An Idea For Everyday Crafts - Everyday!

As January draws to a close, it's time to get more realistic about those new years resolutions.

One of my unspoken resolutions was to do more crafts with my boys. In a way, I started this during the Christmas season, choosing not to wait. As a family we made handprint wreaths and Christmas trees, my ten month old had a lot of fun with that one. I have lots of tools for crafting, my Cricut, my sewing machine, but these are not particularly good for little hands. Craft-a-Day: 365 Simple Handmade Projects by Sarah Goldschat gives me day to day crafts that interest me, but that don't exceed the constraints of a busy mom with little time and even littler hands available.

The book contains 365 simple projects based around fifty two theme weeks. The first week is snowflake week, February sees some Valentine crafts, December offers the usual Christmas goodies, but what piqued my interest were the many suggestions for the weeks without a 'natural' theme. There is a gnome week and a mustache week, there is a robot week and a hexagon week, truly something for every shade of geek in your home! This book can be used as a way of simply crafting more often, organizing pre-school activities, arranging homeschool projects that pull in all ages, or as a source book for themed birthday parties.

Most of the projects start with tracing paper. You trace the pre-designed images and transfer the template to that day's medium, be it felt, fabric or paper. Each project is on a single page of the book, meaning that instructions are never more complicated than they need to be, and projects never more adventurous than is manageable. Common projects are cake toppers, garlands, greetings cards and mobiles. For my three year old, it gives him the chance to become familiar with a new style of craft and re-visit it later, each time improving his skills in the area involved. Finger puppets are a favorite to play with, while garlands are perhaps the easiest to manage as a group craft.

I have been taught from a young age not to judge a book by it's cover, but as a self professed bibliophile, I have to judge a book by not only its cover, but also its contents, size, shape and feel. In imagery, the book is almost like a pinterest board in book form, collecting like minded things in one space, in a to-do list of creativity. The photography and graphics are complimentary, just artsy enough to be functional and fun. There are pictorial to-do guides, introducing you to the different methods used throughout the book. Size wise the book is 9 inches by 8 inches, with a hard glossy cover and at 432 pages carries some weight with it. It is a tactile and aesthetic pleasure to take hold off, and will certainly be a great and functional coffee table addition in any home, no matter how crafty.

You can visit the author's blog for more from Sarah, follow her daily crafting on pinterest, and you can download bonus projects at Quirk Books. There's even an app for that!

I was provided with a copy of this book for the purposes of this review.