Eco-Friendly (and Cheap!) Gift Ideas for Creative Kids

Eco-Friendly (and Cheap!) Gift Ideas for Creative Kids

When I was a kid, I hoarded bottle caps, doilies, paper bags, and boxes to make dollhouse furniture, cards, and various craft projects. Do you have a kid like this on your holiday gift list? Assembling a craft kit is a great solution if you are stuck for a gift idea. And these kits involve recycled materials which mean that can be cheap…and eco-friendly! The main idea is to gather recycled household materials, pair them with a few basic craft supplies, maybe a craft book, and pack them in a simple tote bag, bin, or box!

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Half-Homemade Halloween Box Costumes in Parents Magazine

Half-Homemade Halloween Box Costumes in Parents Magazine

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.

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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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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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Easy No-Candy Valentines for Family Fun Magazine

Easy No-Candy Valentines for Family Fun Magazine

If you're looking for some candy-free Valentines to send to your child's school, check out this DIY Valentines story that I did for Family Fun Magazine's current (February) issue! Each includes a little inexpensive gift found in the party favor section at Party City or  US Toy (perfect for a class because they are sold in bulk)!
I made the tags for the Valentine pictured above by splat painting card stock and running it through the printer (after it had fully dried). I attached the tags to these little paint sets from Party City.

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Our New Book!

Our New Book!

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 AmazonBarnes 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!

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A Teeny-Tiny Summer Dinner That Your Kids Will Love!

A Teeny-Tiny Summer Dinner That Your Kids Will Love!

Hooray for barbecue season! My boys love hamburgers (and I love playing with food) so, for fun, we had a TINY bbq dinner with miniature burgers, hot dogs, teensy baked potatoes and wild blueberry mini tarts. (The burger looks large in this photo but was quite small.) My sister-in-law, Kat, suggested the idea a few years ago and we had so much fun with it that we did it again. 

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Cold Weather Candy Craft!

Cold Weather Candy Craft!

My friend Melissa sent me these great shots of her daughter and friend making lollipops, inspired by our book Candy Aisle Crafts. The lollipops are almost as cute as the girls! I love the rainbow and letter pops that they thought up.  Lollipop-making is the perfect stuck-indoors winter activity! 

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Crafts to Prevent the Winter Blues on the Today Show!

Crafts to Prevent the Winter Blues on the Today Show!

This morning I shared some kid-friendly craft and treat ideas to prevent cabin fever this winter on the Today Show. The ideas utilize a lot of leftover holiday stuff that you may already have around the house, like candy, empty boxes, and holiday cards. As always it is a lot of fun and everyone over at Today is super nice! Click here for the video and a how-to for one of the crafts.

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Oh Happy Day!

Oh Happy Day!

We are thrilled that our Cookie Cakes were featured on one of our absolute favorite blogs, Oh Happy Day! They are even offering a giveaway. If you leave a comment on their post by tomorrow 8/22, you might win a copy of our book Candy Aisle Crafts!

Click over to Oh Happy Day for the full tutorial!

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Planet Cookies!

Planet Cookies!

Our planet cookies were featured on the beautiful blog 100 Layer Cakelet, a great place to go to for kid's birthday and shower ideas and lots of other parent and expectant parent inspiration!

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Marshmallow Birds

Marshmallow Birds

These marshmallow birds are one of the projects in the marshmallow chapter in our book. I had created many marshmallow crafts over the years and when I started on the marshmallow chapter I was afraid I had already made everything there was to be made out of marshmallows. After I started playing I realized that the possibilities were endless. I would have been happy to do a whole book of marshmallow crafts!

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Dot Flower Pops

Dot Flower Pops

These simple dot flower pops are from the hard candy chapter in our upcoming book, Candy Aisle Crafts. They are a great starter project for getting used to melting hard candy and would make cute party favors!

Jolly Ranchers are my favorite candies to use for the candy-melting projects I’ve done over the years and have always found that it melts very smoothly.

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