Made By Dad: 67 Blueprints for Making Cool Stuff

(Paperback)

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Description

The Snail Soup Can Decoy to keep the candy stash safe. The Customizable Keep Out Sign to deter meddlesome siblings and parents. A Bunk Bed Communicator made from cardboard tubes (" Psst Can you keep the snoring down "). Clever, whimsical, and kind of genius, here are 67 unique projects that will turn any dad with DIY leanings into a mad scientist hero that his kid(s) will adore.No screens, no hi-tech gadgetry. "Made by Dad" combines the rough-edged, handmade ethos of a Boy Scout manual or "The Dangerous Book for Boys" with a sly sense of humor that kids love. Scott Bedford, a creative director by day and Webby Award winning blogger by nights and weekends, wields an X-ACTO knife, magic marker, and prodigious imagination to create endlessly delightful projects for his two sons. He knows that kids like contraptions and gadgets, things that are surprising a chair that appears to be balanced on eggshells. Things that are complex a multilevel city, with buildings, tunnels, and roads, built from old boxes around the legs of a table. And especially things with humor the Snappy Toast Rack, made to resemble a crocodile s gaping mouth. The projects are shown in full-color photographs, and the instructions are illustrated in detailed line drawings that exude personality. Some are quick and simple enough to be done in a coffee shop; others are more of an afternoon project yielding hours and hours of rich, imaginative playtime."

Reviews

Made by Dad: 67 Blueprints for Making Cool Stuff by Scott Bedford is so good it hurtscause you know that if your own dad had had this book in his hands, your childhood would have totally rocked. Chock-full doesnt even come close to describing the teeming nature of this tome. The fun photos, cool diagrams, clear instructions and handy cut-out templates run the gamut from wacky home decorations and gadgets (like setting up a Bunk Bed Communicator) to subversively educational science projects (like getting sucked into a Gravity-Defying Black Hole) to zany party ideas (like making Radioactive Sports Drinks).

BookPage

Hey, dad, want to ratchet up your coolness quotient Pick up a copy of Scott Bedfords new book.

Chicago Tribune

I made the mistake of leaving this book on the coffee table recently where my nearly 5-year-old scooped it up, spent 30 minutes paging through it and then cornered me in the kitchen with a list of projects from it he wanted to make. . . .Moms, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and friendly neighbors would all make good ring leaders for these projects. . . .My son was enchanted.
ApartmentTherapy.com

A treasury of 67 clever, exciting and imaginative projects. ... Getting kids to make and create instead of simply consume and use is a challenge for parents. ... Made by Dad provides a good place to begin.
Wall Street Journal

Remember all the crazy things you made as a kid, like ramps for toy cars or contraptions for pulling pranks In his first book, illustrator Bedford, who also blogs at What I Made, gets in touch with his inner child. With a host of silly projects, this title is directed at parents looking for interactive activities for their children. . . . Whats not to love This engaging compilation is clever and entertaining. A fantastic book.
Library Journal

Author Bio

Scott Bedford is, by day, creative director at Velti, an ad agency, and by nights (and weekends) a Webby Award-winning blogger and occasional columnist for Make magazine who creates really cool stuff with and for his two young sons. Scott lives with his family in London.