Crafty Girl: Cool Stuff [Paperback]

Julianne Balmain (Author), Jennifer Traig (Author)

Book Description

Series: Crafty Girl | Publication Date: May 2001

A crafty girl knows: when a plain old pencil holder is bringing you down, it's time to get crafty. Crafty Girl: Cool Stuff is your muse, your jolt of creative juice, your ticket to the crafty parade. Sure, an ordinary calculator adds it up, but a crafty girl's ultra-beaded glamulator makes math look good. With over 40 fabulous ways to say "I'm crafty," Cool Stuff will have crafty girls everywhere transforming ordinary anythings into glitter and rhinestone visions of paradise.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Arriving at a precise definition of cool may be next to impossible, but almost any girl would probably agree that this little book is indeed full of cool stuff to decorate her room to the hilt. Why hang a plain bulletin board, peg rack, or window treatment when you can make a mesmerizing memo board (fabric, rickrack, felt cutouts, silk flowers), Mexican hat rack (painted folk-art motifs), or illustrated curtain (magazine images on a clear shower curtain)? Who wants ordinary frames and phones when she can surround her photos with fake fur or beads and baubles, and bedeck her phone with rhinestones and pearls?

The authors strike just the right balance between kid-friendly ideas told in cool-kid lingo and the parental voice of reason, advising readers when to check with their elders before charging ahead. "Doors of Perception," for example, warns kids that all but the most open-minded parents might veto this project that entails painting and decoupaging photos directly on the door. But alternative suggestions include decorating a door-size sheet of butcher paper, aluminum foil, or felt for a less permanent but equally creative approach. The pages overflow with eye-catching graphics that make for fun browsing, but except for the occasional diagram there are no pictures of the finished product. Fear not: the excellent directions are more than adequate to steer young crafters through the process while giving them free reign to arrive at results that are entirely their own. --Amy Handy

About the Author

Julianne Balmain is a San Francisco-based writer whose many books include Abroad: A Travel Journal and Organizer and Office Kama Sutra, a humorous guide to romance at work. Writing as Nadia Gordon, she is the author of the Sunny McCoskey Napa Valley myster

Jennifer Traig who has a Ph.D. in Literature, but thinks she should have a Ph.D. in Crafts, because in school she spent far more time crafting than studying. She lives, writes, and crafts in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811829456
• ISBN-13: 978-0811829458
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,944,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is pathetic, September 27, 2003

By 

StarGymnast (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crafty Girl: Cool Stuff (Paperback)

I wasn't very impressed with this book. It gives the assumpstion that all girls who read it are "crafty girls", and are just the thought of fabric and scissors makes their fingers twitch with excitement. I don't know about you, but I doubt that many girls, especially young adults for whom this book is targeted too, are actually this crafty. So that, of course, means that many projects require complicated sewing, putting together, figuring out how to do- I don't have patience for those kinds of projects! The ideas for projects were nothing very new, and kind of dull and strange... like decorating a calculator with gems and beads, painting a phone green and gluing plastic bugs to it, making a net canopy for your bed with 36 yards of tulle... you get the idea. And, these projects aren't exactly budget-minded, either. Come on, the cost of materials and supplies for many of these projects require you to spend AT LEAST ten dollars just for one project- and in many cases, even more. Another thing that makes this book so bad is that their are no color pictures or step-by-step photos showing how to do the project or even a photo of the finished project- just a poorly-drawn line drawing. Please save your money, and buy a different craft book. Out of all of the good ones out there, this one with it's extremely high price (thirteen bucks for a little-and I mean LITTLE- paperback book), yes, is a RIP-OFF!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If you can get it for cheap, December 1, 2004

By 

AMB (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crafty Girl: Cool Stuff (Paperback)

This is a good book if you are looking for a jumping off point or a little inspiration. Most of the projects repeat themselves, and they do require a little money (and transportation) for supplies. Also, there are no photographs of the finished projects, which is generally my favorite part of craft books! If you can find it used for cheap, then get it, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars just-- blah, January 2, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Crafty Girl: Cool Stuff (Paperback)

I thought a couple of neat ideas were in this book, but lots were not so intresting. Like the disco ball was fun,but the putting of jewels on every single thing is something that i was not interested in. i mean who wants rhinstones on their calculator?