Craft eBook: Time On Your Hands Review And Giveaway

It is my extreme pleasure to kick off the reviews and give-aways for 2011 with something from a very good friend of mine. Maggy is an exceptionally inspirational mother. Not only does she run and maintain the increasingly successful Red Ted Art blog, filled with craft ideas for the under five’s, but she also actually does the crafts, almost daily, with her son and baby daughter.

Maggy has launched an ebook called Time On Your Hands, filled with 14 fantastic craft ideas using the humble loo roll as a basis. Now, apart from a few very crunchy people I know who use reusable flannels, the rest of us all have loo rolls in our homes – and what better to entertain the children than something you were going to throw away anyway?

What I love about the ebook is that it doesn’t give you five hundred ideas, four hundred and twenty of which you can’t do without purchasing specific bits and bobs, or equipment. It also doesn’t give you another three hundred that are oh so easy to do – if you’re a brain surgeon. It also doesn’t require you to be super-mum doing a craft a day.

Instead, there are fourteen ideas, all based around specific seasons and events in the year. You can honestly schedule one idea per month, have a great time with it, and leave it be for a few weeks before coming back to it again. There is a craft idea for Chinese New Year – great for introducing the topic of other cultures and their celebration – and a gift box idea for Valentines day – perfect for showing how something handmade can be more valuable than something bought.
Easter, Father’s Day, Spring and Halloween are all covered with crafty, fun ideas, and there’s even a fabulously practical Christmas sweet holder.

The best part is that this 16 page ebook is only £1.99 – and there’s not much you can do with £1.99 these days. At the moment 50p from each sale also goes to bringing a little girl home. I do not receive anything from the sale of these books.

Maggy has offered a copy of Time On Your Hands to a Diary of a First Child reader.

In order to win, pop over to Red Ted Art, and look at the list of ‘How To’s’ then come back here and leave a comment below, telling me which inspires you most, is the most ingenious or just really caught your fancy.

Competition closes at 12.00 on 17 January. The winner will be drawn randomly using Random.org, and be announced soon after.

You do not have to tweet or share this competition to enter, but doing so helps ensure that I can keep bringing you give-aways every week! You can subscribe to Diary of a First Child by RSS, or by email You can also follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. We hope to see you back again soon!
The Winner is: Comment number 2, Petra Lucas. Congratulations!