Books We Love – Page 4 – The Creative Salad

C is for Creative Salad + Giveaway!

Our family loves arts and craft projects.
We adore paper dolls (a longstanding obsession).
We have a new toy in the house, a tablet, that’s itching to be read on.
One of my favorite daily reads is my friend Brenda Ponnay’s heartfelt and incredibly creative website, Secret Agent Josephine.

Today’s post combines all of these loves!

Welcome to stop number ~~three~~ C on the Secret Agent Josephine Book Tour!

Brenda has written three beautifully illustrated and playful picture books, Secret Agent Josephine’s ABC’s, Secret Agent Josephine’s Colors, and Secret Agent Josephine’s Numbers, available as paperbacks and ebooks (just $2.99 each!) perfect for downloading to a laptop, smart phone, tablet or iPad:

Our three-year old daughter adored all of these books! She giggled and smiled and laughed her way through each of them (and felt particularly proud of herself for being able to “turn” the pages on the tablet too). I was particularly charmed by the incredibly creative and beautifully illustrated secret agent gear throughout the Secret Agent Josephine’s Numbers book, my personal favorite of the trio.

To promote these three books, 26 different blogs are sharing crafts, interviews with Brenda, book reviews, and poster giveaways. The tour began on Monday and continues through mid-December. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to visit all these blogs and collect clues along the way.

Today, C is for Creative Salad!

Your assignment for today is to complete a Top Secret Craft. Please cut out and dress Secret Agent Josephine for her next mission!

(A huge thank you to Brenda for this playful, sassy and super fun paper doll!)

Download your own printable Secret Agent Josephine paper doll to cut out and dress up here!

In true Creative Salad fashion, we decided to expand upon the craft and transform our Stealth Secret Agent into a magnetic paper doll!

We printed out our Top Secret Craft PDF onto magnetic paper. We cut the tabs off relying on the magnets to hold the clothes on the paper doll’s body.

Oh, we’ve been having such fun dressing our favorite Secret Agent!

Giveaway!

In honor of her book release, Brenda has graciously offered us a letter C print (from her book) to give to you! Please leave a comment below to be entered to win a print. I’ll pick a winner on December ~~1st~~ 15th and then notify them via email.

We’ve so enjoyed participating on this book tour! Thank you to Brenda for including us and providing us with such a special craft and generous giveaway! xoxo

Now, go buy your copies of these affordable and fun books!

Amazon Kindle eBooks for smart phones, computers, laptops, and tablets, plus paperbacks: ABC’s, Colors, and Numbers.

Nook eBooks: ABC’s, Colors, and Numbers.

iBooks for iPads/iPods: ABC’s, Colors, and Numbers.

Click here to download the Amazon Kindle apps.
Click here to download the Barnes & Noble Nook apps.

For the next stop on the tour, visit Brenda’s website.

p.s. For those of you searching for clues, the words you’re looking for are hidden in a photo in this post. Good luck!

Updated 12/20: Congratulations to Kristen on winning the giveaway! I’ll email you asap.

Secret Agent Josephine’s Book Tour

I’m excited to announce that our site is a stop on my favorite stealth Secret Agent and friend Brenda Ponnay’s virtual book tour that commences today!

Brenda has written three beautiful illustrated and playful picture books for kids of all ages: Secret Agent Josephine’s ABC’s: An illustrated picture book for children, Secret Agent Josephine’s Numbers, and Secret Agent Josephine’s Colors: An illustrated picture book for children.

For the Secret Agent Josephine Book Tour, 26 different blogs will be writing about her books. The tour begins today, November 14th, and continues through mid-December. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to visit all these blogs and collect clues along the way.

On the “C For Creative Salad” tour stop (this Wednesday, November 16th) we’ll be posting a fun crafty project and more info about her books!

Oh, I’m so excited!

If you want to follow along and join in the fun the first stop is A Girl and a Boy. Learn more about the tour and books at Brenda’s website, Secret Agent Josephine.

Our Favorite Book Series for Preschoolers

We love books by Cynthia Rylant. All books by Cynthia Rylant.

We adore her Poppleton, Mr. Putter and Tabby, Henry and Mudge, and Annie and Snowball series.

We love her characters and their creative, fun adventures.

We love her exploration of friendships and everyday (yet special!) experiences: setting aside a day to read at the library, camping out in the backyard, buying a new bed, attending a pancake breakfast, going for a boat ride, taking the bus to the beach, sewing a special quilt with friends (shown here).

Her stories feel honest. They are often funny and always kind.

She writes books with such heart.

Oh, we love Cynthia Rylant.

Wondering about some of our other favorite authors? We particularly love children’s books by Kevin Henkes, A. A. Milne, Jane Yolen, James Marshall, and Jan Brett.

The Best of the New Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts Book

This week a new craft book was released: Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts: 225 Inspired Projects for Year-Round Celebrations, featuring the best holiday craft projects from past issues of Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

Below are my favorite projects from the book with links to each of the crafts on the Martha Stewart Living website. Lucky you, you don’t even have to buy the book… unless you want to, of course! I personally think this new book is a keeper.

Crayon and Waxed Paper Hearts – A simple Valentine’s project that could easily be adapted for the holiday season with silver and gold crayon shavings pressed on wax paper then cut into star shapes! (link)

Felt Fortune Cookies – I love the idea of making these for our play kitchen. (link)

Naturally Dyed Eggs – A great list of natural dye recipes! I would like to use a variation of these organic dye recipes to color play silks. (link)

Photo Gift Toppers – I love the idea of using childhood photos of the recipient on presents set under the Christmas Tree instead of relying on traditional gift tags. What a nice way to add a sentimental touch to presents given at the holiday season. (link)

Paper Making Inspiration

We have been gathering materials to make recycled paper: deckle, dried flower embellishments, paper to recycle, and how-to books full of crafty paper-making inspiration.