Review: http://www.allfreekidscrafts.com

Craft It Up: Christmas Around the World Review

    

      

Craft It Up: Christmas Around the World Review
Gifted by: Cico Kidz
Reviewed by Christina Hammond, Editor of AllFreeKidsCrafts.com

Christmas traditions around the world vary widely, yet all are just as magical as the last. Whether it's wearing bells around your wrist in Cuba, star gazing in India, or dancing with the Rockettes in New York City, there are many wonderful Christmas traditional around the world. In Craft It Up: Christmas Around the World, authors Libby Arabee and Cath Armstrong have gathered 35 fun crafts projects inspired by their travels around the world.  

You'll love this book; not only is it filled with wonderful Christmas crafts for the kids to make, but the authors have also given us plenty of fun facts about holiday traditions around the world.  Kids and adults are sure to learn something new while making some fun worldly Christmas crafts.  For example, not only will you have fun making a clothespin pom pom angel, you will also learn about Austria's tradition of the “Christkind,” the traditional Christmas gift-giver. And because the book is categorized by region, you can have the kids work their way around the globe. What a fun way to learn about the Christmas traditions around the world while having a blast with your family!

While the projects vary in skill level and use a variety of techniques, each project is beautifully photographed and includes simple step-by-step instructions, helping your little ones achieve delightful results. There are even some delicious treats to make, which are sure to get the kids excited to help in the kitchen. Get the kids involved and let their imaginations run wild as they make some magical and inspirational treasures. All of the projects in this festive book will make fantastic keepsakes or gifts for loved ones. 

No matter what projects you decide to make from this creative collection, everyone is sure to have a blast unleashing their creative abilities and learning about how things are done around the world. Kids will be proud to see their handiwork spreading happiness and the Christmas spirit. Craft It Up: Christmas Around the World is sure to be a holiday book you reach for again and again.

Read more at http://www.allfreekidscrafts.com/Book-Reviews/Craft-It-Up-Christmas-Around-the-World-Review#2cS1gzx3UawWWg3C.99

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.

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 Around The World: Christmas

Unbelievably excited today to bring you news of our beautiful Christmas craft book! Called Craft It Up Around The World: Christmas, it is already available online for pre-order!

How awesome is that! Release date is August.

We had so much fun making the book and we think you're going to love it! Christmas is such a special time and what could be lovelier than making heirloom crafts with your family?

This is what Amazon say about the book...

'Bring Christmas from around the world into your home with these beautiful treasures. Ice-skating in New York? Gazing at starry nights in India? Jingling bells around your wrist as they do in Cuba? Let your imagination take flight, and join in a whole host of celebratory traditions from around the globe by making beautiful treasures, either as keepsakes or gifts. Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong, both keen travellers, have discovered Christmas traditions from around the world and cleverly adapted them into 35 accessible craft projects, complete with fun facts about each country. Not only will you love making a gorgeous Ice Queen, you will learn when and why the ice rink was installed at Christmas time at New York's Rockefeller Centre. From composing a Uruguayan crib scene to making a Japanese origami gift box, you can indulge your creative ability while learning about how things are done in other countries. Follow the simple step-by-step instructions and clear photographs to achieve delightful results. Christmas is a time of giving and spreading joy among friends and family, and this book presents a magical and inspirational way to help you do just that.'

Book giveaway!

Here in Sydney we've just started 2 weeks of school holidays. If you're looking for ways to entertain the kids then look no further! We've got a shiny new copy of the book to give away!

 

Just leave a comment here, inbox us on Facebook or email us at craftitup (at) live (dot) com (dot) au

And because it's Spring here in Sydney, the sun is shining and we're feeling happy...we'll send the book out to you wherever you are!

The winner will be picked on Wednesday which gives us enough time to get the book to you in time for the second week of the holidays! Yippee!

 

Gorgeous review from Jenny from The Gingerbread House

reposted from http://www.rylandpeters.com/blog/craft-your-way-around-the-globe/

Craft your way around the globe

A few weeks ago, we sent out a review copy of the forthcoming 'Craft it Up Around the World' to one of our favourite bloggers, Jenny Kearney (aka The Gingerbread Mum). Here's what she made of the book:
The cold wet weather has kept us indoors the last few days. Fortunately we were sent a really fun craft book which has kept us busy and helped us explore new things. Craft It Up Around The World brings the great wide world into the home with 35 travel-inspired craft projects! The toddler and I enjoyed sitting down and looking through it together, we’ve already chosen a couple of fun projects to do.

The authors, Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong have created Craft It Up Around The World to inspire children to look at the world around them in a new way. They can discover the Americas by bagging themselves a potato print tote from Argentina and painted pebbles with Colombian rainforest designs. Other projects include making a bouquet of Dutch felt tulips and creating salt dough coins fit for the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Children can celebrate the wonder of Asia with a Japanese sushi brooch and make their own Vietnamese juice box boat like the boats in Ha Long Bay. They will love creating African art by making a Ghanaian clay bead necklace, and will remember Sydney, Australia forever with their very own memory jar.
We tried “The Mounties Always Get Their (Gingerbread) Man. I think you can probably guess that they didn’t last long enough to be iced.

Next we made Howard’s Treasure Hunt Bottle with the treasures we picked up from the beach last weekend.

Today we’ve been working on the Yarn Bombed “Baaaaaaa” Stool but I have to admit that both children have been looking at me like I’m mad! My toddler doesn’t quite understand about other countries but I’d like to think he’s beginning to grasp the concept of different people and cultures and this book will definitely help.
This is such a lovely craft book. Well illustrated with clear instructions, makes it accessible for many ages. Most of the crafts can be completed with items you already have around the home which makes this a great book for all ages and abilities. It’s brilliant to have such an unusual craft book on our craft shelves, who wouldn’t want to craft their way around the globe and learn some fun facts about other cultures and countries along the way!?

Craft It Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Kidz and is available from all good bookshops or online outlets.

About our guest blogger:

My name is Jenny and I’ve been blogging here since 2005 about London life, crafts, baking (we love gingerbread!) and life with two children. I’m a mother of two small terrors who never sleep – Big Brother the toddler and Little Sis his baby sister. You can find me here on twitter. I love to blog and also write a parenting photoblog, a family history blog and baking blog called flour sugar eggs and butter.

Great review from http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Craft It Up Around the World book review

Today I have the pleasure of review a wonderful book called Craft It Up

Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong.  Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. This book was sent to me by CICO Books to review here, and I have to say I am so pleased to do so. The book contains 35 craft projects from different places throughout the world. The crafts are meant for children to do, and if they are older than Hazel, they will not need much help from an adult. The authors are currently based in Sydney, Australia, but between the two of them they have lived in many parts of the world and are trying to inspire children to look at the world around them and learn more about other places. I have to say it is the perfect book to go along with our multicultural adventures between our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, Virtual Flat Stanley and Around the World in 12 Dishes.

One of the things I really like about this book is several of the crafts use recycled materials. The first craft I want to share is this wonderful map bunting. You could focus your circles to be spots you have lived, visited or want to visit, or you can do what we did and just take any place to be included. Hazel enjoyed helping me sew these circles together into the bunting. As we did this I thought it would be neat for a birthday party with a world travel theme. Really this book would be perfect for it. Now to convince Hazel of this idea.

To make this bunting I used one of Steve's outdated Atlas books. I had planned on going to AAA for a free world map, but didn't make it there, so I asked Steve to see what he had. I figured it was even better to use a book he didn't need or want anymore. I did not have a big enough circle punch, so I traced a glass and cut the circle myself. It really took no time at all to make a pretty long bunting. Now we are going to hang it on Hazel's tree in her room.

After that we made some of the crafts to go with the countries we have already "visited" this year. We made the Easy Peasy Felt Tulips for the Netherlands. Hazel is using them as the centerpiece on her play kitchen table. Great craft for springtime.

We made the Saving for a Snowy Day for Finland. He is made from a recycled smoothie container. We will be saving him for the winter. This is a great craft for the winter.

For Spain we made Click Clack Button Castanets. Hazel hasn't tried them since the glue was drying, but I did. She will love them, and she got to pick out the scrapbook paper we used. I made them a bit smaller than the instructions called for, but I thought this would help Hazel use them. This would be a great craft for any Spanish themed lesson or party.

For France I made the "Ooh La La" Pretty Parisian Embroidery. We will hang it in Hazel's room. She probably could have helped with some of the sewing, but I made it while she was in bed. She did however help me cut the fabric for the project. Again, wouldn't this be a perfect decoration for a world travel themed party.

The final craft idea I will share is for Egypt (this month's destination for Around the World in 12 Dishes) and it is Howard's Treasure Hunt Bottle. It is a recycled jar filled with some Egyptian objects and sand. I added on it a print out of the Egyptian flag and map. We used objects from Safari Ltd. Miniature Replica Toobs. Some we had and we picked up the Ancient Egypt one the other day at Michaels with our 40% off coupon.

We also included a bird amulet and a cat statue.

So Craft It Up Around the World is a great book full of ideas for kids who are exploring the world. The book includes a picture of the country's flag and shape of the country as well as some interesting facts about the countries. There are a variety of crafts calling on different skills, so they will appeal to both boys and girls of different ages. Again Craft it Up Around the World by Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong is published by CICO Books at £9.99 and is available from www.rylandpeters.com. You can look for more great crafts from this book as we explore the world through all of our fun adventures as well!!