Book Invaders (Project by Elod Beregszaszi)

Today I'm excited to be kicking off the Kid's Crafternoon Blog Tour for two of a four series of books edited by Kathreen Ricketson of Whip Up and published by Hardie Grant out of Australia. Kids' Crafternoon Sewing and Kids' Crafternoon Papercraft puts the fun back into a kid's afternoon (and couldn't be better timing during our summer holidays)! Each title contains 25 projects (including templates) from specialist crafters across the globe. The projects vary in complexity and the time required for completion is never longer than a whole afternoon; the books are structured by project themes designed to appeal to young crafters.


I had a reverse interview with Kathreen via email this week where she sent me answers about the book, and now I will pose the questions to go with them:



Tell me how you created the book and came up with the projects ideas?

I worked with my husband Rob on this book - although he is not mentioned anywhere - he did all the illustrations in both of the books and contributed a couple of projects to the papercraft book too. And our kids helped out with many of our projects, and tested others as well. They helped to make many of the Paper beads and the origami water bombs and the paper planes, and the puppy in the Origami card project was mostly my daughter's design. Turns out both my kids love origami. So I know that the projects in this book sit perfectly in this age group, difficult enough to challenge and easy enough to complete in an afternoon.

Pencil Pouch (Project by Laura Lynn Wilson)

How was it to work with all the contributors from around the world?
I was glad to work with so many professional and talented crafters on this book. Working on a contributor book is actually really difficult. So many other people to rely upon, deadlines and reminders and coordination - it is really tricky. But everyone who committed to getting me a project came through, and although there were some hairy moments with packages not turning up and things getting lost in the mail - it all turned out fine in the end.

What age group are the books aimed at?
I love the range of the projects - many of which use recycled materials - there is a great variety of techniques being showcased too and I think that while the projects are aimed at 7-12 age group - I know there are many projects that teens and adults would make for themselves too!

Embroidered Keyring (Project by Kirsty Macafee)

Patchy Scarf (Project by Heather Elizabeth Abernathy Graham)

What are your children's favourite projects in the books?
My daughter who is snap bang in the middle of this age group loves quite a few of the projects (too many to list), but her top three in the sewing book are: Jelly fish pendant, Not just a bag, Limby the button eyed dudes (she helped me design the ones that appear on the cover), iPod creature cosy and the Monster reading pillow. In the Papercraft book her top projects are the Spinning pin wheels, articulated puppets (she helped make these with her dad), and the Confidential pocket book. She will be making a few of these projects over the coming weeks too.

Thank you Kathreen!

The blog tour continues everyday for the next two weeks, where Kathreen will be doing interviews and fun things with everyone involved.  Here's the schedule.  The books are available internationally through Booktopia and Amazon.


Follow the blog tour:

July 23 - pickle bums | July 24 - little eco footprints
July 25 - bespoke quilts | July 26 - mayamade
July 27 - check out girl crafts | July 28 - the red thread blog
July 29 - we wilsons | July 30 - maggie makes
July 31 - mmm crafts | Aug 01 - domesticali
Aug 02 - floating ink | Aug 03 - elizabeth abernathy
Aug 04 - mommycoddle | Aug 05 - the long thread
Aug 06 - Hannah Fletcher | Aug 07 pm between the lines
Aug 08 - go make me

Origami Cube Lights (Project by Rob Shugg)