Craft World

Valentine’s Day is often labeled a grossly commercial holiday—though I’ve always argued that it’s no worse than Christmas in that sense—but it’s actually a great time for teaching and craft-making with those you love. Here are a few very simple yet fun crafts to make with your favorite preschooler this Valentine’s Day.

Lace Hearts 1: These are literally hearts with lace on them. You can buy heart-shaped paper doilies for this purpose, or some real glittery lace at the craft store. Help your preschooler cut out hearts from red or pink construction paper—show him or her the “secret” way of folding a piece of paper in half to cut out a heart, or if that’s too difficult, simply draw a few for him or her to cut out. Then either glue the paper doily on the front of the heart so the color shows through, or line the edges with the ribbon or lace. Ta da—instant Valentines! Read more

Everyone loves a letter!The art of writing a beautiful letter is not unlike the art of conversation. It takes practice, elegance, humor, wit, and intimacy. The best way to begin is to study. Read some of the most well-noted love letters and letters of import or significance throughout the history of human civilization. Humans have been communicating by hand written letters for thousands of years. It is only in the last 20 years that we have begun to communicate electronically with increasing reliance on technology to do the talking for us. As a result of text messages, emails, and social networking sites we are able to stay in touch more regularly- but, the quality of information, intimacy and depth of meaning, is completely lost. It simply cannot exist by the very nature of electronic communication which was built for brevity. Read more

Though New Year’s Day is past, we still have almost a month until Chinese New Year; and, like many life coaches claim, the entire month of January can be dedicated to starting anew rather than simply the first day. That’s why we still have weeks of New Year’s goodness left to do all kinds of cool things with our kiddos.

Goal Book: A book of aspirations, dreams, goals, whatever—I call mine a Magnum Opus (like Charlotte calls her web in Charlotte’s Web)—it’s both fun to make as well as keep. Sit down with your kids and make a list of ten things you each wish to accomplish this year. They can be silly—make a crown out of aluminum cans, freeze bubbles in midair—or serious—improve your algebra knowledge, get fit as a family. If you’re feeling super motivated, list twenty or more goals. Read more

Maybe you’ve already made some loud, messy poppers worthy of store sales and country independence celebrations. Perhaps you created the cutest pointy silver hats with stars/ streamers/ 2010 as their prominent feature. You may have already celebrated the New Year in style—but the new year has only just begun. It’s time to make something really fun and festive! Here are just a few ideas. Read more

100% Newfoundland Dog YarnIf you are a knitter or crocheter who keeps an eye on cutting edge fiber trends and fiber oddities, you may have heard of "chiengora," or yarn spun from dog's fur.  My neighbor breeds Newfoundland dogs, and saves their shed undercoats to be spun by a local spinner.  She recently dropped off a few skeins of dog fur yarn, which I will be swatching up this weekend.
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Martha Stewart's site, back in 2004, was the first place I saw a popcorn wreath mentioned; the directions there are a bit sparse though.

You'll need a paper plate for each wreath, two to four quarts of plain popped popcorn, a needle and a spool of of clear 8lb fishing line or dental floss, and a bright ribbon or other festive item for decoration, and some glue with which to attach it to the finished wreath. Depending on where you wish to hang it, you might use fishing line, or another ribbon.

In very basic terms: Read more

Stringing popped popcorn with fresh cranberries and then winding and threading the strings around the Christmas tree is an activity that many of us remember fondly from our childhoods. Making popcorn strands is also one of the easiest Christmas crafts. First, pop a large quantity of unseasoned (no butter or salt) popcorn. Since the popcorn is easier to string after it's dried and cooled, why not make a lot and butter and season some to share with the family, and use the unseasoned popcorn the next night for tree-trimming. Read more

There are plenty of gingerbread house kits out right now—many of them on sale at places like Michael’s, Walgreens, or Hobby Lobby—but you don’t need a kit to create a charming (and delicious) culinary casa. In fact, you can probably make it with most of the snack foods you keep around in your home year-round. There are many ways to make a gingerbread house, but there’s one simple way that we’ve used with our preschooler since she was a toddler. Read more

 There are a plethora of advent calendar ideas out there this year—I know, because I’ve seen dozens and want to do them ALL!—and while you might think it’s too late to start your holiday countdown, there’s still plenty of time to make your own advent calendar to use from now until Christmas. You could also simply make one for a friend for next year.

With my father in the hospital and half of our household sick, we were a little strapped for time this year. So e didn’t fill up little mesh bags labeled with numbers in a Christmas box like we did last year. Instead, we went for a simple paper chain with daily activities written on the back of each chain. This is something that anyone can do. We made ours red and green; feel free to use any colors you like. Read more

Ahhh, winter. Christmas. It’s the perfect time for winter craft-making, getting goopy in oodles of glue and glitter, making the perfect ornaments and other heartfelt creations for gift-giving. The beauty of it all is that it’s normally super cheap to do, too. Here are a bunch of things you can do with a bag of cotton balls this holiday season.

Thatch a roof. Want a snowy effect on your new gingerbread house? Glue some cotton balls to the top. Surround it with even more cotton balls for a snowdrift effect.

Make snowmen galore. Layer cotton balls around toilet paper tubes, starting with a single layer on top. Add a double layer in the center and finish with a triple layer at the bottom, effectively making three sections. Add a small hat—with felt, an old baby sock, whatever you like—and a few features with felt and you’ve got a cute snowman. Read more