Crafting with Kids - Cucicucicoo

Kid Embroidery Project: Sew a Backpack Tag

July 23, 2020July 22, 2020 by Lisa Neri

During the lockdown in past months, quite a few of my friends have told me that their bored children have expressed an interest in learning to sew and have asked me for suggestions for beginner projects. Everyone knows that kids love drawing and I’ve found …

Perler Bead Christmas Patterns for DIY Ornaments

November 17, 2020December 17, 2019 by Lisa Neri

If you have kids, you probably know all about hama beads. Or perler beads, melty beads, Pyssla beads, fuse beads or any of the other names for them. Those little plastic cylinders that you arrange into shapes and fuse with an iron. So today I’m …

40+ Best Stocking Stuffers for Crafty Kids who Create!

November 9, 2019 by Lisa Neri

Skip the junk food and toys this year with this list of the best stocking stuffers for crafty kids to stimulate their creativity and manual skills. #stockingstuffers #christmasstocking

Do you hate how much junk food and junk toys your children get at every holiday? Would you rather give them something really useful that will stimulate their creativity? Of course you would! So today I’m sharing with you the absolute best stocking stuffers for …

Easy Jack O Lantern Softie Tutorial – Great for Kids!

September 18, 2022October 2, 2019 by Lisa Neri

This easy Jack O Lantern softie tutorial is quick and easy to sew by hand, and a perfect Halloween craft project for kids who are just learning to sew! #halloweencraftforkids #halloweenkidcraft

I’m really excited to share this brand new Halloween craft for kids because this easy Jack O Lantern softie tutorial was created by a kid: my daughter, Sofia! Sofia had been sewing project after project from the Sewing School box set* (these books are AMAZING!) …

DIY Neck Pillow Template PDF Download + Tutorial

September 12, 2019July 29, 2019 by Lisa Neri

Guys, it’s once again Sew a Softie Month, and I’m so excited! Every year Trixi from Coloured Buttons organizes a month-long extravaganza during which sewing bloggers publish tutorials for stuffed projects that kids can sew. How amazing is that? Learning to sew teaches kids important …

Hand sewn plush heart pillow with pocket

January 31, 2020February 4, 2019 by Lisa Neri

I always say that ANYONE can sew, and that goes for kids, too. This is why I love Sew a Softie, the wonderful recurring event created by Trixi from Coloured Buttons. My children and I participated in Sew a Softie last summer with a pattern and tutorial …

How to sew fabric bunting with the Celebrate! Banner pattern

November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 by Lisa Neri

Use the incredibly versatile Celebrate! Banner pattern to learn how to sew fabric bunting in myriad shapes, sizes and styles! Here you can see some of the many ways that it has been personalized by various creators! #cucicucicoopatterns #handmadebanner #bannerpattern #buntingpattern #fabricbunting

Last week I published a tutorial showing how to sew fabric bunting banners, either with or without my newest PDF pattern, the Celebrate! Banner. I had a pretty big group of pattern testers to try the pattern out to make sure that everything was ok …

DIY Christmas Ornament Kits for Children – Great Holiday Gift!

November 17, 2020November 5, 2018 by Lisa Neri

Last year my kids and I cut up a few old felted wool sweaters in my collection to make handmade felt Christmas tree ornaments to give to our loved ones at Christmas. But partway through, I realized that an even better gift for the families …

Kids can sew! Stuffed animal dog bone – free pattern

July 18, 2018July 9, 2018 by Lisa Neri

My daughter was obsessed with Clifford the Big Red Dog when she was little, so I started making a bunch of little accessories for her toy Cliffords. I made him clothes and I made him toy leashes. And finally, I made him a stuffed animal …

DIY felt Christmas tree ornaments for kids from repurposed sweaters

November 17, 2020December 18, 2017 by Lisa Neri

I am a strong believer that children should give gifts to others. No, I’m not saying that they have to save up their pocket money to purchase gifts, but that they should make something with love and care that can be shared with the people …

DIY books and notepads: Reuse leftover notebook paper

May 29, 2017May 29, 2017 by Lisa Neri

What is it that’s so appealing about a nice, new and never-before-touched blank book or notebook?

I suppose it’s the anticipation and excitement about all the things that it can become. You can write a book in it. Draw pictures. Study plants or animals or anything else that you love and keep your notes in it. Glue magazine cuttings in it. Write a secret diary. There are no limits to your imagination and creativity!

My kids love blank books, too. We have piles of illustrated books, their own made-up school books for their toys, and tomes of secret writings that I’ve been warned to never look in. Even before they knew how to write, they just loved filling up those blank pages with drawings and stickers. Something about the fact that the books had covers made them feel so much more real to them.

It’s now the end of May and school will be out soon. And, as always, the kids will come home on the last day of school with a bunch of half-used notebooks. Like this one above. “Read and complete.” Apparently Sofia never did get around to completing this assignment before the end of the year.

Normally I just rip out the used pages and give the kids the notebooks with the few remaining pages to draw and write in. But by the time summer vacation comes around, they usually are sick of using those same notebooks that they’ve been using all year round. They don’t want to see the same old covers that remind them of sitting at a desk for hours on end.

But if I give them that very notebook paper in a different form, it’s a totally different story. A mini notebook with a pretty colorful cover?! Yes, please! I want to write a story in it!

A clean cover and blank pages? Yes! I want a book to draw and write about dinosaurs in!

All of a sudden, after a tiring year of studying and writing, they want to study and write again! All because of a new packaging of their usual school materials! And what’s best is that you’re using paper you already have, so it’s free, and it takes less than 5 minutes to make one!

So, what do you say? Want to reuse leftover notebook paper to make “brand new” blank books and notepads? Let’s get started!

Free Pattern! Valentine’s Day bag tutorial

January 31, 2020January 23, 2017 by Lisa Neri

This reversible heart-shaped Valentine’s Day bag is perfect for little girls to carry all their valentines, candy or other treasures in! FREE sewing pattern and tutorial by Cucicucicoo Patterns!

The day that some people absolutely love and others absolutely despise is coming up.

Yep. I’m talking about Valentine’s Day!

I’ve always fallen into the second category because I am ideologically against the consumerism of this day and I don’t like the idea of being told when I need to celebrate my love for the people in my life. As far as I’m concerned, we should recognize how important our loved ones are to us each and every day!

However, as I get older, some of my ideological beliefs soften and I start to appreciate the simple pleasures in life, such as giving someone a little something to remind him how much we care. It doesn’t have to be much, as long as it comes from the heart.

And that’s why I’ve decided, for the first time in years, to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I explained to my children how the kids in the United States give out valentines to other kids (this doesn’t happen in Italy), and decided to make some homemade valentines and a little pouch to carry them in.

And thus was born my reversible heart-shaped Valentine’s Day bag! Reversible because, well, how much more fun is it when you can flip a bag inside-out to get a whole “new” bag?!

This little pouch is perfect for little girls to hold their valentines in, but can also be used for candies, small toys or any other treasure! And it only takes about 30 minutes to sew up! Yah!

Do you know someone who loves hearts and pink and all things lovey? Well then, let’s get going with my Valentine’s Day bag tutorial and FREE pattern!

Rotten Banana: a fun early reading game

January 12, 2017January 2, 2017 by Lisa Neri

A fantastically fun and easy game for kids to practice reading without it feeling like work! Five levels of vocabulary to get your child to immediately recognize sight words! Try not to get the rotten banana! (in English or Italian)

My little boy just turned six and is in first grade this year, which means that he’s learning to read and write. While my daughter had no problems learning written Italian in school and didn’t really need any outside help to pick up written English on her own, it hasn’t been quite as easy for my son.

So while he’s out of school for Christmas vacation, I decided that he could use some reading practice.

My mother was a reading specialist in an elementary school for many years. This means that she worked with hundreds of children to whom reading didn’t come easily. She developed all sorts of techniques and fun methods to get kids to love reading, but one of the all-time favorites was an early reading game called “Rotten Banana.” It’s a really simple game to get children to recognize what are called “sight words,” which are the words that they should learn to instantly recognize without having to spell them out.

When my mother retired, her Rotten Banana game continued to get used with her grandchildren, and ended up living at our home so that my bilingual kids could get some English reading practice while living in a non-English-speaking country.

But before I started using the English Rotten Banana game that my mother made, I wanted my son to get a firm grasp on reading Italian, which is much more simple because it’s a very phonetic language in which most words are pronounced exactly as they are written, unlike the much more phonetically complicated English language. And so I decided to make my own Italian version of my mother’s Rotten Banana game for him to practice with, which I translated as “Banana Marcia.”

And, just like my mother did, I also made rotten pears, apples and oranges to give a little variety as the child progresses from one level to the next. Something about all that colored fruit is so appealing!

Is there a child in your life who could use an early reading game to begin a lifetime of happy reading? Then continue reading for the downloadable template and word list and to find out how to play!

Make homemade pick up sticks (with carry bag)

January 12, 2017November 7, 2016 by Lisa Neri

Learn how to make homemade pick up sticks (Mikado) from skewers, with a DIY pouch to hold them. Printable playing instructions included! A perfect gift for kids and adults! Tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com

Toys are too complicated these days.

I sometimes hear parents saying that their kids get bored if their toys don’t make sounds or light up, or aren’t animated or interactive games. And of course all these electronic toys and games cost more and break really easily.

I sometimes feel like an old fogey, but seriously, do children really need all those bells and whistles? Sometimes it’s the simplest of things that make people happy, and the same goes for the classic games that kids have been playing for generations.

A pack of 41 colored wooden sticks, for example. No electronic parts, no plastic. Just simple wood. And happy bright colors. If just contemplating them doesn’t intrigue a kid, this definitely will:

Make a big colored mess?! Yes, please! What fun it is to bundle them up and watch them fall all over the place, like a big moving rainbow!

I think that this is one reason why pick up sticks have been a cherished game for such a long time. They’re aethetically pleasing, but also such a simple game that requires concentration and small motor agility.

There are lots of variations on this game, but what I propose here is Mikado, the classic pick up sticks version. They’re really simple to make with very basic materials, and are a wonderul gift for kids and adults alike when you sew a little pouch for them and include playing instructions!

And I know that you probably don’t have time to create an instruction sheet, so I’ve made one for you that you can download and print out! You’re welcome!

I actually researched Mikado quite a while to find the “official” rules, colors, stripe scheme and point system, but it turns out that there are loads of different versions. I made up my own colors and stripes (I also made a set without stripes which looks more like the plastic game I had when I was little), as well as my own point system based on what I found most often. Feel free to vary any of these as you please.

So, what do you say? Are you ready to have some good old-fashioned fun? Let’s get right to work on our homemade pick up sticks!

10 Reasons to make your own costume

September 18, 2022October 31, 2016 by Lisa Neri

10 reasons why you should make your own costume instead of buying one: lessons learned from my mother. www.cucicucicoo.com

The one question that I get asked in every interview I’ve ever had is what or who my creative inspirations are. I usually give a different answer every time because I am inspired by so many people, places and things. But my first creatively inspirational …

Wine bottle crafts: 2 upcycled vases with materials you already have

October 22, 2019April 25, 2016 by Lisa Neri

Wine bottle crafts: Make upcycled vases with craft materials you already have! 2 great ideas with paint and glue! A DIY tutorial by www.cucicucicoo.com #winebottlecrafts

Mother’s Day is creeping up and will be here before you know it. Have you started preparing gifts for the most important women in your life? Most mothers (at least the ones I know) are happiest to receive something small, but from the heart, and what could be more from the heart than personalized homemade gifts? And since all moms want to protect their children and grandchildren, even better is an eco-friendly gift that won’t have an impact on the environment.

I like wine and beer and basically anything alcoholic, and when I come across a cool bottle, I always make sure to save it for my DIY projects. Today I’m going to show you two really easy wine bottle crafts, making vases with customized words and designs for your favorite mothers and friends! You can even involve small children in decorating the bottles and, what’s best of all, if you’re a crafty person, you probably already have all the materials you need for both of these projects!

The first version of this project is a chalkboard vase, which is super fun to decorate with personalized or seasonal messages. Give kids one of these bottles and some colored chalk, and they are in heaven!

The second upcycled bottle vase is decorated with a glue gun and spray paint, for drawings and messages that will never risk being accidentally erased.

Both of these wine bottle crafts are really easy and very quick for a great last-minute DIY Mother’s Day gift. Now let me show you how to make them!

Make a bag from a T shirt: No-Sew Tutorial!

September 8, 2020April 11, 2016 by Lisa Neri

Transform that T-shirt you never wear into something useful! This no-sew tutorial shows how to make a bag from a T shirt. Great upcycling craft for kids! www.cucicucicoo.com

My name’s Lisa and I’m a T-shirt hoarder.

Seriously, I have a problem. Come to my home, and you’ll find numerous containers full of t-shirts. I love them because they’re so easy to embellish or repurpose into other clothing and objects. But another wonderful thing about t-shirts is that the jersey fabric doesn’t fray and frequently it’s nice and stretchy, meaning you can cut it and stretch it out to get all sorts of cool effects, often without even sewing.

This past summer I was brainstorming different ways to reuse the classic tee for the “Reborn T-shirts” stand at the Kreativ fair, and I couldn’t leave out the ever-beloved t-shirt bag. There are so many ways to make a bag from a t shirt, but I wanted to propose something that ANYBODY can do, even without any sewing knowledge.

And just to prove my point, I also did this project with my 9-year-old daughter’s class while making upcycled crafts to sell at the school’s annual charity Christmas market. All the kids brought in at least one t-shirt and turned them into bags. And they LOVED it! They were so bummed out when we ran out of shirts to make bags from! (We also made these egg carton poinsettia ornaments, which are another eco-friendly and kid-friendly craft.)

Do you need one or two extra shopping bags, but don’t want to buy one? Or maybe you have a special t-shirt that brings back dear memories that you can’t bear to get rid of, even if it doesn’t fit you anymore? Or you want a fun activity to do with your kids? Then grab your scissors, and let’s get to work!

DIY Paper Poinsettias from Upcycled Egg Cartons

November 17, 2020December 9, 2015 by Lisa Neri

When my daughter’s teacher invited me to come into the class to make crafts with the kids that could be sold at the school’s charity Christmas market (a couple of years ago I did the same thing with these yarn Hopi Eye ornaments), I was …

DIY Flower pots from tin cans

February 29, 2016July 27, 2015 by Lisa Neri

A wonderful thing about summer is being able to spend time gardening gorgeous flowers, delicious veggies and flavorful herbs. Well, at least you can if you have a garden! For those of us who live in an apartment, a few pots on the balcony and in the home have to suffice.

Today’s guest poster for the Cucicucicoo’s Eco Crafters and Sewers series is Cristina from Cri Erre Handmade. Cristina is an expert gardener, but also a lover of upcycling and organic foods. Today she will show us how to make a personalized flower pot from a simple tin can and a few other materials!

Tutorial: Make Easy Recycled Crowns for Kids

January 12, 2017April 6, 2015 by Lisa Neri

Happy Easter Monday! Hope you had a lovely day yesterday! And if you have children, I’m sure you now have insane amounts of candy and chocolate in your home. Here in Italy there’s no Easter Bunny, but kids get these huge chocolate eggs with a little gift inside. The eggs are wrapped in big squares of fabric or, more commonly, foil wrapping, similar to the type used for gift wrapping.

It drives me nuts to have to throw away all of that wrapping, so I always flatten and fold it the best I can, and put it aside for wrapping future gifts or, as my kids prefer, for making easy recycled crowns that are shiny and fun! Oh, and did I say easy? Well, let me say it again, because you get a LOT of kid satisfaction from this 5-minute project! And it’s pretty mamma-satisfying, too, because by using upcycled materials, it’s totally free! Woohoo!

In order to make these crowns you need:

a big sheet of upcycled foil wrapping (from Easter eggs or gift wrap)
strips of lightweight cardboard (in Naples, they put these in packages of fresh pastries to keep the wrapping from touching the gorgeous creams and other decorations, but you can use any bendable cardboard)
glue
a big paintbrush
scissors
a stapler (not pictured)
permanent markers
glitter glue.

Let’s get started!

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