I did the crafts for this month's Family Fun magazine's "Kid-Made Thanksgiving". The story features fun crafts and yummy recipes that your kids will want to help out with, like these little pinecone-ear and twig antler animal pie toppers (and a yummy pie recipe to go with them).
Read MoreOn Tuesday morning I had the pleasure of sharing some crafty Halloween treats with Al Roker on the Today Show. (We look very serious here but I promise we had fun!) They're all made using store-bought candy or donuts so no baking required.
Read MorePaper towel and toilet paper tubes are some of my favorite materials to make stuff out of. Needless to say, I never throw them out! I pulled a few out for Halloween decorations this year and made some ghosts and a BOO sign. Super easy!
Read MoreHere are a few spooky Halloween treats made from marshmallows. I love crafting with marshmallows (there is a whole chapter dedicated to marshmallow creations in our book, Candy Aisle Crafts) and I posted last week about some easy-to-make ghosts, great for cake and cupcake-topping.
The skull pops above were inspired by some skulls I made years ago for Martha Stewart Living. For the pops above, I used jumbo and regular sized marshmallows, black M&M's, black shoestring licorice (snipped up as needed), and black large nonpariels (a.k.a. sugar pearls. The trick is cutting the marshmallow to expose it's inner stickiness and adhere cut sides to cut sides. To insert candy or sprinkles as for the facial features, poke a hole with a t
If you're looking for a unique Halloween costume this year, and especially you'd like to make it yourself but not put tooooooo much time into it, check out this story I worked on for Parents magazine's October issue (on the newsstand now) or on their site here. I love working with the editors over there and the concept they came up with is brilliant: all the outfits utilize a store-bought costume base with a decorated cardboard box container. For example, this bird-in-a-birdhouse costume's wings are from The Land of Nod. Instructions are on the Parents site here.
Read MoreA marshmallow ghost I made many years ago forMartha Stewart Living magazine, which were twisted to get their peaked shape, inspired this simplified version. These get their shape from one diagonal cut, making them fast and easy treats to put together for a crowd of trick-or-treaters.
Read MoreOne of my party pet peeves is setting a drink down and then losing track of which cup is mine. For a recent gathering I revisited a cup ID’ing idea I crafted a while ago for Martha Stewart Living. Set out markers, labels, paint, tape, stickers, or anything your guests can use to customize (and personalize) their cups. Bonus: the cups are a good conversation starter!
Read MoreThe best kind of craft activities are those that you can throw together last minute and don't require any special materials. Bubble printing fits the bill! Added bonus: you can use the results for gift wrap, cards, tags and more! I made these with my two sons for Martha Stewart Living a few years ago and we had so much fun.
Read MoreThis group of cards was made using leftover cupcake papers. With their ruffled texture and fun colors, they make a cool (and cheap) craft material. Also, after baking I'm often left with a few from each pack and I've started collecting them for just these kinds of projects.
Read MoreMy husband always makes sweet Mothers Day signs and messages for me. In the past he's covered the kitchen in sticky notes on which he and kids wrote sweet things about me, taped construction paper "stained glass" in our windows also with sweet messages on them, and even made me a paper note necklace. For Father's Day this year, I am planning a yummy brunch for him, and of course, I need a fun decoration so I thought I'd make balloon letters, inspired by the balloon letters in our book, Paper Goods Projects.
Read MoreTime for a Mother's Day treat! This year, I made cake pops and turned them into flowers with leaves and blooms that I snipped from cupcake papers (an idea from our book, Paper Goods Projects). I used this Foodstirs kit to make the cake pops. I like that these pops can double as a centerpiece, until it's time to eat dessert, of course!
Read MoreWinter seems to be lingering here in NY. Because we are still somewhat stuck inside, I thought I'd share some cookie crafts, an indoor project to cheer us up! The following ideas utilize classic supermarket cookies and other edible items that you probably have around the house like candy, peanut butter or chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella), fruit, nuts and seeds, and chocolate chips. (By the way, the above image is the chapter opener from our first book, Candy Aisle Crafts. Amy and I shot them with our brilliant designer, Robin Rosenthal.)
Read MoreMany years ago, when Amy and I were working on our first book, Candy Aisle Crafts, we shot a few ideas using Fruit Stripe Gum. We both love the colors (and the stripes)! I remember pining for it as a child! One idea was to use the gum to make letters to top a cake inspired by paper letters in one of my all-time favorite craft books, Creating With Paper. We loved how they came out but then we happened upon these really cool gumpaste letters and thought they looked way too similar so we pulled the idea from the book. Unfortunately I don't see the gumpaste letters for sale anymore but figured that I'd finally share our Fruit Stripe gum letters here.
If you want to try making them, make sure to use fresh gum if possible (not that you can really tell when you buy it)!
This morning I shared a few last minute crafty Easter decorations and treats on the Today Show. (Click here to see a video of the segment.) Most of the projects involve items you have around the house and in your recycle bin or in your backyard!
Read MoreI've been so inspired lately by illustrator (and dear friend) Margaret McCartney's new highlighter pen drawing series. I love her patterns and funky neon recoloring of familiar objects. Seeing them made me want to play with highlighters too! Margaret and I got together to decorate some Easter eggs and had so much fun!
Read MoreHappy St. Patricks Day! I made these Shamrock lollipops for Target. They're made with green apple Jolly Ranchers and couldn't be easier! Get the full how-to over here!
Read MoreIn our house we have a tradition of leaving birthday messages for each other as a birthday morning surprise. They're usually in the form of garlands or banners, strung across doorways or along the edge of the mantel. These tube letters, from our book, Paper Goods Projects, are a fun way to display a message, no tape or string required! And they marry type and cardboard tubes, two of my favorite things!
Read MoreIn this month's Family Fun magazine, I worked on the story "How to Host an Easter Egg Decorating Party" with ideas for kid-friendly crafts, decorating and treats! I'm sharing some behind-the-scene snapshots of the ideas, some in-progress. Pick up the March issue of Family Fun or click this link for more images and printable templates for some of the crafts!
Read MoreOne of my favorite gifts to give to kids is a handmade (well, hand-assembled) imaginative play kit. I'm excited to share a fun story that I developed for Parents Magazine about this very topic in the March issue (on newsstands right now) with gorgeous photos by Zoe Berkovic!
Read MoreEaster is so early this year! I'm starting to gather ideas because we'll be hosting and I thought I'd start by posting some of my favorite Easter projects that I made during my years as a craft editor at Martha Stewart Living. These striped eggs were such a fun project. I had a rough path to developing the technique so it was especially rewarding when it finally worked out!
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©2015 Jodi Levine. All photographs by Amy Gropp Forbes unless otherwise noted.
