets of brown packing paper. I then cut out a number of white paper flags in varying sizes. These were then straight stitched onto the mat.



And that's it! Give your guests some pens and let them express their thanks while you are finishing up those mashed potatoes and that pumpkin pie!

And you'll get a kick out of seeing what your kids come up with. Mario, among many other things, of course made the list for this little guy.  Love it.

And if you are looking for another last minute Thanksgiving craft, our turkey feather headbands are a great, easy craft to do as well!

Halloween 2012: The Happy Bat and The Moody Drac

Happy Halloween! These little creatures of the night just wanted to pop in and share with you their Halloween costumes before embarking upon a fun filled night of tricks and treats!



We have ourselves a fun and spunky little playful bat alongside a more somber and moody Dracula (and little girly bat whose costume we will be sharing with you tomorrow!).



Having lost his front two teeth, and consequently sporting his own set of natural fangs, A went traditional this year and chose to be Dracula. And then the theme just went from there. I just love how each of their personalities come out in these costumes. And can we just say this little Dracula is 6 going on 16? How is it possible he's growing so fast?



And wasn't this little bat just my baby?



Well with a new 1 month old baby in the house, we had to go simple this year. All I made was the vampire cloak, the bat hood and cape. Everything else was just a compilation of clothing we had already (except these most excellent vampire boots. I saw them and just had to get them).



And now to finish up baby M's little batty costume (she was going to be a cat but it ended up looking more like a bat, so we went with it) and get those little ones out and about the neighborhood.



Wishing you all a super fun, and slightly spooky, Halloween!!

DIY Paper Lion Mask for National Geo Kids

I was recently contacted by National Geographic Kids to create a fun DIY craft for kids in the theme of Trick-or-Treat for Big Cats. I love how they focus on big cats during the month of October and I was more than happy to tie it all in to Halloween. And over here, well we can't get enough of lions, tigers, cheetahs, you name it!

If you need a simple and quick costume solution for this haunted weekend, or just a fun craft for imaginative play with the littless, this paper lion mask is your ticket!

For DIY instructions and a template, just head on over to National Geo Kids and click on the "lion mask (PDF)" link on the right hand side. From there you will be able to download a pdf with all the information you need.

 Happy romping and roaring!