1,001 donuts

My son and I wrote and illustrated a children's book called 1,001 Donuts. You can order it here.

fast and easy paper making for kids!

If you have a preschool-aged kid (or older) with an interest in recycling, this is a fun afternoon project! Let's make some paper!

Take scrap paper and, with your kid, tear it up and put it in a blender with some hot water. We used a couple of mis-printed sheets from the printer, a bit of cardboard, two pieces of junk mail, and a sheet of purple construction paper. The trick is: the blender blades have to turn freely, so don't jam-pack the blender and use lots of water.

 

Blend till pulpy.

Kids can pour into the screen! We actually did the pouring over a catch-basin, then moved it to the table.

Kids can sponge gently to remove excess water. Here, my now-gigantic, soon-to-be-kindergartener kiddo sponges our screened paper.

Flip it over on felt, polyester, or polypropylene cloth (heck, linen would probably work, too), then press from the back with a sponge (kids can do this part, too!) (The kiddo is developing his photography skills; these are nicely framed, I think.)

Carefully lift screen, helping paper separate by pulling gently on the corner. Once the  entire screen is separated from the paper, leave it to dry.

 

And once it's dry, you can cut it into two equal pieces . . . or more.

The resulting paper will vary in thickness and texture, depending on your pour, and color, depending on your source materials. Ours feels a little like egg carton cardboard.

Nice textural quality; the screen leaves crosshatch marks on the surface, which look great when rubbed with a crayon.  

And that's all there is to it! The materials used don't have to be expensive. We used a small window screen from the recycled building materials store (99 cents), some kitchen sponges, and a polypropylene sack.  Serviceable and fun for a summer project! 

We're going to try this at the preschool's day camp this month, too, but using hand mixers; the low-tech kind with a hand crank (go go fine motor skills!). I'll try to remember to post the results for those who want to give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by!

-a

preschool banner made with kids

library display -- where the wild things are

packaged airplane crayon party favors

You last saw these in November, when I was casting them by stove top. Here they are all packaged up! I designed the backers in Illustrator and attached the crayons with glue dots.

a little bit of summer

Here are a few things we've been working on so far this summer. I hope to go into a bit more detail on some of them in future posts, but with all the play dates and swim lessons and backyard quicksand making, I'm having a hard time settling down to update the blog. The weather's too nice, the days (as long as they are) are too short. We're filling them full.

I hope you're enjoying your summer too!

My booth at the Eugene Mini-Maker Faire in June.

Getting good use out of the studio; the kiddo tells me this is a picture of a queen.

We're going to have so many grapes this year. So many!

Tie dyeing with fabric paint for a special quilt project.

Watching a juggler on the library plaza at the Summer Reading kick-off.

A booth at Black Sheep Gathering where the kind people told me how to fix my spinning wheel.

These b&w dragonflies are all over the place this summer. I love them.

Mashing up the u-pick strawberries from the organic farm to make jam.

Sunset roses.

Sun printing on fabric (it's really easy).

W is for watermelon, if you're eating the alphabet.

Red flowers and pool blue chairs.

Hanging up the ride-on toys on the back of the shed.

A peanut plant.

Yup. We're growing peanuts as a science experiment this summer.

Croquet cart from the thrift store . . .

. . . with some new stain and tightened screws for long life.

Painting the patio bricks with washable tempera paint is fun with kiddos.

Did I mention we also camped out at the beach for a few days, and spent some time at the ballpark, and played mini golf, and have been to the pool like a dozen times (at least)? Yeah. We're totally summering it up over here in the PNW.


Thanks for reading! I'll be back soon with a little post to explain sun printing in six easy steps, because now is the time, people! You crafty folks out there probably already have what you need on hand.

pendleton blanket bunny

 I worked up a prototype bunny for a little friend's birthday, and I was pretty happy that my tinkering had such sweet results.

This is made with mill scraps from the Pendleton Woolen Mill here in Oregon.

After a couple of small changes, I hope to have a few of these cuties ready for my Etsy shop; I'll update here when that happens, so stay tuned or send me a little message if you'd like to be notified.

Have you been putting bits and pieces together to make anything cool lately? Leave me a link. I'd love to see it!

Thanks for reading.


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