Pronto passport pouch!

If you're anything like us you'll love the thrill of travelling but not the airport bits where you have to produce your documents from the depths of your bags whilst juggling kids, belts, shoes and iPads! If this sounds familiar then this project is going to make things a little easier.

We've used the brightest felt, so you'll always be able to find your passport in your bag...even after a long haul!

You only need a button, thread and felt, so it's super cheap too.

You could even add a ribbon to the top to hang round your neck...or make a larger one to fit the whole family's passports!

Bon voyage!

Reader pics: Jamaica: "Bang on Time" Tin Can Drum

How good is this? One of our awesome readers Zara made this drum. Love the way she has used 2 very different patterns and such a vibrant colour!

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!

 

A sneak peak at our Cuba project!

Did you know that one of the best times to visit Cuba is right now, in August? This is because the weather is starting to cool down a bit and that means less tourists!

If a trip to Cuba is just out of your reach right now, then why not have a look at the Cars of Cuba Collection project in our book Craft It Up Around The World? We've used paint cards to make a cool framed picture. And since paint cards are free, we reckon it's probably cheaper than a trip to Cuba too!

 

Need a copy of our book? Visit your local bookstore and order a copy or go online. One of our suppliers is Book Depository, who offer free post worldwide.

 

http://www.bookdepository.com/Craft-it-Up-Around-World-Libby-Abadee/9781782490388

 



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!!

Love this post from our publishers CICO books!

Posted on August 16, 2013

School's Out!

Week four of the school holidays and time might be starting to drag, as it seems a different source of entertainment needs to be plucked from thin air with each passing day!  Here at RPS and CICO books we have ideas galore to get you and the kids through the last two weeks of the holidays!

A Perfect Day For a Picnic

How does a teddy bear picnic sound? Or a seaside snack? Take advantage of the gorgeous weather with a picnic of home-made sausage and squished tomato rolls. Turn the preparation itself into an activity by encouraging your children to join in, or whip up a feast and invite all your family and friends. Just don’t forget to invite Teddy!


Craft It Up Around the World

If you’re stuck inside during the holidays, try making these wonderful butterfly fridge magnets – or even if it’s still sunny, make them out in the garden and pop them on the fridge to keep the essence of summer alive all year round!

You will need:

• Florists’ wire
• 2 wooden dolly clothespins
• Glue
• Acrylic paints of your color choice
• Paintbrush
• Black permanent marker
• Coffee filter papers (large and small)
• Paper towel
• Food coloring
• Magnet

1. Cut a length of florists’ wire in half and wrap it once around the neck of a dolly clothespin. Twist it, and secure it with a small dab of glue to the back of the clothespin.



2. Paint your clothespins. Be sure to paint in between the clothespin legs because the bottom part will remain visible. Allow the paint to dry and then, using a permanent black pen, mark in facial details such as eyes and mouth.



3. Use an extra dolly clothespin to curl the florists’ wire you have attached to the first two clothespins to make butterfly antenna shapes.



4. Take two coffee filters and on one draw a large wing and on the other draw a smaller wing of the same design. Cut them out leaving the bottom join of the coffee filter paper intact.



5. Put your filter papers on the paper towel and place drops of food coloring onto the opened papers. Keep the design symmetrical by doing the same to both sides. Repeat the process for your smaller butterfly wings.



6. When the colored papers are dry, place the wings together and push them up between the clothespin legs. Glue a magnet on the back of the clothespin.



You can find the original post here:

http://www.rylandpeters.com/US/blog/schools-out/

Happy Thursday!

We're celebrating our gorgeous book Craft It Up Around The World today! It's in the top 100 Crafts for Children books on Amazon in the US and the UK!

You can buy a copy from our publishers:

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

Book review from www.mummyslittlestars.com

The awesome Fiona from http://mummyslittlestars.com/ has written us a great review! '

 

We love hearing what you've been trying out from our book and Fiona's daughter Miss M has done a brilliant job with our 'Three (Salt Dough) Coins in the Fountain'. We love that she's linked it to stories of her travels and a little educational maths play too!

 

And what's not to love about a rainbow craft project!

 

Thank you Fiona and Miss M and we hope you continue to enjoy the book and the projects on the blog!

 

Craft It Up Around the World – Fun Travel Inspired Craft ideas – Book Review

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Mummy's Little Stars    

With Miss M being a huge fan of anything craft related, we were really pleased to receive the new Craft It Up – Around the World book by Cico Books.  The chapters are broken down into continents with themed craft ideas for a selection of countries within each continent.  Each craft is beautifully illustrated over a couple of pages in a high quality book.
With Miss M having just finished her foundation year in school, one of the major topics she covered in the final term was different countries and cultures around the world.  This book gave us lots of talking points and ideas which not only broadened her crafting skills but helped build her knowledge of the world and different countries.
We had a look through and were inspired by many ideas – we have a constantly growing list of ideas that Miss is keen to try from the Greek Paper Crown Wreath, to the Snowman from Finland and the Austrian Paper Dolly Choir.

The idea that Miss M most wanted to try first was the Coins in the Fountain, an idea inspired by the Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy.  This was quite close to my heart as I had visiting here with daddy before the children were born, so I dug out some pictures and we had a little talk about Rome and Italy and some of the famous sites you can see there.

The idea of this craft is to make Salt Dough (using just salt/flour/oil – all of which we had in the house) and then cutting out some coin shapes to represent the coins that you would normally throw into the Trevi Fountain.  These are then painted and can be used for any sort of imaginative play or for number work – a key thing for Miss M right now as she is learning the basics of addition and subtraction.

First of all we mixed the ingredients to make the dough, then rolled it out before using a cutter to make the coin shapes.  We then used the blunt end of a small paintbrush to create holes and number designs across the coins.  Once completed these were baked in the oven until hard.  Miss M absolutely loved doing this and was totally enthusiastic eager to be involved at every stage.  She did let me help with the numbers but did instruct me what number to put on each coin!

Once the salt dough was baked and cooled we then had the exciting part of painting it.  Miss M decided that she wanted rainbow coloured coins so set to work painting her designs.

Once they were finished and dry, I have to admit that they did seem quite impressive.  Miss M had spent a whole day crafting to create them.  They are quite strong and should last with reasonable play.  Miss M intends on using hers for maths and adding up the numbers on the coins.  She has also laid them all out across the floor to make number lines in order and the five times table.

I love these salt dough coins.  I have never tried salt dough before but am impressed with how easy it was to form a dough, and think that it’s a great idea to bake it to create permanent artwork.  Our coins are brightly coloured and Miss M loves using them to practice her numbers and simple maths.  A great craft that I’d never have done without the inspiration from the book, and salt dough is definitely something you can use to make other crafty pieces.

The book Craft It Up – Around the World is full of inspiration from around the world of things to make that your children will love.  We have a list of things to make next and love that there’s an educational aspect too.  With each new project, is a new country, bringing new topics for Miss M to think about and she is always full of questions about the topic we are covering.  We’ve love the Craft Around the World book from Cico Books and it will continue to inspire us for many further months.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Three cheeky peeks to brighten your Monday!

 Canada: 'The Mounties Always Get Their (Gingerbread) Man'

 Brazil: A Flutter of Colour

 United States of America: 'Stick With Me' Magnet Pencil Tin

We're so proud of our book that we want to show you how gorgeous each page is! Here are 3 projects from Chapter 1, The Americas and Antarctic, to inspire your week!

Book release day in Australia!

We shared our book release with some wonderful friends at the fabulous Prints Charming Studio in Annandale. (Thanks Cath!)

To check out the wonderful courses run by Prints Charming (we were on the screen printing course) visit their website:

http://www.printscharming.typepad.com/

To see the range of extraordinary cakes at Buttercreme Lane (thanks Danni!), hop on over to:

http://buttercremelane.com.au/

Full list of Australian stockists for Craft It Up Around The World!

Craft It Up Around The World should have hit bookstores around Australia and the US today which is so exciting!

We checked out our local bookstore, Dymocks at Chatswood and were thrilled to find we didn't even need to do a bit of cheeky repositioning!

Here is the full list of Australian stockists. Remember, if your local store doesn't carry it or has run out, ask them to order it for you!

Stockists in Australia
act	Paperchain Bookstore - MANUKA
act	National Library Bookshop - CANBERRA
act	McCauley & Co Booksellers - WANNIASSA
act	Dymocks Belconnen - BELCONNEN
act	Dymocks Canberra - CANBERRA
nsw	Dymocks Chatswood - CHATSWOOD
nsw	Hill of Content Sydney - BALMAIN
nsw	Berkelouw Books Balgowlah - BALGOWLAH
nsw	Get Hooked on Books - ALSTONVILLE
nsw	Berkelouw Cronulla - CRONULLA
nsw	Gleebooks Dulwich Hill - DULWICH HILL
nsw	Constant Reader Bookshop - CROWS NEST
nsw	Myer Bondi 203 - BONDI JUNCTION
nsw	Myer Chatswood 204 - CHATSWOOD
nsw	Myer Macquarie 215 - NORTH RYDE
nsw	Myer Roselands 209 - ROSELANDS
nsw	Myer Sydney City 219 - SYDNEY
nsw	Books Plus Bathurst - BATHURST
nsw	Modern Times Bookshop - NEWTOWN
nsw	The Bookshop Mullumbimby - MULLUMBIMBY
nsw	Bloomin' Books - CARINGBAH
nsw	Dymocks Nowra - NOWRA
nsw	The Bookshop Bowral - BOWRAL
nsw	Bookoccino Pty Ltd - AVALON BEACH
nsw	Oracle Books - MOSMAN
nsw	Pages & Pages Booksellers P/L - MOSMAN
nsw	Better Read Than Dead - NEWTOWN
nsw	Deniliquin Newsagency & B/stre - DENILIQUIN
nsw	Shearers On Norton - LEICHHARDT
nsw	Kinokuniya Bookstore Aust P/L - SYDNEY
nsw	Maclean's Booksellers - HAMILTON
nsw	Dymocks Sydney - SYDNEY
nsw	Snowprint Bookshop - JINDABYNE
nsw	The Brown Bookshop - BOWRAL
nsw	The Bookshop Kiama - KIAMA
nsw	Oscar & Friends Double Bay - DOUBLE BAY
qld	The Book House - NOOSAVILLE
qld	Mary Ryan New Farm - NEW FARM
qld	Rosetta Books - MALENY
qld	Whileaway Book & Coffee Shop - PORT DOUGLAS
qld	Berkelouw Eumundi - EUMUNDI
qld	Myer Pacific Fair 070 - BROADBEACH
qld	Myer Chermside 063 - CHERMSIDE
qld	Myer Brookside 067 - MITCHELTON
qld	Myer Carindale 068 - CARINA
qld	Myer Brisbane City 059 - BRISBANE
qld	Jeff Hills - DOUGLAS
qld	Queensland Art Gallery - SOUTH BRISBANE
qld	State Library of Queensland - SOUTH BANK
qld	Myer Maroochydore 057 - MAROOCHYDORE
qld	Myer Cairns 062 - CAIRNS
qld	Books of Buderim - BUDERIM
sa	Booked at North A - NORTH ADELAIDE
sa	Booked at North A - NORTH ADELAIDE
sa	Dymocks Burnside - GLENSIDE
sa	St Georges Books - MAGILL
sa	Collins Bookseller Edwardstown - EDWARDSTOWN
sa	Shakespeare's - PORT NOARLUNGA
sa	Dymocks West Lakes - WEST LAKES
sa	Collins Booksellers Arndale - KILKENNY
sa	Dillons Norwood Bookshop - NORWOOD
sa	Pegi Williams Book Shop - MODBURY
sa	Dymocks Rundle Mall - ADELAIDE
sa	Timeless Books - TANUNDA
tas	Dymocks Hobart - HOBART
tas	Birchalls General Books - LAUNCESTON
tas	The Hobart Bookshop - HOBART
vic	Benn's Books - BENTLEIGH
vic	Dymocks The Pines - DONCASTER EAST
vic	Readings Pty Ltd Carlton - CARLTON
vic	Collins Fountain Gate - FOUNTAIN GATE
vic	Dymocks Victoria Gardens - RICHMOND
vic	Readers Feast Bookstore - MELBOURNE
vic	Cow Lick Bookshop - COLAC
vic	Andrews Bookshop - IVANHOE
vic	Myer Melbourne City 001 - MELBOURNE
vic	Myer Chadstone 004 - CHADSTONE
vic	Myer Southland 007 - CHELTENHAM
vic	Myer Doncaster 008 - DONCASTER
vic	Myer Knox City 010 - WANTIRNA
vic	Readings Pty Ltd Hawthorn - HAWTHORN
vic	DLS Australia Pty Ltd - BRAESIDE
vic	Books in Print Pty Ltd - MALVERN
vic	Lamont Books Pty Ltd - HALLAM
vic	Collins Booksellers Sale - SALE
vic	The Avenue Bookstore Pty Ltd - ALBERT PARK
vic	Antipodes Bookshop Gallery - SORRENTO
vic	Farrells Bookshop - MORNINGTON
vic	Dymocks Melbourne - MELBOURNE
vic	Torquay Books - TORQUAY
vic	Readings St.Kilda - ST KILDA
wa	Matilda Bookshop - STIRLING
wa	Westbooks - VICTORIA PARK
wa	Westbooks Childrens - VICTORIA PARK
wa	Collins Booksellers Kalgoorlie - KALGOORLIE
wa	Child Education Services - EAST PERTH
wa	Dymocks Garden City - BOORAGOON
wa	Myer Garden City 047 - BOORAGOON
wa	Myer Karrinyup 093 - KARRINYUP
wa	Myer Perth City 041 - PERTH
wa	Paperbark Merchants - ALBANY