The Crafty Diva's D.I.Y. Stylebook: "A Grrrl's Guide to Cool Creations You Can Make, Show Off, and Share" [Paperback]

Kathy Cano Murillo (Author), Carrie Wheeler (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

The Crafty Diva's D.I.Y. Stylebook is filled with more than 50 all-new do-it-yourself craft projects that celebrate the many sides of tween girls. Snappy mini-chapters are organized by "style"-from animal lover and beautiful bohemian to party girl and flashy fashionista-each featuring three chic, affordable, step-by-step projects illustrated with whimsical illustrations and color photos. Coded as easy, moderate, or difficult, the projects utilize a variety of applications, giving girls a foundation of general craft experience and teaching them to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Packed with materials for the less experienced crafter, the book includes an introduction to craft tools and techniques, tips on creating a crafty corner in which to work, a crash course in doodling, and even a journal page and quiz to inspire each girl's unique creative spark. Helpful add-ons like a built-in ruler, color mixing chart, and inch/cm/ft conversion chart make it that much easier to get started. Whatever their skill level, tweens will love making, sharing, and showing off these fun, easy projects!


Crafts Include

• Message-in-a-bottle necklace

• Bubble gum soap bars

• Glitter lip gloss

• Mega mosaic mirror

• CD and trinket shelf

• Wacky wire rings

• Lunch-box collage purse

• Painted cellphone cover

• Matchbox movie-star shrine

• Rainbow hair wraps






• Filled with tips, tricks, and techniques to help budding crafters

• Targets the 30 million tweens (ages 8-13) who spend billions annually

• Author's artwork has been featured in Gourmet, Sunset, Latina, and Phoenix magazines

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7–An introductory quiz will help readers determine their style ("Jewelry Hound," "Neat Freak," "Party Priestess," "Spa Guru," etc.) and guide them to the crafts that will appeal to them. Several pages of essential information about supplies, tools, color mixtures, and hints for setting up a craft area at home will get them started. Many clever ideas and designs are included. A scale indicates each project's level of difficulty, and a list of supplies, step-by-step directions, and a color photograph of the finished project are provided. The tone is chatty and familiar. Tips, words of wisdom, ideas for games, and bits of trivia are found throughout. Spot-art illustrations are bright and eye-catching. Appendixes include clip art, doodling instructions, a blank journal page, templates for several projects, and a list of craft materials suppliers with Web addresses. The lack of an index is a drawback. This book will appeal to a more mature audience than Jennifer Traig's "Crafty Girl" series (Chronicle) and may be of interest to adults working with preteens and teens.–Elizabeth Stumpf, Clearfield Middle School, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Kathy Cano Murillo is an artist, crafter, and author of the best-selling books Making Shadow Boxes and Shrines and La Casa Loca: 45 Funky Projects for Decorating and Entertaining. Her newspaper column "Crafty Ideas" runs weekly in The Arizona Republic, as well as in 50 additional newspapers nationwide. She lives in Phoenix.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Potter Craft (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823069931
• ISBN-13: 978-0823069934
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,027,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Teens > Sports & Hobbies > Arts & Crafts

More About the Author

People most know Kathy Cano-Murillo as The Crafty Chica. She has been profiled for her art and crafts in The New York Times, USA Today and NPR.

Kathy has been a writer longer than she has been a crafter, inspired in grade school by Erma Bombeck and Judy Blume. As an adult, Kathy went on to have a 13-year newspaper career at The Arizona Republic as an entertainment reporter, all while running her award-winning web site, CraftyChica.com. She has authored seven books including Crafty Chica's Art de la Soul and Crafty Chica's Guide to Artful Sewing.

In 2004, Kathy pursued her dream of writing a novel and finished her first draft for National Novel Writing Month. She wrote from 10 pm-2 am every night while her family slept, a tradition she still carries on to this day. Her manuscript sold in 2007 in a three-way bidding war to Grand Central Publishing.

Kathy's debut novel, Waking Up in the Land of Glitter released in March 2010 and her second, Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing in March 2011. She is currently writing her third book.

Kathy designs her own Crafty Chica product line through iLoveToCreate, a Duncan Enterprises Company, and she is also the Crafts Editor for BlogHer.com

Kathy's mission with her novels is to share stories about contemporary Latinas living and working in the creative arts. She lives in Phoenix, AZ, with her husband, two kids and five Chihuahuas. Her motto for life is "Crafts, drama and glitter".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crafts for all Ages, July 7, 2004

By 

K. J. Hackett (Huntington Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Crafty Diva's D.I.Y. Stylebook: "A Grrrl's Guide to Cool Creations You Can Make, Show Off, and Share" (Paperback)

I was lucky enough to come across Kathy Murillo, the Crafty Chica, through the Craftster website. Ms. Murillo has contrubted some awesome craft ideas to the site, so when I found out she had some books out, I had to get them as soon as possible!

While "The Crafty Diva's D. I. Y. Stylebook: A Grrrl's Guide to Cool Creations You Can Make, Show Off, and Share" is targeted to tweens, there are some really great and inspiring craft projects for all ages. What I love about the Crafty Chica is that most of her crafts utilize objects that you already have at home (those pesky free AOL cd's, match books, bubble gum wrappers) and that with a little bit of imagination, you can expand on her projects and come up with your own creations. Ms. Murillo gives a great craft base in easy to follow directions that are sure to inspire.

I've been creating some elaborate matchbook altars that have been getting `ohs' and `ahs' from my friends. Imagine getting praise for making such fun crafts!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME!, May 22, 2004

By 

"gemgoddess75" (Phx Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crafty Diva's D.I.Y. Stylebook: "A Grrrl's Guide to Cool Creations You Can Make, Show Off, and Share" (Paperback)

Another A+ book by Ms. Murillo. I got this "crafty diva" book as a gift for my 8 yr old niece last weekend at the book signing and we had so much trouble choosing a project because all of them are just so fun and fruity. We settled on the glitter gloss and the picture bracelets that are made out of washers and bolo ties. So clever! It seems this book is for young girls but the projects can easily fit for grown ups too. I'm buying an extra copy for me, because I'm a girl at heart!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great pictures and graphics!!!!!, March 23, 2006

By 

Juls123 "Juls" (South Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crafty Diva's D.I.Y. Stylebook: "A Grrrl's Guide to Cool Creations You Can Make, Show Off, and Share" (Paperback)

This book is great, especially the pictures which give me something to go by. The main reason i like this book is the pictures, graphics, and the easy to follow directions. It also gives tips and other ideas to get your creativity flowing. I would recommend it for pre-teens, teens, and kids who have help from parents. However the projects do require products that you probably won't just have laying around your house. But this is a fantastic book and has really cool ideas even if you do have to go out and buy some stuff. Some of the projects are snow globe, glow in the dark bracelets, decorated pads of paper, cards, exotic box, collages, soap, lip gloss, mosaic mirror, flowers, frames,rug, hair clips, bracelet, decorated pen, duck tape wallet, mathbox pop star shines, and more!! My favorite craft would have to be the post card beach bag.