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Make March Break Great with Books from DK!

Title: The BIG BOOK of Crafts & Activities
Publisher: DK Publishing, 2013
Photography: Dave King
ISBN: 978-1-4654-0256-1

Title: Mommy & Me Craft
Publisher: DK Publishing, 2014
Photographer: Dave King
ISBN: 978-1-4654-0256-1

This week is March Break for my daughter! I am always looking for new ideas to try during “Craft Time” which my children like to schedule EVERY day!

While I personally love using the internet and searching for ideas – my children really like to ‘see’ what they are making before they are finished and for this reason – I like having books – physical and solid books – to let them hold and touch and explore.

Before we chose the crafts we would try this week, both Darla and Drew studied these books from cover to cover – to choose which ones they wanted to attempt. Their lists are VERY long!

They already have plans to make more and have taken some of the ideas from these books and created other items using the concepts they saw in the images.

DK books are always filled with spectacular photographs. I have noticed this in each and every DK Publication I have held in my hands. I am very impressed by the colour and clarity in the photographs.

Now about these specific books! The BIG BOOK of Crafts & Activities is filled with 128 pages of inspiration.

A lot of the items are geared towards older children and adults – due to the steps required to complete the projects.

The first section includes the Bedroom Makeover – this section is filled with fun ideas for your home!

I want to make a number of these projects for myself! I am totally in love with the bulletin board project on pages 6-7 and the framed bulletin board project on pages 8-9.

Also in this section are projects to makeover your furniture and to make perfect pillows by adding a fabric picture to a plain pillow!

The next section, Treat Yourself, is all about pampering yourself (or your friends!).  I suspect this section will be very well received. It includes a Pamper Day with recipes for smoothies, recipes for home-made face masks to refresh your skin, recipes to make home-made bath bombs (how cool is this? I’m thinking Gift Ideas here!) and recipes for chocolate truffles (Yummy Gift Ideas!). This whole section would be fantastic for making a Mother’s Day Package for your Mom!

Moving on we reach the Fashionistas section where we have Button Jewelry (bracelets, brooches/pins and hairclips), Customized Shoes and Recycled Pom-Poms. I have a thing for buttons so I needed to try one of the button crafts while I had the glue gun out! Here is my little flower inspired by the Button Jewelry from pages 24-25.

More sections included are:

Watch it Grow

• Grow your own Veg
• Herbs and Spices
• Strawberry Boots
• Sunflower People (these are super cute!)
• Healthy Eating

Friends Forever

• Sleepover Games (makeover madness, spin the polish, dance idols, grab the spoon!, scary stories, movie trivia, smoothie sensation, two truths and a lie)
• Midnight Feast (special hot chocolate suggestions and a yummy recipe for some cookies I am going to bake!)
• Banana Pancakes (another great recipe!)
• Friendship Bracelets (with a fantastic ‘how to’ tutorial!)

Culture Shock

• World Food
• World Customs (I learned a few things here I never knew!)
• Trace Your Family Tree

Get Crafty

• Marbled Paper (includes a tutorial to make this!)
• Origami Animals (I LOVE origami!) (make a fox, pig, mouse and penguin with these full tutorials!)
• Pinata Party (make a pinata yourself!)
• Customize Your Diary
• Pebble Creatures (oh yes we did!)

• Pebble Flowers (I really like these and think they would also make great place card setting holders for a wedding table!)
• Customize Your Frames (oh yes we did!)

Summer Living

• Making Ice Cream (no I definitely did not know it was this easy!)
• Ice Pops & Ice Bowl (the ice bowl is beautiful!)
• Picnic Brownies & Pink Lemonade (recipes to make both from scratch!)
• Summer Salads (Chicken Pasta Salad, Potato Salad, Picnic Salad, Green Salad)
• Make a Kite (both Darla and Drew want to make these!)
• Balloon Animals

Food Heaven

• Caramel Popcorn & banana bites (make both from scratch!)
• Cupcake Heaven
• Baking Bread
• Pizza Toppings
• Dips and Nibbles (recipes for home-made guacamole, hummus and salsa!)
• Gingerbread House
• Gingerbread

Remember the Date

• Folded Napkins
• Handmade Cards
• Party Invitations
• Gift Boxes
• Birthday Cake

Sewing It

• Scented Bags (hang them in the closet!)
• Glove Change Purses
• Felt Decorations (very pretty – these would be lovely on a crochet hat I think!)
• Christmas Decorations

Activity Time

• Beaded Insects (I love the butterflies and dragonflies!)
• Car Trip Games (backseat bingo, car pool, alphabet challenge, city alphabet)
• Music Games (dance mania, name that tune, musical statues, musical bingo)
• Magic Flowers (I tried this when I was a child! I totally forgot and I plan to show Darla and Drew this summer!)
• Horoscopes (I’m a Water Sign – how about you?)

I have to admit when I requested this book I did not think it included this many fantastic projects and crafts – and we will be able to use this book for years! We are not limited to using it now while Darla and Drew are young (3-5 years) – we will be able to grow into the book!

I definitely recommend this book – not only for March Break fun but for Sleepovers, Get-togethers, Girls Nights, Planning for Mother’s Day – it has something for each of us to do for a long time to come!

You can purchase your copy of this book from Amazon:

Shopping from Canada?

Shopping from the US?

The next book we picked to help us make crafts during March Break is called Mommy & Me Craft.

Mommy & Me Craft includes 80 pages of full, bright and colourful craft projects you can make with your children.

It also includes information about the supplies you will use to make the projects.  For example, sections like “What is Paper?” which outlines how paper is made, what it is used for, how long it has been used for and how it is recycled.

There are fantastic projects for both girls and boys in this book!

The crafts are broken into categories: paper, yarn, paint, junk and felt. Each category includes the introduction to the supply you are going to use and answers the question “What is…”. I like how the book is structured as a fun learning tool.

Here is what you get in this gem of a book:

What is Paper?

• Larry the Lion Mask (Drew wants to make this one!)
• More Animal Masks
• Origami Windmill
• Fantastic Fish Windsock (These are super cool and pretty!)
• Pretty Paper Beads (I WANT to make these!)
• Ollie the Octopus (Paper Mache Time! with a recipe for homemade paste)

What is Yarn?

• Fluffy pom-poms (I LOVE the little Sheep Design and the adorable Bird!)
• Paper Plate Weaving (and you must see the scaled up version using a hula hoop!)
• Knitting Doll (I have one of these knitting dolls for Darla to try this craft!)

What is Paint?

• Design a T-Shirt
• Painted Stones (I remember making the lady bugs with my Dad)
• Polystyrene prints

What is Junk?

• Sammy the snake (Drew totally wants to make this!)
• Spoon Dolly (our pick to try this week!)

• Origami boat
• Snow Globe (we will be making these this summer!)
• Jet Pack (Drew wants one of these too!)
• Alien Junkship (I want to make this – it is totally adorable and I foresee Drew playing with this for a long time!)

What is Felt?

• Awesome Aliens (On our list to make this summer)
• Gold Medal (Yes Drew wants a few of these – #1!)
• Bean Bag Bird (love these!)

The final chapter includes the templates you can use to make some of the crafts.

Mommy & Me Craft is fantastic! There are so many projects we can do easily together. I believe this book would be perfect for afternoon ‘play-dates’ or even ‘birthday party’ activities.

The Spoon Dolly craft was super fun for both Darla and Drew. They tried to use regular craft glue at first but it did not stick very well so I needed to pull out the glue gun. I made sure to ask them where to put the glue and then I let them help me place the pieces in the “right” spots.

I love crafts they can play with afterwards – and so do they. They played with their Spoon Dolly Spoons for almost an hour together before bed! Making up little stories and being super imaginative and creative. They currently hold special spots on their bookshelves so I suspect they will be playing Spoon Dolls again soon! or asking to make more!

You can purchase your copy of Mommy & Me Craft at Amazon.

Shopping from Canada?

Shopping from the U.S.?

I am very impressed with both books – the Mommy & Me Craft book may be more age-appropriate at this time; however, I love the Craft Projects in The BIG BOOK of Crafts & Activities. We can really grow into that book. It gives us something to work toward.

Check out the great selection of Make this March Break Great Craft Books at DK Canada. I think they will be equally helpful for us during the Summer Break!

All images are used with permission from DK Canada Books. For more information about DK Canada Books – visit their Website, Facebook or Twitter!

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