Friendly DIY Marshmallow Ghost Cake Toppers

Friendly DIY Marshmallow Ghost Cake Toppers

A 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.

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Easy-to-Make Cupcake Paper Dollhouse Furniture

Easy-to-Make Cupcake Paper Dollhouse Furniture

At this point in the summer, we’re often looking for activities to entertain our kids, especially if we're presented with a rainy day. Making homemade dollhouse furniture is just the kind of project I would have LOVED as a kid! I was miniature-obsessed and always making tiny spool tables, matchbox beds, etc for my little dolls.  These cupcake paper dollhouse accessories are from our book, Paper Goods Projects . (Scroll down for some bonus ideas in the photo below, not found in our book)!

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Pretty Personalized Party Cups

Pretty Personalized Party Cups

One 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!

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Bubble Printing: Fun Summer Craft for Kids!

Bubble Printing: Fun Summer Craft for Kids!

The 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.

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Quickest DIY Cards for Father's Day and More!

Quickest DIY Cards for Father's Day and More!

This 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. 

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5 Summer Crafts for Your Little Entrepreneur

5 Summer Crafts for Your Little Entrepreneur

Check out this month's issue of Parent's magazine for my story about easy and sell-able crafts that your kids can make for a summer business. My kids inspired the idea because they love to come up with ways to make money over the summer. Over the years they've sold everything from lemonade to painted shells to decorated tote bags to home-grown basil. Details are here for the personalized bead portraits key chains (pictured above).

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Fun-to-Make Wooden Bead Bird Necklaces

Fun-to-Make Wooden Bead Bird Necklaces

I made these little bird necklaces with Tracey Stewart when I was helping out with crafts for her sweet, gorgeous, and informative book, Do Unto Animals. I had so much fun working on everything with her and the Moomah gang, but the necklaces were one of my favorites. They are really easy to make and, like most people, I love birds (real...and fake-wearable)! They're made from felt and wooden beads and you can find the how-to over on her website, Moomah

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Fun (and Easy!) Twisty Balloon Sign for Father's Day

Fun (and Easy!) Twisty Balloon Sign for Father's Day

My 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.

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Easy Cake Pop Flowers for Mother's Day!

Easy Cake Pop Flowers for Mother's Day!

Time 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!

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Cookie Crafting, Activity and Snack in One!

Cookie Crafting, Activity and Snack in One!

Winter 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 CraftsAmy and I shot them with our brilliant designer, Robin Rosenthal.)

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Fruit Stripe Gum Letter Cake Topper

Fruit Stripe Gum Letter Cake Topper

Many 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)! 

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Last Minute Easter Crafts on the Today Show!

Last Minute Easter Crafts on the Today Show!

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!

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Simple Highlighter Pen-Decorated Easter Eggs

Simple Highlighter Pen-Decorated Easter Eggs

I'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!

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Tube Letters: An Easy Birthday Garland Alternative!

Tube Letters: An Easy Birthday Garland Alternative!

In 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!

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How to Throw a Fun Egg Decorating Party!

How to Throw a Fun Egg Decorating Party!

In 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!

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St. Patrick's Day Deviled Egg Snack with an Herb Shamrock!

St. Patrick's Day Deviled Egg Snack with an Herb Shamrock!

Last year I was helping my friends at Delicious Contents on a job for Chobani and came up with this herb shamrock to top their St Patrick's Day Deviled Eggs (click the link for the recipe). I used cilantro, flat parsley, and arugula microgreens. They all worked well but the arugula microgreens looked the most shamrock-y. Some of the cilantro leaves already looked like  a shamrock as-is so that was easy! For the others, I pinched off three leaves an assembled them to look like a shamrock and added a snip of chive for the stem.

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Great Kid Gift!: Easy-to-Assemble Imaginative Play Kits

Great Kid Gift!: Easy-to-Assemble Imaginative Play Kits

One 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!

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Beautiful Striped Eggs Made with a Simple Homemade Lathe

Beautiful Striped Eggs Made with a Simple Homemade Lathe

Easter 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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How To Throw the Ultimate Pee-wee Herman Party!

How To Throw the Ultimate Pee-wee Herman Party!

In honor of the soon-to-be-released movie, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, I am sharing my son’s Pee-wee-themed 5th birthday party from a few years ago. We are all BIG Pee-wee fans and very excited for his new movie, which starts streaming on Netflix on Friday, March 18th at 12:01 A.M.!! Use any of these ideas to throw your own Pee-wee viewing party!

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