Bumper Book of Crafty Activities: 100+ Creative Ideas for Kids (Activity)

July 12

'The Bumper Book of Crafty Activities' by Search Press should be at the top of your shopping list if you are a parent of a child aged 8-12 looking for low-cost activities for the summer holidays. It's the age where children start to branch out from finger painting and pouring glitter glue everywhere to more advanced creative play.

Everything is bright and wonderful in this book. The tutorials are super-easy to follow, clearly illustrated and have alerts for when children should ask adults to help them. The book is divided up into 13 sections covering Printing, Creative Lettering, Mosaics, Paper Mache, Origami, Handmade Cards, Collage, Clay Modelling, Beadwork, Decorative Painting and Paperfolding. It's very educational too with information on everything from Picasso's art to Egypt which is perfectly pitched. I remember feeling really excited about Egypt when first studying it at the age of nine. Introductions to the chapters include the history of the craft if your child wants to follow up to find out more about it. Some of the projects don't require any costly items and instead encourage recycling of old yogurt and crisp pots - very Blue Peter! There are over 100 projects to make in seven steps or less. This book really will keep your creative monsters entertained for weeks. Just remember to cover that table!

Summer 12

A true bumper crop of ideas can be discovered in this book. All the projects look fun, there is a variety which should appeal to both sexes, and directions are well explained with photos of step-by-step procedures being carried out by kids. A brief history for each technique being used, and some patterns are provided.

Oct 12

This book truly is bumper, packed to the gills with over 100 crafting projects for 8-12 year olds. That's the best bit. Like many I live in a household where our kitchen table has a fine layer of engrained glitter and I frequently find googly eyes stuck to bottom of my socks. I have often thought it will be a sad day when the lure of `make and do' was replaced with that of a games console. This book is the solution, projects are designed to engage the older as well as the younger child. Paper, ceramics, textiles it is all in there, with clear step-by-step photographs and easy to follow instructions. `Cooooool' my six-year-old exclaimed spying a copy on the table. Endorsement enough I say.-LittleMeDesigns

June 12

Ransack the house and have as much fun as you can imagine recycling. Vacations, school breaks and other occasions when you have too much time on your hands are a thing of the past with this great new book. I wish I had had this book when I was a child; it would surely have been one of my favourites. This is the sort of thing any child who likes making things would love to own, and if you don't mind a bit of mess you should come in for a lot of peace (or at any rate the right kind of noise). In true Search Press style all the projects (over 100 of them) all feature photographs and captions for a surely foolproof result. They show the children shown actually making them, and a wide variety of ages and races (as well as both sexes) are shown with the finished article. The book is divided into sections so you can choose what sort of craft you feel like today. Have a go at printing, origami, painting items, modelling with clay, making collages and greetings cards, get pasty with papier mache and turn various items into fun mosaics. Many of the items used are the type you find about the house and take to the tip or at least they are things that don't cost a lot. Most children will already have a wide range of things that make a mark and other things can be found out of doors. This avoids the dreaded moment I remember from watching Blue Peter as a child when I realized that the average home was not awash with polystyrene ceiling tiles, sticky-backed plastic or foam covered hair rollers. Projects are taken from a number of different countries and civilizations which will hopefully inspire Junior to find out more about them, and many of the items are actually attractive and useful. In all, I think that is about the best - and the biggest - book I have come across of its kind. If you have a child or need to buy one a gift I'd choose this.