Every Day's a Holiday: Year-Round Crafting with Kids

by Heidi Kenney

Kids love making crafts, and no one knows that better than Heidi Kenney, creator of the popular blog My Paper Crane. In this festive how-to book, Heidi shares a year's worth of classic and not-so-classic projects that the whole family will enjoy, from the National Bird Day embroidered handmade book to the St. Patrick's Day mini leprechaun pin. Fifty fully photographed projects are geared to all age levels and abilities. Somelike the New Year's Day newspaper hatsare simple enough for small kids to make themselves with minimum assistance, while more complicated projects require a little extra help from mom or dad. With so many fun projects to bring the family together, Every Day's a Holiday proves that every day really is a holiday.

Genres: Crafts, Holiday, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 2010

About the author

Heidi Kenney is a self-taught artist who creates plush and 3D soft sculptures, happy (& sometimes very sad) plush veggies, donuts, toilet paper rolls, and other everyday food & household items. Born in Washington DC, Heidi currently lives in Pennsylvania. She started her company and website, My Paper Crane, in 2001 so she would have a place to blog and showcase the plush toys she was making.


Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Print magazine. She has participated in group exhibitions across the globe including Tokyo, Australia, and The United Kingdom. She recently had her third solo show "Seedings & Sprouts" in Chicago IL.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of Heidi Kenneys blog My Paper Crane. I really love her aesthetic so it was impossible to wait until this book became available through the library. Kenney goes through the year month by month, often choosing off beat holidays such as Ice Cream day. This book has cute crafts for different skill levels as well as some "No Adult Needed" crafts. Plus a few recipes thrown in for good measure. My six year old son also loves this book and I frequently find him paging through it. That's one of the best parts of this book, none of the crafts are completely geared toward one gender or age group. From reading Kenneys blog I knew I could trust her to do good by boys. I would say this is not a Must Have. It's more of a cherry on top of a good craft book collection.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a couple of fantastic crafting ideas and a lot of so-so, ho-hum looking projects in this book; however, I really LOVE the format. The author has highlighted a lot of well-known holidays and a number of lesser known holidays (i.e., Eat Your Veggies Day, Mad Hatter Day) and created a craft idea centered on each of these holidays for a "year" of crafting with kids. Even though I'm not planning to make a lot of her ideas, I am planning to use her idea for year-round crafting and pick up on some of the different holidays to sprinkle a little crafting fun throughout the year.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This should be called "Crappy Crafting with Kids." When even the samples look crappy, why bother doing them? Even in a kids' craft book I want the photos to be beautiful. No thanks on any of these projects.

[Loren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must confess up front ... I like quirky craft books so this one will not be for everyone! i like the format, layout etc! I am totally going to make an advent felted wool christmas tree calendar ... just got to find some shabby wool sweaters to shrink & felt!!!!!!!!!!!!! :0

[Lee · Rating 1 out of 5]

i didn't care for any of these simple crafts, and i read a lot of craft books!!
was surprised to read on the book jacket that the author has been featured in galleries and photographs have appeared in various magazines, really!

[Paula]

Ez made the pinecone cheese ball for Xmas dinner and it was delicious and not too hard. But this book is mostly craft projects, and written to the adult reader.