One of the biggest misconceptions people have about me as a graphic designer is that, since I spend so much of my time designing, illustrating, and thinking about design, I must enjoy arts and crafts. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Beyond drawing, there’s not much excitement for me in paper crafts like cutting, pasting, or scrapbooking. When people tell me about their exciting craft projects because they think I’ll be able to relate, I just nod my head and smile.

That said, having a toddler—and not having a television or car—has forced me to get crafty at times. It’s hard; I find it tedious. Draw for hours? Sure! Crafts? Uggghhh, shoot me.

Anyway, you get the point. I’m going on about this because I want you to know that if I can do it, you can do it. You may think you don’t have a creative bone in your body and that cutting and pasting with your toddler sounds like a dud afternoon, but not only can you do it, the delight on your toddler’s face will make it all worth it. I promise.

On to the craft! Okay, while my child was napping in the middle of the day, I pulled out paper and scissors (I’m not a crafter, so these things aren’t handy; I bought them the day before) and began cutting. I cut out a brown tree and a lot of green leaves. When he woke up, we, one-by-one, put glue on the back of everything and pasted them onto blue paper. It was so enjoyable for him to decide how the leaves would be arranged (though I had to gently redirect him at times, since he just wanted to stack all the leaves on top of each other).

When we were done, I pointed out an empty blue space on the left and asked what he wanted to put there. He said, “A ladybug!” So, I cut out a ladybug for him and we pasted that down, too.

The project is so bright and clean that it makes a great addition to his bedroom wall. He proudly shows it off to all our visitors.

Though I might as well be the one showing it off—I’m equally proud, if not prouder, of our accomplishment.