by Lenka

When my little girl was a baby, I wondered if I could make her a toy. I used wooden peg people from the local craft store and scraps of felt. A few stitches and a little glue later . . . And my daughter had her own set of seasonal gnomes, made by her own mom. I kept them on a shelf until she decided playing with toys was more fun than eating them. Now those gnomes are tokens for game boards that she draws herself, and pocket-friends, and family for little garden-houses that she builds out of sticks and leaves. Those little gnomes opened up the world of hand-crafted toys.

I taught second grade at the time, at the Nevada City School of the Arts in Northern California.I worked with our resident art teacher, Asia, to develop a handwork program for our school. We were already teaching students knitting.What if we taught our students how to make toys? We would help them make their own little gnome family, we decided. And make their own game boards.As we cut capes for sixty gnomes, we looked at one another."We're may be crazy," we said, "but we'll see what happens."We started with a gnome.Then we backtracked to teach them how to use a sewing needle and how to sew a running stitch or a whip stitch.

Magic happened.The expressions on their faces were precious.They rushed up to their mom or dad, "Look what I made. Imade!" And they treated their gnomes with a mixture of awe and disbelief.They didn't have to buy toys.They could make toys.

The experience inspired Asia and I to continue building and developing crafts for children.We brought fairies, star-babies, owl treasure-pillows, and many more whimsical crafts to classes from kindergarten through second grade.Last year, parents convinced Asia and I to write down our patterns (we keep most of them memorized).Forest Fairy Crafts was born.We are now on Etsy with patterns and craft-kits for families. In 2013, our first book was published with C&T Publishing. We are so proud!

My girl is not a baby anymore.Now she rushes to me with her sketchbook in hand."Look, Mom," she says, "Let's make this!"

Yes, let's make toys.