Classy and Opinionated Lifestyle Mom Blog
Last week the Princess came over for a visit. She is 4 1/2 years old and loves to sit down and craft with her Nanny. I keep a whole bunch of crafting supplies in a box for when she visits so we primarily use up …
Princess Gia loves to wear various barrettes, hair clips and pony tail holders in her hair, but storing and organizing them all has become a real pain in the butt. Last weekend I decided to do something about that and decided to hit my craft …
When I was a little girl, I would sit and watch my paternal grandmother build some of the most beautiful miniature doll houses that I have ever seen. Over the years, she has built at least 30 of them and they are beautiful pieces of artwork.
My grandmother is now gone and just recently I stumbled across some really cool videos from Miniature-Gardening on how you can set up your own beautiful miniature garden. These gardens are really exquisite and quite lovely!
Miniature gardens can be created in beautiful gardening planters, flower planters, old window boxes, inside wicker wreaths or just create a miniature garden around one of your miniature doll houses!
I dabble into all kinds of different arts and crafts…but have never done anything like this! After watching a few of their videos and checking out all of the gorgeous supplies at Miniature-Gardening.com, I might just have to jump-in and give it a try myself.
You can create an entire fantasy land, garden of enchantment, a country cottage gardening landscape…well, you can create just about anything! I love fairies and they have some gorgeous ones on their site and I would probably create something using those!
What really impressed me is that everything in miniature looks so dang realistic! Seriously, they look totally real, just miniature in size! The detail work is just incredible!
As a newbie, I think it would be best for me to start off with a kit and instructional DVD, so that I can learn all of the “ins and outs” of the craft before investing in a larger scaled project.
Today, I would like to know if any of our blog readers have tried miniature gardening yet, and if so, do you have any tips to share with a newbie like myself? Furthermore, if you have tried this craft, what kind of gardens have you created so far?
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How many of our readers here love to craft? sew? Well guess what? We have a great book review for all of you today! The craft book is called “How to Make Stuffed Animals” by Sian Keegan. This book contains modern, simple patterns + instructions …
As many of you know, I absolutely love to craft and sew, and have been doing both since I was a small child. One of the things I have always wanted to learn about is how to do needle felting. In the past when I …
Today we are reviewing another fabulous book for all of you and this one is called “Art Lab for Kids” by Susan Schwake and published by Quarry Books.
Art Lab for Kids will bring out your own creative style & voice with 52 fun, refreshing, and creative art projects that are great for children and set into weekly lessons. The exercises include drawing, painting, printmaking, paper and mixed media. Such open-ended lessons as these can be explored over and over ~ with different results each time! Each lesson is inspired by the work of a contemporary artist, including:
* Rebecca Emberley
* Lisa Congdon
* Megan Bogonovich
* Amy Rice
* Georgia O’Keefe
* Chuck Close
* and Author, Susan Schwake
The colorful photographs illustrate the step-by-step process of how different people using the same lesson will yield different results, bringing out each artist’s personal style. Great for children and their parents who wish to explore their artistic sides!
Book Information: This book contains 144 pages and is broken down into 6 units (chapters). There are a lot of full-color photographs with step-by-step instructions throughout the entire book. The ISBN: 978-1-59253-765-5 with the suggested cover price of $22.99 USD.
My Thoughts: I am a big-time crafter and have been publishing my own craft blog for about 5 years. I like to do a lot of different crafting mediums and when my nieces and nephews visit me, I teach them various children’s crafts. This book is perfect for adults and kids!
I love that it’s laid out very nicely with photos of the completed projects that are right along the step-by-step photos in the directions. There is no guessing on what you should do with these craft lessons & projects as it’s in an easy-to-comprehend format.
There is a wide variety of projects in this book ranging from drawing, painting, printmaking, paper to mixed media. I love paper crafts so this book is right up my crafting alley.
Examples of some projects/lessons in the book:
* Contact Paper Insects
* Batik Landscapes
* Paper Family Quilts
* Pop Art Collage
* Texture Monsters
* Torn-Paper Landscapes
* Leaf Prints with Watercolors
* Tiny Paintings on Wood
* and so much more!
There is really something for everyone in this book! Even though it’s geared towards kids and parents doing projects with their kids, I learned a lot of different art techniques from this book! I am going to try some of them in my scrapbooking once we get moved into the new house and unpacked. This is a fabulous book for Teachers, Scout Leaders, Kid’s Club Leaders and for Parents! (homeschool? Great book for homeschooler’s too).
* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. Thank you!
Disclaimer: Shelly has personally reviewed the product listed above. Shelly has not received any monetary compensation for her review. Shelly did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ. Two Classy Chics is not responsible for delivery of any giveaway items won from this blog. We are not responsible for injury or mis-use of any products won from the Two Classy Chics Blog. Please read our Terms of Service & Disclaimer Policy before entering our giveaways. This giveaway is not affiliated with Facebook or Google+ in any way. Thanks!
One of the things I love to do in my spare time is arts and crafts! Yes folks, I am a big time crafter when I have time to do it! One of the crafting mediums I dabble in from time to time happens to …
Have I got a treat for all you crocheter’s out there. I received the book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi and can’t wait to get my crochet hook working on some of the projects in this paperback book. Its fantastic! Amigurumi (pronounced ah-mee-goo-roo-mee) is …