Resources: great books on general crafting

Books on general crafting with kids and adults:

1. Ball, Ann – Catholic Traditions in Crafts – Our Sunday Visitor (Huntington, Indiana). 1997. How do you craft your way through the liturgical year? This book will cover most of what you need to start your creative journey. Ball does a great job of describing projects and the Catholic traditions behind these projects. This is a great resource!
2. Ball, Ann – Catholic Traditions in the Home and Classrooms: 365 Days to Celebrate a Catholic Year – Our Sunday Visitor (Huntington, Indiana). 2005. This is a compilation of Ann Ball’s individual books and is organized by the calendar so it’s easy to find the great projects that fit various feasts and liturgical celebrations. If you don’t want to get the individual books, this is a good way to get Ball’s creative genius in book-form.
3. Beal, Susan, et al – Super Crafty: Over 75 Amazing How-To Projects – Sasquatch Books (Seattle, Washington) 2005. Very cool, fun crafty projects using lots of recyclables to make funky but functional products.
4. Berger, Petra – Feltcraft: Making Dolls, Gifts and Toys – Floris Books (Edinburgh, Scotland) 2004. This is a classic in the Waldorf-style of crafting with kids. Beautifully illustrated and amazing projects.
5. Berger, Petra & Thomas – Crafts Though the Year – Floris Books (Edinburgh, Scotland) 2001. A classic among the Waldorf-style of crafting with suggestions for crafting by the calendar. The Bergers are amazingly crafty.
6. Cooper, Stephanie & Fynes-Clinton, Christine & Rowling, Marye – The Children’s Year: Crafts and Clothes for Children and Parents to Make – Hawthorn Press (Gloucestershire, UK) 2002. Excellent resource for family-oriented crafting to make clothes and seasonal crafts using lots of objects from nature and natural fibers.
7. Desmoulins, Virginie – Girls’ Best Book of Knitting, Sewing and Embroidery – Stewart, Tabori & Chang (New York) 2007. This book, unfortunately geared only to girls, has some great projects and simple, clear instructions for doing the basic “girl” crafts of knitting, sewing and embroidery, all crafts boys can learn and do with great results!
8. Jaffke, Freya – Toymaking with Children – Floris Books (Edinburgh, Scotland) 2003. Lots of great toys (in the Waldorf-style) of creating from nature or natural fibers to make imaginative toys like gnomes, elves, woodland creatures and life-skills playing (bowls, utensils, etc).
9. Leeuwen, M v & Moeskops, J – The Nature Corner: Celebrating the Year’s Cycle with a Seasonal Tableau – Floris Books (Edinburgh, Scotland) 1990. Another Waldorf-type book, this one focuses on bringing beauty into your home through season tables using all natural pieces.
10. Mavor, Salley – Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects – C&T Publishing (Lafayette, CA) 2003. Gorgeous and fun felt projects for flat pictures as well as 3-dimensional dolls and toys.
11. Railla, Jean – Get Crafty: Hip Home Ec – Broadway Books (New York) 2004. This takes funky one step beyond the norm and has some really fun things for young parents to do with their kids; definitely written for the Gen-X (if not younger) crowd but lots of great ideas even for this “old” mom.
12. Watt, Fiona – The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas: Over 400 Inspiring Ideas for Things to do with Paints, Pastels, Collage, Crayons, Inks, Paper, Pens, Found Objects, Stitches, Rubbings – EDC Publishing (Tulsa, OK) 2005. This is a compilation of other Usborne art books which clearly and beautifully illustrate classic and not-so-classic art projects for kids to complete. This is one of my favorite books.
13. Rhatigan, Joe & Newcomb, Rain & Dean, Irean Semanchuck – Craft It! 50 Fun Stamp, Paper & Polymer Clay Projects – Sterling Publishing (New York) 2005. This is a fun book with a good combination of styles of general, basic craft projects but with lots of potential for expanding beyond the ordinary.