I’m a big fan of wine corks as a crafting supply. (This in no way reflects how much wine I drink. It doesn’t. Really. Ok maybe a little.) But I’ve never actually made anything with a champagne cork. (Bubbly gives me the hiccups.) After making this little elf, my mind is racing the the characters that a champagne cork can become. Bring on the Veuve!

What you’ll need:

• Champagne cork
• 2 skewers
• 2 toothpicks
• 4 beads
• Felt
• Scissors
• Scallop shears
• Black straight pins
• Tacky glue
• Washi tape

Make it:

1. Hat: Roll a small piece of felt into a tall cone shape and seal along the seam with tacky glue. Trim the bottom edge so it’s straight. Add a 1/4″ band from contrasting felt and glue it around the bottom edge. (I cut it with scallop shears, but you can use regular scissors.) Glue hat to the top of the cork.
2. Eyes: Push 2 black ball pins into the face about 1/2″ apart.
3. Scarf: Cut a 6″-by-1/2″ piece of felt and fringe the two ends. Tie it around the “neck” of the cork. Glue down if necessary.
4. Arms: Push 2 toothpicks into either side of the cork’s body and trim down to about an inch. Glue a small bead to the end of each as a hand.
5. Legs: Trim skewers to 3″. Wrap washi tape around them and press the points into the bottom of the cork. Glue beads on as feet.
6. Put your elf on your windowsill, your mantle, or a bookcase. Or fine, you can also put your elf on the shelf.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good time-consuming craft undertaking every once in while, but sometimes it’s fun to whip up a quickie with nearly immediate satisfaction. Like this Paper-Strip Christmas Tree Ornament, for example. You can make this with kids as young as 3 years old (my toddler son Oliver made one that looks more like one of these fake-tree-cell-phone towers), and you likely already have the supplies around the house! Here’s how you do it…

What you’ll need:

• Tongue depressor
• Green craft paper
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Glitter paper
• Enamel dot stickers (Doodlebug Designs: Sprinkles)
• String

Make It:

1. Cut green paper into thin strips, about 1/4″ wide to 1/2″ wide.
2. Use the glue stick to cover about two thirds of the stick in strips of green paper, overlapping as much as you’d like. Trim the edges to form a tree shape.
3. Cut a small slit into the ends of each strip (optional).
4. Adhere enamel dot stickers as ornaments.
5. Cut 4 1″ strips of glitter paper (you can use yellow paper or glitter your own if you don’t have this) and glue them together as an asterisk. Adhere a dot in the middle then glue to the top of your tree.
6. Cut a 3″ piece of string and glue it to the back of your tree ornament.

Come back for the next 9 days for more fun craft ideas to make these days before Christmas fly by!

You may not realize it, but your kids do—tomorrow marks the final 10-day countdown to December 25th. Need some distractions to make the time fly by? Starting tomorrow, come and visit daily for some new and spontaneous ideas!

It’s been almost 2 years in the making, but my book, Project Kid, is ALMOST here! After months of crafting, then months of copy editing, my first kids’ craft book is at the printer, on its way to being a real, 3-dimensional object. While it looks like it actually exists by the look of the photo, this is actually a digital rendition that Artisan made for the publicity materials.

To my patient blog readers who have dealt with my comings (having a baby) and goings (having another one just 18 months later) and my very erratic posts, I promise there is much to look forward to!

Please LIKE my page on Facebook, and you can go to the Artisan Books website to read more!

Ok, so I often read about new toys or products being developed, and I think, wow, that’s a smart person. I want to be that person, or at the very least, know her. I read about this great new product Toy Mail this weekend on The New York Times and not only did I read the article from beginning to end, but I actually gave money to their Kickstarter campaign.

Here’s how it works. You download an app to your iPhone and record a message. You hit send and it delivers that message to one of these cute little critters (adorably named and ironically shaped like a streetside mailbox). Your kid, at least one old enough to push a button, gets an alert and then can push the button to hear the message, and even press another button to record one back.

And then, there’s the story of the co-founders and best friends, Gauri Nanda and Audry Hill. Nanda created Clocky and then pulled in her BFF, registered nurse, and mother of 3 Audry (no background in product design) to work on this with her. Love that!