I know I'm not the only person who let out a small squeal of delight when I heard that there was going to be a book version of Red Ted Art. Maggy Woodley's popular children's craft blog, Red Ted Art, has won awards and for many parents it is the first place they go when they are looking for craft projects to do with their children. Maggy's projects have also appeared elsewhere, both online and in print, and for her readers it seemed natural that the next step would be a book and finally the waiting is over.
The subtitle of Red Ted Art the book is Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids
and this really does sum up the book perfectly. Not only are all the projects easy to do with your children – thanks to the clear concise instructions – but when you look through the book the photography is so stunning and the end results so adorable that you'll struggle to decide what to make first.
In Maggy's true style she tries to use as many recycled and natural materials as possible in her projects. There's a whole section of projects using toilet roll tubes and another on stones. If I had to find one "complaint" it would be that we can't do all the nut projects, in particular the peanut finger puppets, due to a peanut allergy in the family. A big shame as they're super cute, but I can't exactly blame Maggy for that one!
We decided to start Little Miss C off with one of the simpler projects in the book – apple and potato prints. I'm quite ashamed to say that we've not done printing like this before. I've no idea why not as it's incredibly simple and she really enjoyed doing it, but then sometime you just need someone to suggest something obvious and simple for you to actually do it.
We started off just making patterns with half an apple and some paint and LMC thought that it was great fun to use an apple like this. She's not a huge fruit and veg fan at all when it comes to eating them, so I'm particulary keen to make sure that she doesn't shun all fruit all the time.
After printing with the apple we moved on to the potato and this is where one of Maggy's genius ideas comes into play. A quick bit of work with a kitchen knife (not something LMC's read for yet) and rather than the usual square or star we had what LMC described as a "potato waffle" shape. The versatility of this shape is that you can use it either horizontally to make a red London bus, or vertically to make a city skyline. Combine the two and you can make a lovely London picture.
My art work is no where near the quility of Maggy's but you can see how easy it is to do.
I am just completely in love with this book and have already been recommending it to so many people. I've heard of one other mum who has bought a copy for her children's school and I'm actually considering doing the same for Little Miss C's nursery. It would also make a lovely present for a child, or their parents.
Win a copy of Red Ted Art: Cute and Easy Crafts for Kids
If you want to get your hands on a copy of the book then look no further. I have one copy to give away to a lucky reader. All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on this blog post telling me what your favourite recycled craft material is. Fill in the Rafflecopter widget below and cross your fingers. Extra entries are available if you follow BeingMrsC on twitter, or like my Facebook page. Full T&Cs are linked below.
Edited to say that this giveaway is now closed. I'm delighted to say that the winner is Karen Howe.
Disclaimer: I bought my own copy of Red Ted Art and have also purchased the second copy which I am offering as a competition prize.
My favourite recycled craft material is newspaper. You can paper mache it into anything!
Jam jars! I love them and collect them! I decorate them and fill them with home made jams, sweets, pretty buttons, ribbons etc and either display/use them for storing my craft bits and pieces or give them as gifts with lovely fillings!
We like collecting leaves in the forest to make art with 🙂
Shells.
Got to be toilet roll ends..castles, dinosaurs, snakes, horses…you name it, you can make one with a little bit of imagination!
Twitter name @ali1471alison
Used wrapping paper and cards
Egg boxes! Great for painting and making flowers! 🙂
Toilet rolls, because you can use them for so many different crafts x
The small tins thats kids pasta shapes come in (peppa pig in this house). mine are forever refilled with paint or painted themselves
Card Board boxes of all shapes and sizes
jam jars
cotton reels
Egg boxes & toilet roll tubes!
Leaves and Milk bottle tops
I get lots of parcels in cardboard boxes, so love making things out of them!
My partner is given lots of maps for work, these are printed on A4 so he saves these for our 2 girls to draw on the back of.
Used Christmas and birthday card-love to get our hands on those with embellishments.
We are lucky all our friends and neighbours save them for us.
Wallpaper
Plastic bottles, especially now we are coming into Summer, so many uses both indoor and outdoor.
Leaves, sticks and twigs
I’m rubbish at crafts which is why I need that book! However I think our favourite recycled stuff to use is cardboard of any type – big boxes, cereal boxes, old cards, egg boxes – you can make all sorts with a bit of card!
Old CD, they can be decorated and used for creating lovely mobiles
Cards and paper 🙂
toilet roll tubes. 🙂
we like using shells
cardboard tubes you cant help pretending its a trumpet when you see one
Shells and pebbles from the beach
We love bubble pop from packages. It is good fun to pop but also can add texture to a collage picture.
Newspaper
Recycling egg cartons is a good idea, they can be used to keep craft bits and bobs in, or for planting seeds or small plants.
SMA milk tins, i have them all over my house. The kids decorated them for all their craft stuff (glitter tin has lots of glitter on it etc). They have other ones for their little toys that never have anywhre to go. I’ve also used them for all my sewing and baking things, looks so much nicer than bags and funny shaped tubs everywhere.
The kids also decorate them for gifts and fill them with homemade cookies etc
Plastic Bottle lids .. they can be painted and stuck on anything .. they also make perfect robot buttons x
Toilet Roll Cardboard Tubing!
Old magazines. We go through them and cut out all the good pics and ad pages with interesting colours and patterns and save them up to use in lots of “projects” later.
old birthday/Christmas cards
Empty bottles like washing up and shampoo
cardboard
The coloured paper wrappings in Tins of Roses/Q Street
Egg boxes!
it will be toilet roll, cereal boxes and cardboard box.
Newspaper