Category archive: diy

June 17, 2013

No Kickstarter Was Required: Glorious North Korean Cardboard Tank

Children of the great failed American devil, cower in fear at the awesome creative power of the glorious future leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. These children are all six months old, and this tank was fabricated...
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June 13, 2013

Made By Dad, By Scott Bedford, A Book Of Kid-Related Projects, Some Involving A Blowtorch

Non-minimalist illustrator and maker Scott Bedford has been blogging up all kinds of interesting kid-related projects at WhatIMade.com. And now he's got a book. Made By Dad is a bunch of toys, furniture, gifts, and whatevers you can make...
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June 12, 2013

Browning Crib By Aaron Coston

When devoted gun guy Aaron Coston found out his wife was expecting their first child, he knew what he had to do: design and build the kid a crib inspired by the craftsmanship and innovation of firearms legend John...
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June 4, 2013

Famous OTO Cardboard Food Truck Is Crowdsourcing Right Now

There are few things more annoying than an ice cream truck, especially when they just roll up like clockwork at your playground, and the half of the kids whose parents don't care what kind of crap they eat or...
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May 16, 2013

It's For You: Creative Playthings Cardboard Phonebooth

I have this 1967 Creative Playthings catalogue lying around somewhere, but I swear, I never noticed these cardboard play structures until John from Wary Meyers pointed out these photos on a recent eBay auction. First, yes, a flatpack Creative...
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May 9, 2013

Japanese Kids Always Have The Best Cardboard Play Kitchens

It hit me a few weeks ago when DT reader and Cargo Collective guru Amber sent along the cover of Ishikura Hiroyuki's DIY cardboard furniture book, Papa, Mama, tsukutte!: damn, that is a fine and simple cardboard play kitchen!...
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April 17, 2013

'Il Buon Mobile Per Bambini': Enzo Mari Kids Shelf

It's not that Enzo Mari has never designed kids' furniture. It's just that he hasn't designed nearly enough of it. Of course, there's the Play Wall, the beautiful corrugated cardboard folding screen from 1967. And there is the Seggiolina...
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April 16, 2013

Bamboo Stroller Hack

Here is a stroller turned into a vegetable cart, as photographed by Beatbeatrice at the Anilao Market in the Philippines. [instragram via @beabeatrice]...
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April 5, 2013

Kids Cardboard Lifestyle: The Cardboard Collective

Seriously, kids go through so much stuff, so quickly, it really all should be made of cardboard. And then it's like, seriously, just make that yourself. Which is a severe underselling of the awesomeness of Tokyo expat Amber's kids...
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April 3, 2013

Tokyo Street Art Coloring Pages By A Small Lab

Gaijin-turned-Edo-ko anthropologist Chris Berthelsen has spent years documenting the stickers, stencils, tags and graffiti of various neighborhoods around Shinjuku and Shibuya for his Tokyo Street Art Research Project. Until now the best way to see the fruits of his...
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March 29, 2013

Topaz Mountain Sleds By Dave Tatsuno & Bill Fujita

Dave Masaharu Tatsuno ran the dry goods store at Topaz Mountain, where Japanese Americans from the Bay Area were imprisoned during WWII. And he took a bunch of 8mm home movies, using color film which he'd pick up on...
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March 27, 2013

Calvin & Hobbes Nursery Murals

Finnish redditor Pellari recently got his/her sister to paint the mural for this sweet Calvin & Hobbes nursery, which comes complete with an awesome tree house/slide/toddler bed. Which, well done, and I can totally understand the appeal of the...
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March 13, 2013

WHOA, ADO Ride-On Cars

Maybe you spotted them in the background of Agata's photos from the ADO Speelgoed exhibition in Apeldoorn, Holland. Or maybe you clicked through to see the rest of her pictures on her blog at Rafa Kids, including the one...
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March 4, 2013

It's My Kind In A Box: Babyhok, The Dutch Baby Hutch

So that BBC story that DT reader Helena pointed us to the other day about Scandinavians kids being totally awesome and pink-cheeked and healthy all the time because their parents are parking them outside to sleep all winter elicited all...
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February 26, 2013

There's An ADO Speelgoed By Ko Verzuu Exhibition In Apeldoorn Until March 17.

Wow. You remember that amazing digital archive of ADO Speelgoed at the CODA Museum in the Netherlands? Well, there's an exhibition, too, and it runs through March 17. CODA (Cultur Onder Dak Apeldoorn) is in, obviously, Apeldoorn, in central Holland,...
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February 12, 2013

Do You Know Me? Wooden Mystery Bendy Snake

DT reader Michelle's brother recently scored this interesting-looking toy snake, and we've been stumped trying to figure out anything about it. Does anyone recognize it, either as a product, or perhaps a project/design? Or is it really just one...
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January 28, 2013

Ko Verzuu Made This Dollhouse

In 1927 Ko Verzuu made this dollhouse for the daughter of the director general of ADO, Dr. Willem Bronkhorst. It's pretty simple. I bet you could crank one out, too. Also, isn't 'poppenhuis' a fine word? Poppen-anything, really. Nice...
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January 17, 2013

Breast Beanie Is Best

There are many paths to the top of Mount Fuji. So I am totally fine to have learned about the Boob Beanie from DT's Amsterdam correspondent Jan, who saw an article in the Telegraaf about the the Australian Boob...
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January 16, 2013

Star Wars Bedroom Accessories

There is no Star Wars nerd big enough around here to warrant such monoculture, but the Force doesn't have to be that strong with you or your kid to appreciate the bedroom nerdmomblogger Mary Elle made for her Star...
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January 6, 2013

Resistance Is Futile: Circuit Playground Plush Toys Electronic Components

Maybe 2013 will be a good year after all. The super-friendly DIY electronics outfit adafruit has launched plushie plush toy1 versions of the little electronic component characters on Circuit Playground, their fun&easy electronics teaching app. Forget plush microbes and...
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December 25, 2012

Like-A-Pipe-Bike By Bruno Gavira

If you're looking for one more quick Christmas present project you can slam together in the garage while the cider's mulling, Spanish designer Bruno Gavira's got just the thing. It's a walking bike made entirely out of PVC pipe....
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December 24, 2012

Bun B's Rap Coloring & Activity Book

"Game is sad. He wants a new tattoo. Draw him one that covers up his butterfly." If ever a tumblr was destined for a book deal, it's Bun B's Rap Coloring Book. And of course, it happened the week...
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December 5, 2012

Parenting By Drone Meet Moore's Law

Oh, the sweet drone permasurveillance future cannot come soon enough. At least for Paul Wallich, who wrote in IEEE Spectrum about his first [!] attempt to build an Arduino-powered, video-chatcam and GPS-equipped, quadcopter drone to follow his son down...
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November 25, 2012

Modernists' Kids Had The Best Nurseries

In the wake of MoMA's Century Of the Child exhibition, Paul Makovsky at Metropolis Magazine has assembled an awesome collection of images and childhood stories from the offspring of mid-century modernist designers. There's György & Juliet Kepes' daughter Julie,...
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November 20, 2012

Turniture II: Rocking Plywood Playhouse/Bar By Lester Walker

Speaking of plans for cutting circles out of plywood in 1970, this popped up a few weeks ago on retronaut, and then I lost track of it. It's called Turniture II, a 4-in-1 convertible outdoor furniture project by architect...
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Vintage Plywood Rocker Surfaces In Microsoft Ad

As his mind was lost in thought, calculating how much toner the kid in this Microsoft Windows * commercial is burning through, eagle-eyed DT reader Erik was snapped back to reality by this nice, vintage-looking, kid-sized plywood rocking chair....
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November 8, 2012

Artists' Kids Always Have The Best Rooftop Treehouses

As if the guy who built an inflatable pipe organ as big as a football field could imagine any less. Sculptor Tim Hawkinson and his daughter started designing a treehouse when she was about 5. Now that she's 9,...
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October 22, 2012

Richard Prince Has A Bob Dylan Poster Dress.

I didn't notice it until Mondo reposted the images. But now that it's framed and seemingly tiny enough to be worn by a kid, I see that the artist Richard Prince has a Harry Gordon "Poster Dress" with Bob...
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October 15, 2012

I Count One Homeschooling Dad

There's a lot of Tiger Momming going on in this NY Magazine's profile of five NYC homeschooling families. Also a lot of momming in general. And one dad who taught one class once Antonin Dvorak. Also, parents saying things like...
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October 10, 2012

It's My Kid In A Norwegian Wood Box, Baby

Here is some Norwegian kid's Norse pine ply toddler bed-in-a-box--that, let's get real, has Kai Bojesen and other tchotchkes perched on top and is not rolling anywhere--shot by Danish photographer Kira Brandt, via a Swedish design blog, which got...
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October 1, 2012

Scrollable Harold And The Purple Crayon

In the spirit of that incredible, single-pane XKCD comic the other day, and because, inexplicably, no one else seems to have done it, Matt Haughey turned Harold and The Purple Crayon into a single image. Harold & The Purple...
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September 21, 2012

The Little Boy With The Dragon Tattoo

Illustrator to the stars PJ McQuade drew this awesome marker tattoo on his nephew's arm before the kid's first day of kindergarten. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you how it turned out. The Little Boy With The...
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September 2, 2012

Bid/Buy/Build: The Creative Playthings Slot-Together Dollhouse Is By Roger Limbrick.

It's funny, all this time it's been an awesome icon of 60s American modernist kids design, and I'd never actually wondered who made the Creative Playthings slot-together, openside doll house. The answer, which Andy knew all along: British designer...
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August 21, 2012

Dharma Mums: Monica & Joao's LOST Nursery

Considering how extensive Monica & Joao's movie and music collections are, I would expect this level of careful detail in whatever theme nursery they decided to make. It just happens that they chose Lost, and so there's a perfect-looking...
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August 18, 2012

Daddy Skills, By Sam D & DJ Dave

Damn, bro, I'm still trying to process the fact that DJDave, the killinest MC on the West Side of LA, who managed to rhyme with quinoa in "Whole Foods Parking Lot," is originally from Berkeley. Now you tell me...
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August 13, 2012

Grandma Made Awesome Doll Furniture

So now we're at my mother-in-law's house in southern Utah, and the kids have prevailed on my wife to get down her box of dolls. Which turns out to include this awesome set of dollhouse chairs my wife's grandmother...
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August 10, 2012

AT-AT Imperial Walker Made From Diaper Boxes

Kelly, a mom in New Zealand, made an AT-AT walker out of diaper boxes. I count either three or four boxes per AT-AT. So her dozen empty boxes should keep her busy until she finally gets on board with...
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August 8, 2012

DTQ: Why Did Putting Vicks Vaporub On The Kid's Feet Stop Her Cough?

So K2 woke up in the middle of the night with a sudden and intense cough, and had a really hard time even breathing; it seemed like a mid-night ER visit for sure, but I just sat her on the...
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July 16, 2012

Crib-Hack: A Chalkboardtop Desk

I don't know exactly which number it is, but "And it converts to a daybed!" has to be one of the biggest lies in the entire Crib Industrial Complex. Because the reality is, you either keep that crib out, and...
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July 6, 2012

The Tule Lake Collection

homemade scrapwood wagon at Tule Lake Relocation Center, img: Nat'l Archives rec. no 210-G-D32 07/01/1942, 70 years ago this week. That's when this photo was taken. I've been taking these things as I stumbled across them, one, two, or...
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July 5, 2012

July 05, 2012

We started these late in the afternoon, but we decided that a concept's a concept, and if they didn't finish them before bedtime, we'd destroy them. Fortunately, that did not happen. On Kawara: Date Painting(s) in New York and...
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June 27, 2012

OG Creative Playthings Supertanker

This vintage Creative Playthings tanker has the most unusual hull configuration I've seen since Karl Stromberg's Liparus. At 21 inches, it also has dimensions, parts, and construction techniques that look like they could be replicated easily in your Popular Mechanics-era...
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June 22, 2012

Everyone In Threadless

It's funny, until the moment I found out about it, I would have sworn that Gap and Threadless are at diametrically opposite ends of the fashion spectrum. But now that I see their collaboration--exclusive collections of Threadless artist t-shirts...
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June 20, 2012

Wax, Max, Ill Tracks

Yesterday YouTube rapping twins Wax and Herbal T released a new single, "Milk In My Sippy Cup". Wax's and Yesica Rodriguez's kid [I'm guessing] Max plays all the instruments, which are masterfully remixed right in EOM and Andrew Kurchinski's...
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June 17, 2012

Just In Case You Need To Make A Sock Doll

Here is a Depression-era sock doll with some wire around its neck, now in the collection of Jim Linderman. I think it behooves everyone with equity investments to at least review the technique for constructing such a doll, minus...
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June 16, 2012

School Of Rachel Harrison

It took me a long time to wise up to Rachel Harrison's art. Too long, in fact, and by the time I realized the intelligence and complexity of her sculptures, I couldn't afford them. Live and learn. Meanwhile, the...
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June 12, 2012

Looks Great, Less Fulfilling: Box Play Stickers

I think we can all agree that Box Play's stickers for recycling empty, little cardboard packaging into toys are awesome. As awesome as they are unnecessary. They're the Swiffer of imaginative play, a slick, quick, and highly satisfying replacement...
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May 22, 2012

Big Gulp, Son Of Clone Trooper

Here is a photograph of a Clone Trooper pushing a gun and a Coke in a stroller at the Maker Faire. Really not much I can add to it at this point. Cool Clothes and Styles of Maker Faire...
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May 16, 2012

Doug Harvey's Kids Sound Exhibition On The Phone, At 323 Projects

Well I don't know how this got by me. Los Angeles-based artist/curator Doug Harvey organized "The Patter Of Tiny Brains," an exhibition of audio of or by children, for the phone-based art gallery, 323 Projects. Basically, you can call...
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May 11, 2012

This Is How We Roll: Those Little Stick-On Vents Edition

Living near the National Zoo, our DC neighborhood gets more than its fair share of souped up daytripping whips. But I've seen this blingy Honda Odyssey a couple of times now, so this guy's either a neighbor or a...
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