BOO! For a so easy-it’s-spooky craft, make these recycled jar lanterns that I created for The Week Junior! I covered the jars with tissue paper using watered-down glue (and for the mummy, I simply wrapped it with white crepe paper streamers )! The cutouts are made from black construction paper, adhered with the same watered-down glue.

These little pine cone beasties I made last year for The Week Junior magazine are something fun to try after a nature or neighborhood walk! Besides the pinecones, all you'll need is some colored paper, scissors, and pipe cleaners. If you can’t fine them outside, you can buy pinecones in a craft store or online!

I was not one of those pumped-up-for-the-new-school-year kids, but getting a brand new notebook helped ease my back-to-school blues. "Loves to doodle" was the caption of my painfully dorky elementary school yearbook photo and I covered everything with my scribbles! ⁠

For the latest issue of @theweekjuniorus, I used washi tape to decorate plain notebooks. It is a super easy and fun technique, using simple tape shapes to make things like flowers, dogs, burgers, and stripes.⁠

I was thrilled that Netflix asked me to create a craft inspired by their sweet animated action-adventure, The Sea Beast . I knew I wanted to make Red, the sea beast at the center of the film. If you follow along here, you know that recycled materials are my favorite, so I raided my stash of paper towel and toilet paper tubes for her body. (Scroll down for the full instructions.)

Making a sweet treat for friends, teachers, or classmates is one idea for a fun back-to-school ritual to help ease the end-of-summer blues. I made these apple lollipops for Family Fun magazine. Homemade lollipops are one of my favorite food crafts and you can see some of my others here or in my book, Candy Aisle Crafts.
These apple pops are pretty easy to make and you can find everything you’ll need at the supermarket, my favorite type of craft!

As part of The Week Junior magazine’s Summer of Reading challenge, I created a fun bookmark project. You can use any artwork (and simply cut it into strips), but I made these using a scrape painting technique. It’s super easy and addictive!

Do you know Ed Emberley’s book, Picture Pie? In it, Mr. Emberley teaches us, how to make pictures by collaging simple geometric shapes, genius! Like his thumbprint art and how-to drawing books, it is great for artists of any age as well as anyone who is insecure about their drawing ability or in need of a little creative nudge. in a fun and very un-intimidating way. Inspired by this book, I have had several fun crafternoons making cards and pictures with kids and adults

We don't buy plastic straws, but we still have some in the house. Rather than throw them out (they can't be recycled) we try to find other uses for them. In this week's The Week Junior, I share a fun and easy weaving project, using straws as a loom. (You can also use paper straws!). I learned how to do this way back when I was a kid, from my Do a Zoom Do book. (Does anyone else have that? Remember Zoom?) I made bookmarks (so many bookmarks!), dollhouse rugs, and scarves for my Barbies!

I made this egg carton wreath for The Week Junior last year (and somehow forgot to post about it). It’s a fun do-together project: put on some music, get everyone around a table, snip flowers and figure out how to use all the parts from the carton…the cups that hold the eggs, the pointy pyramids in between (perfect daffodil trumpets!), and even the flat lid (great for leaves)! Probably-too-obvious-but-just-in-case-PSA: If I don’t have empty cartons in my recycle bin, I’ll just take out eggs and put them back in the fridge in a bowl!

Toilet paper tubes, 3D blank canvases that can be brought to life right from your recycle bin, are my favorite craft material! These springy egg holders and the crafts below are from my brand new e-book, Toilet Tube Treasury! Toilet Tube Treasury, 62-page crafty ebook with 24 crafts and 19 pages of free printable templates …for kids and adults alike!
You can group the egg holders into a centerpiece or put one at each place setting!
GRASS EGG HOLDER
1. Optional: For brighter color, prime tubes inside and out with gesso; let dry.
2. Paint toilet paper tubes green with craft paint (inside and out) and let dry.
3. Cut tubes to about 2 ” and snip angled vertical cuts to make a grass fringe around one end.

I am so excited to announce the release of, Toilet Tube Treasury, a 62-page crafty ebook with 24 crafts and 19 pages of free printable templates, is for crafters--kids and adults alike!! Toilet tubes are free/cute/sturdy-but-easy-to-cut/3D blank canvases, right in your recycle bin! I have put together the best of my tube-y craft ideas with a whole bunch of fresh ones including projects for holidays, birthdays, and every day.

Homemade Valentines are the best! And it doesn't get easier than these fingerprint Valentines which I made for the current issue of The Week Junior.

These utensil bags, perfect for a buffet, are made with brown lunch bags and decorated with leaf rubbings. Get your kids to help make them! (Or at least keep them busy collecting leaves!) ⁠ I made these for the current (November) issue of Parents magazine. You can find the full instructions on their website here!

We bought an external CD drive and finally watched a whole bunch of DVD's we hadn't seen in ages...including this Halloween Today Show segment (below) from a few years ago when I showed Will Ferrell and Tina Fey a few no-carve Halloween crafts from Martha Stewart Living magazine while sporting some plastic snakes in my hair!

Tie-dye is not the only way to decorate a shirt. Printing with potatoes (or other veggies and fruits such as carrots, or apples for that matter) is an easy and fun way to create letters, polka dots, and whatever patterns and designs your kids dream up! Also, a little less messy! And you may have everything you need right now! And, wouldn’t it be fun to have a new t-shirt to show off at school?

As I mentioned in my last post, I love having activities lined up for summer rainy days, especially back when my kids were younger and finished with camp for the summer! These felt bookmarks are a perfect NO-SEW project to use your stash of fabric scraps, ribbon scraps, and yarn. If you can get your hands on iron-on adhesive (like Heat N’ Bond), even better! (If not, fabric glue or even regular white glue will work…just brush a thin layer to the back of each of your pieces of fabric) You can make any animal you want.
The idea here is to sandwich two pieces of fabric together and then cut them to your shape. Felt works great for this and doesn’t unravel or fray, but woven fabrics will work well too once they’re glued together!