💕The Repair Shop Craft Book
✒️Art Director @nghiemta
🎨@sonialbert_
📚@walkerbooksuk – kindly sent for review
💛Available now
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The Repair Shop
A timeless treasure to span the generations. If you haven’t already heard of the brilliant TV series The Repair Shop you must have been hiding under a rock!
I urge you to go and enjoy this fabulous show. Find their YouTube channel with lots of snippets here. Much loved treasures brought back to their former glory with the help of the crafting superstars. Each item having its own unique, special story. What’s not to love?!
There’s very few programmes that can be enjoyed by kids through to grandparents but this is one of them.
The Repair Shop Books
Walker books have published two story books that tell two of these unique tales. The Christmas Doll was published in Autumn 2022 and The Toy Bus published in 2023 is one of our favourites. The latest release from Walker is The Repair Shop Craft Book, a book we were very eager to receive. My daughter and I are keen crafters and always on the look out for good how to books. We’ve also spotted that in October 2023 The Singing Bear will be adding to the collection. You can preorder this title now.
You can find our review of The Toy Bus with more inside images here.
The Repair Shop Craft Book
Let me tell you a little more about The Repair Shop Craft Book and why we love it so much.
The book is split up into four sections:
- Making Toys
- Perfect Presents
- Outdoor Activities
- Do-it-yourself Decorations
There’s an idea to tempt everyone!
Upcycling and Recycling
The book promised to teach us how to make classic crafts and toys by upcycling common household things and recycling old items.
Something I always look for in craft books for children is that there are enough projects that we could do without needing lots of effort to source materials. I’m pleased to say that the majority of crafts in this book we would be able to do with a little rummage around the house and I think you could too!
Craft Book Essentials
The next thing that’s important for craft books is a clear list of what you will need.
Each activity has both a written and illustrated list of what’s required. Perfect for older children to read but younger children would be able to source items by looking at the pictures.
The method for each project is clear and not too lengthy. There are numbered boxes to follow each step. The instructions aren’t overly wordy and the illustrations are very clear to aid understanding of the steps.
We found the ‘Crafty Tip’ helpful on each project as well as additional information on personalising projects and variations.
Depending upon your young crafter, having an element of personalisation can be important. Some children prefer their projects to look as similar to a design as possible. For my daughter Floss she always likes to show her individual style so having options to tailor a project is ideal for her.
Favourite Projects
A few of our favourite projects include the toilet roll maracas, button sock puppet, marbled-paper writing set, friendship bracelets (how did I not already know this method!), colourful clay vase and salt dough necklace.
Independence and Support
My daughter is quite confident at crafting and was happy to follow lots of the methods on her own. I liked that there were parts in the book that specifically asked to get an adult to help. There’s also a section at the start that says how lovely it is to do crafts together, I couldn’t agree more. This would be a lovely book for a grandparent to enjoy with their grandchildren or a book for weekend projects or rainy days together.
Although my daughter and I are both quite crafty this book would be suitable for children and adults with no crafting experience. The projects are perfect for complete beginners and the instructions would allow anyone to have a go with confidence.