I made these simple floral pop-up cards for today's New York Times, just in time for Mother’s day! This is part of the series of crafts I've been contributing to the incredible At Home section of the Times where the newspaper itself is the starring art supply!
Read MoreWhen Lindsay Volle was growing up in early-90s Phoenix, her dad would wake her up early once a month for what they called Donut Patrol. “We would drive down to the local donut shop,” Volle remembers, “and buy anywhere from three to seven dozen from a local shop where they packaged donuts in beautiful bright pink boxes. Then we’d drive to friends' houses and leave a box on their doorsteps. I would get to ring the doorbell and run -- like ding-dong ditch but with breakfast. We didn’t leave a note or anything, so first-time recipients wouldn’t necessarily know who brought them. That was so exciting to me! My dad understood that because my dad understood fun. Donuts are fun. Surprises are fun. Surprise donuts? Extra fun.”
Read MoreYesterday, I did a really fun Instagram Live for @CountryLivingMag and showed how to make these easy coffee filter flowers, and a few ways to use them to create spring decorations for your table and home. I have made a LOT of paper flowers in my life and the are THE EASIEST...and fastest!! They take only a few second to make each once the filters are dyed and dried. The bigger step here is dyeing the coffee filters which also really easy (and fun!) but allow a few hours to overnight to let the filters dry. Dye as many as you can and use them for lots of flower projects! (We have a whole chapter of coffee filter projects in our book!) By the way, I used food coloring to dye these flowers since they will be coming into contact with drinks. If you're not using these near food or drink, you could use thinned out craft paint to dye them instead.
Read MoreMany 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!
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!)
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!
Read MoreI recently made some safari animal cupcakes for Thomas & Friends to promote their movie Big World! Big Adventures! . I used mostly easy-to-find supermarket ingredients like cookies, marshmallows and pretzels to make these along with candy melts...which you can find at craft and party stores nowadays! Start off with your favorite cupcake, homemade or store-bought. I love this recipe for One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes. If you prefer to buy them, you can call most supermarket bakeries and ask them to make you some unfrosted cupcakes (or frosted, in the color of your choice).
Read MoreBirthday party ideas for older kids can be difficult to come up with, so when my younger son requested a casino night for his 11th birthday party, we were really excited! We love playing cards and thought a game night was a great idea, but at the same time had some reservations about introducing kids to the concept of gambling or glamorizing it. My husband, a psychologist and addiction specialist, decided he wanted to write up custom "cautionary tales" for each kid to put in their favor bag where the character had to overcome a difficult struggle with gambling after being lured by the rush of an early win. The kids played with chips but there was no prizes or money to be won. (Do we know how to party or what?)
Read MoreI've compiled a list of gift ideas for the creative kids on your holiday shopping list. The ideas may seem basic, but when paired with one or two other things, become a simple (but fun!) craft or activity kit!
Read MoreI am so happy to have recently contributed some ideas to Etsy Studio, Etsy's new-ish craft supply market where makers can find unique (and basic) materials as well as project ideas and inspiration. My first post is all about making homemade dessert stands, like this multi-tiered castle stand! I was so inspired by Etsy's wide selection of unfinished wooden blocks and shapes!
Read MoreFisher-Price's Little People Farm was one of my most-loved toys when I was a kid and was a favorite of our boys when they were little too so I was thrilled when they asked me to come up with cupcakes inspired by their farm animals. Check out the video we made and you'll see that the cupcakes are super easy to make. Snip some supermarket candy, no piping or cake-decorating skills required! Your kids can help make them and they're great for a barnyard-themed or piggy party, Easter, or even just a rainy day!
Read MoreTune in to NBC tomorrow (Saturday, February 18th) at 11:30 AM to watch Naturally, Danny Seo. Danny and I had so much fun making jewelry, toys, and decorations out of items that you probably have in your recycle bin right now, like these flower necklaces made out of squeeze pouch caps and felt scraps!
Read MoreThis little seal is a favorite from our book, Candy Aisle Crafts. That sweet face! In this shot, he is sliding around on some (aluminum foil) ice surrounded by sugar "snow". You can see him here atop a delicious chocolate cake along with some other arctic friends, along with the penguins below.
Read MoreWhen Amy and I were working on our book, Candy Aisle Crafts, her nephew was celebrating his first birthday with an arctic-themed party. We made him a cake topped with a marshmallow polar bears and penguin mommas and babies, and a couple of marshmallow seals. The cake itself is chocolate and we used this recipe, a longtime favorite!
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreA few cupcake papers and skewers are all you need for this cute and easy wintery cake topper! See below for instructions.
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 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 MoreI 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.
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.
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©2015 Jodi Levine. All photographs by Amy Gropp Forbes unless otherwise noted.
