Crafts from Recycled Materials (Valentine Themed) -- Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent these products 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.

Happy New Year!! Crafty Weekends has been on hold for a few weeks due to the holidays and Hazel's birthday parties. We are back this week with a review of two great children's craft books using things from your recycle bin!! I put a Valentine's Day twist onto the ones I made. I am also providing you with some free printable Valentines in case you do not want to make the crafts to go with them. 

Our first book is 51 Things to Make with Egg Cartons by Fiona Hayes. This book has 51 ideas of things to make with egg cartons. The ideas are adorable and creative. I gave the book to Hazel and let her pick two ideas to make. (Then she went sledding and I made the crafts.) We fell in love with the adorable owl.

My paint was still drying so I did not get the best picture. I added instead the Valentine's saying to make it a Valentine craft and also used Valentine's Day colors. What do you think?

Hazel fell in love with the fairy (of course). I did not have the correct size foam ball for the head but did have a wooden bead head that worked well. Again the glue is still drying on this one. Isn't she cute?

Overall the projects in this book are fun and easy to follow. The instructions are clear and have great photographs to make it easy for the child to follow. This book had some projects I have seen before but it also had several that I hadn't seen previously. I think our next one will be the flower wreath. 

Our second book is also by Fiona Hayes. It is 51 Things to Make with Cardboard Tubes. Again it has 51 fun ideas to use your various cardboard tubes that you throw away or recycle. To see the cuteness you can just look at the cover, however Hazel picked several for us to try. I made two of them today. The first is a bunny. I made it pink since I was trying to make it for Valentine's Day.

I added a cotton ball for the tail to this one as well. Isn't he cute? Bunnies have a special place in my family's hearts ever since my sister nicknamed Hazel Bunny and the name has spread to us all. In fact my mother made adorable bunny slippers for all of us this Christmas. 

Our second project was the dragonfly which is a finger puppet!! As you can see my glue and paint was still wet so I couldn't demonstrate this for you. Again I used pink and red to make it into a love bug for Valentine's Day. 

Again this book has creative projects with easy to follow instructions. Many I have not seen previously. I changed the colors and a bit of the projects to make them more like Valentine projects. However the ones in the book are adorable in the colors they use as well. Now if you do not want to make these adorable crafts (and I don't understand why not) I do have some printable Valentine cards for you for boys and girls based on these cute crafts. This printable is free to you and for your personal use only. If you would like to share them please refer people back to this post and do not share the file on your own.

Are you starting to think about Valentine's Day yet? Either way I hope you will check out these great craft books for kids!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at our last party!! It was another fun party. Below are some features from the party, but this is just a small sample of great ideas shared! There were many great Christmas ideas shared, so today's features are just one group of non-Christmas features.

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 (I'm hosting it this month).

Features

1) From Expressions Vinyls: How to Adjust a Design to Fit Your Project

2) From Sweet Pea: DIY Fire Starters

3) From Creating Really Awesome Fun Things: Don't Ever Change Valentine

4) From Clean & Scentsible: Free Printable 2017 Calendar

5) From Growing Up Gabel: Homemade Star Wars Soap

6) From Reviews, Chews, & How-To's: Tutorial: Sew a Huge Wet Bag

7) From My Life from Home: Putting Together a Terrarium

8) From Rain on a Tin Roof: How to Make a Lampshade and a Finial

9) From Flamingo Toes: Sweet Floral Farmhouse Cow Pillow
 
Thank you to everyone who shared the last week!! I hope you will share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. I would love the help spreading the word about Crafty Weekends!!

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 Please share family friendly crafts here. Just crafts and/or patterns--no recipes, lessons, etc. You can share craft product reviews as well. By linking up here you are giving me permission to share your links and to pin your links. Please follow my Crafty Weekends Feature Pinterest Board to see all the features from these fun link parties!

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