Tops in her class

South Floridian touts school crafts while competing on national TV.

Get kids excited about going back to school by crafting their own school supplies, suggests Miami DIY blogger Amber KempGerstel.

Kemp-Gerstel is one of eight “makers” competing in the new NBC show “Making It,” hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, on Tuesday nights. (10 p.m. on WTVJ-Ch. 6, WPTVCh. 5)

“Kids love it because you can personalize things,” she said. “And if your son — like my son — is obsessed with Paw Patrol, or if your daughter is obsessed with mermaids, crafting things and making things for back to school allows you to really personalize it to the things they are into.”

You can save time and money by creating your own school supplies, Kemp-Gerstel said, especially because personalized supplies are hard to find in stores and they often are much more expensive than generic supplies.

Her website, damasklove.com, has ideas to help families get started. “I have some back-to-school projects that help parents create personalized folders and notebooks and backpacks for their kids that they can take back to school and carry with pride,” Kemp-Gerstel said.

There’s a project for how to make pencil pouches that look like pineapples or strawberries. There are also projects for how to make a pencil case out of a mailing tube, a pillowcase tote bag and cool covers for composition notebooks.

There are benefits to working creatively with your kids, said Kemp-Gerstel, who was a child psychologist at the University of Miami before she started blogging full-time.

“Any activity that allows you to spend time with your kids in a joint play setting, allows you to give them positive feedback, allows you to comment on what they are doing and really focus on them, it is always going to be beneficial for the relationship, for their behavior, for their development,” she said.

Also, “when you craft with your kids, you feel like the stakes are a little less high because we don’t necessarily expect kids’ crafting to be perfect or pristine, and so when you craft with your kids you may have less anxiety around it. By doing that, you can get your creativity going and get yourself in the creative mindset.”

Kemp-Gerstel said parents shouldn’t be afraid of DIY if they aren’t “crafty” themselves. She recommends using craft kits, such as Kid Made Modern kits or kits sold at craft stores or Target.

“You can pick up a craft kit, create projects over the summer to fill the summer days … then use those craft projects as back-to-school projects” to help you get organized around the home, she said.

“Let’s say your kids paint a big canvas or something, you can maybe turn that canvas into the bulletin board for their homework once school starts, or you can turn it into where they hang their backpack.”

If you opt not to use a craft kit, Kemp-Gerstel recommended starting with the basics.

“Start with paper, start with canvas, start with paint. The basic things that allow you to craft with your kids will get your creative juices flowing.”

Although she recommends several tools on her website, such as the Cricket electronic cutting machine, Kemp-Gerstel cautions new crafters to start slow. “Don’t go to the craft store and spend $300 on craft supplies if you’re beginning,” she said. “Start with something really simple and do it. A lot of times people think they have to have a craft room full of stuff in order to be creative, and you just don’t.”