Reloved Magazine in the UK features 3 of our Christmas book projects!

It's so lovely seeing our projects in magazines. We're so pleased that Reloved magazine in the UK chose our Glacial Lace Hangings, Stacked Christmas Trees and Bondi Beach baubles.

Best magazine in the UK features our Poinsettia sack in their Christmas edition!

This project is an extra special one in the book because we used beautiful fabrics, some screen printed by hand right here in Sydney, by Prints Charming Original Fabrics. This sack is reasonably quick and easy. The key is using really gorgeous bright fabrics. If you're in Australia you can buy printed Prints Charming fabrics in Spotlight.

Thanksgiving repost

Give thanks! Thanksgiving jar

I love the concept of giving thanks. And I think it's so vital that I teach my modern, technology loving kids to stop and think about what they're grateful for too. 

This sweet project is so quick to assemble that you'll have it done by Thanksgiving. You could substitute most of the materials. A shoebox would work and if you don't have a styrofoam ball then you can omit that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review: http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com.au

Monday, November 17, 2014

Craft It Up! Chirstmas Around the World -- Book Review

Disclosure: Ryland, Peters and Small gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am going to share with you a fun Christmas craft book that helps teach a little bit about various countries around the world. In August of 2013, I had the pleasure of reviewing Craft It Up Around the World. Now the same authors, Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong have a second book published, Craft It Up Christmas Around the World. 

This book is divided into three chapters: The Americas, Europe and Asia, Africa and Oceania. With countries in each area of the world a Christmas craft is shared as well as some information about Christmas in the country. Now I went through the book and marked crafts I thought Hazel and I would enjoy doing together and find easy enough for her to do somewhat by herself. I used green stickies and then I gave her the book and some orange stickies and asked her to mark the crafts she wanted to do. She marked all of them. She even marked the chapter pages and some of the second/third pages of instructions for the same crafts. I then asked her to mark her top three crafts by putting an extra sticky on those pages. I had trouble finding them because our book looks like this:

Before she started marking, we did one craft however. I knew she would love the Rockefeller Ice Queens craft from the United States. We have not added the threads to any of the ornaments we made yet (I have been lazy). 

The craft is an easy one. A template for the skater is provided. I copied it onto cardstock and then we cut them out. The skirts are doilies and then the beads add some decoration. Hazel talked about drawing on faces, but never did. The fun fact was about the opening of the ice rink in Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Our second craft was the "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" Snowflakes representing Argentina. We had fun searching through the beads for clear and white ones and added some silver sparkles as well. Hazel grew bored of beading hers, but I noticed her working on it this morning again. I am thinking we will hang them for her Frozen themed birthday party this year!

Hazel hard at work

 Hazel had fun coming up with patterns for each branch. I love watching her make her patterns like she does in school. The tidbit relating this craft to Argentina is that with the European influence in Argentina, they decorate their trees with cotton and such to represent snow.

The third craft (and last one we finished so far) is the Sweetness and Light Centerpiece representing Colombia. I was a little surprised that Hazel wanted to do this one as one of her top three. We changed it a bit. I knew Steve would not like us using a real candle with felt around it and Hazel can turn on and off the battery operated ones, so we used a white batter operated one. We also did not have purple-red felt, so we used purple felt. We also did not sew the line on the leaves since I could not find my green floss. 

 Since we did not use a real candle we also used a paper plate as our bottom instead of a cork circle. As a result we had to add a flower. Hazel had fun cutting the fringe for the fringe flowers while I cut the other pieces and did the hot gluing. She is so proud of this craft and has been telling everyone about it. The candle related to Colombia since the official Christmas season starts in Colombia with the Day of the Candles--December 7th. 

 We also started her third favorite which is "Make a Scene" Terrarium representing the Czech Republic. Since it is a more detailed craft that is going to involve more from me, we did not get very far. We made the snowman for her terrarium so far. Next we will make the skater and then find the right jar to put it all in. The connection to the Czech Republic is that ice skating is very popular there at Christmas time. 

I have to recommend this book for anyone who likes fun crafts and especially Christmas crafts. We have had so much fun making the few crafts we have already done, and I know we will be making more from it. Although I do not feel like it shares as much information about the countries as the first one, I do like the Fun Facts they do share. It gives just a tidbit of the information, but that is always enough to spark interest and perhaps do a bit more research to learn more about each country. Many of the craft ideas are new and fresh and not what I see everywhere. As you can tell from how our book looks, we will be working on more of their ideas over the next month and a half.

Our beautiful wreath on the contents page of The Green Parent magazine in the UK

Stoked that one of my favourite projects from the book is featured on the contents page of The Green Parent magazine in the UK. This is such a simple but pretty project. And a hot glue gun speeds things up a treat if you're into instant craft gratification. Like me.

Tiny Table Top Tree

This Tiny Table Top Tree was one of the biggest Christmas hits of last year. Start collecting pinecones now and you could have these sweet Christmas trees running down the centre of your Christmas table. For sparkle, dip the edges in glitter, or use some silver thread for tinsel.

How to make a Pay it Forward Advent Calendar from Craft it Up Christmas ...

We love a chocolate Advent calendar as much as the next person. But we were thinking, wouldn't it be good to give something back in the days leading up to Christmas, instead of taking? The divine Jen at CICO books has made a fabulous You Tube tutorial so you can make one just in time for the 1st of December!

Warrior princess dolly peg

Here at Craft It Up HQ we love a fairy doll as much as the next gal. But we also love strong, wise warrior dolls too! Let your girls role play with girl power with these wise warrior dolly pegs! Smaller girls could skip the paper altogether and just paint clothes on! This project was part of the shoot we did with the wonderful Tickle The Imagination Magazine.

REVIEW: Craft It Up Christmas Around the World 

http://ukhandmade.co.uk/content/review-craft-it-christmas-around-world

Review by Maggy Woodley of Red Ted Art

I was very much looking forward to receiving Craft it Up Christmas Around the World and having a good old browse. Basically, I LOVE Christmas and I think that it is a particularly wonderful time of year to craft with the kids. For me it is all about cozy afternoons together, huddled around a table and creating new things, maybe a Christmas Ornament to keep or a gift for a family member. It is all about memory making and that warm festive feel! I was also very interested to see the book because of the “Around the World” element. I love traditional crafts from around the world that have been passed down through the generations and define childhoold crafting. For me that means making Walnut Babies and Foil Angels, as I have vivid memories from my own Germanic childhood of making these.

When the book arrived it was immediately hijacked by my daughter (aged 4.5 years), then later by my son (aged 6 years). All I could hear from my daughter were delighted little exclamations of “Ooh, Mama, take a look at this, you can make button trees” and “Awwww, these little hearts are so cute” and “Can we make these please?”. Later, when I was finally allowed to get my hands on the book, the three of us browsed through it together; my son loved checking out which country we were in and I enjoyed reading out the different country specific facts to them.

There are number of cute projects that we are definitely keen to try. My son loves the Santa Cards, my daughter wants to make the Pom Pom Christkind, whilst I rather like the idea of the Jingle Bracelets. Having said all that… I have to confess, I was a little disappointed by the “around the world” element of the book. Yes I did like the little country specific facts, that was definitely up my street, but the crafts, although relating to the given fact were (mostly) not what I would call a traditional craft from a specific country (which is what I was expecting). If you are simply interested in the quirky information about different countries and a craft that relates to that information, than this is indeed a lovely Christmas Craft book from around the world. If like me, you come with “traditional” interests and expectations then it is a little disappointing. 

I think this book would make a great gift for kids, they will enjoy reading through the projects and are probably able to do a majority of them unaided (aged 8 years +, younger children will need assistance, which of course is fine as it is all part of the Christmas craft memory making). If you are an avid user of Pinterest, a number of these crafts will look familiar to you, but they are brought together in a lovely and approachable format.

Craft It Up Christmas Around The World
Libby Abadee & Cath Armstrong

RRP: £9.99
CICO Books

ISBN-10: 1782491562
ISBN-13: 978-1782491569

Craft It Up Christmas available now!

Our beautiful book Craft It Up Christmas Around The World is available now online and from all good bookstores.

This would be a fantastic addition to a pre-Christmas craft party. Just add wine...or milk and cookies!

I can see it rolled up in a stocking too. So maybe tip off Santa now? Or play Santa and buy it for all your pals!

Craft It Up Around The World and Craft It Up Christmas Around The World by Abadee and Armstrong are available from all good bookstores, online and also from our publisher.

http://www.rylandpeters.com/ourshop/craft/craft-it-up-christmas-around-the-world

http://www.rylandpeters.com/ourshop/craft-it-up-around-the-world

Quick jazzed up jam jar

This jar was made for the Tickle The Imagination magazine shoot we did recently. The issue is out now and available from their website http://www.tickletheimagination.com.au It's such a gorgeous magazine. Hop on over and see if you can snap up some back issues too.

For this quick project we used a jam jar with a lid, which makes the perfect size for storing tiny treasures or everyday items like paper clips, rubbers or even a few rolls of washi tape! Glass jars are awesome. They're widely available, inexpensive and environmentally friendly. 

We used some gorgeous fabric tape from our friends at Sarbe www.sarbe.com.au The middle tape is a glittery paper tape. Washi tape would also work really well.