Build these easy magnetic tile ideas while celebrating autumn and autumn holidays—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Moon Festival, Día de Muertos, and others! Some toys seem to have endless potential for play. Magnetic tiles have been an example of such a toy in our household....
Build fairy houses from pumpkins and put together a pumpkin fairy garden for Halloween display this year! After I challenged my six-year-old son to build a house from a pumpkin and made one alongside him, we decided right away that we needed more. I’ve always...
If you like process art and new painting techniques, try this monster straw painting art! The adorable watercolour monsters are guaranteed to brighten your day. Do all kids have a fondness for straws? In five years, they haven’t lost appeal for my son!...
Learn how to paint pumpkin rocks with our fun autumn craft tutorial! I don’t grow pumpkins every year. Usually, some years, I get inspired to plant pumpkins and marvel at how well they are doing until they fill the whole garden. Then we pick them and realize we...
Did your kids like Jack-in-the-Box toys when they were younger? Now they can make a DIY Jack-in-the-Box from paper, while having a fun engineering experience! When we made our paper Jack-in-the-box toys and hid Jack-o’-lanterns inside, I wrote that kids can make...
Learn how to make a Jack in the Box from paper with a free printable template and have a fun engineering experience with kids! The first paper Jack in the Box that I ever made was for Halloween. After all, shouldn’t Jack-o’-lantern and Jack-in-the-box...
Make magical Halloween painted rocks using our free printable silhouette templates! This has undoubtedly been a good year for all the rock painters. The new trend of painting and hiding rocks this summer has inspired a lot of fun rock creations! The summer is over,...
We have a longstanding Halloween tradition – never get a decent photo of the costumes we make. That happened on Budster’s first year when he was a garden gnome. For his second year, we dressed him in a grand musketeer’s costume,...
I have a particular regard for dollhouses. In my childhood, the two shelves in my room that served as a dollhouse held as much drama as the four volumes of War and Peace. When I got older, I was fascinated with the art of building miniature houses and expressing the...
In the long, dark autumn evenings, we often find ourselves playing with light: puppet theatre performances, glow-in-the dark toys, lamps and lanterns occupy our rooms. We worked on these easy-to-make lamps over the last couple of days to decorate the house for...
We started making handmade toys for our son before he was even born. We wanted to fill his toy box with special friends that Mommy and Daddy sewed and carved. Nine months were long enough to do the job! Soon strange little creatures with button eyes and wooden rattles...
Make an easy button pumpkin craft to add vibrant fall decor to your house! It’s so easy that a child can make it. When pumpkins fill the fields, autumn is here. This time of the year, pumpkins also fill our garden and local farmer’s market. A couple of...
