Category Archives: Paper

Tooth Fairy Chest of Drawers

Posted in Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

After some not-so-patient waiting, my almost-seven-year-old lost his first tooth. To celebrate, I made him this Tooth Fairy chest. The Tooth Fairy was tired of all those sweet little pillows! She wanted furniture. 

 a drawer for the tooth

 a drawer for the note to the Tooth Fairy

 self-explanatory!

If you are an extremely attentive reader of this blog, you may have noticed that I’ve made this matchbox chest of drawers before. But hey, I repurposed it so it counts. The how-to is here. Also, if you are looking for some excellent Tooth Fairy literature, check out April and Esme, by Bob Graham–the best of its genre, I promise.

Your Personal Colorscope

Posted in Paper by

For self-understanding, I like a cocktail of Chinese astrology (Year of Monkey for me) and Western astrology (Libra), sloshed together with a splash of colorscope from Paper Source. This is a newer version with slightly different hues than the one I hang on my office wall, but I still choose strawberry.

Brig–I’m going to say you’re a poppy (maybe because Poppy is your nickname?), but possibly a persimmon. There’s one flaw with the colorscope: no one should identify with things underfoot like gravel or cement. And, really, paper bag? Who’s going to go for that one? Someone who suffers low self-regard but is really into recycling?

Japanese Matchbox Art

Posted in Paper by

I’m in (small) love with these matchbox labels from 1920s-40s Japan. Little lovely landscapes of commercial art. I wonder what they’re selling? Five-star dining? Or a particularly elegant gas station with Quik Mart? If you read Japanese, please send us the translations. If not, just enjoy their perfect palettes: baby blue, pink and red; midnight blue, leafy green, and pink; and that rainbow circle? Stunning. Also weirdly reminiscent of my childhood Marimekko bedspread circa 1970s.

By the way, the photos are originally from a flickr set uploaded by Maraid Design. You can also see a survey of the matchbox labels at Buzzfeed.

Also, if you are enamored of small things, check out Look at this Little Thing! Fun for the whole family. My household spent about an hour looking and looking.

Paper garland and wooden block village

Posted in Holiday, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

A quick tour of my mantelpiece. Here is the finished paper garland, which was fairly laborious to complete–I cut out 120 paper flowers in all, and slowly slotted them together. It is a perfect activity if you want to feel productive while watching a marathon of Christmas movies. And my Christmas village! Met with approval by all. The houses were really simple to make. I ordered some plain wooden blocks in three shapes (square, rectangle, and triangle) and glued the triangles to the squares for the houses. I used a little wood filler to smooth out the seam. Then I painted them using “Folk art” acrylic paint. I used a fine point Sharpie to add the details, and then painted on the final touches like the wreathes.

Matchbox House

Posted in Free Printables, Free Tutorials, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

More elfin houses . . . for this one I drew floorplans that fit inside a matchbox.

    

If you take a childlike pleasure in coloring, or if you happen to have an actual child who likes to color (and has excellent fine motor skills), I made tiny coloring pages so you can make your own matchbox house.

The exterior wraps around a standard matchbox. Interior is supposed to fit the inside tray but may need some judicious trimming. I used Sharpies for saturated color and generous amounts of glue stick (after failed attempts with other sticky substances) to adhere. Enjoy! And send me pix, please.