Kids' Crafternoon Blog Tour and Give-Away (Closed)!

Winners of the give-away are: Greek blogger who left comment #13 (sewing) and Pip (paper craft). Thanks to all of you for your comments and interest in the books!

I am very pleased to be a stop on the Kids' Crafternoon blog tour. Each of the books in the Kids' Crafternoon series will be dedicated to a specific type of craft. The first two books (released in July)   contain papercraft and sewing projects. Each book has 25 projects designed for kids aged 7-12, but  I think many of the projects have an even broader age-appeal.

The series is edited by Kathreen Ricketson of Whipup, who kindly invited me to contribute a project to the sewing book (see my little scarf project here). Kathreen drew from a large and diverse pool of crafters around the world to come up with the projects that made their way into the books. I was very excited to see the finished books. They turned out beautifully! 

Rather than just talking about the books, I decided to try them out. I invited two of my favorite kids, Anthony and Katia, to look through the books, tell me what they liked and chose a project to do.

Both kids had a hard time choosing which thing they wanted to make. Katia deliberated between the "Pet Pillow" in the sewing book and "Home Sweet Home" in the papercraft book. Anthony initially chose the "Pet Menagerie" from the papercraft book, but settled on the "Cloudy Day Pillow."  Both books have a few decidedly feminine projects, but judging by Anthony's reaction, there are still plenty of projects with "boy appeal".

Papercrafting with Katia:

Katia chose the "Home Sweet Home" project by Cate Holst. This project involved customizing a photocopied template of a cute little stand-up house with bunnies and a fence. Katia also made herself a little backdrop and after I took the photo, she added a paper family to live in the house. 

Katia is a year younger than the target age for these books, but she enjoyed making this project and although she needed some assistance with  cutting out the bunnies and the fence, she was able to do the rest more or less on her own. Isn't her little house adorable? I love the vine-covered roof! 

Sewing with Anthony:

Anthony's made Claire Dollan's "Cloudy Day Pillow." Anthony's pillow actually took an afternoon plus a couple of hours the next morning. However, this was mostly because he had recently been introduced to tie-dying and wanted to customize his fabric (and, as it transpired, a pair of tube socks) before we got on to actual business of sewing of the pillow.

After a quick crash course on using the sewing machine, Anthony was able to complete the project on his own with a bit of technical advice from time to time. A kid with previous sewing experience would be able to make this project with very little assistance.   

I thought he did a wonderful job with the sewing and the tie-dyed fabric (red, white and blue to match the decor of his bedroom) really makes the pillow unique!

Want know more?

Visit the other stops on the Kids' Crafternoon Blog Tour for more peeks inside the covers:

1. 22 July Poppytalk (some pretty images from inside)
2. 23 July Picklebums (they made "Wall Flowers")
3. 24 July Little Eco Footprints (three little girls make Limbies)
4. 25 July Beaspoke quilts (check out the super cut patchwork version of the "Cloudy Day Pillow"!)
5. 26 July Maya Made (they made "Mini-Monster Pinatas")
6. 27 July Checkout girl (they made "Ipod Creature Cozy")
7. 28 July The red thread (Kathreen shares her top three reasons to encourage kids' creativity)
8. 29 July We Wilsons (they made "Paper Curtains)
9. 30 July Maggie Makes (Maggie made a "Pencil Pouch)
10. 31 July Mmm Crafts (Larissa interviews Kathreen about the books and coffee)
11. 1 August Domesticali (Ali interviews Kathreen)
12. 2 August Floating Ink (Kathreen talks about helping kids make the most of the crafting experience)
13. 3 August Elizabeth Abernathy (that's me!)
14. 4 August Mommy Coddle
15. 5 August The Long Thread
16. 6 August Hannah Fletcher
17. 7 August Between the lines
18. 8 August Go Make Me

Get Your Own!

You can get your very own copy from Amazon:

Give-Away:

Last but not least, Hardie Grant (the publisher) has provided me with a copy of each book to give away. To enter the drawing leave a comment on this post telling me which one you'd like to have (you can say "either one" to be entered in both drawings). I'll announce the winners of the drawings here on my blog on Wednesday, August 10. I'm happy to ship the books anywhere.