The Grown-Up's Guide to Crafting with Kids

This is a great book for parents who are new to children's crafts. The author offers all kinds of fun projects that are easy for kids of all ages and require few materials other than basics. She gives lots of hints about how to get the best results and finish projects. Colorful photos show all the steps. Lots of the projects use natural items or recycled materials, and there's a range of types of crafts. Most of these will not be new to folks who are experienced with kids' crafts, but for parents who feel overwhelmed or out of their depth, this is a wonderfully fun and reassuring book that will give lots of ideas.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

The selection of crafts in this book is just perfect. There aren't many to choose from, only about 25+ as the cover states, but that made it so little crafters won't get overwhelmed trying to choose what to do.

Author Vikki Manning starts by offering a suggestion of materials to have on hand and what you can craft using nature (my kids just loved the pine cone owl) and then jumps into an assortment of specific crafts with accompanying instructions. I definitely appreciate that I already have most of the materials needed for most of these crafts and none of them are anything that specialized.

I read this with my five- and four-year-old in mind and they looked through the pages as well. They each pulled several crafts they want to try (and we've already done the beaded rainbows) and I love that the directions are clear (it's helpful that they come with step-by-step photos) and easy for their little hands.

This will be a go-to craft book for me and I definitely recommend it to anyone with elementary-aged children. This would also be great for a preschool classroom.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Vikki Manning, and The Quarto Group for providing me with this copy to review.

This book is a great resource, especially when quarentined with three little kids!! I love art projects that use nature or things easily found around the house that you would otherwise throw away. So many great ways for kids to be creative! I downloaded this book this morning, leafed through it, and we have already made stick wands that my kids are now playing with!

This is a great and simple book to follow. Any of these crafts would be easy to do with a group or just one child. Some crafts I have seen before, but have an easier breakdown of how to do them.

I loved this book! It was filled with so many fun and easy ideas to keep my kid busy while we are all isolating at home. I especially loved the nature section because we could go for a nice walk and find things to come home and craft with.

As a kindergarten teacher I'm always looking for fun craft ideas to do with my students. I enjoyed that these ideas are simple enough that they can do them with just a bit of guidance. I also love that many are nature focused and also encourage children to express themselves.

I do not have children. However, I do work in libraries and am always looking for new ideas for crafting afternoons and activities to do there. I found this book to be a little treasure trove of different ideas and, most of them, you could do or make with items you have around the home or bought in.
I particularly liked the section on nature walks and using found objects to craft with. You could use an entire day for this one craft.

This crafting book was great! Some of the ideas we had already crafted in the past. The book gave easy ideas for projects you can do with kids with supplies you probably already have or you could easily find. Thanks for the ideas!

Review to come tomorrow on my blog and Goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I love crafting, origami, sewing, knitting, making cards, and more. So when I saw this book on Netgalley I was definitely interested. I was curious what kind of projects we would find in this book and which would inspire me. I don't have kids, so nothing to inspire there.

Like many crafts book this one starts with various introduction from how to get started and what materials and tools to use. But then the real fun starts with 20 delightful and fun prompts and projects. I was a big fan of the first project already, which featured several nature art projects one could try out. From some things I already knew (shell necklaces and painting rocks for instance) to stuff I didn't know and boy I want to try out. I wouldn't mind some cute little crabs. Guess I will have to wait until next year though because no visits to the beach this year due to all the Corona business, so I will have to keep this project in mind.
I definitely want to try out making that banner, that looks so pretty, I thought they would keep the leaves and such in, but they get those out so you are left with the imprint of it. Those robots were also adorable, and I already have some plans in my head what I could make.
I didn't even know there were pompom makers! I would just cut a circle from a carton x2, then make a hole in the middle and get to wrapping. I really want to get to pompomming again, that ice cream cone looks so cute.

It wasn't always the easiest read, but that is no fault of the book, that is the files fault. It was at times laggy and at times just didn't want to scroll without almost crashing. This is part of my reading experience so I do mention it.

All in all, clear instructions, delightful and fun projects that will inspire young and old, fun photographs that help with the instructions. I would recommend this fun crafts book to all. I think this would be especially great with the situation as it is now. With summer coming up and things still being restricted this book will be great so kids have some great activities to do.

A fun and easy reference to making crafts with kids. I sometimes get the grandkids over, so nice to have some ideas. Mainly for really small kids though, and for the most part uses items found in nature. Really liked the leave wreath. Easy to follow instructions. Would recommend.

I have recently being trying some of the activities in this book with the children I work with and they have gone down really well, will definitely keep this book handy and will be trying more and more crafts.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is a great book for parents/carers of children who are new to doing arts and crafts with children or looking for ideas of things to do.

This book is a great basic guide and shows many different ideas and gives step by step instructions and shows pictures too. The beginning of the book gives you information on the materials you will need to do the projects in the book too.

If you are like me and you want to do ALL THE CRAFTS with your kids but you don't really know where to start, then this is the book for you. When I got this book I knew that I couldn't possibly review it alone so my daughter and I got to work and found so much joy in these tutorials.

The Grown Up's Guide to Crafting with Kids is great. It starts with the basics and explains all the supplies and tools you need and goes on to feature over 20 easy to do crafts. I think that my favorite part about the crafts was that the materials were easy to find and usually available in my house and even though the supplies were common the crafts were original or they had a fun spin on them. The book also had a strong focus on nature as well as finding materials for crafting in nature.

The long and short of it is that we both really enjoyed the projects in these books. We can't wait to complete the rest of the crafts in it!

The Grown-Ups Guide to Crafting with Kids has a TON of fun projects to do with kids and some of them seem to be pretty easy to pull off! And really fun and cute results.  Painting rocks to make them photo holders, painting leaves to make beautiful pastel rainbow wreaths, there are a ton of great ideas in here and a lot of ones I want to try and I don't even have kids! (The space themed painted rocks are amazing, but I am not sure I am that talented!)  Definitely a lot of ideas to try if you are stuck inside and you may even already have some of these supplies around the house.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

Love this book, especially with this Covid19, self isolation happening. There are some fabulous ideas to make with the children, some are for young children but I found that some of the projects where happily done by the older ones too.
The projects were simple, well illustrated and requiring simple and easy to obtain ingredients. Some of the results were stunning - there are some small requirements that needs adult help, such as ironing, but on the whole self sustainable. A great book for the holidays or weekend

This is a really well organized guide to crafting with kids. I really appreciated the photographs and the way it is organized and grouped by nature crafts, items found around the house, and found objects/recycled materials. When you are needing inspiration for what to do, it's a nice reference. Perfect for quarantine and beyond! I'm using many of the activities in my home for an art camp with my three younger kids, taught by my twelve year old daughter and myself. We loved the inspiration!

I received an advanced reader copy of the book via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a really good guide for anyone with children and/or working with children. It has a huge array of creative and crafting activities from rock painting to marbling, stick wands to sun painting and much, much more! The photographs are clear and inspiring. The instructions are accessible and informative.

The Grown-Up's Guide to Crafting with Kids is a tutorial guide and resource filled with fun crafting projects for kids (and their adults). Released 2nd June 2020 by Quarto on their Walter Foster imprint, it's 128 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

I really liked the exuberance and fun energy of this book. The author is enthusiastic and upbeat and the project tutorials are colorful and engaging. The layout is easy to follow. The author enumerates some of the benefits of crafting: encouraging creativity, building self-confidence, mindfulness, fine motor skills, and not least, spending time bonding. The author also includes a short chapter about materials and tools.

The crafting prompts and tutorials are grouped thematically: nature crafts, things found around the house, and found objects and recycled project materials. The bulk of the content is given over to the projects. Each one includes an intro/description, tools and materials, and step by step photo tutorial. The photography is clear and abundant. There are color photos on every page. Alternate steps and enhancements are included for many of the activities.

This would make a superlative choice for a staying home activity, as well as a great idea for a library or classroom activity (when we can gather together again).

Five stars. There are a lot of good ideas here.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A lovely book full of ideas for child-friendly crafts that they can enjoy with their parents. Plenty of these ideas will spark off imaginative play, or could be easily adapted, for example the marbled stones gave me the idea to marble card or other materials, as well as think about other things to do with stones.
The author has also included plenty of crafts using easy to find materials, including those found in nature, and household items.

Great for sensory activities, hand-eye coordination, and creative play development.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Lots of parents are currently at home with their children...and their kids are bored.  This book may provide some relief.  It includes over twenty craft activities that can be done (relatively) easily.  Information on materials needed is provided.  Make stick wands, clay robots, a clothespin butterfly, a treasure box and more.  For each craft there are clear directions and illustrations.  If you think it might be time to try something new, give this book a try with a young person in your life. The author observes that doing so could lead to bonding between adults and children, improved fine motor skills and more.


Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for an honest review.


Pub date:  June 9, 2020