NYPL Blogs: Hand-Made

Craft With Me: Fun with Cardboard

Amanda Pagan, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 17:11:48 -0500

Craft with Me is a series of craft book reviews done by our very own NYPL librarians. We pick a craft book currently available within our collection and try a few of the projects to see how feasible they are. Below is our review of Out of the Box by author and model creator, Jemma Westing and Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book written by Clare Beaton and Rudi Haig.

If you are looking for activities that will keep your little ones busy and use common supplies, then you’re in the right place! Both of these books have great projects that use cardboard and other materials that most families already have on hand such as paint, construction paper, etc.. While you’re at it, why not pair an activity with a book that can help inspire your child’s creativity!

Note: these projects are intended for grade school children ages 6 and older.

Out of the Box by author and model creator, Jemma Westing; photographer Dave King; illustrator Edward Byrne

Recycle household cardboard into incredible art projects that you can wear, share, and play with. Learn how to build and decorate more than 25 amazing creations, including costumes and castles, gifts and games, puppets and pirate ships.

Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book by Clare Beaton and Rudi Haig; illustrated by Clare Beaton

What can you create with just a cardboard box and some construction paper? Your very own coral reef! Use easy-to-follow directions to make thirteen crafts (and one recipe), each one focused on the ocean. Crafts include fun facts and additional resources, giving covert learning opportunities for your little explorer and reducing screentime.

Pirate Ship Project: Intermediate Level

From: Out of the Box

If you have some spare cereal boxes, you can make your own fleet of swashbuckling pirate ships! Or regular ships. Either way! The instructions were very easy to follow, but I did alter some of the components. I happened to have some bamboo skewers on hand which I used for the posts. I used leftover pieces of the cereal box for the lower flags, but I cut the upper flags out of a brown paper bag because it was more pliable.

The cereal box took several coats of paint to cover up completely (even with the dark brown), so if you were to make this with a lighter color just be aware that you will probably spend half a tube of paint just on coverage.

Review:

This is a relatively easy project for families with children. If you are not painting the cereal box then this is a fun afternoon project, but because of how many coats it needed and how long it takes for the paint to dry this might turn into a two-day project. The most difficult part was cutting the shapes into the box because I had to use an x-acto knife rather than scissors, so an adult would need to be on hand for that part. Kids will have fun deciding how to decorate and design their ship. If your kids need design inspiration, check out some of these awesome pirate books:

Pirate written by Richard Platt; photographed by Tina Chambers
Be an eyewitness to the bloodthirsty activities of pirates, from the barbarous corsairs of the Mediterranean to the cutthroat buccaneers of the Spanish Main.

Pirate Chicken: All Hens on Deck words by Brian Yanish; pictures by Jess Pauwels
Barnyard chicken Lily realizes her dream of becoming a pirate but when she turns into the feared Redfoot, her crew stages a mutiny and Lily may have to "squawk the plank."

Adventure Castle: Easy to Intermediate Level

From: Out of the Box

This is a project you can really have fun with, especially if your little ones are fans of fantasy and adventure. I decided to go with a unicorn dream theme because I happened to have these unicorn stickers on hand and a bunch of turquoise paint. The box I used as the main castle was not made out of plain cardboard, so it needed multiple coats of paint. This could be a single afternoon or weekend project depending on the type of paint and cardboard that you are using.

Jemma’s instructions are really easy to follow and easy to modify for your own needs. I happened to have two cardboard tubes, so I added those to the front of the castle as pillars. I used scrapbook paper for the flags, and I used my lever punches to create the designs on the flags. The unicorns, flowers, and starbursts came from a bag of foam stickers that I found in a drawer. If you let your supplies and your imagination guide you as well as Jemma’s instructions, then you’re sure to have fun!

Review:

If you have a bunch of cardboard lying around and some bored kids, then this is the project to let them loose on. Honestly, the most difficult part for me was making the tops of the towers out of paper. Your castle can be as big or as small as you want. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these titles:

Related Books

Journey by Aaron Becker
Using a red marker, a young girl draws a door on her bedroom wall and through it enters another world where she experiences many adventures, including being captured by an evil emperor.

The Very Last Castle words by Travis Jonker; pictures by Mark Pett
Ibb, curious about the lone castle in her town, forms a long-distant friendship with the guard and, despite warnings there is something fearful inside, accepts his invitation to enter

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Eldest of three sisters in a land where it is considered to be a misfortune, Sophie is resigned to her fate as a hat shop apprentice until a witch turns her into an old woman and she finds herself in the castle of the greatly feared wizard Howl.

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
Eleven-year-old Princess Celie lives with her parents, the king and queen, and her brothers and sister at Castle Glower, which adds rooms or stairways or secret passageways most every Tuesday, and when the king and queen are ambushed while travelling, it is up to Celie--the castle's favorite--with her secret knowledge of its never-ending twists and turns, to protect their home and save their kingdom.

Out of the Box and Toilet-Paper Tube Crab from Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book: Easy Level

This is basically a shoebox diorama that you can cater to your child’s favorite sea critters. I found some foam fish stickers in a drawer and glued them to string instead of following Jemma’s instructions. The toilet-paper tube crabs were amazingly easy and came out so cute! They took about two hours because they took a few coats of paint. My favorite part was probably creating the coral out of egg cartons.

Review:

This is an easy afternoon project for little marine biologists in training. If you have glow in the dark paint, then you can really make this project pop.

Let's Visit the Ocean by Jennifer Boothroyd
The ocean is the largest biome on Earth. Animals live all over the ocean—from the sunlit surface layer down to the deep, dark ocean floor. But how do plants grow deep underwater? And what can people do to help keep this biome safe? Read this book to find out!

Ocean: Secrets of the Deep text by Sabrina Weiss; illustrations by Giulia de Amicis
In this book readers are taken on a journey from the water’s surface to the deepest, darkest depths of the oceans.

Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean's Most Fearless Scientist written by Jess Keating; illustrations by Marta Álvarez Miguéns
Chronicles the life and career of Eugenie Clark, an icthyologist who overcame many obstacles to study and dispel myths about sharks, the creatures she loved so much.

Related blog post: Women in Science: Pioneers of the Natural World

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

You've Got Mail: Old-Fashioned Letter Writing for Fun

Amanda Pagan, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 17:40:54 -0400

Gertrude Berg sitting at desk. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: psnypl_the_5469

Dear Reader,

When was the last time you wrote a letter by hand? When was the last time you received a handwritten letter?

In today’s fast-paced, tech-based world, letter writing can seem like an obsolete or quaint form of communication, but I’m here to assure you that it is still just as wonderful and rewarding as it's always been.

Much like photographs, letters capture a moment in time. They show us what the writer was thinking of, their emotions, and often what was going on in the world at that time. Handwriting is an extremely personal aspect of someone’s character and can offer a connection to the past. Imagine finding a letter from your great-great grandmother and realizing you both write your "g’s" the same way!

Historians spend a great deal of time trying to decipher the handwriting of the past in order to authenticate and translate ancient documents. Palaeography is the study of ancient and historical handwriting.

Penmanship and cursive used to be an important subject in grade school, but sadly they have fallen by the wayside in favor of computer-based writing. Many parents have taken it upon themselves to teach their children the art of cursive.

Letter-writing is a great activity to get your child excited both about snail mail and handwriting! Encourage them to send a letter to their best friend or favorite relative. If they really want to be creative, why not send a secret message using invisible ink or a secret code? What kid wouldn’t be excited about sending their best friend a super-secret message that only the two of them could understand?

If your child is interested in secret codes, Crayola has a simple online craft activity. For more information, be sure to browse our shelves and check Non-Fiction 652.8 for more books on secret codes!

If you have the time, why not send a thoughtful letter to a friend or relative? Don’t know how? Don’t worry! We’re here to help! Here are some things to keep in mind while letter-writing.

Kids can have tons of fun writing and decorating their own letters.

What to Write

Not every letter has to be an 8-page composition about the way of the world. You can send a simple 1-2 page note “Just to say hi!”. Other possible topics include:

Just checking in
Upcoming Holidays/Important dates
A silly anecdote
Thinking about you/Reminiscing
You wouldn’t believe what happened today

Stationery

If you are taking the trouble to send a handwritten note, you might as well take a moment to think about what exactly you are going to write on. Stationery can be a fun extension of your personality since there are so many options. Matching letter and envelope sets are fun, but you can also decorate your own paper and envelopes. If you want paper with a vintage look to it, why not experiment with tea staining? Or dyeing with other natural ingredients you can find at home?

Whether you choose fancy and formal monogrammed or romantic and whimsical stationery, the most important thing to remember is that your handwriting needs to be legible. Be careful with dark paper or stationary with big prints as standard black and blue ink might not show up against the underlying colors. In the example, the stationery on the left has a fun border with plenty of white space in the middle that is perfect for writing. The stationery on the right might make it difficult to see handwriting with its more prominent print. Also, be sure the address areas on the envelope are clear and legible as well.

Penmanship

The most important thing to remember about writing a letter: it needs to be legible.

Whether or not you are using cursive or block letters, your handwriting needs to be easily understood. If it has been a while since you last wrote by hand, then practice what you want to say on scrap paper until you are satisfied with it.

If you are not satisfied with your handwriting or it has been a while since you last used cursive, why not check out a workbook?

Handlettering and calligraphy are beautiful forms of writing that can really add some pizzazz to your letters and other crafts.

How to Actually Write a Letter:

Be sure to write the date! Letters are time capsules after all. Your sender is bound to hold onto your letter as a keepsake, so be sure to put down when it was written.
Salutation. “Dear so-and-so” is the standard greeting for letters. There is nothing wrong with keeping things simple or jazzing it up with something unique!
- If you are writing a love letter, try using “To my Dearest” or “To my Love” to sound more romantic.
- Feel free to jazz up your greeting if you are writing to a close friend. For example, “To my Best Friend” or “To the Girl Who Ate All of the Pizza that One Time”.
- If you want to be quirky, try something like “Greetings from *insert place*”.
The body. Start your letter a line below the greeting and make sure to indent so that the first paragraph is distinguishable. You can use your thumb as a measuring tool. Hold the left side to the edge of the paper and start on the edge of the right side of your thumb. Be sure to break up the content of your writing into paragraphs with indents to mark the breaks. It is standard to inquire about their health and wellness after the greeting, but you can really start your letter however you want.
Valediction. When you are finished writing, take a moment to think about your valediction, or complimentary close. This is the part of the letter where you end with a phrase before signing your name. “Sincerely, *Insert name*” is the standard closing for letters, but there are tons of other options:
- Sincerely/Sincerely Yours
- Yours Truly/Yours Forever/Forever Yours
- XOXO (hugs and kisses)
- Regards/Warmest Regards
- Cordially/Cordially Yours
- Love
End the letter by signing off your name. If you’d like to add a post-script, or P.S., you would place it under your name. A post-script can be something that you forgot to mention in the body of the letter or anything really.
- P.S. Did you know that nothing rhymes with silver, purple, or orange?
- P.S. I forgot to mention they named the baby Suzy.

Sending Your Letter

When sending mail, take the same care with your envelope that you would take with the letter itself. Make sure to write clearly and legibly. Try not to use excessively fancy cursive on the envelope as that might make it difficult for the post office to process it. Block letters work just fine.
Put your name and address, the “return address”, in the upper left corner of the envelope.
- Your name
- Street Address
- Apartment number (if applicable). If you are sending to a private home then skip this.
- City, State Zipcode (only place the comma between the city and state.)
- So that it looks something like this
  - (EX: Apartment Building) (EX: Private Home)
  - Jane Smith Jane Smith
  - 123 Main Street 123 Main Street
  - Apt 1 Bronx, NY 12312
  - Queens, NY 12312
Write the receiver’s name and address in the center of the envelope.
- Their Name
- Street Address
- Apartment number (if applicable)
- City, State Zipcode
- So that it looks something like this:
  - (EX: Apartment Building) (EX: Private Home)
  - John Smith Joan Smith
  - 321 Ocean Ave 321 Ocean Ave
  - Apt 2 Staten Island, NY 12121
  - Brooklyn, NY 12121
Don’t forget to add a stamp! Just like with stationery, stamps are a great way to add a bit of flare to the letter. The price of stamps varies, so be sure to ask your mail carrier or clerk at the counter of your local post office. When in doubt, consult the United States Postal Service website. Make sure to place your stamp in the upper right corner.
Now that you have addressed your envelope, be sure to seal it. If you are going for a vintage aesthetic, why not use a wax seal? If you don’t have any handy, try stickers! Or maybe just draw something fun.

Now that you have written, addressed, and sealed your envelope, all that’s left is to send it! It might be faster to talk by phone or text, but much like a homemade sweater, a handwritten letter requires real effort and drive to complete. The recipient is sure to be thrilled by the effort you put into your endeavor.

For more information and inspiration for your letter writing needs, be sure to check out other books on the topic:

Letter Writing:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 808.6 and 809.6 when searching the stacks or catalog.

Letter Writing by Esther Selsdon

(e-book)

The world gets smaller and contacts get faster but whether it's by computer or with pen-and-ink, the need to be able to communicate effectively in writing remains as important as ever. So whether you want to get in touch with a pen-pal, an e-pal, your bank manager, the editor of a newspaper, to make a complaint or declare your undying love, this guide will show you how to make the most of your correspondence. Direct and very accessible, this invaluable book will show you the general rules of good letter writing and will also provide specific advice on letters for specific occasions.

The Art of the Handwritten Note: A Guide to Reclaiming Civilized Communications by Margaret Shepherd

(e-book available)

From overcoming illegible penmanship to mastering the challenge of keeping straight margins, avoiding smeared ink, and choosing stationery that is appropriate but suits your style, this is a powerful little guide to conveying thoughts in an enduring—and noteworthy—way. Just as you cherish receiving personal mail, you can take pleasure in crafting correspondence. Love, gratitude, condolences, congratulations—for every emotion and occasion, a snippet of heartfelt prose is included, sure to loosen the most stymied letter writer.

101 Ways to Say Thank You: Notes of Gratitude for All Occasions by Kelly Browne

(e-book available)

Nothing says good manners like an elegantly crafted thank-you note, whether on paper or by e-mail. This refreshed and reissued etiquette classic--now updated with new information for the digital age--provides all the dos and don'ts, along with a perfectly phrased "thank-you" for every occasion, from weddings and baby showers to business interviews and charity events. This indispensable guide will make sure you're never at a loss for words of appreciation.

The Write Start: A Guide to Nurturing Writing at Every Stage, From Scribbling to Forming Letters and Writing Stories by Jennifer Hallissy

(e-book available)

How do you raise children who love to write? Jennifer Hallissy believes that if you give children a solid foundation of writing basics, they will develop a love of writing that lasts a lifetime. In this book, she shares the secrets for supporting young writers, from the smallest of scribblers to middle-schoolers mastering script. You play an important role in nurturing your child's writing development. You are your child's first writing teacher, and their most important writing role model. From teaching your child how to hold a pencil and form the letters of the alphabet, to creating writing spaces and meaningful writing rituals at home, this book gives you all of the information and inspiration you need to raise a confident writer.

Penmanship:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 652.1 (handwriting) and 745.61 (hand lettering and calligraphy) when searching the stacks or catalog.

Spencerian Handwriting: The Complete Collection of Theory and Practical Workbooks for Perfect Cursive and Hand Lettering by Platt Rogers Spencer

(e-book)

Easy to understand yet challenging to perfect, the Spencerian system was the standard for all personal and business correspondence in the 1800s. While modern students are barely taught cursive, for more than a century schoolchildren were dutifully drilled in intricate penmanship using this original primer. Now you can follow the step-by-step instructions and practice on the included workbook pages to learn: the seven Spencerian principles; heights and widths of letters; proper pen positioning; spacing between letters and words; finger and arm movements; optional shading effects. With Spencerian Handwriting, you can add a personal touch to all your handwritten letters and notes reminiscent of simpler, more elegant times.

The Art of Cursive Penmanship: A Personal Handwriting Program for Adults by Michael R. Sull, Master penman

The Art of Cursive Penmanship presents the subject of handwriting as a valuable and spontaneous skill for the adult. Authored by internationally recognized Master Penman Michael R. Sull, this book focuses on practical self-study techniques designed to accommodate anyone's personal or professional schedule. With determined and consistent use, the daily application of Sull's methods will result in the following penmanship improvements: letterforms, legibility, letter spacing, signature writing.

The Lost Art of Handwriting: Rediscover the Beauty and Power of Penmanship by Brenna Jordan

Revisit the lost art of writing with these fun prompts, worksheets, exercises--and more!--and experience the many benefits of writing by hand, including increased focus and memory, relaxation, and creative expression. Writing by hand may seem passe in the digital age, but it shouldn't be dismissed as simply an activity for grade schoolers--it offers countless benefits that have been studied by researchers, brain neurologists, therapists, educators, and others who are invested in helping handwriting thrive in an age of advancing technology. Handwriting may be slower than typing--but this gives your brain more time to process information, and stimulates neurological connections that aid in memory, focus, and composition. The process of handwriting can also have a soothing, calming effect and can even serve as a great form of meditation. And of course, it's a great way of expressing your individuality and personal style.

Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting by Kitty Burns Florey.

(e-book available)

Steeped in the Palmer Method of handwriting she learned in Catholic school, Kitty Burns Florey is a self-confessed "penmanship nut" who loves the act of taking pen to paper. So when she discovered that some schools today forego handwriting drills in favor of teaching something called keyboarding, she was shocked." "The idea that such a vital, simple, and frequently beautiful skill could be lost to future generations inspired her to investigate the history of writing by hand and its place in our increasingly electronic society. The result is Script & Scribble - a charming, fascinating exploration of the many facets of handwriting." "Weaving together the history of writing implements and scripts, pen collecting societies, the golden age of American penmanship, the growth in popularity of "graphology"--Handwriting analysis - and the pockets of aficionados who still prefer scribbling on paper to tapping on keys, Florey poses the question: Is it true that writing by hand is no longer necessary in today's busy world?

Hand Lettering and Calligraphy:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 745.61 (hand lettering and calligraphy) when searching the stacks or catalog.

The Joy of Lettering: A Creative Exploration of Contemporary Hand Lettering, Typography & Illustrated Typeface by Gabri Joy Kirkendall; Jaclyn Escalera

(e-book available)

Gabri Joy Kirkendall and Jaclyn Escalera guide readers through a dynamic exploration of the craft, focusing on typography and illuminated letters and numbers using pencil, ink, and marker in a variety of styles and themes. From there, artists will learn how to create letters using a variety of alternative materials and media, such as watercolor, gouache, and wood. Easily customized DIY projects invite artists to finesse their skills as they learn to letter on different types of surfaces while creating lettered murals, stationery, and signage. Packed with creative techniques and easy-to-follow lessons, this all-inclusive resource is a must-have for anyone who wants to learn or grow their expertise in the art of hand lettering.

Simply Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Elegant Lettering by Judy Detrick

(e-book available)

This simple guide to calligraphy teaches just the basics, allowing novices to jump right in and make their own wedding invitations, hand-label envelopes, write their own placecards, and explore their creative side. With the rise of do-it-yourselfers, there is growing demand for a calligraphy guide that is much simpler than what's currently on the market. This book answers that call, with a focus on only the popular Italic alphabet rather than the scads normally covered by other books (Gothic, Uncials, Half-uncials, and so on). After learning the basic letters, this book presents an open invitation--and a bit of inspiration--to make calligraphy one's own with creative flourishes for every project and occasion. With a modern two-color design and simple explanatory text, Simply Calligraphy's unintimidating approach proves that calligraphy is as easy as picking up pen and paper.

Extraordinary Hand Lettering: Creative Lettering Ideas for Celebrations, Events, Decor, & More by Doris Wai

(e-book available)

Are you a curious hand lettering beginner or long-time enthusiast looking to take your craft to the next level? Or are you a DIY guru or event planner wishing to breathe new life into a boring gift, event signage, or party décor? Extraordinary Hand Lettering opens your eyes to the endless possibilities in the world of creative lettering, showing you how to work with types of surfaces, such as wood, glass and acrylic, chalk, and even mirrors.

The Gift of Calligraphy: A Modern Approach to Hand Lettering with 25 Projects to Give & to Keep by Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls

Calligraphy and hand lettering have surged in popularity as people rediscover traditional handicrafts as a creative outlet and way to relax. Unlike other hand lettering books, The Gift of Calligraphy shows you how to use your calligraphy skills to create invitations, wall art, wrapping paper, a tote bag, even a calligraphy kit for kids. Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls, calligraphy teacher and author of Belle Calligraphy, brings her signature modern style to this traditional craft.

The Kids' Book of Hand Lettering: 20 Lessons and Projects to Decorate Your World by Nicole Miyuki Santo.

The Kids' Book of Hand Lettering will introduce young crafters to the joys of hand lettering through 20 fun and inspired DIY projects that are easy to create at home.

Dyeing:

Natural Color: Vibrant Plant Dye Projects for Your Home and Wardrobe by Sasha Duerr

(e-book available)

A book of seasonal projects using the brilliant spectrum of colors derived from plants to naturally dye your clothing and home textiles.

Secret Codes:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 652.8 (codes and ciphers) when searching the stacks.

Codes and Ciphers by Collins UK

(e-book available)

ll you need to know about making and breaking codes.

Gem Codes and Ciphers touches on everything from the smoke signals used by Native American Indians to encryption devices used by government agencies and the military.

Not only does this handy, pocket-sized book cover the history of the development of codes and ciphers, it also has practical information and advice on how to make codes and, more importantly, how to break them!

Mysterious Messages: A History of Codes and Ciphers by Gary Blackwood; designed and illustrated by Jason Henry

From the ingenious ciphers of Italian princes to the spy books of the Civil War to the advanced techniques of the CIA, codes and code breaking have played important roles throughout history.

Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing by Paul B. Janeczko; illustrated by Jenna LaReau

A handbook for the budding cryptographer including codes and ciphers, invisible inks, concealment techniques, spy stories and some history.

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

Keep It Crafty with the Library

Gwen Glazer, Communications — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:45:45 -0500

Crafternoon? Try Crafterbrary!

What better place to find ideas, directions, patterns, tutorials, and crafting guidance of all kinds than your local library?

For a novice, library resources could hold the key that unlocks your inner crafter. For an experienced DIYer, our books, digital magazines, and databases can help you expand your skill set and open up new frontiers.

So, give it a try! Whether or not you’ve already Marie Kondo-ed the living daylights out of your possessions, it’s easy to see how something you made yourself—something you put your own time and work and love into—could spark the most joy of all.

Books

The world of crafting books is positively luxurious. Typing the word “craft” into our catalog search returns more than 7,000 results. You can go deep, with vintage knitting patterns or l eather braiding or making your own clothes. You can send yourself to “stitch camp” or repurpose flea-market treasures. Or you can expand your definition of the word “crafting” and download your very own NYPL coloring book.

We’re going to highlight a few categories of our most interesting crafting books, but there are tons of specialized books in our collections, too. Find them by going to our advanced search page, choosing “subject” from the dropdown menu and typing “crafts” or “handicrafts,” and then adding the keyword of your choice.

Star Wars Maker Lab by Liz Lee Heinecke

Washi Style! Make It with Paper Tape by Marisa Edghill

Databases

If you are into crafting magazines, then you are in luck! With your New York Public Library card you can access beautifully digitized magazines on your computer, phone, or tablet. Not only can you read the most recent issue of Crochet! but you can also try some 1950s crafts with back issues of Ladies’ Home Journal.

Flipster

PressReader

Check out the entire “Crafts and Hobbies” section, with many magazines dedicated to crocheting, knitting, cross-stitching, quilting, and more.

Lynda.com

Try Texturing! Lynda also has drawing and other art-related courses, but texturing is the most craftastic of the bunch.

Women’s Magazine Archive

Into “retro-crafts” and want to try popular crafts from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even the 80s? Visit the Women’s Magazine Archive, in which you can access issues of classic magazines like Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, and find hundreds of crafting ideas.

Even more creative fun . . .

We've been writing about how to get creative with the Library for ages; check out these blog posts for more ideas!

Do you ever use the Library's resources for crafting? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Major thanks to Rhonda Evans, Electronic Resources Librarian, for the invaluable e-resources suggestions!

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Image credit: "Sweet Dreams." Chatelaine 11 1984: 212-3. ProQuest. Web. 16 Jan. 2019 .

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

The Five-Borough Map: A Nonvisual Design Challenge for New Yorkers

Chancey Fleet, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 15:02:25 -0500

On December 5, we hosted the first in a series of free community workshops about tactile design. Patrons with diverse backgrounds, levels of vision and accessibility experience participated in discussion and interactive activities planned to help everyone build a sense of what’s important to consider when designing an image or object that’s meant to be explored by touch. At the end of that workshop, we issued this design challenge to the community. Read on for details about the challenge, or simply join us for our next workshop this Saturday.

One of many inspirations for the Dimensions project is our desire to respond to a frequent request from patrons: it turns out that new arrivals, students, and professionals are united in their quest for tactile maps of New York City. Reflecting on what’s involved in this commonplace request is one way to start thinking critically about barriers and opportunities around do-it-yourself tactile map and image making.

We believe that nonvisual spatial information should be within everyone’s reach, not only to use but to produce. To help make that happen, we are equipping our community with free, accessible, versatile tools for producing the maps and graphics they need – not as a replacement for professionally drafted materials but as a complement that supports individual preferences, ideas and inquiries, as well as areas of exploration for which no tactile materials exist.

Annie Leist, who works on accessibility at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and facilitates our community training on tactile design, encourages us to think about the purpose of a tactile image before we start designing. One person may want a five-borough map that clearly shows the borders between boroughs, their coastlines and surrounding waterways. Others may want to explore the city in terms of population density, the bridges and tunnels that are open to drivers, or public transit lines. Asking yourself, your collaborators and your audience about the purpose of a design is an important first step toward making something meaningful and useful.

Map of Greater New York [City], 1916. The New York Public Library Image ID 5073511.

Typical five-borough maps designed for visual perception don’t automatically make good tactile graphics. For one thing, if Braille were print, it would be a 29-point font, so Braille takes up much more space than standard print. For this reason, good tactile maps of densely labeled points of interest tend to eschew long text labels in favor of a brief symbol or abbreviation, with a key on a separate page listing the meaning of each one. Often, maps geared toward visual perception make extensive use of color (to indicate anything from elevation to population density to political disposition). Tactile production allows for some variation in dot height to create an effect analogous to shading, and a thoughtful designer can also adjust line composition and thickness, as well as infilled texture, to create distinctly perceptible zones in the same way that (I imagine) color does. However, the process of converting visually effective color schemes to meaningful and aesthetically compelling tactile ones, whether for two-dimensional embossing or a 3d print, is a skill that takes time to learn.

Finally, tactile perception is not as “high-resolution” as visual perception, so maps that contain very fine details need to be scaled to a larger size (to make room for important details like the contours of a coastline) or stripped of extraneous detail (a nonvisual reader who needs a street map is unlikely to need or want representations of every building, since including them would either make the map distractingly cluttered or unmanageably large).

TL:DR: Five-borough maps from Google Images don’t make tactile sense, which is where our design tools come in.

The software we chose for tactile drafting, image conversion and freehand sketching is called TactileView. It includes a tool that uses Open Street Maps data to generate legible tactile maps at any scale, from individual intersections to a world map. Unfortunately, our launch of the Dimensions project has coincided with widespread bugs in RouteTactile, the web application TactileView uses to create those maps. We’re in regular communication with Thinkable, the company that makes TactileView, and are hoping to have automated map generation working as advertised later this winter.

As is so often true when we depend on new and emerging accessible technologies, our capacity to produce what we want and need is tied, in part, to the performance of a tool that has been developed, tested and maintained at the scale of our small market. While we wait, we are using other TactileView features: image importing, automatic filters that convert images to simple line drawings, and tools for scaling images and adding Braille labels. Using these features (which, since they involve modifying onscreen images, are most effective when blind and sighted people use them together), community members can create region maps that suit various purposes.

We can also download, from the TactileView catalog and from APH’s Tactile Graphic Image Library, ready-to-emboss maps of the US, outlines for every state and details for some, and various maps for regions around the world. Community members can simply emboss those maps, or customize them using TactileView.

It’s easy to focus on the flashy new technology (embossers, 3d printers, and the software that powers them). But the design choices we make when using these modern tools can and should be grounded in the wisdom and experience of blind and sighted makers, teachers and learners, who have been creating beautiful and functional tactile images for centuries. I recently came across this lesson in tactile map history from Atlas Obscura, and it reminded me that our current effort belongs to a rich tradition of DIY nonvisual access.

If you’re interested in having a map of your borough, state, region or some other area, please be in touch, and consider signing up for our upcoming tactile graphics trainings. We’re dedicated to building a strong community of practice around tactile graphics in New York, and we invite you to contribute your ideas, your expertise and your effort. Together we can make access happen.

1,000 Paper Cranes for 53rd Street Library

Lauren Bradley, Senior Librarian, Young Adult, 53rd Street Library — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 11:08:53 -0400

The staff and patrons at the 53rd Street Library have embarked on an ambitious project to fold 1,000 paper cranes by International Day of Peace, which is September 21.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr

The idea was inspired by the children's book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. The book is the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese child who lived through the atomic bomb drop. She developed leukemia 10 years later, a result of radiation exposure. From her hospital room, she began folding paper cranes in hopes of getting well, based on the Japanese legend that says anyone who folds 1,000 will be granted a wish. Unfortunately, Sadako passed away on October 25, 1955 and she was buried with the 1,000 cranes.

Sadako statue at the Children's Peace Park in Hiroshima, Japan, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1958 a statue of Sadako holding a paper crane was added to the Hiroshima Peace Park. Today people from around the world send cranes to be added to the park.

Some of the 400 cranes folded at 53rd Street

At this point in time, the 53rd Street Library has folded over 400 cranes. Patrons of all ages have contributed, from children as young as four all the way up to senior citizens. The cranes will be hung in the branch when they are finished.

More information about how to fold cranes and similar projects on this related post.

DIY: How to Make a Papier Mâché Elephant

Jermaine Dennis, Young Adult Librarian, Baychester Library — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 17:30:17 -0400

What's new at Throg's Neck Library? Here at the Library by the bridge we try to keep ourselves involved with the community by coming up with program ideas to keep the public engaged. Knowing my co-worker and friend, Mrs. Akua Hamilton-Grant, loves doing craft and book display projects for the library I asked her, "Akua, why don't you do a craft program every so often with the children and teens?" And from that question we developed the "Do It Yourself" projects here.

Mrs. Hamilton-Grant's finished Elephant Papier Mâché

The first of many D.I.Y. projects she led were on September 19 and 25, and involved making a papier mâché elephant. Where did the idea come from? She was surfing the Internet and was inspired by a video that showed her how to make a Papier Mâché elephant from scratch and modified the tutorial from YouTube to her liking.

If you weren't able to attend, you did miss out on a fun time. But don't worry, if you do want to do the project for yourself or to give as a present to someone special, here is a step-by-step guide for creating your own elephant at home.

Materials Needed

Cardboard
Paint brush
Glue
Paper towel
Scissors
Newspaper
Acrylic paint
Masking tape

Step 1

Print out Template
Cut out template
Use cutout to trace on cardboard

Step 2

Place cardboard scrapes in between the cutouts
Place the scrapes near the head, legs, and mid-section (this gives the elephant depth)

Step 3

Use masking tape to combine your two cutouts
Tail and trunk should be flush

Step 4

Mix water and glue ½ and ½ to paste newspaper to the elephant
Place at least 3 layers of newspaper on the elephant
If you are going to make a stand, paper mache it and let it dry so you can then attach your elephant

Step 5

Papier mâché the ears and tusks with paper towel and attach to your elephant (once dry, continue)
You now need to paper mache paper towels to the entire elephant (take your time… you don’t want the paper towel too wet)
Once your elephant is dry, paint as desired!

Handmade Crafternoon this Spring at the Library!

Jessica Pigza — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 12:31:37 -0500

Special Weeks - Tulip Week - Girl in costume with tulips
Image ID: 1682599Spring has almost sprung, and with it arrives the latest series of Handmade Crafternoons, co-hosted by crafty librarian Jessica Pigza and Crafternoon author Maura Madden! Meet fellow crafters, look at books and magazines from the Library's collections, and participate in DIY projects. This season we'll cross stitch on cards, create a watermark-inspired embroidery, and learn how easy English paper piecing can be. And, because our community of shared interests and enthusiasms is the heart of Handmade Crafternoons, YOU are invited to participate in a show-and-tell of your own creative works, endeavors, and works in progress at our April event! Below are descriptions of each of the spring events.

Remember, all events take place in the Margaret Liebman Berger Forum, on the second floor of the New York Public Library's historic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. All events are FREE and supplies are provided, but reservations are recommended because space is limited.

UPDATE, APRIL 29: The spring series has ended so registration is no longer available.

Saturday, March 15, 2014, 2 p.m.-4 p.m.: BiblioCraft Celebrates with Haley Pierson-Cox

My new book BiblioCraft: A Modern Crafter's Guide to Using Library Resources to Jumpstart Creative Projects will be hot off the presses (and available in the Library Shop). It's all about finding inspiration at the library (here at NYPL and beyond, all over the world). And on this day, we'll craft alongside some of the book's contributors--many of whose projects were inspired by NYPL collections (you can see the whole contributors list here). And one contributor, Haley Pierson-Cox of The Zen of Making, will discuss how her love of hand lettering led her to design a giant cross stitch artwork for BiblioCraft. She'll then show us how to recreate her design in miniature on card stock.

Saturday, April 19, 2014, 2 p.m.-4: p.m.: Show-and-Tell What YOU Love to Make! (+ Watermark Embroidery)

Join us to celebrate the community of making which has blossomed during the five years of Handmade Crafternoons, and which inspired me to write BiblioCraft. Think of today as a grown-ups' show-and-tell: bring along and show us what you're making now or what you're really excited about having made. And if you design, teach classes, or otherwise make your living from your creative work, you are invited to share those details too. I'll share a favorite project from BiblioCraft, inspired by the rare books I work with--hand stitched watermark embroideries.

SORRY! May 17th's event (English Paper Piecing with Jessica Alexandrakis has been CANCELLED!

Rubber Band Bracelets From Your Favorite Book

Billy Parrott, Associate Director, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 02:02:44 -0500

They are all the craze this holiday season, with kids immersing themselves in hours upon hours of crafty creation. They have even been banned from some area schools for causing fights on playgrounds. What has caused such a frenzy of creativity and violence? Rubber band bracelet looms.

Gwendolyn Accoo, Office Associate III at the Mid-Manhattan Library, recently poked her head in my office and said “Look what I made.” She held up an intricately colored rubber band bracelet. I imagined her spending countless tedious hours on it. “How long did it take to make that,” I asked. “Do you have one of those plastic looms?”

“It didn’t take long at all,” she said. “I used pencils and a book.”

My blogger antennae immediately perked up. Using a book to create a bracelet? My imagination began to run wild with the thought of books influencing the way the bracelets turned out. I pictured books by Ernest Hemingway producing sparse and minimal bracelets. Books by Haruki Murakami producing magical and surreal bracelets. Scary bracelets from Stephen King. Wildly satirical bracelets from George Saunders books. Cold and grey bracelets from Swedish mystery writers. A cook book to fill your stomach. A bracelet from E.L. James to make your wrist sweat.

I then thought of all the sad little children who are banned from bringing bracelet looms to school. Their creativity silenced. They could all start using books and pencils to make bracelets! What are the schools going to do, ban books and pencils?!

So to foster creativity (and reading!) and to maybe help you with any last minute holiday gift ideas, I would like to present Ms. Accoo’s easy step-by-step instructions on how to make a rubber band bracelet using a book and pencils!

Supplies you’ll need:

2 regular pencils

1 golf pencil (you know... those small yellow pencils... in libraries these are just called library pencils)

A few large rubber bands

Colored rubber bands

Tape

S clips

A book.

Step #1: tape pencils together.

Step #2: place the pencils in the middle of the book

Step #3: place rubber bands around the book to hold the pencils in place

Now to make your bracelet!

Step #4: make an figure 8 with the first rubber band and place it over the two pencils

Step #5: add one or two colors

Step #6: pull the bottom color over the top of the pencils on each side

Step #7: add the same color that was last pulled over the top of the pencils

Step #8: separate the colors periodically as you go along and remember to pull up the bottom color only

Step #9: now add the S clip and repeat steps 5 and 6

Step #10: after adding each color pull the S clip down and repeat steps 5 and 6 until you have reach your desired length

once you have reached your desired length...

Step # 11: you'll want to stop with 2 rubber bands remaining on the pencils.

Step # 12: completely remove the top rubber band from both pencils and attach the S clip to the final rubber band.

Now you are finished!

You can always find inspiration in books at the library. If you are at a loss for what to read next just ask a librarian. But remember: rubber bands and pencils could potentially damage our materials, so please use your own books for this project.

We would LOVE to see what you create! Take a picture of your creation, post it on Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest with the hashtag #nyplBracelet, and show us the book that inspired and influenced your creation!

(All photographs, instructions, and bracelets are by Gwendoyln Accoo. The book and bracelet pairings above were done after-the-fact by Billy Parrott.)

Additional Resources:

The Hipster Librarian's Guide to Teen Craft Projects, by Tina Coleman

Crafternoon: A Guide to Getting Artsy and Crafty with your Friends All Year Long, by Maura Madden

Hardware: Jewerlry From a Toolbox, by Hannah Rogge

Hand-Stitch a Valentine Handkerchief with Rebecca Ringquist!

Jessica Pigza — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 03:03:26 -0500

UPDATE, 3:30PM, Friday, February 8th:

Attention!

Due to the blizzard we've had to reschedule this event! It will now take place on Saturday, April 6th! Stay safe and warm, everyone!

I'm just putting the final touches on the plans for this weekend's Handmade Crafternoon (the first of three this spring — see the other dates below!), and I'm pretty excited. We've created this event in collaboration with the amazing people at Creativebug, and we'll be joined by one of their teachers, Rebecca Ringquist, who will lead us in embellishing cloth handkerchiefs with words of love (or whatever you wish!) using hand embroidery. Rebecca will talk a bit about her art and her love of old samplers, and she'll even share her trick for making ink disappear from fabric!

We'll have everything that you'll need to make a hankie at hand (a huge thanks to Creativebug and their partners for their generosity!), so you don't need to bring any supplies. Here are the details:

Here are the details on this event:

This is a FREE event, but reservations are welcome because space is limited. To reserve your spot, please write to handmade@nypl.org with your name and the date of this event.
Where: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (on the Second Floor, Room 227)
When: Saturday, February 9th, 2013, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

And, remember, if you want to mark your calendars and register, here are the details on other Handmade Crafternoons this season:

March 9, 2013: Mother and Daughter Bead Artists Bert and Dana Freed!
April 20, 2013: Decorative Arts DIY with Amy Azzarito!

Winter Fun for Kids and Cats

Jessica Pigza — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 02:02:19 -0500

This snowy Saturday afternoon has brought to mind a couple of scenes from nineteenth-century children's books in the Rare Book Division. First, a scene of "Wintervergnügen" (winter fun) from Jugendspiele zur Erholung und Erheiterung (Tilsit, 1846). This is a two-volume work, one devoted to girls and one to boys. Sledding is categorized as one of the boys' games (Knabenspiele), but of course that needn't stop ladies of all ages from joining in.

And next — since it is Caturday after all — here's a cat hunting on a wintry day. This wood engraving is from Noch funfzig Fabeln für Kinder (Hamburg, 1837), a book of illustrated fables for children.

Enjoy these snowy last days of 2012 as much as these children and this cat. Happy new year!

What to Draw? A Turkey, of Course

Jessica Pigza — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:12:40 -0500

Happy Thanksgiving to you! In honor of the holiday, here's a page from one of my favorite drawing manuals in the collection, 1913's What to Draw and How to Draw It by E. G. Lutz.

This turkey (along with his tiny companion, the fantail pigeon) is just one of dozens of possibilities — like owls, elephants, pelicans, pigs, castles, cats, and men and ladies — you'll find in these pages. Want to see the entire book? It's been digitized and you can view it here. It seems to hold real potential for distracting and entertaining houseguests of all ages this weekend, so do let me know if you end up sketching any masterpieces yourselves.

Handmade to Sell with Kelly Rand: Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012

Jessica Pigza — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:06:10 -0400

Fall has arrived, and with that comes the next round of Handmade Crafternoons at the Library. This weekend's our first event! My co-host Maura Madden and I will welcome special guest Kelly Rand, Program Director at Hello Craft.

Kelly will talk about Hello Craft’s efforts to support independent crafters and share some of the savvy advice she put into her book Handmade To Sell: Hello Craft's Guide to Owning, Running, and Growing Your Crafty Biz. So if you've wondered what you need to know to launch your own crafty business, join us! We’ll also, of course, get busy as we hand stitch felt business card holders and receipt organizers. And as usual, we’ll have supplies on hand as well as a spread of crafty books from the Library’s collections for browsing.

If you've not attended a Handmade Crafternoon before, you can expect a fun, free, and easygoing social afternoon with creative companions at the library; the chance to make something by hand; and an opportunity to learn a bit about the Library's collections. And if you're interested in the rest of the Fall 2012 lineup, here are the details: October 13th with Sarah Goldschadt, and November 3rd with Denyse Schmidt!

Here are the details on September 15th's event:

This is a FREE event, but reservations are welcome because space is limited. To reserve your spot, please write to handmade@nypl.org with your name and the date of this event.
What to bring: We will have a variety of felt, embroidery floss, and needles on hand, but you are welcome to bring the following if you plan to use specific colors to make your receipt wallet and business card holder: three 8x11 inch pieces of felt in colors of your choice, embroidery floss in colors of your choice, and an embroidery needle.
Where: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (on the Second Floor, Room 227)
When: Saturday, September 15th, 2012, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Badge of Honor: Make Your Own Library Buttons!

Lindsy Serrano — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:40:18 -0400

The library has started a "Protect Your Roots" campaign, where you can find your local branch's badge and download/pin/post it with pride. The teens at Mulberry Street took it a step further and made their own personalized buttons to support our library.

To make your own button, you need a print out of your library's “Protect your Roots” icon, paper or fabric for your background, any add-on decorations (we used cut out hearts and stars) and a button making machine.

Assembly is easy, you can assemble your pin right on the button making tray, the tricky part is putting the plastic cover over your design without moving it around, there were a lot of re-dos during our crafternoon.

Here are some finished products! We had a really great time getting creative and making our own designs. So grab a button machine and make your own library badges today!

A Sis Boom Handmade Crafternoon: May 12, 2012

Jessica Pigza — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:44:25 -0400

Join us this Saturday, May 12, 2012, when Sis Boom creator Jennifer Paganelli comes to NYPL for the latest Handmade Crafternoon.

My co-host, Maura Madden, and I love how vibrant and sunshine-y Jennifer Paganelli's designs and patterns are, so it's perfect that Paganelli will help us to make summer party garlands and banners. And I'll have summer issues of home magazines from years past to browse and inspire you in other summer project ideas!

The event will take place in the Margaret Liebman Berger Forum at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (on the second floor, Room 227). The event runs from 2 to 4 p.m. The event is free and you don't need to register in advance, but we do have limited seating. If you'd like to ensure that you have a spot, you are welcome to RSVP by sending an e-mail to handmade@nypl.org with your name and the event date.

As usual, there will be a spread of colorful papers, fabrics, and embellishments to use in making your banners or garlands. But Paganelli has also designed some printable banner template PDFs just for our event! If you want to make a special Sis Boom style banner, just download and print out a handful of copies of the template of your choice and bring them along!

HERE ARE THE TEMPLATES:

DIY Pocket Belts from 1949 and 1953

Jessica Pigza — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:48:23 -0500

Wondering how you'll carry your keys and such while out and about in your fancy pants outfit on New Year's Eve? If so — and if you are a lover of DIY — then look no further than these two books: Helen Crosier's Crochet & Tatting and other Needlework Crafts (1953) and Elizabeth Laird Mathieson's Needlework Library (1949).

From Helen Crosier, a double crochet evening belt done in neon white with pearl and sequin embellishments:

And from Elizabeth Laird Mathieson, the following felt belt allows you to show off your embroidery prowess:

I admit that I have not made these and am not sure if I could carry either of them off. As unlikely as it sounds, though, the pocket belt is a perennial fashion favorite. From Diesel Black Gold to Free People, there are lots of companies offering pocket belts out there. What do you think? Do these DIY pocket belt projects make you want one? Would a pocket belt, from the past or the present, be the hands-free way you'd like to carry around your money and keys?

PS: Speaking of what's in your pockets, government funds pay only a portion of the Library's operating expenses each year. We rely on our readers, our users, and our Library supporters to help make the difference. And you DO make a difference! Please remember NYPL in your end-of-year gift giving. See you in 2012!

Join Us Saturday, October 15 and Learn about Lace

Jessica Pigza — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:01:01 -0400

Are you are looking for a knit-and-crochet immersion experience this weekend that does NOT involve trekking to Rhinebeck for the Sheep and Wool Festival? The Library has the answer! Our fall season of crafting continues this Saturday, October 15, as we welcome crochet and knit designer (and opera singer) Lisa Daehlin for the latest Handmade Crafternoon program. Daehlin promises to share her knowledge of knitted and crocheted lace designs (hairpin, broomstick, and Tunisian lace crochet, as well as yarn-over lace knitting) and will demonstrate some beginners’ techniques for making knitted and crocheted lace. We'll have a limited amount of supplies and tools to share and try out that day, but if you have the following, please bring: DK or heavier weight yarn, a size G or H crochet hook, size 50 knitting needles, and a hairpin loom.

Even if you don't want to try your hand at this technique, you are welcome to bring your own work in progress to the event and just hang out with a friendly group of knitters and crocheters. As usual, we'll have a selection of books on lace from the Library's collections for browsing too. And Daehlin might bring some samples of her work as well!

Hope to see you there. Here are the details on this program:

This is a FREE event, but reservations are welcome because we have room for just 96 crafters. To reserve your spot, please e-mail handmade@nypl.org with your name and the date of this event.
What to bring — we'll have some supplies and tools to share and try out that day, but if you have the following please bring: a ball of DK or heavier weight yarn, a size G or H crochet hook, size 50 knitting needles, and a hairpin loom.
Where: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (on the second floor, Room 227)
When: Saturday, October 15, from 2 to 4 p.m. (doors open at 1:30 p.m.)

Hand Made Summer Camp: Graphic Tees

Lindsy Serrano — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:52:50 -0400

Hey there summer campers!

We are working on a great new blog post that includes making your own mini loom! Until then, check out a blog post from last year, Graphic Ts! Enjoy!

Have you ever gone to a trendy clothing store, looked at very cool graphic tees, and said, "I could totally make that!"

I've had these moments a lot (I'm looking at you Urban Outfitters!) and finally decided to become an amateur T-shirt designer, using a fun project that I found in Todd Oldham's easy-to-follow craft book Kid Made Modern.

All I needed was: fabric paint, makeup sponges, cardboard

one 100 percent cotton T-shirt (found in the back of my closet)
makeup sponges, cardboard, and white glue (for the stamp)
paper plates (for the paint)
fabric paints (I chose purple and blue)
aluminum foil

In Kid Made Modern, Oldham references the Modernist design movement and the idea that "good and exciting design was for everyone." So the materials are easy to find and projects are not very intimidating for beginners. This T-shirt project is a reference to Alexander Girard, an American textile designer and artist.

First you make your stamps by deciding on a pattern using the makeup sponges and gluing the sponges to pieces of cardboard like so:

made with makeup sponges, glue, and cardboard

Then we carefully dipped the stamps in fabric paint and made a pattern on the T-shirts. Some friendly advice: make sure you have some foil to slip into the shirt so that the paint doesn't stick both sides together. Also, it’s a good idea to do a practice run on some paper so you know how much paint to use and whether or not you like your pattern. We ended up making a totally new pattern for a zipper effect, and the outcome was pretty cool!

Hand-Made Summer Camp: Bon Voyage Garland

Jessica Pigza — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Summer means travel, right? Whether your journeys remain daydreams this summer as you take a staycation, or you are going to hit the road/rails to see new places, here’s a project that’ll put you in a travel frame of mind. This paper garland is based on a Victorian Christmas tree decoration, but I made it with old maps of places I'd like to visit, or visit again, someday. I learned this technique in Sunny O'Neil's The Gift of Christmas Past: A Return to Victorian Traditions, but she cites her source for the project as Godey’s Lady’s Book (December 1880) issue. Here’s how to make your own travel-inspired garland.

You will need:

Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Tape
1 or more maps, depending on how long you want your garland to be

About choosing maps and paper: Be sure that the maps you choose for this project are no longer wanted by you or any of your family or housemates because you’ll be cutting them up, and you don’t want to cut up any treasured maps. Flea markets and thrift shops often have old maps. You can also use up out-of-date transit maps and train schedules. Leftover wrapping paper can work well too. What doesn't work so well is newspaper, because it tears too easily.

Step One:

Cut the map into long narrow strips of equal width. Use the ruler to mark out the lines for easier cutting. Mine pictured are 3 inches wide each.

And here are the resulting strips:

Step Two:

Take one strip and fold it down the middle, lengthwise. Using a ruler and pencil, mark the strip at half-inch intervals with lines that stop 1/4 of an inch short from the edge, alternating side to side. The markings should look like this:

Step Three:

Cut along each of these markings, along the entire length of the strip. Be careful not to cut all the way from one side to the other or the garland won’t stay together.

Step Four:

Carefully open up the strip along the long center fold and gently unfurl the garland. Repeat steps two through four for each strip, and then use a bit of tape to attach the strips end to end to create as long a garland as you wish.

You can drape it across a window or around a doorframe — wherever you want! And you could make one in honor of a friend's journey too, if you want to send him or her off in handmade style. The Bon Voyage Garland is not so “authentically Victorian” as Sunny O'Neil's, but it’s fun and quick way to escape the everyday. If you make one, share a picture of it in the Library's Handmade Flickr group. Bon voyage until next time!

Hand-Made Summer Camp: Go Fly a Kite!

Jessica Pigza — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:56:52 -0400

With the Fourth of July holiday weekend coming up, what better time than now to make your own kite and get out of doors for some summer fun? This kite is based on a project in Steven Caney's Toy Book, a kid-friendly introduction to DIY fun that's worth getting to know if you like to make stuff, no matter what your age. Caney's City Kite is perfect for urban dwellers, because, as he explains, it "will fly just great in a big open space, but it will fly just as well in a vacant lot, from a sidewalk, at the playground, or out a window." Keep reading below for the scoop on how to make your own kite.

WHAT YOU NEED:

6 drinking straws
7-8 yards of lightweight string — you'll use about 3 yards for creating the kite frame, and remaining 4-5 yards you'll use as a flying line (I used a couple of skeins of embroidery floss)
glue
scissors
a couple of sheets of tissue paper

STEP ONE: Build the Kite Frame

Measure off a length of string that's four times as long as one of your straws. Feed the string through three of your straws, and tie the ends together to create a triangle. (I'll pass on to you Caney's smart hint for feeding the string through the straw — "start the string in one end of the straw, and suck on the other end" — because it really works.)

Next, take another length of string that's three times as long as a straw and feed it through two of your three remaining straws. Attach these two straws to the first triangle of straws so it looks like two connected triangles.

Take the remaining straw, feed a piece of string about two times the length of a straw, and tie each end to the double triangle you've made, creating a tetrahedron (a three-sided pyramid).

STEP TWO: Cover the Kite Frame

Cut two triangles of tissue paper, each slightly larger than the size of one side of your kite frame. Carefully glue the triangles of tissue paper in place to completely cover two sides of the kite frame, wrapping the extra "margin" of tissue paper around the frame edge and gluing it inside the frame to secure it. (Because I couldn't help myself, I also cut a small strip of tissue to glue around the "crossbar" of the kite frame, but you can skip this step.)

I'd advise following Caney's wise advice on glue: "A little bit of glue works much better than a lot." So true! Let the glue dry.

You can repurpose sections of plastic bags to cover the frame instead of tissue paper, but keep in mind when choosing materials that your kite should be as lightweight as possible so it flies easily.

STEP THREE: Add a Bridle

Use the tip of your scissors to poke a small hole through both sheets of tissue near the framework adjoining the two covered sides of the kite, about a third of the way from the open end of the frame. Feed a 10 inch piece of string through it, tying it off at one end and leaving the long tail hanging free.

Take a 12 inch length of string and feed one end through the joint at the pointed end of the frame, tying it off and leaving the long tail hanging free.

Tie these two long tails together, to create the bridle.

STEP FOUR: Add a Tail and the Flying Line

Cut a strip of tissue paper about two to three feet long and two inches wide, and use a bit of string to attach it to the pointed end of the frame (where the second bridle tail was attached).

Tie one end of your extra length of four to five yards of string to the bridle. This is your flying line, so if you have ambitions of flying your kite really high, you'll want to make this line longer. Your kite is now ready to fly!

Enjoy this bit of handmade kite play, whether you head to the park or settle in for a stoopside social hour this holiday weekend. For more great ideas check out Caney's books as well as the Library's many books on kites. And if you make a kite or anything else inspired by the Library, please share a picture of it here! More Hand-Made Summer Camp coming up in July!

Hand Made Summer Camp: Lace Stencils!

Lindsy Serrano — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:15:44 -0400

Welcome back to Summer Camp! I hope you had fun with Jessica’s paper people — I know I did!

This week, we’ll be using lace as a delicate and unique stencil. You can use fabric lace or paper doilies (as I used in this project) on any number of things: t-shirts, paper, or one of the many free tote bags everyone seems to have nowadays.

This week's craft was inspired by a project in the book Print! 25 Original Projects Using Hand-Printing Techniques on Fabric and Paper by Joy Jolliffe, which can be found at many of our neighborhood libraries.

For this project, you will need:

lace or paper doilies (when you pick out your lace, keep in mind that the bigger the pattern, the better the print will turn out)
a tote bag
tape
scissors
fabric paint
a sponge or paintbrush

Step one: attach your stencil using tape. If you are printing on thin fabric, you might want to put some newspaper underneath so that the paint doesn’t bleed through.

Step two: once the stencil is attached securely, use a sponge or brush to press the fabric paint on your tote bag.

Step three: carefully remove the lace or doilies and let the fabric dry.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with! Hope to see your finished products on our flickr page!

Coming up: a great Fourth of July craft. See you then!

NYPL Blogs: Hand-Made

Craft With Me: Fun with Cardboard

Out of the Box by author and model creator, Jemma Westing; photographer Dave King; illustrator Edward Byrne

Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book by Clare Beaton and Rudi Haig; illustrated by Clare Beaton

Pirate Ship Project: Intermediate Level

From: Out of the Box

Review:

Adventure Castle: Easy to Intermediate Level

From: Out of the Box

Review:

Related Books

Out of the Box and Toilet-Paper Tube Crab from Read, Learn & Create: The Ocean Craft Book: Easy Level

Review:

You've Got Mail: Old-Fashioned Letter Writing for Fun

What to Write

​Stationery

Penmanship

How to Actually Write a Letter:

Sending Your Letter

Letter Writing:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 808.6 and 809.6 when searching the stacks or catalog.

Letter Writing by Esther Selsdon

The Art of the Handwritten Note: A Guide to Reclaiming Civilized Communications by Margaret Shepherd

101 Ways to Say Thank You: Notes of Gratitude for All Occasions by Kelly Browne

The Write Start: A Guide to Nurturing Writing at Every Stage, From Scribbling to Forming Letters and Writing Stories by Jennifer Hallissy

Penmanship:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 652.1 (handwriting) and 745.61 (hand lettering and calligraphy) when searching the stacks or catalog.

Spencerian Handwriting: The Complete Collection of Theory and Practical Workbooks for Perfect Cursive and Hand Lettering by Platt Rogers Spencer

The Art of Cursive Penmanship: A Personal Handwriting Program for Adults by Michael R. Sull, Master penman

The Lost Art of Handwriting: Rediscover the Beauty and Power of Penmanship by Brenna Jordan

Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting by Kitty Burns Florey.

Hand Lettering and Calligraphy:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 745.61 (hand lettering and calligraphy) when searching the stacks or catalog.

The Joy of Lettering: A Creative Exploration of Contemporary Hand Lettering, Typography & Illustrated Typeface by Gabri Joy Kirkenda​ll; Jaclyn Escalera

Simply Calligraphy: A Beginner's Guide to Elegant Lettering by Judy Detrick

Extraordinary Hand Lettering: Creative Lettering Ideas for Celebrations, Events, Decor, & More by Doris Wai

The Gift of Calligraphy: A Modern Approach to Hand Lettering with 25 Projects to Give & to Keep by Maybelle Imasa-Stukuls

The Kids' Book of Hand Lettering: 20 Lessons and Projects to Decorate Your World by Nicole Miyuki Santo.

Dyeing:

Natural Color: Vibrant Plant Dye Projects for Your Home and Wardrobe by Sasha Duerr

Secret Codes:

Be sure to check Non-Fiction 652.8 (codes and ciphers) when searching the stacks.

Codes and Ciphers by Collins UK

Mysterious Messages: A History of Codes and Ciphers by Gary Blackwood; designed and illustrated by Jason Henry

Top Secret: A Handbook of Codes, Ciphers, and Secret Writing by Paul B. Janeczko; illustrated by Jenna LaReau

Keep It Crafty with the Library

Books

Cross-stitch & embroidery

Knitting & crochet

Paper crafts

Sewing & fabric

Home-improvement crafts

Craft compilations

Misc. fun stuff

Databases

Flipster

PressReader

Lynda.com

Women’s Magazine Archive

Even more creative fun . . .

The Five-Borough Map: A Nonvisual Design Challenge for New Yorkers

1,000 Paper Cranes for 53rd Street Library

DIY: How to Make a Papier Mâché Elephant

Materials Needed

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Handmade Crafternoon this Spring at the Library!

Rubber Band Bracelets From Your Favorite Book

Hand-Stitch a Valentine Handkerchief with Rebecca Ringquist!

UPDATE, 3:30PM, Friday, February 8th:

Attention!

Due to the blizzard we've had to reschedule this event! It will now take place on Saturday, April 6th! Stay safe and warm, everyone!

Winter Fun for Kids and Cats

What to Draw? A Turkey, of Course

Handmade to Sell with Kelly Rand: Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012

Badge of Honor: Make Your Own Library Buttons!

A Sis Boom Handmade Crafternoon: May 12, 2012

Stationery

The Joy of Lettering: A Creative Exploration of Contemporary Hand Lettering, Typography & Illustrated Typeface by Gabri Joy Kirkendall; Jaclyn Escalera