Book Review
I loved this book as soon as I opened it. The book is well
organized, has 199 projects that kids can make, has tons of full
color pictures making it easy to see what the crafts look like,
and each craft is accompanied by a full list of materials needed.
I was also impressed with the author as she talks to the children
instead of at them about her thoughts and feelings on friendship,
crafting and recycling. The book has eight chapters including
an Introduction, Say Cheese Photo Fun, Pass It On Cool Notes, Gifts
to Make Together, Duo Designs for Home and School, Friendship Fashions,
Friendly Fun and Games, and Two of a Kind Jewelry.
In her introductory pages she talks about stuff you can use to make
crafts, where to find these items and what to save for future projects.
I like the way she intersperses the information she is dispensing
with personal experiences she has had when crafting. Some
of the information that is essential to read is in the sections
"The Secret of Sticking" and "Basic Sewing"
to make sure you have the right skills to be able to complete some
of the crafts in this book.
The second chapter, Say Cheese Photo Fun includes instructions on
how to take the perfect photograph, and provides 12 different crafts
using photos that your child can make including Fold Out Photo Books,
Fantastic Frames, a Shadow Box Photo Tin, Name Frames, Rock Stars
frame, Photo Flowers, Scrapbookmarks just to name a few.
The third chapter named Pass It On! Cool Notes contains 14 fun ways
for friends to write notes to each other. The crafts include the
never ending note that uses a spiral notebook, candy notes using
chocolate bar wrappers, and sneaky notes using juicy fruit gum packages.
Chapter four named Gifts To Make Together has 19 inspiring crafts
for kids that use a variety of materials like home made Play Clay,
socks, cardboard, flowers and googly eyes.
The fifth chapter Duo designs has 14 craft ideas for home and school
including bulletin boards, bottle cap locker magnets, easy origami
projects, fun stickers and one of my favorites "footnotes".
These crafts will make school lots of fun!
The next chapter, Friendship Fashions will really appeal to young
girls who are friends. Ideas like hair sticks picture clippers,
the pajama pants swap, pocket purses, and beach totes lets best
friends share some of their things to use in each others crafts
to cement their friendship.
The chapter named Friendly Fun and Games has 13 crafts including
Fortune Fun, Magnet Games, Collage Trading Cards, and how to make
a Sleepover bag and tank top.
The final chapter named Two of a Kind Jewelry like Friendship Fashions
above, will mostly appeal to young girls. The crafts teach
them how to make friendship bracelets, paper beads, charms, anklets
and Hookless Crochet Jewlery.
The best part of this book is that the author tries to incorporate
materials that you most likely will already have in your house so
you can get crafting right away (like using the free cds that come
in the mail to make the CD Friends Suncatcher). I also liked the
fun little captions about the authors own experiences making the
crafts, the variations you can do, or possible locations to find
the materials you may need (i.e. getting framed on page 7 is about
finding (and fixing up) frames and other supplies for making the
crafts in the Fantastic Frames section).
I found this book to be really inspiring and the crafts easy enough
that children will find it empowering because they can do the crafts
with little assistance from an adult (depending on their age and
the tools being use i.e. a microwave is used to make the sweet and
fruity lip gloss).
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