Book Review - If You Are an Artist

About the Book
If You Are An Artist, you wonder . . . How? Why? and What if? You daydream adventure, you stare at the stars, you let your imagination grow, and grow, and GROW! And most importantly, you know that the world is waiting for what YOU and only YOU can create. Because YOU are an artist. Follow a band of young artists -- each with their own individual contribution -- through this inspirational homage to trusting your own voice, believing in yourself, and cultivating your creativity and sense of wonder to make the world a more beautiful place.

• 32 pages.
• Full color picture book.
• Hardcover with dust jacket.
• Book measures 8-3/4'' wide x 11-1/4'' high.

Meg Auchenbach has been writing and illustrating books since she was a little girl. If You Are an Artist is her debut picture book and is inspired by her former career as an elementary art teacher, where she watched children daydream, experiment, and create. She holds a B.F.A. in painting from Arcadia University, and an M.F.A. in Illustration/Visual Communication from Marywood University. She lives in Eastern Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, and their dog and cat. 

My Take on the Book

This was a beautiful book that really is a story that needs to be told to our kids over and over again. Each one of our kids are artists in their own way and we do need to encourage this and this book does just that. I love the images throughout and the creative use of words and images that allow you to see the importance of creativity in our children's lives. I highly recommend this book to all!

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Book Review - Draw Like an Artist: 100 Faces and Figures

About the Book

Featuring 600+ sketches depicting a vast array of human expressions, movements, and more, Draw Like an Artist: 100 Faces and Figures is a must-have visual reference book for student artists, illustrators, cartoonists, urban sketchers, and anyone seeking to improve their realistic drawing skills.

Designed as a contemporary, step-by-step guidebook for artists who are learning to draw the human form, Draw Like An Artist: 100 Faces and Figures features an inclusive array of faces, figures, and poses, all shown from a variety of perspectives. Each set of illustrations takes you from beginning sketch lines to a finished drawing.

Author Chris Legaspi is a leading figure illustrator and popular workshop instructor whose clear and elegant drawing style will make this a go-to sourcebook for years to come.



My Take on the Book
This is a great book for anyone wanting to get a better picture of how to draw faces and figures. These are not always the easiest to draw but this book does a great job of walking you step-by-step on how best to shade and create amazing images for the future. This is a great book that I would recommend to anyone that loves art and wants to hone their craft further.

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Book Review - Draw 62 Animals and Make Them Cute

About the Book
Build your drawing and character design skills while following the step-by-step instructions of Draw 62 Animals and Make Them Cute. 

Beloved illustrator and Instagrammer Heegyum Kim takes you on a fun journey to expand your character-building skills as she shows youhow to draw 62 animals and make them cute! On the left-hand page, follow along with the steps as each animal moves from simple shapes to identifying marks. On the right-hand page, you will find several other clever options for varying your character design. You might change the view, the animal's posture, their accessories, or their expression. Grab your pen and use the open spaces throughout the book to create your own versions and variations of each one.

Whether it's a playful platypus, an adorable sloth, or a scintillating chinchilla—you will delight in the charm of this animal collection. Fresh, modern, and with a dash of clever anthropomorphic humor, you won't find a more enjoyable way to practice your illustration and expand your imagination. 



My Take on the Book
This book has a ton of great illustrations within the book. The book itself walks you step by step through how to draw these fun images. Both my daughters love art and creating fun pictures fro themselves. This book delivered great images and more to be able to allow us to make some fun pictures that they even wanted to share with family and friends. If you love creating pictures this book will give you hours of fun!

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Book Review - Mom and Me: An Art Journal to Share: Create and Connect Side by Side

About the Book
This full-color art journal for moms and kids to color and draw together in is designed to be a sharing experience. Mom and child can write each other letters, draw what scares them, imagine what they want to be when they are grown up, color a scene using only one favorite color, whatever their imaginations lead them to!

Mom and Me: An Art Journal to Share is filled with fun hand-lettering and artwork from Bethany Robertson along with creative prompts from licensed art therapist Lacy Mucklow.

Mucklow offers up the best ways to communicate with a child through creating together; how to start an open conversation with your child; questions you can ask that will help generate thoughtful responses; and how to tailor the quality time so it's still fun and engaging for your child.

This art journal has 50 full-color spreads to color, fill in, draw, and more. Each spread has a creative prompt or another exercise for mom and child to fill out together.



My Take on the Book
Even though this is called Mom and Me, as a dad I used this with my daughter and we still had a ton of fun The book is filler with great prompts that get you to think, engage, react and more. The whole idea is allowing you to be create with your child, but also to engage with your child too. The book allows you to be open with feelings and really to delve into topics that might otherwise be harder to talk about. This is a type of book that, when completed, could be a book that you could go back to many years from now and cherish!


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Book Review - Stick it to 'Em: Playful Stickers to Color & Create

About the Book
Color and create your own personalized stickers!

Stick it to 'Em is your invitation to play as you create customized stickers with sass! With just a hint of silly irreverence, this guide includes a list of colorful art tools in addition to easy drawing and lettering techniques and step-by-step tutorials, all designed to get your cheeky creativity flowing. You'll then be treated to more than 35 pages of stickers, including a selection of fully designed styles to use any way you like, a variety of stickers to color in, and blank stickers to create your own. Filled with tons of puns, wit, and wisecracks, Stick it to 'Em is your answer to getting through each day with humor and fun.



My Take on the Book
My daughter loved this book. She loves to decorate and create and this book allows you to do both! Filled with great stickers, it is made to have you use these stickers as a part of a larger project and allows you to decorate and create even more things. She also loved having blank stickers that she could create with herself! This was an amazing book that let her creativity soar!

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Book Review - Harry Potter Magical Artifacts Poster Coloring Book

About the Book
From the speedy Golden Snitch to Hermione's mysterious bottomless bag, the world of Harry Potter is full of enchanting and beautiful artifacts. Featuring artwork from the hugely successful Harry Potter Magical Artifacts Coloring Book, this special poster collection features twenty stunning, one-sided prints that are perfect for coloring. Each detailed illustration is printed on high-quality card stock and can be easily removed for displaying.


My Take on the Book
This is a great book that offers you a ton of amazing pictures that were very large and intricate. The pictures offered you an array of options and my daughters loved working on all of the pictures that were in this book. You and your kids will love to create some amazing pictures that will being the world of Harry Potter alive.

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Book Review - The Dinosaur Creativity Book

About the Book
This is…ROAR-some! Let your child travel back in time to the days of the dinosaur through the pages of this fun-filled activity book. Kids will enjoy hours of creative fun with:

• Over 150 reusable stickers
• Stencil sheets that can be easily removed so even young artists can draw their favorite dinosaurs
• Scaly craft papers
• Dinosaur themed art that can be pulled out and used at home to make such fun crafts as a model dinosaur and a personalized door hanger
• Two glossy sticker scenes attached to the back cover, so readers can play with their reusable stickers to create prehistoric scenes time and again, and much more

Every puzzle, game and craft activity is based on a prehistoric creature, including T. rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Diplodocus. Stoke children's' curiosity and imagination while they discover all their favorite dinosaurs in one incredible place!

My Take on the Book
This is the perfect activity book for any dinosaur fan! It was filled with everything that you can think of relating to dinosaurs and will allow your child to have the ability to draw, color, use stickers and more. Whether you are on vacation, in the car or sitting at home, this is a great book that will definitely pass the time quickly!


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Book Review - Learn to Draw Safari Animals

About the Book
Perfect for young artists-in-training, Learn to Draw Safari Animals offers a comprehensive drawing experience than includes step-by-step lessons, as well as full-color photographs, fun facts, trivia, quizzes and much more. Children will enjoy the 64 pages of drawing instruction for a variety of exotic animals, including a lion, a giraffe, a hyena, and an aardvark. The book opens with brief information for getting started and the most popular breeds, the tools and materials needed, and some sample drawing exercises to warm up. Each drawing lesson begins with a basic shape, such as a square, a circle, or a triangle, and progresses to a finished colored piece of artwork, making it easy for children to follow along. Along the way, engaging text describes interesting facts about each featured animal. With a mix of art instruction and engaging information, Learn to Draw Safari Animals is the perfect way for children to discover more about their favorite animals, in addition to expressing their artistic side.


My Take on the Book
If you have a child who enjoys drawing and especially animals, this could be a perfect gift for that child. There are 28 specific animals to learn to draw in this book. Not only does the author include a photograph of the animal and step by step instructions to drawing the animal , but also interesting facts about the particular animal.

Some of the animals in this book are: elephant, giraffe, lemur, kangaroo, onyx, and baboon.

The author instructs the artist concerning the needed materials to draw the animals, such as paper, pencils, markers or crayons, pencils or colored pencils, or even paints. There is also specific information about using recognizable shapes in drawing the animals' features.
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Book Review - Art Painting with Everyday Materials

About the Book
Art doesn't have to be an expensive production of paints, brushes, and other supplies. When it comes to encouraging kids' creativity, the everyday items we have around the house can be just as good as fancy art studio materials. Barron's new Art Painting series shows children just how easy it is to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with dozens of really unique and totally do-able projects using supplies that can be found in the kitchen, pantry, or linen closet! With a little imagination, simple items like coffee, sponges, bottle caps, aluminum foil, old newspaper, and even cotton swabs can be used to create a masterpiece! Clearly illustrated, step-by-step instructions include material lists, advice for preparing the workspace, and notes for when an adult's help is needed. Endless inspiration for aspiring young artists as well as teachers and parents! In Art Painting with Everyday Materials,, painting with milk, shaving cream, or coffee sounds bizarre, but these projects demonstrate just how much fun it can be. (Ages 5 and up)

My Take on the Book
You and your child can paint on any surface you have around the house . You can paint on foil, paper doilies, stones, newspaper, and paper bags. A few of the projects in this book use pencils, colored pencils, felt tip markers, and crayons. The projects can be also used on graph paper and sandpaper.

I was impressed with the variety of the projects. You and your child can easily identify many projects to use in your special time together.



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Book Review - Art Painting with Different Tools

About the Book
Art doesn't have to be an expensive production of paints, brushes, and other supplies. When it comes to encouraging kids' creativity, the everyday items we have around the house can be just as good as fancy art studio materials. Barron's new Art Painting series shows children just how easy it is to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with dozens of really unique and totally do-able projects using supplies that can be found in the kitchen, pantry, or linen closet! With a little imagination, simple items like coffee, sponges, bottle caps, aluminum foil, old newspaper, and even cotton swabs can be used to create a masterpiece! Clearly illustrated, step-by-step instructions include material lists, advice for preparing the workspace, and notes for when an adult's help is needed. Endless inspiration for aspiring young artists as well as teachers and parents! In Art Painting with Different Tools,, who says paintbrushes are the only way to paint? This book explores some cool alternatives. (Ages 5 and up)

My Take on the Book
Get your children ready for painting without brushes. Your children will enjoy each of the 16 creative projects in this book. So the painting utensils are straw, pine needles, sponges, fingers, feathers, wool, ribbon, and cotton balls to name a few. These projects will really allow your child to use their imagination.

I play to try all of these projects with my girls. One I particularly liked was the one where they created monsters with paint and using a straw and then "google eyes". I think they will want to do this more than once.

I encourage you to just have fun with this book. There are so many avenues for creativity.



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Book Review - Art Stamping Using Everyday Objects

About the Book
Art doesn't have to be an expensive production of paints, brushes, and other supplies. When it comes to encouraging kids' creativity, the everyday items we have around the house can be just as good as fancy art studio materials. Barron's new Art Painting series shows children just how easy it is to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with dozens of really unique and totally do-able projects using supplies that can be found in the kitchen, pantry, or linen closet! With a little imagination, simple items like coffee, sponges, bottle caps, aluminum foil, old newspaper, and even cotton swabs can be used to create a masterpiece! Clearly illustrated, step-by-step instructions include material lists, advice for preparing the workspace, and notes for when an adult's help is needed. Endless inspiration for aspiring young artists as well as teachers and parents! In Art Stamping Using Everyday Objects, foam, pencil erasers, and our own two feet make great stamps for games, cards, and more. (Ages 5 and up)

My Take on the Book
There are 16 very creative ideas to use with children in this book. All the activities use objects that you may have in your house already. The objects will be used for stamping and painting on cardboard, paper, or fabric. Once you see the objects used in the book , I am sure your mind will think of other stamping other possibilities.

Do you have cardboard tubes, sponges, balloons, leaves, Styrofoam, bubble wrap, q-tips and even your feet? Well, then you have so many avenues to stamp and make creative projects.

I think you and your children will enjoy not only the projects in this book but imagine creations you can develop too.

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Book Review - Art Painting on Everyday Items

About the Book
Art doesn't have to be an expensive production of paints, brushes, and other supplies. When it comes to encouraging kids' creativity, the everyday items we have around the house can be just as good as fancy art studio materials. Barron's new Art Painting series shows children just how easy it is to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with dozens of really unique and totally do-able projects using supplies that can be found in the kitchen, pantry, or linen closet! With a little imagination, simple items like coffee, sponges, bottle caps, aluminum foil, old newspaper, and even cotton swabs can be used to create a masterpiece! Clearly illustrated, step-by-step instructions include material lists, advice for preparing the workspace, and notes for when an adult's help is needed. Endless inspiration for aspiring young artists as well as teachers and parents! In Art Painting on Everyday Items, painting stones, sandpaper, and leaves are just some of the imaginative projects featured. (Ages 5 and up)

My Take on the Book
There are 16 different art activities in this book using water. They begin easy with water and a paint brush on a concrete surface outdoors. There are projects with paint, cornstarch, sand, dish soap for colored bubbles, ink, glue, and so much more in this creative book of projects. If you already have arts and crafts materials around your house, you will most likely have the materials for the projects in this book for the creative activities. . I believe my girls will enjoy using their imagination with the projects that Bernadette Cuxant created.


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The Zoom Loom Is Great For Tweens!

About the Zoom Loom
Schact has taken a simple design and transformed it into an efficient and comfortable little loom. If you've ever woven on a pin loom, you'll love our new and improved model. Small and compact, the Zoom Loom is easy to take with you. Weave anywhere, any time.

• The sloping interior edge guides your weaving needle.
• Graceful extended sides are easy to hold.
• Molded-in instructions on the front and back are always there when you need them.
• A handy slot holds the starting yarn without knotting.
• Made in Boulder, Colorado!

The Zoom Loom comes in an attractive carrying case. A 6" weaving needle and a 3" yarn needle are included, as well as a full-color instruction book with three projects. An instructional video is available



 
My Take on the Zoom Loom
This kit is for those within the ages of 10-100. It is a 4 by 4 sturdy plastic hand held loom, with a 6 inch weaving needle and a 3 inch sewing needle. The kit included directions with illustrations and step by step written directions. The booklet of directions included three patterns: a scarf, a placemat, and a reader case.


Before I used it with my nine year old, I used the directions and yarn I had at home, to weave the loom. The illustrations were essential to understand the written directions. As I wove I found that if I did not use a finger to hold down the yarn each time I made a curve, then the yarn would slip. This was not in the directions but something to be aware of as you wrap the loom.

My daughter then began the weaving. Because we used two different colors of yarn she was able to see if she made an error in her weaving pattern. She finished one square easily.

So in preparing the loom again for weaving a second square, I allowed her to look at the illustrations and we went through the step by step directions together.

She was able to accomplish this with a little help.

I feel, because she has learned other crafts that the loom and directions were maybe easier for her to handle.


This is a great activity to take on a trip as it is easy to carry and the materials are simple. I think it would make a nice gift for someone who enjoys crafts.


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Moulin Roty Shadow Puppets Let Imagination Soar

As a father i am always looking for things that will promote imagination and creativity. This especially occurs at bedtime when we make up stories, and simply have fun winding down the day. Bring in these Nightime Shadow Puppets from Moulin Roty.

I was able to try out the two sets that you see in the pictures here and I have to first say that I was so impressed with the overall quality of these. As a past puppeteer I can completely appreciate fine quality when it comes to puppets and this definitely provided that.

On top of this though the Shadow Puppets were so much fun and the company put so much detail into them,

The two sets I was able to test drive were the Castles and Dinosaurs sets. What was fun about the sets was that with the right lighting you could create big shadows and with your imagination you could create a story that would bring a smile to your childs' face.

My daughters particularly liked the Castles set, and seemed to love having the Dragon being the protagonist in all of their stories.

On top of this all of the sets are reasonably priced in my opinion. The Paris Shadows ($21) set shows the Eiffel Tower, airplane, moon and sleepwalker. The 9-piece Castle Shadows ($18.50) include a dragon, a fairy, royalty and a witch! If dinos are more your style, the Dinosaur Shadows ($18.50) pack of 10 puppets feature a stegosaurus, brachiosaurus and more prehistoric shapes.

In the end these puppets are wonderfully made and truly sparked the creative juices in myself and in my girls. I highly recommend this to all!




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