Crafts Hobbies Books

You can take patterns to enlarge them at any place that does blue prints. Office Max, Office Depot, etc. will do them for you.

If you are a fan of B. Lowe and love crafting then this book may be for you. I was looking for some inspiration and bought this little book hoping it would help, and it lived up to my hopes and expectations. The book is full of vintage graphics to be photocopied for the projects and the projects are cute and whimsical as to be expected from Bethany. I am totally pleased with with this purchase and hope she comes out with similar offerings for other holidays.

I agree with the two previous reviewers that the book is beautiful. It is filled with gorgeous photos and absolutely charming projects. I love them all.

Unlike the previous reviewers, I wanted to start on the projects right away.

I am lucky that I am not banned from Kinko's for life! The photocopying instructions are WRONG. I made mistake after mistake after mistake.

You cannot make a 400% increase of the Cat and Pumpkin Mask tops! It is absolutely impossible. Ditto for the 300% increase on the Haunted Table Scarf images. Unless, of course you're willing to mangle the book and have the manual dexterity of an Olympic gymnast, then you can copy one picture per page.

As far as I can figure out, 400% increase is actually 40%. At 140% I was able to get one copy of one Pumpkin Mask top. You can't get two on one page, not even using 11" x 14" paper. I'm lucky I didn't max out my credit card making these copies.

I wish I could say I hate this book, but I don't. I love it. I just want everyone else who buys this book to know what to expect. If I thought one star would have drawn people's attention to my review, I would have given it one.

This is a fantastic book at a great price. I have never heard of Bethany Lowe before but I bought this book based on the fact that it was a top seller in the seasonal section. I am not disappointed. This book is fully illustrated in color with in-depth instructions, patterns and reproducible vintage Halloween pictures. Don't be misled by the cover thinking that you are going to have to make complicated witches from paper mache. There are many easy projects that will make your Halloween decor stand out from the rest!

I returned this book. It was not advanced enough for me. However, I will say for a intermediate cloth doll maker, it might be good. Has a very good tutorial on face drawing and coloring. Has good descriptions of embellishing fabrics. However, for advanced doll makers, it is just a grouping of techniques we are already familiar with. It does includes flat faces and sculpted faces. It also includes patterns for dolls including a stump doll, wired armature dolls (very simple one) and a full bodied doll. I do like the fabric embellishments she did on the fabric for the doll costumes which are explained fully in the book.

I like the information here, it wasnt alot of new stuff. But I liked way the author presented it. Nothing new, but a fresh take on old faithfuls.

I ordered this book thinking it would give me some original ideas to do with my 3 year son. There is not one thing in this book that I found helpful. It is all very basic stuff that doesn't seem like much fun. I think there are better books out there.

I'm an artist, but I have no idea what to do to introduce art to my little girl, which is why I got this book. But I've gone through the entire thing and I haven't found one thing that my 2.9 year old would grasp. I guess she could sit there while I cut and folded and painted faces, etc. But I'd really prefer to find something that would make more sense for her since these aren't the kind of projects I'm interested in for myself.

I didnt find any originial idea's in this book- i'm very disapointed by the purchase

This is a really fun book, I enjoy the cutting and pasting stuff. I am 10 so I am not really challengend on some of the crafts. The DVD crafty fun is really good for my age, I have learned how to make christmas stuff, iron-on tote bags, necklaces and other really fun stuff.

Lots Of good information on NXT G-code,Bluetooth programming for the NXT, and an informative guide to designing your NXT bots.I thought this book was well worth the money. The "LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT-G Programming Guide (Technology in Action) is a very good intro to this book.

The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: Design, Invent, and Build

I read this book and I really enjoyed it. This was the first Mindstorms book that I read and it was really easy to understand and got me off to a quick start. The only reason that I didn't give it 5 stars was that the graphics and text are printed on an off white background and it made it a little harder to read and the graphics themselves are all black and white and some of them were a little hard to figure out the robot designs because of it. But dont let this keep you from getting this great robotics book. [...]

The problem with this book is it has black and white photos of black and white pieces. They don't give a close up of what your adding to your structure. Writing is too small to look at without a magnify glass.
Programming was screwed up in some places.

'The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: Design, Invent, and Build' is an absolutely wonderful book with one MAJOR flaw in that the entire book is in black and white. Packed with 16 chapters written wonderfully with exciting examples and content, this would have been a easy 5 star recommendation but I simply cannot do that. Legos are bold, bright, and full of color, the decision to publish this in black and white was a terrible one. I understand this decision was made to no doubt save costs, but it shouldn't have been published (no matter how good the content is) in this form. Some books would benefit from color, some books require it and this is one of those cases. If you enjoy Legos and want to learn how to use Mindstorms NXT and all the fun, amazing things you can do with them this book will show you how, but I would wait for version 2.0 of this book with color. Not only is the black and white unfavorable, it's downright hard to follow.

Great content, great layout, thumbs WAY down for no color

**** RECOMMENDED

This book contains very clear instructions and diagrams for NXT-G program. The sample robots are creative and very well designed. You can feel the intelligence behind when you build. I especially like the binding of this book, so it can lay open while you build. So I will probablly purchase more book from this press. In fact I have pre-order one. One thing I doesn't like is one of the samples requires two NXT kits, which I don't have at the moment. I guess it's because this book is targeting more senior builders.

When this book arrived, I went through it from cover to cover. I was very impressed by the patterns. There are so many that I want to make. Much more than I usually find in a pattern book. I recomend this book to anyone who enjoys crocheting afghans.

This book features Awesome blankets that anyone would want in their apartment!! The book also features instructs, what yarn was used, so that if you want to make it just like it is in the book, you can. It also rates every blanket by skill level, so you will not start something that might be too difficult for you. My only complaint is that some of the blankets aren't that big when made. You may want to buy extra yarn if you want a certain pattern to be bigger.

Buy, love it, start making blankets for all your friends.

This is a good book for beginners as well s advanced lots of beautiful afghans well illustrated and instructional as well.

The patterns in this book are just gorgeous. The techniques are the same old thing, but they are presented in a new way with new ideas. The afghans you make with these patterns may sound like the old thing, but they are not going to look like all the other ones.

Thank you for updated patterns. Now we can make afghans that no one has seen hundreds of times before. You took the "ho-hum" out of crocheting again!

I'll get this out of the way right now, the cover afghan is AMAZING. Utterly gorgeous. There are several others in the first section of the book that my jaw dropped upon first glance, so really there are some lovely afghans in here.

Yes, the romance section is a little blah, but I think of it more like there being something for everyone in this book. Whether it's daring or traditional, you will find something that fits your style.

I'm just getting back into crochet after knitting and spinning stole me away for several years, and this is one of the first books I bought to beef up my crochet library. Truly a solid addition to your shelf, my only gripes being I like books that are spiral bound and I wish that the blocks (when called for) were charted so I could just follow along visually.

Learn how to twist and bend wire to make pretty wire jewelry with INSPIRED WIRE, a jewelry maker's guide using techniques perfect for newcomers to wire jewelry. A minimum of equipment is needed to produce the most complex of designs and eye-catching blends of wire and beads, making this an outstanding pick for any library strong in crafts or jewelry-making books. Large full-page color photos and easy instructions contribute to a winner.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The artist explains everything in detail and the pictures are extremely helpful. I would highly recommend this book.

I first checked this book out from the library. I liked it so much, I purchased it. There are several fresh new designs here. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys wire work.

This book is easy to follow with great ideas and good pictures. After recieving it I took a quick trip to the bead store and I am inspired!

I own many jewelry books of several types and this book is BY FAR leaps and bounds above the rest in all the important areas. It is gorgeous to look at and ALL of the projects are inspirational - meaning that they lead your mind to other applications of the techniques shown. It is an excellent teaching tool: it details particularly well the materials and tools you will need to be successful with this type of jewelry work, and the instructions for each technique and project are so well outlined and easy to follow. I truly am blown away by this book! (in case you can't tell!) Most books I've found to be somewhat disappointing, and not always as well-written as you might hope for. But to find all of that PLUS to love EVERY project... WELL! What an accomplishment!

The photos were helpful, although when I began spindle spinning, I did not have a top whorl as pictured in the book. I then purchased a spinning wheel and the photos and descriptions in the book were very adequate.

Great book. I just need to get a wheel so I can try everything.

Loved this book as a new spinner. Lots of photos and how to find a wheel thats right for you was very helpful, This book is informative with out talking down to the reader and also helped me with my overspinning problem and how to trouble shoot difficulties. Photos were great and it covers all the bases. A+++

I feel like there is enough information in this book to actually begin spinning. It is very well illustrated, and explains many things that a beginner needs to know. The tone is not patronizing, and the book is easy to read. I am still a beginner, so I have read very few spinning books, but so far I think this is the one I will have by my side as I start.

I'm a new spinner and felt overwhelmed with the technical aspects of it when I decided to learn. What I needed was a "just the facts" kind of guide that would let me get started and not overwhelm me with nerdy technical stuff that passionate and experienced practitioners love to talk about. Start Spinning is definitely it!

Based on the reviews here, I bought a copy and agree completely with the 5-stars that most of the reviewers gave it.

It's like a teacher in a box. Great illustrations. Clear definitions of terms that you really need to know Does not overwhelm you with jargon that you will pick up later if you get seduced by the craft. Covers everything from basic spinning, plying and using your handspun to choosing a wheel, planning a project, buying and evaluating fleece for spinning. SIMPLE and CLEAR. And not too much information.

I love this book and would recommend it to anyone curious about the craft of spinning and wanting a good reference guide.

This book provides great ideas for a beginner, I really like this book. When I'm stuck I can just flip through the book and find some good inspirations. I also picked up several new techniques that I didn't know before. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who is just picking up scrapbooking.

This book tells you all the materials you can use, and how to creat some very unique designs. This book is excellent for beginners to scrapping, especially if they need ideas. I just got this book today and so far it is the most helpful book I've gotten on the subject.

I purchased this book for my wife and daughter who are just beginning scrapbooking. We looked through the entire book in one day, and to be honest were overwhelmed by the volume of ideas photographed in this book. It is also packed with detailed descriptions of all the different techniques that they will be using for quite some time. I read all the reviews before purchasing this book, and understand that there are probably a lot of advanced techniques that hard core scrapbookers use, but since my ladies are new to this, I imagine that it will be great for them as they learn this art.

Just started scrapbooking and it was very confusing to try and decide what I needed and how you go about it. This book explains in detail and gives great ideas and examples. Each sample scrapbook page tells exactly what was used to create the page and has given me lots of ideas!

I recently purchaced this book, and i was very disappointed. I have some of the other Creating Keepsakes books, such as the "Scrapbooks tips" and "Scrapbooking Family heritage" (I'd give all of them 5 stars). But, the Creating Keepsakes Encyclopedia has half the images and examples as the other books. After about 1/2 an hour of reading through it I was done for good; whereas with the other books every time I open them I see something new that I didn't notice before. I was extremely disappointed with this book. I would not recommend it to anyone. And it shouldn't be called an "encyclopedia"-it only explains the MOST BASIC of scrapbooking techniques. I mean, it takes 4 pages just to show you how to tear paper!!! PLEASE don't waist your money on this-instead, try some of the other "Creating Keepsakes" books. This one is the worst of the bunch. All the other "Keepsakes" books I own or have read are terrific.