Introducing "Show Me a Story" by Emily K Neuburger

One of my favorite things about the time I spent at CRAFT was finding and following so many immensely creative folks through their blogs. I love stumbling on new blogs, keeping up with them, and watching them grow over the years, and it's even more exciting to see them make the jump from blog publishing to book publishing. 

Emily with her daughters, Hazel and Leah, telling stories using the Traveling Puppet Theater project from Show Me a Story

One such case is Emily K. Neuburger of Red Bird Crafts, whom I first connected with a couple of years ago after posting about some of her projects on CRAFT. I've followed her work and stayed in touch ever since, and was thrilled to se her new book, Show me a Story, that has "40 craft projects and activities to spark children's storytelling."

The Story Disks project is simple and cute, and will end up providing hours of creative play for kids. 

As a mom, I have to admit that when I've tried to craft with my kids, they don't always jump right on board. They seem to need some kind of additional hook to get going. What I love about Show Me a Story is that the projects have purpose. It's not just about making something cute, it's about making something that you then turn around and use to share creative stories and adventures with others. That bumps the awesome factor right up through the roof for me.

The Storytelling Jar is an adorable project that would look cute on a desk or shelf, and can then be pulled down to use for story telling whenever the mood strikes. 

The projects are mostly pretty simple, and use basic materials that can often be found around your house (even in the recycling bin!) so it's a great book for families to have on hand for rainy days, family activity nights or summer boredom busting. It's also a book that would be a great gift for teachers, because many of the activities would be perfect for the classroom.

Emily's thoughtful and thorough explanations of the mechanics of stories, and her rich prompts help readers jump right in to the story-telling process.

Emily doesn't just provide craft project tutorials in the book, but she also includes incredibly helpful guides for getting kids in the right mindset to fall deep down the story telling rabbit hole. She's prepared rich lists of prompts and explanations that help parents or teachers put the activities in to context for the children. Show me a Story is filled with the kind of projects and inspiration that help create special moments between adults and children, and it's really refreshing to see this kind of take on a craft project book. I like when there is purpose to a project beyond just making it.

If all this resonates with you, you're in luck! I have one copy of Show me a Story to offer for giveaway to an Average Jane Crafter reader. Just leave a comment on this post, telling me how you would use this book with the kiddos in your life, and I'll draw a winner at random on Monday. You have until 9PM CST on Sunday, September 29 to leave your comment. Sorry, contest is open to U.S. residents only.

Hey, wait a minute ... I recognize that name under the quote up there ...

How-To: Make a Pikachu Pumpkin

Last week, my son had a school assignment to decorate a pumpkin as his favorite character from a book.  Of course, the book he picked was a Pokemon one, and the character he chose was Pikachu. Despite both of my kids having been Pokemon fanatics for a couple of years now, I still haven't quite gotten all the lingo, characters and story lines sorted out, but I do think this yellow "electric type" is a cutie and was excited to see him transformed into a pumpkin.

My son was adamant that he had to do "ALL THE WORK," and for the most part he did. Shortly after starting, we both realized that Pikachu was turning out to be pretty awesome so we decided we'd share the process here with you. It's pretty straightforward, but hopefully you'll see how easy it is to transform a pumpkin into a Pikachu and will want to jump in before Halloween.

We used a small round pumpkin, and since the kids weren't allowed to carve the designs (gooey pumpkin guts on the display in the library would be ... not so awesome) we knew paint was the perfect medium.

 

Supplies:

• 1 small round pumpkin
• Acrylic paint in bright yellow, red, white and black
• 1 fine line black paint pen (a Sharpie might work as well, but we happened to have a paint pen on hand)
• Assorted sponge brushes (I found an assorted pack of brushes at Hobby Lobby for around $5-6. It included many sizes of rectangular brushes, as well as some round brushes that were perfect for making Pikachu's eyes and cheeks)
• A pencil with a new, unused eraser
• Cardstock or Mat Board
• Hot Glue Gun
• Assorted small plastic bowls (recycled applesauce containers are great!)

It took two or three layers of the yellow acrylic paint to really coat the pumpkin. We set up on a scrap piece of cardboard and let my son paint away. He played while each layer was drying & it didn't seem to take to long between coats.

For the eyes and cheeks, we used the round sponge brushes. Put a small amount of paint into one of the small plastic bowls. Dip the brush in the bowl, then dab it against the side of the bowl to remove the excess paint and give it a light, even coating.

Press the sponge brush straight down on the pumpkin and gently rock it around to make sure the entire circumference of the circle gets painted. We practiced a couple of times on the cardboard to get the motion down. My son quickly picked it up and was stoked to see the perfect circles he was able to create with the circle sponge brush.

Place the eyes toward the center of the pumpkin, and the red cheeks just below and to the right and left of the eyes.

For the white portion of the eyes, use your new, unused pencil eraser and dab it in white acrylic paint. Use the same straight-down-rock-straight-up method to apply the white portion of Pikachu's eyes. Check pictures for placement (or, as we did, use a Pikachu stuffed animal as your reference)

I helped my son with the nose and mouth, because the lines are so fine. Matching the lines in your reference drawing (or stuffed animal) draw the small nose and wavy mouth.

For the ears, paint a layer of yellow acrylic paint on mat board or heavy cardstock. Then paint a stripe of black across the top. Cut the elongated triangle shapes out to create the ears.

To attach the ears, hold them in place and surround each one with hot glue (this was the other time I helped my son so he wouldn't burn his fingers) Hold the ear in place while the glue dries enough to set up and support the ears. Once the glue is completely dry, paint the glue with the yellow acrylic paint to help it blend in to the pumpkin. Voila! Pikachu Pumpkin!

My son was so excited to take his Pikachu Pumpkin with him to school this morning. We kept joking that he needed to carry it on his shoulder. And even though I'm not a diehard Poke-Parent, I could still deeply appreciate his enjoyment of turning a plain pumpkin into an awesome Pikachu.

Summer Craft Camp Time!

I'm actually looking forward to summer this year. My kids are getting older (they are 8 and just-about-5) and we've been having a lot of fun just hanging out together. It's also the first summer in a long time where I don't have a job that requires me to be somewhere at a certain time or is hugely stressful. I've started to see the possibility of doing some really fun stuff with my kids this summer, and that has me getting as excited about summer as I did when I was a kid.

Like most people, we are on a super tight budget right now. A summer full of camps and expensive activities just isn't going to happen. I'm pulling together loads of resources for fun, inexpensive things to do and - of course - crafting fits that bill perfectly.

That's why I'm so excited about the Summer Craft Camp we are doing over at Craftzine.com. All summer long, we'll have kid-friendly projects that will be perfect for filling the hot summer afternoons. One thing I'm most excited about for Summer Craft Camp is the participation of Kathie and Bernadette of Future Craft Collective. They'll have a special project each week that will not only get the kids making, but will get everyone thinking, too. Kathie and Bernadette are very special crafters. They focus on using repurposed materials and better yet, they focus on using craft as a vehicle to get kids talking and thinking about ideas like family relationships and consumerism. (Be sure to listen to Diane's Crafty Pod interview with Kathie and Bern!)


Their first project just went up over on Craftzine, and it's a goody. It's a beautiful way to plan out and keep up with summer activities. I'm looking forward to making one for our family. How about you?

Be sure to sign up for the Craftzine newsletter or Craft Daily so you can keep up with all the great Summer Craft Camp projects!

HOW TO: Make a Caterpillar Model

I've mentioned before that I don't do nearly enough crafting with my kids. I should, but ... you know ... my crafting time is kinda my time. So I was excited to have an actual project that forced my daughter and I to work together on a "craft" of sorts.

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter (in the second grade) came home with a big project assignment: Create a model of a caterpillar from any kind of non-food, non-toy object and present it to the class. We went out for lunch one day and looked over the assignment sheet and came up with some ideas for what we could use to make each part of the caterpillar. She had some great ideas, and from there, we hit the craft store. We walked up and down every single aisle (FUN!) and had lots of discussions about what materials could be translated into things like simple eyes and spiracles.

My biggest laugh came when I asked her if she wanted to use Model Magic for the body segments instead of the Styrofoam balls she'd picked out already. She got very serious and used her hands to explain, "Well, no, because ... you know... I just think the Styrofoam is more ... you know ... exciting."

So with exciting Styrofoam balls and other supplies in hand, we set out to construct an awesome caterpillar. As we started working, she was the one who suggested we take pictures as we went so we could do a little "step by step" thing. HA! She's been reading my craft blogs, I think .....

And then, as we worked, she said something that made my heart glow. I don't have many "good mom" moments. I mean, I'm not a bad mom, but I don't feel like the kick butt mom I could/should be. And then she said:

"Without the help of my crafty mama, I couldn't have finished in time!"

Ahhh! A small success!

So here is her step by step tutorial on making an awesome caterpillar model:

Step 1 - gather your supplies

we used the following (didn't decide to do pics until after we started working)
- small styrofoam balls
- lots of toothpicks
- acrylic craft paint in a few shades of green
- metallic pipe cleaners
- flat top straight pins
- large white sequins
- smaller black sequins
- round top sewing pins
- styrofoam board on which to mount your caterpillar

Step 2 - paint your body segments


We needed to do 13 body segments and a head. We mixed three shades of green paint and sponged them on to the styrofoam balls. We used toothpicks to stand the styrofoam balls so they could dry easily.


Step 3 - connect your body segments


We connected the segments with toothpicks - a few in each segment - and smooshed them together

Step 4 - add your bristles


My daughter cut the pipe cleaners with heavy duty scissors and stuck them down in the top of the body segments.

Step 5 - add your spiracles


We took straight pins and put a small black sequin and then a larger white one, and stuck the pin into the side of each body segment.

Step 6 - add your simple eyes


We used round top sewing pins for these. My daughter added them to the bottom part of the face.

Step 7 - add your legs

I had some high hopes for fancy legs, but at this point, we were running out of time. We just ended up using colored toothpicks for the legs.

Step 8 - attach your caterpillar to the board


We had three small rectangles of styrofoam from packaging, so I taped them together and then we stuck the toothpick legs down into them so the caterpillar would stand up.

Behold, the most awesome, exciting Styrofoam caterpillar ever known!