Cardboard Finger Puppet Book

Posted on December 25, 2012 by adohrenwend

This Christmas present was a team project. I got lots of guidance while I was sewing the facial features on “wiggle worm.” My daughter also wrote the story for the book, which strangely enough changes every time you read it… you can catch the “text” below.

Stitch your wiggle worm together from a fabric scrap.

Cut holes in the middle of the pages of a cardboard book. Cardboard book how to here. Tape your worm in place.

Glue a cardboard page over top, to secure the “wiggle worm.”

Looking a little smug after the photo shoot isn’t he?

Cardboard Books for Christmas: #1 Lift the Flap

Posted on December 23, 2012 by adohrenwend

I hope the rest of you are organized and ready for Christmas! We’ve just returned from a week-long pre-holiday adventure which involved a broken laptop, so I’ll be doing what I can to catch up with you now that we’re back in Tokyo.

I wanted to start by sharing with you some of the cardboard gifts I’ll be giving the girls this year, including a batch of cardboard books. If you haven’t seen the 2011 post (one of my very first on The Cardboard Collective) about making cardboard books, you can get the step by step instructions here.

I used some of my favorite summer photos of the girls and printed them out in black and white and then added flaps cut from toddler magazines. (You can use cereal boxes or other kinds of lightweight cardboard or card-stock to accomplish the same thing.)

This book just adds a few more details which includes a cover that I measured out and cut to size after making a basic cardboard book. I then just slathered the glue on and placed it over the top, weighing it down with a few books to dry overnight. It definitely gives the book a more polished look and makes it more durable too.

I’m really looking forward to reading these books with the girls! They really enjoy it when we make books that include them in some way, whether through pictures or text, and it’s always lovely to revisit our beautiful memories together while they’re nestled in our laps.

Sandwiches are Beautiful ….. Sandwich Books are Fine!

Posted on November 4, 2011 by adohrenwend

The latest addition to our cardboard book library; a very delicious book about how to make a B.L.T. (Bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich. This book was easy to make and I had help from Electra painting the pages. We used the same process that I wrote about earlier in the How to Make Cardboard Books post. I used a type of tape made from white paper that could be painted for the binding. I touched up the spots where the book was adjoined after the whole thing was assembled. The coolest part was finding white cardboard for the bread that gave the look of “brown crust” when you cut the pages out. This is literally a recipe book for getting your child or toddler cooking in the kitchen!

Mmmmmm cardboard!

Big Fat Cardboard Book Booster Seat

Posted on November 1, 2011 by adohrenwend

When Isis took over the highchair, Electra needed a booster seat so she could sit in one of the big chairs at the kitchen table. We put together a big fat cardboard book for her to sit on. We found a box with a Japanese castle on it, so you could even say this seat is throne-like.

I sewed an elastic band to keep the pages from opening up when she was getting into and out of the chair. The beauty of it? It doubles as a leaf press!

How to Make Cardboard Books

Posted on October 31, 2011 by adohrenwend

The first cardboard book I ever made was for Electra’s first birthday. It was filled with photos of her learning to walk and of places we had seen on day trips around Tokyo. Electra loved the book so much that she pulled off most of the pictures and peek-a-boo flaps I had pasted in. The beauty of the book was that we could easily add new pictures and tape to make any repairs. A second book ensued filled with photos of Electra helping out around the house doing things like sweeping, peeling garlic, putting groceries away and watering plants. It was a wordless book that opened up an incredible amount of dialogue (for a 1 1/2 year old) about our day to day life. We still love to look at our cardboard books together now, 1 year later and we have added many many more cardboard books to our library.

How to Make Cardboard Books: