April 01, 2020

Turn Your Recycle Bin Items Into a Sweet Play Village!

April 01, 2020/ jodi levine

This little play village, which I made for Flow Magazine, is a version of the one I made in our book, which was inspired by one I made with my boys for a Christmas decoration for our mantle many years ago. Recycle bin items are the BEST craft materials, and especially now. Your kids can bring life to their village with toys like train tracks, cars, and animals! Extra credit: stick a battery-operated tea light into your buildings and houses! (see below for details). Also, check out our GIANT box town, made from recycled delivery boxes!

March 29, 2020

A Snack + Craft Activity from the Pantry: Snacklaces!

March 29, 2020/ jodi levine

Cereal and pretzel “snacklaces” require little more than kitchen twine. As an activity for little kids, it is a chance to talk about colors or patterning and sequencing...and it is fun! Set out some bowls of cereal or pretzels, all with holes for threading string through. I’ve made these with dried fruit too: this best for kids old enough to use a needle (clean the needle first).

March 27, 2020

Who Wants to Make (Easy) Lollipops?

March 27, 2020/ jodi levine

Many of you probably remember being a kid and making stained-glass cookies where you crush hard candies and melt them inside a cutout cookie frame. That was my entry into the world of (easy) candymaking with store-bought candy…and I was hooked!
When trying this with kids, adults should handle the hot work of candy shaping but kids can have fun arranging the unmelted candies on a cool baking sheet and then seeing what results. You’ll never quite know how your melted candy will turn out, since happy (and, well, not-so-happy) accidents can happen! Flowers are lots of fun to create and organic shapes are forgiving! For this project, over-melting and under-melting yield interesting and pretty surprises!

March 26, 2020

Giant Recycled Box Town!

March 26, 2020/ jodi levine

These modular building blocks are a variation on the giant cardboard blocks I posted about here and are great use for smaller boxes! Young city planners can use them with their train tracks, cars, and other toys! I used a cut piece of a sponge to stamp on the windows and a half of a toilet tube to stamp the scalloped roof tile design (and another toilet tube for the chimney).

March 25, 2020

A Fun Use-What-You-Have Craft: Cardboard Tube Sea Creatures!

March 25, 2020/ jodi levine

If you’ve visited this blog before, you may know that my one of my favorite materials is recycled toilet paper and paper towel cardboard tubes. Never throw them away! You can make letters, holiday decorations like these, these, and these, pretend ice cream cones, annnnnd these sea creatures! They’re fun to make and can be strung together into a mobile for a cute room decoration.

Grownups can help by cutting the slits (which require a craft knife). Using pinking shears or zig zag paper edgers adds spikiness to the fish fins and is a quick way to add a mouthful of teeth to the shark!

March 22, 2020

Giant Building Blocks Made From Recycled Shipping Boxes!

March 22, 2020/ jodi levine

Playing with blocks is the best! These GIANT cardboard blocks are from our book, Paper Goods Projects, and are made from recycled boxes*. They're perfect for creating a fort, bridge, town, or whatever your kid comes up with!

February 10, 2020

How to Throw a Garlic Bread Party for your Teen!

February 10, 2020/ jodi levine

In honor of one of his favorite foods, my son asked for a “garlic bread party” to celebrate his 14th birthday, and I was immediately in! It’s always nice to have a theme as a jumping off point…and with this one, the menu pretty much takes care of itself. Themes aren’t as easy to come up with as they were when my boys were dinosaur/planet/science/comics/Elmo-obsessed little kids! FOOD-as-theme, though, is an easy crowdpleaser.
You may be wondering about that string of brown balloons in the photo above. Well, it was my attempt at a garlic bread garland! With a little more time I think I could have used some white acrylic paint to create better-looking scoring to make it look more like bread. (As an aside, this project got me fascinated with bread scoring! I won’t ever look around in a bakery the same way!)

January 24, 2020

Have You Tried Punch Needling?

January 24, 2020/ jodi levine

Have you tried punch needling? It is similar to rug hooking in it’s finished look but made with a different action (and tool). It’s fun, meditative, and surprisingly easy. The technique is forgiving and it’s easy to go back and fix mess-ups, like adding stitches.
I made this cute walrus last year for Bluprint. It’s an easy starter project, and winter is the perfect time for a cozy indoor craft! You can click over to their site to get the full how-to, including a video.

January 16, 2020

Lovebirds for Your Lovebird: Easy Cardboard Valentines!

January 16, 2020/ jodi levine

After my last post, where I used recycled cardboard (a FAVORITE material) to make animals, I wanted to keep going! (And, I still had quite a few boxes leftover from the holiday packages waiting to be transformed!) Years ago, I’d made a few cardboard bird ornaments for a magazine story that never materialized and I thought I would make a few more and transform them into Valentines. Why bird Valentines? I dunno…because I like birds….because…lovebirds? (I know, I know, these don’t look like actual lovebirds!) You can cut any animal (or any shape) you want and give your sweetheart a little art from the heart! Also, don’t you love the way painted cardboard looks?

December 19, 2019

DIY Recycled Cardboard Animals Craft Kit Gift

December 19, 2019/ jodi levine

Are you looking for an inexpensive and handmade (but easy) kid gift idea? Look no farther! This is the time of year where a lot of us have cardboard boxes in our recycle bin…and you don’t need much else to make these cardboard animal kits!

December 15, 2019

Four Easy Holiday Gift Combo Ideas for Creative and Crafty Kids

December 15, 2019/ jodi levine

Assembling a gift kit is a great solution if you are stuck for a gift idea...or want to give something special that doesn’t feel like it’s right-off-the-shelves but don't have time to hand-make something. These gift ideas are for the creative kids on your holiday shopping list. The items may seem basic, but when paired with one or two other things, become a simple (but fun!) craft or activity kit! Make sure to check out my first gift kits post and imaginative play gift kit post for more ideas!

December 09, 2019

Quick Gift Idea: Turn Your Favorite Book Into a Holiday Gift Kit!

December 09, 2019/ jodi levine

Books are one of my favorite gifts to give (and receive!). If I want to make the gift of a book more personal/unique/custom, I’ll assemble a kit or a themed group of gifts inspired by it, and wrap it up together. Whether you are stuck for a gift idea...or want to give a special, not right-off-the-shelves gift but don't have time to hand-make something, it is super helpful to use a great book as a jumping off point! The gift kit idea works particularly well, as you can imagine, with a DIY book, like a cook or craft book since you can pair it with tools, materials, or ingredients but it can work with just about any book!Click here and here for previous posts with more of these ideas...as well as packaging suggestions!

October 29, 2019

Creeeeeepy Crafts and Treats for The New York Times for Kids

October 29, 2019/ jodi levine

On the last Sunday of every month, the New York Times publishes a special print-only Kids section, and it is always fantastic! You’ll want to keep every issue, with it’s incredible writing , design, illustration and photography. This past Sunday’s issue, just in time for Halloween, is the FEAR issue, featuring “a lake full of bones, how fear drives the economy, why the news is scarier than a horror movie” and more…including my donut hole eyeball croquembouche, lychee eyeball drink, shrunken apple heads, and DIY scorpion costume!!

October 24, 2019

Three Easy DIY Halloween Costumes for Cup of Jo

October 24, 2019/ jodi levine

I was recently asked by my one of my absolute favorite blogs, Cup of Jo, to to come up with a few easy DIY costumes using clothes from one of my favorite kid’s brands, Primary as a base. Starting with solid color leggings and t-shirts is how I made most of my real-life kid’s costumes as well as those that I’ve made as a professional crafter. I was tasked with making them doable “even for people who are hopelessly uncrafty”, my favorite challenge! The following costumes are no-sew, quick to put together, and utilize a few items that you might have around the house!

October 24, 2019

"Stranger Things"-Themed Halloween Party

October 24, 2019/ jodi levine

If your family, like mine, are big Stranger Things fans, channel the creepiness to inspire your Halloween party! I worked with Family Circle to create ST-themed crafts and decorations like the Upside Down portal (below), '80s photo wall and an Eggo buffet (essential)! Click here for the buffet details and here for the string lights wall.

October 22, 2019

DIY Halloween Costume Ideas for Busy Parents

October 22, 2019/ jodi levine

I worked with Parents magazine to come up with easy DIY costumes for busy parents for their October issue …like these sweet donuts! I love working with Parents…and I love the concept of this story! I may be a professional crafter, but as a busy parent, quick and easy costumes have always been my go-to! Here are a few (messy) behind-the-scenes shots of my prep…but do click over to Parents to see all the pretty final photos!

September 14, 2019

Small-Space Solutions from our Kitchen Renovation!

September 14, 2019/ jodi levine

My friend, Danny Seo (who many of you know from his fabulous show on NBC and gorgeous magazine, Naturally) came by a few months ago to shoot some photos of our recent kitchen and dining room renovations for a story in this month’s issue of Naturally. I’m super excited to share photos of some ideas and solutions that we came up with for improving our small and awkwardly laid-out kitchen!

September 05, 2019

Back to School Crafts: Trick Out Your Supplies!

September 05, 2019/ jodi levine

New school supplies always helped to soften my childhood back-to-school blues. I loved decorating my pristine new notebooks, binders, and folders with stickers, doodles, and tape. In that spirit, I created some back-to-school crafts for Parents magazine! In the photo above are some fruit-themed items: tape and marker-decorated folders, stamped pencil cases, and washi tape-covered pencils. Super easy!

August 15, 2019

No-Bake Supermarket Cookie Crafts!

August 15, 2019/ Guest User

Food crafting is kid favorite. Supermarket cookies are perfect blank canvas. And starting off with pre-made cookies means that you don’t have to turn on the oven! Scroll down for a video to learn how to make these cookie animals!

April 19, 2019

Science-y Easter Eggs

April 19, 2019/ jodi levine

Here is a peek at my Science-y Eggs story in this month’s Parents magazine. You’ll likely find everything you need in your kitchen cabinets to do these fun (and educational) egg decorating crafts!

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