WIN IT!!! Make Stuff Together - 24 Simple Projects to Create as a Family

Did you think I forgot about my promise to give away a book a week on the blog since there was nothing new on Monday? Don't call me a fibber just yet, I rearranged the days on you. Why you ask? Because today I am part of a super fab blog tour celebrating the release of Make Stuff Together: 24 Simple Projects to Create as a Family. I have been obsessed lately with pinning activities that I can do with my kids so it was like fate when this book arrived on my door step. Given I am a bit partial since the authors are Austinites (Bernadette Noll and Kathie Sever) but even if they were from Buffalo I'd think this was a swell book. Any crafty families with bored kids home for the summer need to race out and get this book.


The book is laid out by cute little themes. Library Time has projects like a library card wallet and a button bookmark. Tallulah is headed off to camp in a couple of weeks so perhaps she and I will try our hands at the lunch tote in the Into the Woods Chapter. I had a onesie making party for Tallulah's baby shower it seems only fitting that one day we have a Birthday T-Shirt Party like the one laid out in the Happy Birthday to You chapter. There is also a Commemorate and Celebrate, Fun and Games and Dinner Time chapter with corresponding crafts.


What sets Make Stuff Together apart from other kids crafts books is exactly what the name implies. The book encourages you to make stuff with your kids, not just for your kids. There is a whole chapter called The Ways and Whys of Making Stuff Together. Sure it might only take you an hour during nap time to make a table runner, but the 3 hours you might spend with your kid picking fabrics and stamping words onto that table runner will make it so much more special. Not to mention a great crafty time filler for those too hot to go outside afternoons this summer.


Authors Kathie and Bernadette suggest people slow down, reconnect and get back to basics. Most of the projects in the book ask you to look around your own home for recyclable options that are beckoning to find a new life. There is a whole chapter about Acquiring Materials with a guide to helping you locate items such as neoprene, linens, inner tubes and more.


Most of these projects are for children older than mine, but I am setting my copy up on the shelf in eager anticipation of when we will be able to make some of this stuff together.