DIY Girard Papercut

May 07

DIY Girard-Inspired Paper Craft

We’re huge fans of Girard around here. Last year, we picked up a copy of the mam­moth Alexan­der Girard cof­fee table book by Todd Old­ham (pub­lished by AMMO books) while vis­it­ing the “Cen­tury of the Child” exhibit at MOMA. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by since that we haven’t spent time flip­ping through this gor­geous book–we’re totally obsessed!

DIY Girard-Inspired Paper Craft

Here’s a paper craft project that offers a fun way to intro­duce Girard’s fab­u­lous work to your chil­dren. We found the per­fect place on the wall of our boys’ room and stuck it up with a few strips of washi tape.

Take a look at the easy steps, and if you get a chance to get your hands on this fab­u­lous book—do it!

Keep read­ing…

Play Kitchens

May 06

Play Kitchen for Kids

As you already know, pre­tend play has many ben­e­fits. While doing things exactly like mom or dad, your child devel­ops his/her cre­ativ­ity, ana­lyt­i­cal skills, log­i­cal rea­son­ing but also com­mu­ni­ca­tion and social devel­op­ment skills.

Play Kitchen for Kids

Play kitchens are among favorite pre­tend play games. Here are a few of our favorites…

Keep read­ing…

Playing With The Weather

May 03

Montessori How to Make a Rainbow Set for Kids

I’m on hol­i­day in the UK at the moment, enjoy­ing a Spring break with my two youngest chil­dren Savan­nah and Miles. I have to say that it’s good to be home, and I’m happy to report that we seem to have brought some French sun­shine with us this time!

Of course, it’s a well-known fact that the Brits like to talk about the weather, so you won’t be too sur­prised by today’s mete­o­ro­log­i­cal theme! Kids are always fas­ci­nated by weather and nat­ural phe­nom­ena (Where does rain come from? What is thun­der? How do you make a rain­bow?), and their nat­ural curios­ity is a great source of inspi­ra­tion for con­tem­po­rary children’s toy makers.

Come rain or shine, there’s no short­age of won­der­ful designs out there. Here are a few of the orig­i­nal finds that caught my eye recently:

Keep read­ing…

DIY Merrymaker Stencil Dress

Apr 30

DIY Merrymaker Stencil Dress, free sewing pattern and tutorial

Your favorite lit­tle girl will twirl her lit­tle heart out all sum­mer long in this lovely dress! Avail­able in sizes 4 to 6, the Mer­ry­maker Sten­cil Dress is based on a vin­tage majorette dress pat­tern so cute it lit­er­ally makes you want to spin.

This sweet lit­tle dress is the first in a minis­eries of DIY party dresses we’ll be shar­ing over the next few weeks. We had a ball putting together the easy-to-use pat­terns, and we’re sure you will, too!

We used Hand­made Char­lotte sten­cils for the con­fetti col­lar, polka dots on the bodice, and bunting around the skirt. You can pick up the sten­cils and all of the other sup­plies you’ll need to make the dress at JoAnn.com.

Let’s get started!

Keep read­ing…

Fun Storage For Kids’ Rooms

Apr 29

Fun storage for kids' rooms - rocking toy box

A friend of mine is in the throes of ren­o­vat­ing her beau­ti­ful new home and recently shared a few pic­tures of her kids’ bed­room. Three chil­dren share a huge space that has been divided into three areas, all dec­o­rated slightly dif­fer­ently but using the same color scheme. Sim­ple, cozy, and unclut­tered, the design is Euro­pean in taste, and I think it looks perfect.

How­ever, despite win­ning our unan­i­mous approval, some­one asked where she had “hid­den all the unat­trac­tive things kids accu­mu­late.” That got me think­ing.  How do you strike a bal­ance? Are we dec­o­rat­ing for them or for us? Parental aes­thet­ics aside, what fun stor­age solu­tions have design­ers come up with to keep our lit­tle ones’ rooms tidy and bring a smile to their face each day?

Here’s what I found…

Keep read­ing…

Friday Favorites

Apr 26

DIY Envelopes - The envelope is the letter, simply fold and send!

DIY Envelopes
I love these sim­ple DIY enve­lope let­ters from min­imega. The let­ter is the enve­lope — sim­ply write your mes­sage, fold it, and send. Sim­ple is always best!

30-Cup Ice Cream Tower of Doom

30-Cup Ice Cream Tower of Doom
Even the sweetest-toothed child would be scared of this mon­strous trib­ute to Häagen-Dazs. Yikes!

DIY Tangerine Snail

DIY Tan­ger­ine Snail
Here’s a healthy alter­na­tive to the ice cream “tower of doom” that’s sim­ple to make & tons of fun. Head over to Lit­tle Cook for details.

DIY Paper Animal Heads

DIY Paper Ani­mal Heads
Do-it-yourself decor for the bed­room walls of your lit­tle out­doors­man. Visit Hello Lidy for the fun & sim­ple tutorial.

Cat Tipis

Cat Tipi
Ditch the carpet-covered card­board tube and pick up a hand­made tipi for the fam­ily cat (avail­able here for $54, via eat drink chic).

Repurpose a fallen tree into the ultimate bike stand!

DIY Fallen Tree Bike Stand
Repur­pose a fallen tree into the ulti­mate bike stand (via Stu­dio Sjoesjoe on Pin­ter­est).

DIY Inchworm Card for Mother’s Day

Apr 25

DIY Inchworm Mother's Day

The other day, I was look­ing through a box of Mother’s Day cards that I’ve received over the years when I came across my first one ever. This lit­tle green guy may be sim­ple, but he totally melts my heart.

DIY Inchworm Mother's Day

All it takes to make the card is a sheet of green con­struc­tion paper, a pen, and a pair of scis­sors. Fold the tiny inch­worm and have your child scrib­ble a sweet “I love you” in the folds.

Happy craft­ing!

Blog Love

Apr 24

Wooden Toy Circus by Janod

It’s been a while since I added a really inter­est­ing blog to my blog roll, so I’m delighted to share a new favorite link with you today: Ukkonooa. As the name sug­gests, this is a for­eign blog, writ­ten by Maija, a Finnish visual artist cur­rently liv­ing in the UK.

Ukkonooa is fresh, sim­ple and sur­pris­ing. Look through the archives and you’ll find an inspir­ing col­lec­tion of healthy recipes, fun upcycling/craft activ­i­ties, hand­made clothes (with links to tuto­ri­als), flea mar­ket finds, dec­o­rat­ing tips, and much more.

Maija’s sweet daugh­ter is one lucky lit­tle girl.  Let me show you why…

Keep read­ing…