Happy Thanksgiving 2016 -- Reflections on Thanksgiving

Today I am spending time with my family. On the third Thursday of each November the United States takes a break from our busy lives to celebrate Thanksgiving. Most schools teach about the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony.  Many Native Americans see Thanksgiving as a day to mourn because of this. I can understand this view and see why it could be a day to mourn for the groups of people who were so brutally oppressed and had their land and in many cases lives taken away from them. However I like to think about Thanksgiving as a day where my family stops our busyness and takes time to thank God for our blessings. It is a time where we get to gather with the people we love and enjoy some quality time together. My family has the traditional turkey meal with stuffing and potatoes and vegetables and homemade cranberry sauce (Hazel and I always make it). We try hard not to have too much food so that we can actually just enjoy the meal and company. So as much as I understand what Thanksgiving means to Native Americans I think most families in America do not think about the first Thanksgiving all that much as part of the meal or at least I hope they do. I see it as a time for family and God. How do you see it?

 Our guests are greeted by our colorful turkey on our door this year. Hazel and I put this turkey together from a Paper Source kit. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! I am thankful for each of you as a reader of Crafty Moms Share!!

The Art of Paper Flowers -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Tonight I get the pleasure of sharing with you a new book full of tutorials and patterns to create beautiful paper flowers. The book is The Art of Paper Flowers by Bobby Pearce. The flowers created in this book and with the instructions remind of the flower kits sold at Paper Source. The book allows you to design your own colors and various types of flowers.

Asian Gift Wrapping Papers Crafts -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me these wrapping papers. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Tonight I am sharing these beautiful wrapping papers and some crafts to do with them!! The paper comes as a book with the sheets folded and perforated for ease to remove them. Each book comes with twelve 18-inch by 24-inch sheets.

Back of Books with Pictures of all Papers!

Bringing God and the Bible into Your Life for All Ages

 Disclosure: Kregel Publications sent me copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Do you want to bring God and the Bible into your life more or perhaps into your child's life? Today I am sharing some books and a printable game for kids to do just this. Going by age we will start with the book for the younger child, The Bible and Me: Stories with a Message to Live By retold by Lois Rock and illustrated by Alida Massari.  

Paper Airplane Fun -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me copies of these books free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am sharing two books about paper airplanes. I have been meaning to share these as part of my Summertime Fun Series, but have not gotten around to it. So I decided to share it here before our summer actually ends. I mean paper airplanes are definitely a great summertime fun activity and these two books help make even more fun!! The first book is Michael LaFosse's Origami Airplanes. It comes with a DVD to follow the steps as well. 

Learn to Draw Calligraphy Nature -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today I am sharing a book that shows how to use a calligraphy pen to make nature pictures. The book is Learn to Draw Calligraphy Nature by Andrew Fox. 

Crafty Weekends

This week I am not ready to write a review of one of the craft books. Most of my crafting this week happened at work, and I did not get a chance to get a picture. So this week we are going straight to the party!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at last party!! It was full of creations and inspiring ideas!! Below are some features from the party, but this is just a small sample of great ideas shared! This week the features are in three groups: Decorative & Useful, Fabric Crafts and Paper Crafts. 

Also remember for your child-oriented crafts, activities, lessons, etc. Sharing Saturday is going on!! For any cultural related posts (diversity and/or multicultural as well) be sure to share at the month long Creative Kids Creative Blog Hop. 

Chinese Meets Japanese with Chinese Origami for Children -- Product Review for Summertime Fun Series

Be sure to check out my on-line Thirty-One Review & Party!! Get all your summer organizing essentials!!

 

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

 

Sometimes in the summer one needs some quiet or indoor activities due to various reasons--tired, busy momma, or bad weather. Origami is a perfect activity for those times. Today we are sharing a fun book where the Chinese culture meets the Japanese culture as well as some fun packs of origami paper to try out the various projects. The book is Chinese Origami for Children by Hu Yue and Lin Xin and illustrated by Samoo Tang. 

Perfect Gift Wrapping Ideas -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Have you entered my current giveaway for a custom canvas print? There are only one more day to enter!!

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

How do you wrap gifts? Do you just throw them in a gift bag? I'll admit I often do at least for gifts for kids. However I always love playing with gift wrapping. At work we charge at least $6 plus the supplies for gift wrapping. I'm always amazed when people pay it. I will admit the gifts always look beautiful when they are done. They are usually done in a seam line wrapping style. And today's book that I am sharing gives a tutorial in this kind of wrapping!

Pop-Up Cards -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Quarto Books USA. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Have you seen the pop-up cards lately in the stores? They seem to be the latest rage. Of course for eight plus dollars they are also very expensive. Today's book will help you make your own fun pop-up cards for any occasion!!  The book is Pop-Up Cards by Emily Gregory. 

Mother's Day Gifts & Heat Embossing Tutorial -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

Today is Mother's Day in the United States. Yesterday Hazel spent the morning making her gifts for her grandmothers and one for me. I bought some canvas bags and she was able to paint them for each person. She also jumped at every chance to make a card for me. She did one at Paper Source, our public library, and Lakeshore Learning. She also made her ice cream cone about me at school and a few cards and a book on her own!

Mother's Day / Spring Card -- Crafty Weekends Craft & Link Party

Mother's Day in the United States is just a couple of weeks away. This year I decided to make my mother a card based on one I saw at work. To make it I used some flower punches and my bow/mustache punch. I picked papers that were in my mother's favorite colors--purples, turquoises and such. I punched out many flowers in all the colors I had gathered. Spring colors and my mother's favorites.

Origami Fun for Kids Kit & Fun Origami Paper -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this kit and packages of origami paper free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

One of our favorite crafts is origami. Now I love origami for many different reasons including teaching math. Hazel loves creating the various things. Today we are sharing Origami Fun for Kids by Rita Foelker as well as two packs of origami paper: Japanese Bird Patterns and Kaleidoscope Patterns. 

Valentine Crafts & More -- Crafty Weekends Link Party

Last week's Crafty Weekends Party was huge and there were so many great ideas I was a bit overwhelmed with putting together all the features!! Put that together with a busy week (and Hazel first snow day of the school year and the second is tomorrow) I didn't get much adult crafting done. We did however make some fun Valentine's Day crafts. The crafts I am sharing today involve two kits from the Paper Source which I purchased for us, so this is not really a review per say. I will provide you links when possible. I do not receive any compensation if you click them or purchase from them. They are solely for your convenience.  The first kit is the Ombre Heart kit which is actually in the clearance section and no longer available on-line. I made the teacher Valentine (the large one) and added on some of the words of 1 Corinthians 14.

DIY Wild Kratts Themed Birthday Party -- Product Review

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to the products for your convenience but do not receive anything if you buy from them.

I have been promising a post about our Wild Kratts themed birthday party and here it is. The rest of the week I will be doing posts on New Year Resolutions and products that are helping with mine. But with New Year's come Hazel's birthday party. It is always over Christmas vacation, but this year we decided to have her party with her school friends after the vacation and we discovered many more people come when it is not on vacation!! But first our invitation.

Origami Zoo Kit -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

So Hazel's birthday was last week. We had a fun ducky themed party for family and a few friends. And we will be having a Wild Kratts themed party for her school friends. You will be seeing some posts about that party this week and next! However Ann at Tuttle Publishing sent Hazel a gift this year. It was one of the first gifts she got this year!

Handmade Christmas -- Craft Book Review & Crafty Weekends Link Party

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

 Disclosure:  Ryland Peters & Small sent me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am going to share the perfect book for any crafty Christian family this time of year. Handmade Christmas by CICO Books is full of different crafts and recipes for different age crafters! There are specific crafts labeled as kids' crafts and some of the other crafts are kid friendly as well!!

 The crafts range from sewing to paper crafts and even some tin and more!! The three chapters are Decorations, Cards & Giftwrap and Gifts. Some are traditional crafts like paper snowflakes.

DIY Christmas Cards & Gift Tags

Disclosure: My Memories gave me a copy of this product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.

Are you getting ready for Christmas? Have you mailed your cards yet? Wrapped the gifts? There always seems to be so much to do this time of year. I always look for ways to stop and enjoy the season. In our house this often includes some crafts. This year we made our own Christmas cards. We always do a photo card and we still did, but we added our own personal touch with a simple craft. I had bought the tree punch at work as well as a pack of spruce flat cards. We punched them and decorated them with gel pens, liquid pearls and washi tape and then glued them on to the cards and added a sticker star. Some we used plan cardstock and covered in the washi tape and then punched.

The Little Christmas Tree -- Book Review & Craft

 Disclosure: Kregel Publications sent me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is this week. Christmas is just around the corner. Today we get to share a book that is being added to our must read every year list for Christmas. These are books that bring the Christmas story and season alive. The Little Christmas Tree by Andrea Skevington and illustrated by Lorna Hussey is a definite must read. When we read it again last night Hazel commented on how she LOVES this story. 

Crafty Weekends: Paper Pom-Poms & Other Party Decorations Book Review & Link Party

I am hosting a giveaway to win ABC Monsters & Houdini DVDs ! Have you entered yet?

Disclosure:  Ryland Peters & Small sent me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing the perfect book for the DIY party decoration maker. This book has amazing ideas and instructions for making some common party decorations as well as creative new ones. I brought it into work (at the Paper Source) and my manager loved the book and wanted a copy for herself. The book is Paper Pom-Poms ad Other Party Decorations by Juliet Carr.

 I started with some basic party decorations. The rosette and the paper pom-pom. For the rosette I used a hummingbird paper from the Paper Source. I am planning on making some more for Hazel's Wild Kratts themed birthday party this year. I got a small rip in it unfortunately.