Quick Crafts – A Book Review

Quick Crafts a Book Review

This week a new and different type of craft book will hit the book shops.  Yes it is about crafting with your kids, but it is different because when it says quick crafts it means quick crafts.  We were gifted a copy of the book Quick Crafts a couple of months ago so that we could have a go at some of the great quick craft ideas.

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The Quick Crafts book is subtitled as being ‘For parents who think that they hate craft’ and Emma Scott Child set some rules for herself when writing the book.   Emma believes that parents are stopped from getting creative because of the mess and the amount of time it all takes.  I do like doing crafts with the kids, but I totally agree that I am sometimes not enthusiastic when the kids ask to do a craft because I can’t face the cleaning up afterwards.  That is a real shame as the kids do love to get creative so I was really looking forward to this book.  Especially when I read the rules…  

Quick Crafts we tried

Now I am a bit of a glitter fan, but I am not a fan of cleaning up after it.  So I was keen to have a go at some of the projects within Quick Crafts. 

The first project we picked was the Paper Monsters.  I found the instructions really clear and easy to follow not least because there are step by step pictures.  The whole project was very simple and my 4 year old twins did it pretty much on their own.  As with many of the projects in the Quick Crafts book there isn’t much stuff needed.  This one required tissue paper, tape, sticky dots (you could just use a bit of paper), felt tip pen, scissors and pipe cleaners. We do like a bit of craft and so have this stuff in our craft box. If you were entirely new to crafting with kids you might need to buy some stuff.  The first two pages of the book show you everything you need to complete the projects which is really helpful.  

We enjoyed making the monsters so much that we then repeated it as the activity for the playgroup I help to run and had children as young at 2 years old getting involved and making their monsters.  What I loved about this quick craft was that as they were monsters anything goes…  The kids can get totally creative and I know my kids had loads of fun.  They also played with the monsters they made for ages afterwards.  There was a whole monster family game going on.  Perfect!! 

We also had a go at the Paper Puppet.  They are folded and decorated.  What could be easier?  This quick craft was also in the Play with It section of the book and I really like that section.  I love the idea that the kids make something that they can then play with.  Two lots of fun – right?  It also saves that mummy dilemma of keeping every single thing that they make or hiding stuff as your recycle it 😉

As I mentioned there are different sections of the books with themed crafts so there is Play with It, Wear It,  Spruce it Up and Useful Things.  There are so many fab quick craft projects in the book I can’t possibly tell you about all of them.  To give you an idea there are things like Bat Wings and Skeleton Masks.  You could craft Halloween!  In the Spruce it Up section there are some truly lovely quick craft projects to decorate or display in your home.  Some of these I actually plan to do myself once the kids are all at school.  I mean I might let them help – lol!  I just think that these would make such beautiful additions to the kid’s bedrooms:

All in all I think this is super book.  We really enjoyed the quick craft projects that we did and have planned many more.  In fact I have lolly sticks packed in our bag for our upcoming holiday.  We are going to make some planes whilst we are away.  I would recommend this Quick Craft Book for parents who hate craft and those who already love it.  We  are going to get hours more fun out of the quick craft projects.  I am happy and my kids are very happy as they do love a bit of creative and craft time.