Kids’ Crafternoon: Beading and Felting

The following post is by contributor Catherine Way of Adventures With Kids.

I was a little nervous about agreeing to review Kids Crafternoon: Beading and Kids Crafternoon: Felting for Simple Kids for two reasons: both my children are boys and both are younger than the recommended age of 7 and up (one is only 3 years old).

I didn’t need to worry, all the excitement I could hope for was generated by arrival of a courier van.  There were instant demands to see what the van had brought.  Once unwrapped, the colourful photos in the Crafternoon books had both my boys with their nose in a book begging to make something straight away.

When I finally got to have a look at the books, I found plenty of projects to appeal to boys and projects that younger children can participate in with adult help.

The boys quickly bookmarked the ghostie garland and gamer magnet projects with fuse beads in the Kids Crafternoon Beading book and the friendly finger puppets and the eraser heads pencil toppers.

But since my sons were very excited to try a project as soon as possible we decided upon the Twinkle Ornament.  I had the supplies – craft wire and a variety of beads – already on hand.

Photo by Catherine Way

I did all the fiddly wire cutting  and bending bits and my sons’ happily threaded beads.   My eldest and I followed the project instructions to make our own twinkle ornaments.  I gave my youngest son larger beads and let him thread those beads onto a length of wire, since the thought of small beads knocked over and spread all through the house was just too much to bear.

Photo by Catherine Way

I think these twinkle ornaments would make beautiful Christmas tree decorations and I will get some suitably coloured beads so that my eldest son can make some for both his grandmas.

Kids’ Crafternoon: Beading and Kids’ Crafternoon: Felting are edited by Kathreen Ricketson of Whip Up and Kids Action Pack.  There are two other books in the series – Sewing and Papercraft.

I thoroughly enjoyed poring over and trying some of the projects in the beading and felting Kids’ Crafternoon books.  As the books’ subtitle suggests – project for a crafty afternoon – these books are the perfect inspiration to sit down and dedicate an afternoon to making something.  The projects are well-suited to school-age children with step-by-step, illustrated instructions.   Either of these books would make as a lovely Christmas present, perhaps teamed with a little kit of supplies to complete one of the projects.

This post is part of a blog tour to mark the release of the Crafternoon books.  The other stops on the tour are:

• The Red Thread 14-Nov
• Soozs 15-Nov
• mmm Crafts 16-Nov
• Between the Lines 17-Nov
• Christine Chitnis 18-Nov
• Chez Beeper Bebe 19-Nov
• The Happy Zombie 20-Nov
• Go Make Me 21-Nov
• Luvinthemommyhood 22-Nov
• JCHandmade 23-Nov
• Picklebums 24-Nov
• Modern Parents Messy Kids 25-Nov
• Li’l Magoolie 27-Nov
• Oh Dee Doh 28-Nov
• Sadie and Lance 29-Nov
• Little Eco Footprints 30-Nov