As a result of some napping miracle, both of my babies fell asleep at the same time and I was able to look over these 4 amazingly-easy, family friendly craft books. I even made it halfway through a project before I heard that sweet sound of babies stirring in their cribs. I am not a crafty person by any means. I obsess over pins I find on Pinterest and dream about the day I can complete all the cute projects on my boards. I feel like there is a lot of pressure for moms, especially SAHMs to be crafty…as if we don’t have anything else to do. I always give it my best shot, but I’m definitely more of an Amazon Prime Mom than a Pinterest Mom. These books definitely make it easy for me to be sneakily crafty and add a little flare to some everyday things, like water bottles, name tags, training plans, etc.
Mom and Me: An Art Journal to Share 
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!
I can’t wait to share this book with my kids in a few years!
The Art of Drawing Dangles: Creating Decorative Letters and Art with Charms
Dangles are a beautiful and whimsical new art form for people who love coloring and tangles. By adding charms and pretty embellishments to letters and artwork, you can make your own dangles. With 50 projects in the book, you can add stunning patterns and color to dangles, personalize your dangles with charms that are unique to you, and create dangle words from the dangle alphabet in the book. Dangles are a perfect way to accentuate your stationary, invitations, lettering, and more.
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.
Hand Lettering A to Z: A World of Creative Ideas for Drawing and Designing Alphabets
This is a fun, hands-on book in which artist and calligrapher Abbey Sy presents her creative lettering and invites artists from several countries to contribute alphabets of their own–all unique, all hand drawn. Each alphabet is paired with a collection of phrases to show readers different ways to use the lettering and have fun with it in different languages, including French, Spanish, Irish, Swedish, Portuguese, and more.
The instructions in these books are so easy to follow that I was able to create something Pinterest worthy (or at least I think so). I couldn’t think of a kid craft project right off the top of my head so I did something for me. I rarely get a chance to do something for me. I am training for the Kyoto Marathon in February 2018 and I am trying very hard to stick with a training plan. Looking at a boring calendar print out is not very motivating so I decided to spice it up with the help of the Hand Lettering A to Z and Dangles books. I even used several Stick it to ’em stickers on my water bottle to encourage me to stay hydrated throughout my training. Here is a sneak peek at what I have so far. Check back on our Instagram for the final product!
I can’t believe how easy it was to write my name with dangles!
Two and Three Quarters 