Make Stuff Together book giveaway
I’m so excited to share this book with you. Bernadette and Kathie are fellow Austinites who are doing inspiring things and connecting community in meaningful ways. I was thrilled to meet them IRL!
I appreciate the cool projects in the book not only for what they are, gorgeous sewing craft projects, but also for what they represent, more time spent sharing and communicating with each other, enjoying each other’s company without so many of the common distractions. Reading this book connects me with the values that inspired my own book.
Here are some of the things I like the most about this book:
1. The tone of is charmingly conversational and makes me feel like I’m sitting on in Kathie’s screened front porch drinking beers with the authors. I giggled at the intro to an upcycled hat project, “Who doesn’t like a hat?”
2. The photos and illustrations are beautiful and well-thought-out for assistance in directions that can be tricky to describe in words.
3.The list of ‘Tips for Crafting with Kids’ is realistic, not ‘and everything will go as planned and life is perfect’. I especially like, “If you have a clear and definite vision of how something should look in the end, make it yourself.”
4. Project: Art Roll Up, a roll-up holder for colored pencils, pens, markers and other small crafting tools. They encourage you to grab your roll up, bring the fam outside (or gathered together anywhere) for a family sketch-a-thon, passing around the drawings you all make in a collaborative drawing session.
5. Party project: Birthday T-shirt party is a brilliant idea that requires little to no sewing technology.
6. Project: Family flags, which I had the pleasure of making at a joint book event over the summer at our local feminist bookshop, Bookwoman. Our family is still very small, but this flag project will grow with us through the years!
I’ll add that most of the projects in the book require access to a sewing machine. This would be a perfect sewing club project book.
Bernadette & Kathie’s publisher, Wiley, rocks because there are NO shipping restrictions; that’s right, they’ll send copies anywhere in the world. I invite my international contingent to enter away!
Two winners will be selected at random on Nov 17, 2011 at midnight CST.
Enter by leaving a comment here describing any craft project you’ve attempted with kids (or friends), successful or not!
Kate
Thanks everyone for entering!
Congrats to the lucky numbers selected by Random.org:
Hooray Kristin and Joanie!
Reader Comments (54)
This year we tried to carve a pumpkin with our 5-year old daughter. Unfortunately, she was not into it ,but my husband was. Next year I will definitely let her paint/decorate one and let my husband carve one.
What a great idea for a book! I love doing crafts with my kiddos!
My twins are 2, so we're just beginning our foray into crafting. They love to color and paint, and love to watch me sew especially when I give them scrap fabric and a tape measure to play with. I'm looking forward to doing more crafts with them as they grow. This book sounds perfect for that! Thanks for the giveaway!
My daughter Chrysianna is almost 3 years old. Just a few days ago I thought that is high time to start with simple craft projects. Her kindergarden crafts book was waiting for us on th bookself. So I decided to make her a carton fairy hat. In the beginning she was looking at me very weirdly. In the end the poor hat was divided in the 3 pieces that was made. I really liked it but at that moment she had a different opinion. Three days later she was looking for her pink fairy hat so I made her a new one. As a proud mommy I promished to myself that I will continue crafting to make her happy and looking funy!
We like to paint alot around here but I've also let me daughter try her hand at embroidering a picture and also doing some "sketching" with the sewing machine....not sure the real name of it but she drew a castle and some clouds with the sewing machine...cool. We also love glitter and feathers...made pinecone turkeys last year. My daughter also likes to "invent" things with supplies out of the recycling bin....there was once a house she made with a recycled tampon and ovulation predictor kit boxes (I cleaned out under the sink that day) ....her choice of such an absorbent roof tickled me :)
My kids and I attempted making homemade fabric softener with baking soda and vinegar and water. They loved to watch it bubble, and it works pretty well.
Teaching niece to sew aged 9 this Christmas Holidays when they come to visit for Christmas! My son and I painted together - on paper and the old garage wall, made clay models, lots of Lego and other construction, he drew the line at knitting though - my ex husband told him it was girly, 15 years later I would fight my perspective harder.
My son would love this—winter fun for both of us!
The last project we did was decorating for Halloween. I would love to have this book - thank you for the opportunity!
you really are a hip girl! i have enjoyed the awesome tips you post and look forward every day to the next one. keep up the great work!
At work every year we have during the day a company Thanksgiving dinner complete with all fixins' ... In the office we all make a "hand turkey" and color it with good old fashion crayola crayons and on each feather write what we are thankful for and on the body share a "thankful" story that happened during this past year. And we get silly and have a wonderful afternoon.
It was a pleasure meeting you at the Coventry Farmer's Market...should have bought the book then...the emails are wonderful! Thankful!! Happy Thanksgiving!! Joanie / CT
Every Christmas for the past 15 years, I have hosted "kids weekend" with all my nieces and nephews. We have a slumber party and do some messy crafts. One of my favorites was coating pinecones with peanut butter and rolling them in bird seed as winter feeders for the birds. Super messy and super fun. The birds were pretty happy, too.
I bought large roll of plain paper from my local newspaper office ( I would cut large pieces off the big roll) and then my kids and their friends would each lay down on the sheet of paper and I would draw an outline of their body with crayon and then they would fill in the details.......hair, face, clothes, shoes etc and also they would draw whatever background they wanted.
Always looking for great family projects! Thanks for the ideas, love your blog!
Always looking for new and exciting projects to do with the fam! Bring on the book!!! WooHoo!!
I've been teaching my 5yo daughter to use my sewing machine and serger. She likes to make little "blankets" for her stuffed animals from old clothes of hers. We'd love to try the projects in this book!
Instead of play dough or making/playing with bread dough, I gave my 6 and 3 year-old some left-over sugar cookie dough. They had a blast rolling and making/remaking shapes with many cookie cutters and then when they were satisfied they baked them. Unlike play dough, they get to eat their creation!
My 13 & 15 year old daughters are the crafty ones- modifying their clothes with scissors, thread, zippers, paints, etc. they have cut & knotted (90's style) a whole variety of their shirts- in all manners of re-creation as well as shredding the backs or sleeves. My youngest can sew as well- she's done flannel jammie pants, a beautifully made pillow case, a sparkly black tutu, an entire camp of soft dolls with clothes, a fire, tents sleeping bags and a storage bag to keep them in. She's gotten a kit to show us how crystals grow. Lots of really cool stuff. I know they would love a copy of your book!! Thanks
I once started a photo board and never finished it, Recently made some rag quilts, and did Paint-Your-Own Pottery with my kids. My little one's handprints didn't come out so great, but I love it anyway!!
Would LOVE this book for inspiration on some projects to do with them!!
One of my favorite craft projects with the kids lately was when I gave them fabric markers and plain cotton scraps and asked them to draw something for their dad. They drew some sweet pictures, and I used a couple of them in sewing a moleskine notebook cover for him to take to work. He loves it, they felt proud of the finished product, and it was easy!
My 6-year-old LOVES dinosaurs, so we like to make felt dinosaur stuffed animals. He likes to choose cool colored embroidery floss to stitch them up and we especially love to stuff 'em using chopsticks and fluff!
I would love to have this book! I have a daughter and step-daughter that love doing homemade crafts with me!! :)
I love making stuff with my stepkids (6 and 9), their mother hasn't got the patience for it (nor the skill I think). We make cakes from my grandmother's recipe book, squidgy chocolate brownies (daddy's favourite!), they made all the Christmas cards last year, they made fimo star garlands for their rooms as Christmas decorations and stars for their own Christmas trees, potato printing, hand printing and soon we are trying tie-dying. They are so up for anything creative, I can barely stop them. They would rather paint a picture that play a computer game!
Crafting with thrift store felted wool sweaters is a great opportunity to be creative. It was a hit with seven 7-year old Cub Scouts. Screaming testimonial, huh?
I'm definitely in need of this book! A few years ago I helped my son make (sew) a cat from a pattern we got off the internet! He has kept it all this time. I have 7 other kids that need me to make stuff with them! 3 of the 8 kids are stepkids and projects are a great way to connect with them!