December 09, 2020

Make a Recycled Cardboard Menorah this Hanukkah!

December 09, 2020/ jodi levine

Cardboard is one of my favorite craft materials, especially in the form of a tube! I came up with the idea for this menorah as a kid, I thought it would be fun to have something to put our gifts around. A few years ago I (finally) made it, for our book, Paper Goods Projects! A sturdy tube like the kind found inside a roll of aluminum foil or wrapping paper is ideal for this project, though a paper towel tube works fine too!

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!

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?

April 10, 2018

Recycled Cardboard Zoo Animals!

April 10, 2018/ jodi levine

Oh, the many uses of cardboard! Thanks to online shopping, we often have several flattened boxes in our recycle bin. Sturdy corrugated cardboard it is one of my favorite materials! It can be turned into a box town, a lemonade stand sign, a candy ATM, or these colorful zoo animals that I made for Family Fun magazine. They're easy to make (using the templates, below) and fun to paint and play with!

February 18, 2017

Fun, Easy Upcycled Crafts on Naturally, Danny Seo

February 18, 2017/ jodi levine

Tune 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!

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.

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!

March 16, 2016

Tube Letters: An Easy Birthday Garland Alternative!

March 16, 2016/ jodi levine

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!

August 09, 2015

Behind-the-Scenes Of Our New Book: Fun Chapter Openers!

August 09, 2015/ jodi levine

One of my favorite parts of working on our two books, including our newest, Paper Goods Projects (coming out this Tuesday, August 11th...woohoo!), was collaborating with creative director/designer Robin Rosenthal on our photographic chapter openers. As I mentioned in this post, she knew that Amy and I wanted typography created out of the actual supermarket materials we used and crafted projects from the book and she conceived inspired chapter openers that did just that. There are four chapters in Paper Good Projects: Coffee Filters & Cupcake Papers, Paper Plates, Bags & Doilies, Balloons, and Recycling Bin.

July 16, 2015

Our New Book!

July 16, 2015/ jodi levine

Amy and I are thrilled to announce that our second book, Paper Goods Projects, is coming out on August 11th and is available right now for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Indiebound! We are honored that our foreword was written by the brilliant Jordan Ferney, founder of the gorgeous blog Oh Happy Day and her fantastic party shop!

January 23, 2015

Handmade Charlotte

January 23, 2015/ jodi levine

Handmade Charlotte is one of my very favorite websites, so I am thrilled to have recently become a contributor. I'm sure many of you know the website already but if not, be sure to take a look. Tons ofbeautifully photographed and inspring crafts, kid's rooms, and recipes.

Below (and above) is a peek at some of my posts. Click on the links or photos for the full tutorials.

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