It is wintertime and therefore the time to spend time with friends and family indoors, or to broaden one’s studies with making crafts to round out your studies. I thought it was about time for me to share with you some of the children’s craft books we have used and/or reviewed over the years.
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Children’s Craft Books from My Shelves
Over the years, I have collected arts and crafts books from all over the place. Thrift stores, yard sales, gifts from friends and families. I simply adore many of the OLD arts/crafts books as they don’t tend to require specialty items. Don’t you just adore crafts that you can simply from what you have at hand?
I have a great collection of come to me used books. Papercraft, woodcrafts, gifts to make, and lots of eclectic books.
The oldest book I have is this McCalls Golden book called “Do it Book”. It has probably seen the most use in our house. Old crafts that are just interesting to do. From cities to build, to bears to sew and stuff, to projects to paint. Masks to make, circuses to create, with templates and ideas galore. When I got it you could tell how well-loved it was, I had to scratch away some paint! 🙂 Imagine my surprise when I found it on amazon yet!
Most of my books are not that old though. The complete book of arts and crafts is probably one of the youngest books and is great for children 5-9 years old. Paper, painting, wood, nature, holidays, toys and sewing. All sorts of activities to inspire the creative mind.
Specialty books like Geography, woodcraft and papercraft help to enhance skills or knowledge in a given area.
Adventures in Art has a wide variety of art projects that we used in our worldwide explorations.
Review Books you shouldn’t miss
What makes a review book on arts and crafts stand out for me and make it to my art shelf?
Needs to contain at least one of the following, preferrably more.
- encourage thinking outside the box and not merely be about copying the idea presented
- teach necessary skills
- to be somewhat out of the box (such as using duct tape)
- provide variety
Books that have met that criteria. I have linked them to my review.
- Doll Crafts. I used this in a doll making class.
- Global Art. So much fun making minion inspired art!
- Fine Art Adventures.
- Hands-on Art. Made hieroglyphs!
- Get Into Art Places.
- Geography Through Art. We’ve used a fair bit.
- Duct Tape Engineer. Just a very cool book to use. 🙂
- 642 Things to Draw. Sheer inspiration value.
- Draw Paint Print. used a lot in art co-op classes
- Art Play. Another good co-op book.
- Illustration Workshop.
What about You?
How about you? What children’s craft books would you recommend? Do you have favourites or special things you watch for in your craft books for your children?
The geography through art book looks like a fun way to incorporate more art into your day!
it’s a great way to learn more geography AND do art! You should get it! 🙂
What a great collection of books. I really do enjoy all the older books.
the older books are so often more inspiring than many of the new.