My Love for You Is Like a Garden with Free Printable Match Game and Flower Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Flying Cardinal Press for this blog tour post. I will receive a small stipend for posting my review.

Spring is in the air! I see the tips of our daffodils, tulips and irises poking out of the soil between the mounds of snow. Spring is my favorite season. I love watching the world come back to life. I saw my first robin last week, so I know the warmer weather will be here soon. That means it is time to think about my garden. Today I am sharing a beautiful book comparing love to a garden. I made a match game with the beautiful illustrations and have a round-up of flower and garden crafts as well as a giveaway!! It is fun post! The book is called My Love for You Is Like a Garden by Laura Smetana. 

My Home Filled with Love -- a Love Letter to Parents in a Picture Book with Gift/Card Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Tabletop Teaching LLC as part of the Blog Tour. I will receive a small stipend for this review.

Today we are sharing a fun new book that reads as a love letter to parents. It is meant to show kids and parents what a nurturing home looks like, however to me it is a love letter to the girls parents. The book is My Home Filled with Love by Desiree Blanchard and illustrated by Hayley Moore. This post includes a giveaway as well as a round-up of gifts and cards kids can make for their parents!

What Makes Hands Beautiful? -- Book Review, Giveaway & Handprint Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and J.F. Bierlein to bring you this post.

Do you ever think about hands? We use them all the time, and life would be so hard without them. As I thought about hands and looked at my own handprint crafts, I thought about how we use them for sensory and let's face it there are so many great handprint crafts! I am sharing a large round-up of handprint crafts and hand sensations. Think about kids playing with play dough, slime and finger painting. Or the fact that we hold their hands all the time. Our hands are truly our sense of touch and something special to us. Today I get to share a beautiful book about hands. It is What Makes Hands Beautiful? by J.F. Bierlein and illustrated by Houda Zahid. There is a giveaway and the craft round-up at the end of the post.

Fairies and Love Bug Dolls

So yesterday I was considering posting some of our crafts for the Chinese New Year or Valentine's Day, but when I came home from my Christian Education meeting at church, I didn't feel like formatting pictures and doing it, so I put it off until today. Then I was checking out some of my favorite blogs (which I have not been doing as regularly as I would like) and noticed that The Magic Onions is holding a giveaway of Margaret Bloom's new book, Making Peg Dolls. 

Source

Now I remember awhile back when Margaret mentioned to me in email that she had just gotten the deal for the book, but she was still keeping it low key. I am so excited for her and am so inspired for her. So my next stop of course was to check out we bloom here (Margaret's blog). Well on Monday, she kicked off her blog book tour and the post on The Craft Crow included a book review and a tutorial on love-bugs. I felt inspired, so I went and found some peg dolls and some clothespins as well as my paint markers and some flowers I had been saving for making flower fairies, felt and a few of our leftovers from different Valentine's Day crafts. I made two peg dolls--one a love-bug inspired by The Craft Crow's and a little flower fairy that I'm calling a snow drop fairy.

For the love-bug I painted the body red and cut pink felt stripes. I used a pink felt heart for wings. Then I cut a sparkly pink pom pom in half and it sort of fell apart, but I used it to cover the head. I painted a face on making the mouth heart shaped and then used a pipe cleaner as antennae.

For my little snow drop fairy, I painted the body light blue. Then used a fabric white flower (probably a daisy) as a skirt. I thought the light blue did not show up well so I went over the part showing with a more turquoise color. I used a white felt heart for the wings and painted on a face and hair. Then glued the same type of white flower together to form a hat. 

From the clothespins I made a chrysanthemum fairy and a queen of the flower fairies.

For the chrysanthemum fairy, I had flowers that were almost the same in two sizes. I used two large flowers on the bottom for the skirt and then used about five small ones for the top of her dress. I cut a pink felt heart in half and glued them together point to point for wings. I gave her a face and hair with paint markers and then put a sparkly plastic flower sticker for a hat.

For my queen of the flower fairies, I used a large felt flower for her dress and a small fabric flower for the collar. I gave her a green heart for wings and painted on her face and yellow hair. Then for her crown I used zig zag decoration and wrapped it around to be a rosebud. It takes quite a bit of glue and holding to get it to stay but you can also just pass a few stitches through it. My sewing stuff was not near me and I was being lazy. Then I just glued it on.

It was so fun to be inspired to craft again. Hazel is very excited to have some surprises this morning as well. How have you been inspired by something lately?

Vivienne in Paris -- Review & Giveaway Plus Paris-Themed Crafts

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and will receive a small stipend as a participant in The Children's Book Review and Maria Castellucci Moore's Virtual book Tour. All opinions are my own.

Have you ever had a day "where you felt most alive, full of spirit, zestful, and sparkling with enthusiasm"? Today I get to share a book about enjoying one's daily activities by using their senses and truly observing their surroundings and interactions. The book is Vivienne in Paris by Maria Castellucci Moore and illustrated by Emanuela Mannello. I am also including a Paris-themed craft to go with the book and some other craft ideas for the book!

Craft It Up! Chirstmas Around the World -- Book Review

Disclosure: Ryland, Peters and Small 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. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Today I am going to share with you a fun Christmas craft book that helps teach a little bit about various countries around the world. In August of 2013, I had the pleasure of reviewing Craft It Up Around the World. Now the same authors, Libby Abadee and Cath Armstrong have a second book published, Craft It Up Christmas Around the World. 

Audio Books for Crafters & DIY Teacher Gifts -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Have you entered my current giveaway for a custom canvas print?

Disclosure: I was given audio versions 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.

What do you do when you craft? Do you craft in silence? Or are you like me and watch television (or at least listen to television) while you craft? With the summer reruns season starting I am finding television pretty boring. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing came to my rescue. They have a page dedicated to crafters with recommendations as well as free knitting patterns!! On this page there are links to articles, free coloring pages and patterns as well as some book suggestions. There is even a place to say how long you want to craft for book recommendations. All of the books have sample clips so you can get a taste for the story and the telling of it. I was lucky enough to be sent four audio books to check out. I will admit since I have not been crafting very much lately that I have not listened to them yet.

Geometry in Origami Tutorial with Origami Paper Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent this pack of origami paper in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Let's start 2025 with a fun craft!! I went to a craft fair and fell in love with an origami flower ball ornament. I bought one. I knew I could make one for myself, but didn't want to take the time before Christmas, so I bought one.

Welcome, Spring!! Spring Craft Round-Up

What comes to mind when you think spring? There are so many wonderful parts to spring. The weather gets warmer; the flowers bloom; the world seems to wake up and then there are all the animals that return. Since spring officially began today at 12:57 p.m., I thought we would do a round-up of my spring crafts, activities and books so far on Crafty Moms Share. I will do an Easter round up another time and I did a Lent round up a couple of weeks ago.

Crafting Paper Flowers -- Crafty Sundays Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I haven't done a Crafty Sundays review in a while but want to share this great paper flower book with you. I love making various paper flowers and finding different ways to make them. Today I am sharing Crafting Paper Flowers by Emily Paluska. This book uses quality crepe papers to make the flowers. 

Diamond Painting with Craft Ease

 

Disclosure: I was sent this kit in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My birthday is fast approaching and this year thanks to Craft-Ease I have made myself a great gift! Now pink roses are my favorite flower and my favorite color combination is pink and turquoise, so when Craft-Ease asked me to pick out a kit and I saw this beautiful Roses on Turquoise, I knew it was for me. 

Fairy Day Games -- Book Review & Giveaway with Fairy Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am working with The Children's Book Review and Expound Publicity to bring you this post and giveaway.

Our house has loved fairies for a long time. One of our favorite photos of Hazel when she was younger was with her fairy wings on. 

Hazel loved fairies when she was younger. We read just about every book with fairies in them. Today I get to share a new one that has a young girl dreaming of going to the fairy party that welcomes everyone in the forest and belonging. The book is Fairy Day Games by Mari Sherkin and illustrated by David Gnass. With this review there is a giveaway as well as a fairy craft round-up. 

Interesting Facts & Benefits of Clover with Craft & Recipe Round-Up

 

Last week we had so much fun learning about dandelions. It is amazing that what many consider a weed can do for your yard as well as food! This week I thought I would look at another wildflower or weed. We will look at clovers! I found many interesting things about clovers. Now many people associate clover with St. Patrick's Day. However for me it is a spring/summer thing because we have so much in our yard and the rabbits come out to eat it.

Easter Bunny Crafts & More from Oriental Trading Company -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

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.

Easter is only three weeks away!! It is early this year. I have been seeing so many cute bunny things this year and I wanted to jump on the band wagon. I asked Oriental Trading Company to help me make some fun bunny crafts and a few other Easter things. I fell in love with the bunny tote bag at work, but didn't want to spend the money on it since it looked easy enough to do a DIY if I had the canvas bags. So I asked for the DIY White Bags and got to work.  On one of them I hand stitched the eyes, whiskers and mouth and sewed on a pink pom pom (from Hazel's collection) for the nose. On the other I used fabric paint and glued on the pink pom pom.

Books for Dinosaur Lovers with Craft Round-Up

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Last week I shared a round-up of books for animal lovers. Today I am sharing books for dinosaur lovers and some of them are perfect for Spanish learners or bilingual kids. If you like to give a gift to read and have a dinosaur lover in your life this post is for you! We will start with the stand-alone book (the others are in a series together). It is A Dinosaur a Day by Miranda Smith. This book is recommended for ages 6 to 9.

Surviving through our new normal--Toilet Paper Roll Craft Round Up & More!

The world is a scary place and has gotten a whole lot scarier the last few weeks. I believe we are truly afraid of the unknown. We do not know who will get the Coronavirus, who will die from it and what will happen during this time. There are predictions but it is scary. Now we are dealing with this stress and fear and our kids are home with us because it isn't safe to have them at school. And then there is the whole stores wiped out of toilet paper (and other things) going on. Craziness! 

Creative Mermaid Craft

A few weeks ago the free craft at Lakeshore Learning was this fun mermaid craft. We had seen one of the employees make the sample back in the beginning of May (or maybe the end of April) and could not wait for this fun craft and of course that was the weekend we visited my parents so we could not go to Lakeshore to do the craft. That Monday, I stopped by to see if there was a pattern for the tail and they happened to have the leftover pieces out and gave me the basic pieces. Hazel and I finally had time to make it and we made many and got rather creative. I splurged on a fun sparkly paper that I thought would be perfect for the tail. I was able to cut two tails from it. 

Oriental Trading's Fun365 --a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these items in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Have you discovered Oriental Trading's Fun365?  It is a site that has different craft projects and articles. There are choices of Party Ideas, Craft Ideas, Wedding Ideas, and Classroom Ideas. I was inspired by ideas from the Craft Ideas and Party Ideas. I had so much fun exploring the many ideas there. I let Hazel look and help me pick what we would try. In the Party Ideas section there is a Rainbow Party and one of the crafts is a DIY Rainbow Coin Purse. Instead of doing the coin purse we used DIY Totes. (See current available totes here.)I asked Hazel to paint a rainbow on one for me. She wanted to use the Pearlized Acrylic Paint (available paint). Then she wanted to do a heart rainbow, but hers turned out more like a circle. She also did a square but wanted to use the pink on it.  I did a heart one for her as well as a star and an H. 

Kid Made Mother's Day Card Ideas with Round-Up

Can you believe Mother's Day is only a week away? This year with remote learning going on the kids are not getting help from their teachers to make cards and gifts. That means it falls on the kids and the dads. Steve brought up the idea of shopping for Mother's Day cards with Hazel and whether it was safe. I reminded him that most of our stores here are closed and will be until after Mother's Day. I suggested they go to our local Walgreen's but when push came to shove Hazel did not want to go out. She has been home since this has started except for our walks when it is nice out, a trip to her school for her yearbook picture, a trip to a good friend's house who is also social distancing but we needed to exchange things with one another and trips to her grandmother's house with Steve. I went to Walgreen's and picked up a couple of cards for her grandmothers. She was afraid one of them would not like getting a homemade card. I found it hard to believe but figured it was worth getting cards for her to give them. She can make one for me. Then I got to thinking of the dads out there who haven't had to deal with this before. I got the idea of sharing some when I got an email from Crayola featuring a flamingo card. I figured we had to try it since Hazel LOVES flamingos. 

Flower Print Cards -- Fun & Easy Nature Craft

 

Today I am going to share a fun and easy nature craft. Last year or two I saw a post about hammering pansy flowers and getting a print on fabric. I have no idea whose post I saw. I believe it was on Facebook, but that is about all I can remember. It is a craft you can do with kids, but it involves hammering so watch little fingers! I wanted to try the craft on paper since if I used fabric, I would want to be able to wash it and assumed the print would wash out. I pulled out some blank foldover cards and picked some pansies. I pulled out the hammer and worked in my husband's workroom. My first try did not go as planned. I just put the flowers on the card and began hammering.