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Don't throw it away--use it for play! Turn items headed for the trash into fun, educational, and safe toys and activities for young children. Find one hundred creative and clever ideas repurposing common household objects--including shoeboxes, fabric scraps, plastic lids, and buttons--into entertaining playthings. The toys benefit children's early learning by promoting sensory perception and development in physical; social and emotional; cognitive; and language and communication areas. Organized...

Pat Hammond is not your ordinary artist. In fact, she doesn't even consider herself an artist. She takes everyday objects, such as spinning tops and jars of cicada shells, and infuses them with new meaning and hope. Through humor and personalization, she uses insignificant and unconventional objects to illuminate a "grand truth" about the world, and even about herself. Author Christopher Ornelas found out about Hammond through her remarkable kite collection-hundreds of kites amassed over twenty...

Instructions for making a variety of art projects and games out of clay.

Whether they're for a child's plaything or an adult's prized collectible, here are charming fashions for every season that can be made quickly, using only basic sewing skills. Among these twenty projects are play clothes, suits, overalls, pinafores, and exquisite party dresses. Full-color photographs showcase each garment being "modeled" by a doll or teddy bear. Guidance is included on measuring your doll and adjusting patterns, as well as on making it easy to clothe your favorite dolls or stuff...

All the shaping is in the folding and pinning, not the knitting. And for the first time knitters, we provide basic knitting instructions.What's more, these toys are quick to make, so in no time at all you'll have a collection of soft toys that will grace any grandchild's bed and sell like hot cakes at fete or from a craft stall.

Finding meaning in your art is one thing - doing it for the fun of the creation is another. Making dolls inspired by cultural icons brings new meaning to your work and helps you connect with larger universal truths. Doll makers are very conscious of and interested in the history of the female figure and cultural icons, and often use them as starting points for their designs. Using history as a starting point, Li Hertzi has created five exciting doll projects, inspired by five very different cult...

This fabulous introduction to making modern dolls and creatures features a varied selection of original projects by contemporary designers and makers. Whether you are looking for an advanced project using traditional techniques, or a 'one-hour-make' doll to put together on a rainy day from bits and pieces found around your home, you will find inspiration here. Techniques for the construction of the dolls is explained in simple illustrated steps, and surface application such as hand sewing, appli...

15 projects featuring more than 30 step-by-step amigurumi inspired by the works of William Shakespeare. Published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio being published, this fabulous collection of creations ranges from the iconic Romeo and Juliet to Hamlet and the Ghost, and from the Three Witches from Macbeth to Bottom and Titania from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not forgetting the one and only Woolliam Shakespeare himself. Each project features an introduction to...

A guide to making dolls'-house dolls and dressing them in a wide range of Georgian, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian styles and fashions for ladies, gentlemen and children. Information is included on equipment, materials, wigs, hats and dressmaking methods.

Recounts the history of 15 toys and folk-art crafts from the collection of the Boston Children's Museum and provides instructions for making them.