DIY with Quirk Books

I am crafty.  Well, I sometimes pretend to be crafty.  Well, actually, I think about being crafty.  Occasionally, I attempt being crafty.  And as a librarian, I *do* end up doing a lot of crafts with tweens and teens in the library.  So I am all about crafts, even when my execution leaves a little to be desired.  But one of my favorite places to find craft ideas is Quirk Books – not just the books themselves, but also their website.  They will often have a lot of fun craft ideas in books and on their website.  Here are a few of my favorites.  And remember, always check the website.

Some of the Quirk Books crafting titles include Craft-A-Day (which sounds super ambitious and is full of ideas that can easily be incorporated into library programming and, you know, doing stuff at home), Microcrafts (tiny crafts, which would be a great thing to do with your Tiny Food Party) and Crafting with Cat Hair (someone I trust on Twitter assured me this was a really cute book).  My fave 5 craft books or website ideas are . . .

1) Holiday Decor

It’s obviously the time of year for holiday decor. And I love crafts made out of book pages.  Because words.  Words make me happy. Here are a few ideas of things you can make out of book pages, my favorite being the bow.

2) Pom-Poms

I don’t know about you, but my craft supply closet is oddly full of miscellaneous pom pom balls.  I inherited them and never know what to do with them.  But look, someone wrote an entire book about it! Full of cuteness.  I mean look at that cover – hedgehogs.


3)Homemade Quirk DIY Sampler Volume 1

Quirk Books actually has a free sampler that you can download with a variety of projects from their various books.  The Bottled Potions from Witch Craft would be fun for Halloween or, of course, for a party celebrating everyone’s favorite wizard. You know I mean Harry Potter there, right? 

4) Literary Paper Turkey Hands

Apparently one day at the Quirk Books office everyone decided to make literary turkey hands.  You know, where you make an outline of your hand and then turn it into a turkey – except they gave it a little tweak and added the literary flair.  This is a pretty epic idea and I want to do this next year to decorate the library walls.

5) Creepy Cute Crochet

As I was looking at this book, one of my fave teen patrons came into the library.  She apparently knows how to crochet and she loved the ideas in this title.  I asked her to teach me to crochet so I can make them.  They include things like zombies and aliens.  I want to crochet zombies and aliens! And the color and photos of this book are just glorious. As a side note, I totally think I just got this teen to agree to do a crochet program for me at the library.  So today was full of win.

As part of Quirk Books Week, Quirk Books has generously donated a prize package for one lucky winner that will include 2 of the above cookbooks, a copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, the first book of the Lovecraft Middle School series, and a copy of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. I’ve tried to give you as many ways as possible to enter so pick the one (or ones) that work best for you and do the Rafflecopter thingy below.  The giveaway closes on Saturday, December 14th and is open to U.S. Residents.  The books will be sent to you from Quirk Books and they are worth it.

Filed under: Crafts, DIY, TPIB