Magazine Magic

"I'm bored," my daughter, Grace, says.

She's sitting in my office while I rush to meet a work deadline. She's 6 and very good at her job — which at the moment seems to be that of pooh-poohing every suggestion I come up with for entertaining herself for the next half hour.

I'm on a roll and really don't want to go downstairs so I look around for distractions in my office. Stacks of old magazines and office supplies don't hold much hope but then I spot a piece of poster board and it all comes together.

"Look," I say, grabbing a fat black marker and ruler and drawing lines to create a house shape on the poster board. "Your job is to decorate this house while Mama finishes her work."

"How?" She sounds skeptical. I hand her some scissors, a glue stick, and a magazine.

"Flip through here and cut out things that you want in your house then paste them in the rooms," I say.

"Can I have a kitten?" she asks, looking at an ad for cat food.

"Sure," I say. "It's your house, so anything goes."

Buoyed by carte blanche, Grace gets busy while I jump back on my computer.

Thirty minutes later I'm finished and Grace is still engrossed in her design project. Her dream house looks like a commune with a zoo. A pet dwells in every room — a cat in her bedroom, a hamster in the kitchen, goldfish in the bathrooms, and horses in the backyard. Mom and Dad's room boasts a big canopy bed and bunk beds for Grace and her little brother.

She's so inspired that the house requires an addition, which I fashion from copy paper taped to the edges. We have so much fun that, later, I search online for more magazine-inspired crafts and find a magazine mosaic project at FamilyFun.com.

"Can I make a kitten mosaic?" Grace wants to know. "Of course, it's your mosaic," I reply. Like she even has to ask.