Tie-dye is back in a big way! With camps closed and parents playing camp-counselor in the backyard, tie-dye is a great activity on a hot summer day.

Here are three easy and fun tie-dye techniques that I developed for Parents magazine. (Click on the link to see more!)

1.Rosette Tie-Dye

Start by laying a T-shirt flat. Pinch a 2-inch section through both layers and rubber-band it. Push your finger down through the rubber band to make a donut shape, and repeat as many times as you want. Submerge in tie-dye bath.

2. Diagonal Striped Tie-Dye

To make it, lay the T-shirt flat and fold it accordion-style from the bottom corner. Once folded, wrap with rubber bands every 1 to 2 inches. Dip in all one color or in two bowls of different colors.

3. Bulls-Eye Tie-Dye

Lay the T-shirt flat. Pinch center of the garment and rubber-band both layers, about 1 to 2 inches from center. Continue applying rubber bands in this pattern about 1 inch apart from each other. To make it 2-toned, dip one end in one color dye, and the other end in another color dye.

Friends! I am so excited to announce a new partnership that has been in the works for a while with our friends at the Museum of the City of New York. If you have been to this institution, then you know how special it is. From street photography to activism to urban planning and everything in between (I’m looking at you, Basketball!), MCNY displays the most beautiful and comprehensive exhibitions about the most interesting, compelling aspects of New York City.

In an effort to attract families with younger kids to the museum, MCNY came to me looking for engaging ways to do it. As much of the country is on hold right now, so are the major initiatives of the partnership, but there was one thing we could do remotely…produce videos to entertain your kiddos at home!

The first video in the series, launching July 15th, is called Frozen Treats, City Streets, and it’s about exactly that…the history of ice cream and New York City! I’ll be showing you how to make three ice-cream crafts, and the education department from the museum will join in with some facts and info that will most definitively entertain your kids! It’s free but registration is encouraged!

The following three will launch on July 22, 29, and August 5th. Stay tuned for more details about those coming soon!

Summer 2020 is shaping up to look a lot different than any summer we have ever seen. Kids all over the country are mourning the loss of their beloved weeks at summer camp. (And let’s not kid ourselves, parents are pretty bummed too!)

• 6 individually packaged craft kits
  • Lanyard keychains
  • Gods’ eye materials
  • Cute bug magnet
  • DIY campfire nightlight
  • Miniature wheat grass wooden planter
  • Tie-dye bandana project
• 3 Stamped postcards to send to your CFFs (camp friends forever)
• Canteen Cash coin-pouch keychain
• Bug Juice collapsible cup
• 3 Button pins
• 1 Crafting tray
• 1 Miniature clipboard

Click HERE to place your order today! The kits are available for pre-order NOW over on Projectkid.com, and will be ready to ship the week of July 6th.

If left to their own devices, we know what devices our kids will use! These crafts will keep them busy, unplugged, and feeling sweet nostalgia for their summer place.

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word cactus? Ouch, is right. Cacti are not the type of plants you want to cuddle up with at night…unless of course they are made from soft and friendly pom-poms!

These mini cacti make for a great craft that your kids can make on their own…no tools that would hurt them (hi hot-glue guns!) and the instructions are so easy.

Head over to Oriental Trading’s Fun 365 and get all the steps to this cute craft that will have your windowsill lined with a cactus collection in no time!

Mother’s Day 2020 is for sure a totally different Mother’s Day than any that we’ve ever had…and hopefully any that we’ll ever see in the future! I typically recommend all sorts of DIY projects that require materials from Michaels, Joann, or Amazon, but with people feeling less anxious to spend money these days, it’s harder to say “hey, go buy this and this and this!”

So this year we have to be a little more frugal and resourceful, so I wanted to offer you, dear readers old and new, this FREE funny printable phrenology chart of MOM! (Choose the skin tone that suits your superwoman best!) If you want to type your answers in before printing, use download this fill-in PDF version.

What’s phrenology you ask? Well, if you had to guess what’s on someone’s mind, how would you break it into seven categories? That’s what the 19th century study of Phrenology was—the belief that different areas of the brain controlled different character traits, thoughts, and emotions. Over the years, this belief has been debunked, but you may recognize famous posters like this one that hold a certain kitschy appeal.

For a fun celebration of your mom, grandmother, best friend, or neighbor, show them that you pay attention to what they love, how they think, and what their mind is made up of! Print out the illustration that best matches your mom, and treat each color as a different category and fill in words that apply to the mom-hero. The categories that I used were food/drink, TV, virtues, family members, craft supplies (haha!), and favorite places I’ve traveled.

Illustration by Hannah Perry.