December 17, 2016

Something to Make, Something to Bring, Something to Give...on Dinner: A Love Story

December 17, 2016/ jodi levine

I am thrilled to have contributed a few crafty holiday food ideas to one of my favorite blogs, Jenny Rosenstratch's Dinner: A Love Story ! I'm a longtime fan of both her blog and books. Have you seen her newest, How to Celebrate Everything? If I hadn't bought it the minute it came out it would be at the top of my holiday wish list! Anyway, these marshmallow tree-topped cupcakes, above, are "something to bring to a holiday party" and you can find instructions for them on DALS here.

December 16, 2016

Easy Holiday Pop-Up Cards Made From Recycled Packaging

December 16, 2016/ jodi levine

This card-making project is the perfect cold day kids craft. You don't need any special supplies, just some recycled packaging, glue, and scissors. (I'm always digging around in my recycle bin for materials!) Use colorful packaging like cereal or snack boxes or old Christmas cards.

December 09, 2016

Gumdrop Nutcracker Ladies to Top Your Cupcakes

December 09, 2016/ jodi levine

These fancy lady cupcakes from our book, Candy Aisle Crafts, would be perfect for a Nutcracker party! I dip-dyed white cupcake papers into food coloring for skirts, but any solid or patterned cupcake paper would work (gold would be pretty too). There are so many fun prints available now online and in party stores—and yes, even at supermarkets!

December 05, 2016

Glowing Winter Village Made From Recycled Cartons

December 05, 2016/ jodi levine

Several years ago, my boys and I made a village out of recycled cartons and we love unpacking it every year and setting it up on our mantle. I made the one pictured above, lit with battery-powered tea lights, for our book, Paper Good Projects. If you look closely you'll see some tiny conical trees and the how-to is in this post.

December 03, 2016

Cute (and Quick) Cupcake Paper Wintery Cake Topper

December 03, 2016/ jodi levine

A few cupcake papers and skewers are all you need for this cute and easy wintery cake topper! See below for instructions.

December 02, 2016

Easiest Coffee Filter and Cupcake Paper Paper Snowflakes

December 02, 2016/ jodi levine

We LOVE making paper snowflakes, lots and lots of them. Thin square paper, like origami paper, works best for folding and snipping but I don't like using up my stash. Printer paper is great, but I don't like having to precut the paper into squares. Coffee filters and cupcake papers, inexpensive, thin and easy to cut, are the perfect material for this fun craft!

November 19, 2016

Colorful Thanksgiving Crafts for Family Fun!

November 19, 2016/ jodi levine

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).

October 28, 2016

No-Bake Spooky Halloween Treats on the Today Show!

October 28, 2016/ jodi levine

On 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.

October 22, 2016

Easy Easy Cardboard Tube Halloween Decorations

October 22, 2016/ jodi levine

Paper 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!

October 15, 2016

Spooky Sweet Halloween Skull Pops and Treat Toppers

October 15, 2016/ jodi levine

Here 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

October 14, 2016

Half-Homemade Halloween Box Costumes in Parents Magazine

October 14, 2016/ jodi levine

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.

September 30, 2016

Friendly DIY Marshmallow Ghost Cake Toppers

September 30, 2016/ jodi levine

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.

July 31, 2016

Pretty Personalized Party Cups

July 31, 2016/ jodi levine

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!

July 02, 2016

Bubble Printing: Fun Summer Craft for Kids!

July 02, 2016/ jodi levine

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.

June 17, 2016

Quickest DIY Cards for Father's Day and More!

June 17, 2016/ jodi levine

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.

May 13, 2016

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

May 13, 2016/ jodi levine

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.

April 28, 2016

Easy Cake Pop Flowers for Mother's Day!

April 28, 2016/ jodi levine

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!

April 06, 2016

Cookie Crafting, Activity and Snack in One!

April 06, 2016/ jodi levine

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 Crafts. Amy and I shot them with our brilliant designer, Robin Rosenthal.)

March 31, 2016

Fruit Stripe Gum Letter Cake Topper

March 31, 2016/ jodi levine

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)!

March 26, 2016

Last Minute Easter Crafts on the Today Show!

March 26, 2016/ jodi levine

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!

All Posts