Build Your Own Mouse Trap (with LEGO Chain Reactions from Klutz)

LEGO Chain Reactions will blow the mind of anyone who enjoyed playing Mouse Trap or setting off a row of dominoes. To turn bricks from kids’ own LEGO collection into ball-moving machines, all they need is this book — along with the cardstock ramps and other punch-out parts, plastic LEGO balls, and 33 essential, hard-to-find LEGO pieces packed inside.






Watch and learn! 



And now for a closer look... 

See the Quintopple in action!



See the Dominoes in action!



See the Seesaw & Ramp in action!



See the Pop-Up Flag & Falling Hammer in action!



See the Board Bouncer in action!



See the Slow Spin in action!



See the Elevator Ramps in action!




See the Pulley & Bucket in action!



See the Funnel Ramp in action!

Star Wars Reads Day Strikes Back! (with Star Wars Folded Flyers, Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Star Wars Thumb Doodles)

Fall is here and that familiar chill has crept back into the air. It’s time for boots and scarves and, for me, hiding indoors with a good book or a fun craft. But this weekend, there is another Force at play, beckoning me back to my two favourite activities…

That’s right, tomorrow is the 3^rd annual Star Wars Reads Day! This amazing initiative is the joint effort of Lucasfilm and its publishing partners. It's celebrated in every which way, from simply sitting down with a good book to some pretty amazing events at bookstores, libraries and other venues around the world!

I’ll be celebrating by bringing copies of Star Wars Folded Flyers, Star Wars Thumb Doodles, and Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars up to my family’s Thanksgiving weekend celebrations. After all the fun we had with playing with Paper Dragons, I can’t wait to see what great ideas this wacky bunch will come up with this time!

So, get reading, drawing, Thumb Doodle comic booking, or try out one of these cool crafts from the official Star Wars Event Kit, cause it’s time to celebrate!

Happy Star Wars Reads Day!

Back to Basics (with Cat's Cradle from Klutz)

Something about summer always makes me go back to the simple fun of my childhood, whether it’s skipping rope down the sidewalk, drawing on driveways or blowing bubbles in the backyard. Maybe it’s because, when it comes to outdoor play, simplicity rules. Or maybe I get nostalgic because, I think we can all agree, summer vacation is one of the best things about being a kid.

With a long weekend at the cottage ahead, I was reminded of the fun my little sis and I had playing car games on the drive up a couple of years back. So, I decided to break out Cat’s Cradle, the most classic kids game of all, for another spin this past weekend.

I know it seems simple--just a piece of string and some instructions--but with this little book you can have a whole lot of fun! Whether you are teaching little hands how to play (when all they want to do it gallop like a pony), racing against the clock for Cat’s Cradle mastery or using leftover Pom Pom Puppies yarn to stage a giant-sized game, this summer game will always be among the best!

Get Outside and Happy Canada Day! (with Chalk the Block by Klutz)

In my free time, you're most likely to find me hunched over my desk, crafting up a storm, scissors and glue in hand. But when the weather turns sunny and summer is here, it's all about being outside! 

This Canada Day weekend, I grabbed a copy of Chalk the Block and took my creativity outdoors, to spend some time in the sun, doing what I do best.

With some great ideas from Klutz on how to maximize my sidewalk chalk play, no crack or crevice was safe from my mad doodling! This weekend, everyone will feel the spirit of summer and some Canada Day pride when they pass by my house.

Looking for more great ways to play? Why not throw a Sidewalk Chalking, Balloon-Twisting front yard carnival, like I did one Canada Day past. Hopscotch and skill tests, balloon animals and a roaring chalk rollercoaster, our crafty little carnival was a total blast!

Whatever you do, hope you have a very happy (and hopefully crafty) Canada day!

Bubbles and BBQs (with How to Make Monstrous, Huge, Unbelievably Big Bubbles)

The best things about summer is the world of outdoor space that it opens up. Picnics at the park, playing at the beach, lunch on a patio and a stroll around the neighborhood are a few of my favourites. But the ultimate outdoor fun of summer is definitely the backyard barbecue.

Now, I don’t have a backyard, but this sunny Saturday we were headed to a friend's BBQ party, so I took a peek into my cabinet of Klutz curiosities for a way to make our day extra fun.

How to Make Monstrous, Huge, Unbelievably Big Bubbles is the brainchild of bubble master David Stein and the editors of Klutz. Stein’s invention, the "Bubble Thing," is the magic wand that makes your bubbles big, and inside the book you’ll find the recipe for the perfect bubble mix.

As the ribs and carrots sizzled on the grill, we set up with a bucket of suds and our Bubble Thing and took turns blowing super-sized bubbles out in the sun.

The First Annual Candy Cup, featuring Klutz Air Power

It started out innocently enough.

Just two sisters, sitting on the couch, eating junk food and watching a movie. As one polishes off a bag of candy, she remarks to the other, “Betcha two gummies I can shoot this wrapper into the garbage!” 

“I’ll bet you three chips you can’t!” the other fires back.

The first one shoots and falls just short of the can, and the second jumps up triumphant and then scarfs down her prize. But the first sister can’t let it stop there because a good ol’ fashioned bout of sibling rivalry has begun!

“I’ll bet you three gummies that I can chug this whole glass of milk in five seconds.”

“I’ll bet you this chocolate that you can't fit ten marshmallows in your mouth.”

As the bets get crazier and crazier, the Klutz-ier of the two sisters has an idea to get things back under control. She heads to her cabinet of curiosities and pulls out Klutz’s latest book of science-fueled fun, Air Power: Rocket Science Made Simple.

If they’re going to be betting, they might as well have fun and maybe learn a thing or two. So with a quick lesson in Newton's Laws of Motion, five balloons to power their play and two piles of gummies to set the stakes, the first annual Air Powered Candy Cup began.

Whose hot rod will drive the farthest? Whose hovercraft will hover the longest? Whose rocket will flyer higher? Whose helicopter will fly wilder? Who knew? But those two sisters were sure going to find out!

And as the gummy piles grew and shrank, laughs were had and fists were shaken, 'til finally, one candy pile towered over the other, and so a winner was declared.

And although this sibling didn't emerge victorious, she was happy to turn that pesky little impulse to compete with her little sis' into an awesome, air-powered adventure. And you can bet that next year, she’ll be ready to claim the title — and that yummy cup of candy — all for herself!

My Furry Valentines with Klutz Pom-Pom Puppies and Pom Pom Monster Salon

Last year, my little sis' moved to a different city (sniff, sniff…), so every time she comes to visit, we make sure to plan something fun. Last weekend, the weather was pretty wet and miserable so our plan to go skating wasn't looking so great. Luckily, I always have some emergency Klutz kits on hand, so I put together a last minute sister crafternoon.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I had been brainstorming ideas for another year of outside-the-box valentines. You all know my thoughts on boxed valentines, but even with my crafty Valentine's creations, I still hadn't found a fix for the problem of all the cards that end up in the trash on February 15^th.

So I started thinking about what kind of valentine people might keep around, and suddenly, I knew just what to do. I grabbed my copies of the two cutest Klutz kits around, borrowed an idea from my super-fun NYE photo booth adventure, and little sis' and I made some one-of-a-kind furry valentines!

First, we printed out some punny Valentine’s Day speech bubbles (click here to download a copy) and taped those silly sayings to toothpicks. Then, we wrapped, snipped, and styled some too-cute-to-toss Pom-Pom Puppies and Pom Pom Monsters and put them all together!

I can’t wait for next week, when I get to hand out my furry valentines to all my friends! I can’t see anyone getting rid of these little cuties anytime soon! For more great out-of-the-box ways to celebrate with Klutz, check out my Friendship Bracelet cards, Paper Flower bouquets, and love-ly Nail Art!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

New Year's Eve Night in with Klutz

Happy New Year fellow crafters!

How did you celebrate the start of 2014?

This crafty girl decided to ring in the New Year in DIY style! I had a Klutz crafternoon with some favourite friends and a special surprise for our party at night.

Choosing my favourite Klutz books of 2013 was easy: Make Clay Charms, Nail Style Studio, Beaded Bands and Toolbox Jewelry. I pulled out my copies, spread them out on the table and we each got to work beading, painting, knotting and sculpting fun accessories for the night ahead.

We put on our party outfits and as the countdown finally drew near, it was time to reveal my special surprise. With my laptop, a bed sheet and some printed props, I set up a makeshift photo booth so we could snap pics of our fancy new accessories and get a little silly!

It was an amazing night with good friends and great crafts—and I didn't even have to leave the house. Who could ask for more? The best part was the next day, as we headed home to 2014, we had fun accessories and hilarious pics as souvenirs of our send-off to another great year!

Charm Your Tree with Klutz: Make Clay Charms

You might remember how I went kind of crazy for Make Clay Charms a while back. I brought it up to a cottage weekend and all hands got busy, molding, sculpting, and baking charms to put on pretty much everything we owned. It was a blast!

Well, it turns out that the Canadian Toy Testing Council agrees, because this cute little craft is a Children’s Choice winner for 2014! To celebrate this victory of one of my favourite Klutz kits, I decided it was time to indulge in my obsession again. I broke out Make Clay Charms and charmed up a tree in honour of two of my favourite things: Christmas and Catching Fire!

That’s right; I am feeling the Hunger Games fever with the latest and greatest movie adaptation. I’m trimming my tree with the Christmas classics, along with flames, nightlock berries, and cute mini-book covers, all made of clay!

Merry Christmas and a very happy Hunger Games to all!

Nail Art Evolution with Nail Style Studio

When I was a girl of nine, I wanted nothing more than to be able to paint my nails. So, when I received my first bottle of nail polish as a birthday gift, it was all I could do to not shut the party down and get to it.

My parents weren’t so keen on their little girl painting her nails like a grown up, so before I was allowed to break into that bottle of polish, I had to prove my commitment to the cause by cleaning up our disastrously messy playroom, from top to bottom.

It seems like a strange task, but I set my little mind to it and spent an entire weekend sorting and organizing and, okay, sometimes hiding, every little toy in that giant room. On Sunday night, I finally emerged triumphant and was rewarded with permission to get painting. My little sis' was granted the privilege, too (ah, the joys of being the eldest sibling), but I couldn’t even find the time to care because I was finally allowed to paint my nails!

Since that fateful night, I don’t think more than a week has passed without some sort of polish on my fingernails. So, you can imagine my delight when Klutz Nail Style Studio arrived on the scene to shake up my nail art and take this long-standing relationship to the next level!

I mean, Klutz and I are no strangers to Nail Art. 

Last year, we celebrated Valentine’s Day with some seriously cute painted tips, but those designs have got nothing on the pretty patterns and bold prints of Nail Art’s big sis'. With the super-precise dotting tool and tons of fun sticker stencils, my nails are getting some serious style evolution. Better yet, since this kit comes complete with six cool colours of peel-off practice polish, here’s to hoping you won’t have to clean any rooms to show your love of nails, too!

Flip Book Fashion Show (Ft. The Marvelous Book of Magical Horses)

I had so much fun making my Star Wars Thumb Doodles comic book, that I had to give the idea another try. So, I dressed up some magically marvelous friends and we put together a little flip book fashion show!

Straight On to Summer (with Scoubidou)

This week we got our first glimpses of the warm weather we’ve been waiting for. Sure, it was short lived, but I soaked that little bit of sun right into my soul and now I'm filled with summer dreams of swimming in lakes, bunking at summer camp, and roasting marshmallows over a campfire. I'm choosing to ignore the warnings of hail(!) ahead and am hunkering down with some Klutz that was made for summer fun.

Whether you know it as gimp, lacing or boondoggle, Klutz give new life to this summer-camp fave with its original name, Scoubidou. (Fun fact: it was a fad in France in the 1950s!) Sure, there are instructions for the classic bracelets we all know and love, but it doesn’t stop there... Pretty ponytail holders, cool Celtic knots, flip flops, and more all get the scoubidou- treatment too! And with enough cord to make all 12 projects, you’ll have plenty to keep you busy till those sunny summer days actually arrive!

Now and Then (with It's all about US, especially me!)

If you’ve been around here before, you’ve probably heard about my bestie, Lea. All throughout school, we were as close as close can be! We shared clothes, crushed on the same boys and finished each others sentences. But, like most best friends, for all the ways we were alike, we were complete opposites too.

Lea is a sunny kind of gal. You can put her in a room with anyone and she’ll instantly make friends. I prefer to hang out in the background and observe. Whether we were making our way on the playground or finding our place at parties, I usually left it to her to represent our little twosome to the outside world. It’s not a stretch to say that back then, it was all about her. And that suited me just fine!

But now I’m older and more sure of myself, so I’m sucking up my courage and offering Lea a break. Sure, I’ll always be a wallflower at heart, but after years of hanging in the back, it’s time for me to shine! So, last week, when we met up to catch up over hamburgers, I brought It’s All About Us (Especially Me) to show her just how far I’d come.

Between gossip sessions, we passed this pretty-in-pink book back and forth, filling in questions and queries of “total randomosity,” and giggling wildly over all our crazy answers! I mean, how else would we have remembered cutting off my favourite doll’s hair or how fun it was to screech the Pepper Ann theme song at the top of our lungs?

And since the book includes three different coloured copies of each page, we have room for one more! I’m embracing my new outgoing role and am on the hunt to find us a friend to share these silly surveys with. Any takers? 

Charmed, I’m Sure! (with Clay Charms)

Klutz and I have been besties for almost two years now, so we’ve started to settle into a familiar rhythm. Whenever I'm free, I give Klutz a call and can always count on some good, crafty fun. But every once in a while in our steady relationship, Klutz does something that totally knocks my socks off and this, my friends, is one of the times.

May I present to you... Clay Charms!

I will try to keep the gushing to a minimum but, you guys, this book is the COOLEST! A pretty little bracelet base, nine brightly coloured bricks of clay, and endless combinations of clay charm cuteness!

It wasn’t hard to decide what my first bracelet would be about. I mean, the only thing I love more than crafting is food, so I stacked it up with some yummy snacks. Cinnamon buns, tacos, s’mores, and a crunchy carrot for good measure! Then it was into the oven for a bake, a quick layer of glaze, and my tasty treats were ready to rock!

After my first bracelet went so well, I just had to share. So I packed it in my bag for a weekend away and my friends and I all went Clay Charm crazy!

 

Now I’ve got a whole tree of clay charms to mix and match to my moods. But have no fear, I’m not done yet. These colourful little bricks of clay sure do go a long way! So if you wondering when my Clay Charm obsession will end…

Well, you know!

Get Inventing! (with The Book of Inventions)

Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. Give me some paper, glue and ribbon, and watch me get to work. My friend Lisa, well, she couldn’t craft to save her life, but she writes some of the most beautiful stories I've ever read. And Karen, she could McGuyver her way out of any situation!

If your creativity tends towards the latter, you have to check out the Klutz Book of Inventions. It's packed with tons of cool, crazy, can’t-believe-they-don’t-actually-exist creations that will inspire you to start inventing!

I found so many wacky contraptions that could have saved me in the past. Like the Storytelling Sling which would have spared me the embarrassment of having to repeatedly explain how I broke my leg skiing in my backyard or how I dislocated my knee jump-kicking off my parents bed.

And I bet my parents wish they thought of Sibling Blinders for my sister and I when we got cranky on the way up to the cottage.

But most importantly, how much do I want a Snack Shirt with a pocket made just for ice cream cones? Mom and dad, take note, I know what I want for my birthday!

After nearly 200 pages of wacky inventions, Klutz challenges you to design your own. They even break down all the ways they came up with their out-there ideas to get you started. 

I sat down with a pencil and notepad and started to think...

For me, waking up in the morning is the worst! It’s a daily battle between hitting the snooze button and sinking back into sleep,  or getting in the shower like the clean, responsible young person I should be! I'm embarrassed to tell you how often sleep wins… Therefore, I think I’d invent a shower bed so you can take that extra 15 minutes of sleep while you get squeaky clean. I’m still ironing out a few design kinks, but expect to see my Shower Sleeper in stores in 2014!

A Pretty Great Gift (with Disney PIXAR Lightning McQueen Build & Race)

When I was really little, my favourite thing to do was play with dolls. But my little sis, Annie, preferred playing with her toy cars. I would watch her play for hours on end, driving those cars around the imaginary carpet town and, I must admit, I never really got what made it so great. My dolls could be doctors, teachers or princesses with just the change of a costume, but what kind of stories could people who could never leave their cars tell?

Time went by and I never bothered asking, and eventually I forgot all about it. Then one day, I was sitting at home watching Cars, and as the opening scene flashed across the screen, it clicked. Of course it wasn’t the people inside of the cars that my sis was directing in her playtime stories… It was cars themselves! Call me crazy, but I didn’t get it until then.

 

With my narrow mind newly expanded, I knew what I had to do. I dug into my magical Klutz drawer and pulled out Disney PIXAR Cars Lightning McQueen Build & Race, and with some help from my sis, I discovered a whole new way to play!

We built our favourite characters (mine: Guido, hers: Fillmore) and set out the giant fold-out mat complete with tons of cool peel-and-stick stickers to customize our cars with. We whizzed and zoomed around the racetrack on one side, then flipped it over to ride around Radiator Springs, stopping at all our favourite spots, like Tow Mater and Casa Della Tires. And when the fun was all done, we parked our cars in the cool pop-out garage to rest.

This year, think outside the box when picking presents for your family and friends, because you never know what someone will get out of it. This year, my sister gave me a new way to play and that’s a pretty great gift if you ask me!

If you're looking to be inspired by the bounty of Klutz, head over here for a complete listing of books.