 FREE Excerpt: Hot Air Balloon craft  Joe:
I'd like to welcome our guest today, Debbie Barnhill who has a really useful book
on how to make all sorts of interesting box crafts for all sorts of occasions including
Valentine's Day called Class Winning
3-Dimensional Valentine Boxes. All you have to do is save your empty
cardboard boxes, oatmeal and coffee containers, carpet tubes, newspapers, paper-towel
rolls and other househol items and it is amazing how you can convert trash into treasure.
Debbie's book features step-by-step instrictions with beautiful illustrations and we are
featuring one of the crafts in the book called Hot Air Balloon.
How did you come to chose Valentine's Day as the
inspiration for this book?
 Debbie:
As an elementary school teacher I have seen the valentine box evolve over the
years. Children used to decorate paper sacks and shoe boxes and bring them to school
to collect their valentine cards in.  In
the last few years students have started making and bringing unique 3-dimensional replicas
of real life things such as animals and forms of transportation. The students who bring
these boxes usually have creative parents with ample time to spend helping their children
create these boxes. These students' boxes are always the center of attention on Valentine's Day.
Joe:
Your book is a very unusual book with very creative ideas and backed up with easy
to use pictures. How did you manage to come up with the idea for this book and what
difficulties did you encounter as you were trying to get your book published?
 Debbie:
As my own children grew and entered grade school I was forced to come up with
creative ideas for making their valentine boxes so they could fit in with their
peers. The kids and I made our first boxes out of an oatmeal container and a carpet
tube. After making these boxes I found myself looking at empty food containers that
I normally throw away and imagining the different kinds of boxes I could make out of
them. I came up with so many ideas that I sat down and started making them. I
wrote directions and made patterns as I made each box. I figured there were many
creatively deficient, time impaired, loving parents out there who deserved and could use
these boxes, but would not otherwise have the time to come up with the ideas. Most
of the boxes in the book take under an hour to make.
 Once I finished writing the book and had it arranged on each page
exactly as I wanted; I went around to printers getting quotes on having the book
published. I was astounded when I learned how much it costs to print a book. This
set me back for a while. I do not like to borrow money, but I believed in this book
and that others would benefit from it so I went to the bank and asked for the loan.
The banker looked at my income as a single parent and was hesitant-- he said he'd have to
see this book before he could loan that much money. I brought him a draft copy of the book
and he was so impressed he wrote the contract for the loan that same day.
Joe:
Did your children, Dana and Branson, take a role in fine tuning the crafts? How old
are they now and what are their interests?
Debbie:
My children loved the creative processes of making the boxes and seeing the final
outcomes. They would save wrappers and containers from everything they used and ask
me if we could make anything out of them. They came up with some pretty good suggestions
and we worked together to create many of the boxes.
Dana is 8 years old and Branson is 7. They are both involved in scouts and our
church's youth group. Dana is artistic and says she wants to be an artist when she
grows up. Branson wants to be a police officer and a teacher when he grows up.
Joe:
Could these boxes be used for occasions other than Valentine's
Day?
Debbie:
In the book, I suggest alternative uses for the boxes. They are all sturdy
enough to be used for children's banks after Valentine's Day.
Some of the boxes would make good Vacation Bible School and Sunday School projects.
Others could be used to collect donations for civic programs like the humane society.
There is a rocket in the book that could be used as part of a science fair project.
There are a couple boxes that would work nicely at Christmas time and the Fourth of
July. These boxes and their alternative uses really help build self-esteem,
creativity, and civic awareness and responsibility in children.
Joe:
Do you plan to make another book with different theme?
Debbie:
I have started researching Supreme Court Justices and plan to write a series of
children's books that will introduce them to some of the most notable justices. I
would like to write the life stories of Sandra Day O'Connor, Thurgood Marshall, Oliver
Wendell Holmes and a few other justices in children's terms. Hopefully these stories
will inspire and instill qualities of patriotism, fairness and determination in the
children who read them.
Joe:
Well, we will certainly look forward to seeing that. Thanks Debbie for stopping
by and sharing withus today. I would now like to invite everyone to see on eof Debbie's
crafts from her book, Class Winning
3-Dimensional Valentine Boxes.
Paper Mache Hot Air Balloon
Reprinted by permission of the author from
"Class
Winning 3-Dimensional Valentine Boxes" All rights reserved. This may not be
reprinted without the express written permission of the author © 1999 Debra Barnhill
FREE Excerpt:
Hot Air Balloon craft |
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