A Book Review – Make Hey! While The Sun Shines by Pip Lincolne

ISBN 978-1742701131-8 – hardie grant books
Disclaimer: Occasionally I do receive free products to review from companies. However I do not allow this to influence my opinion; I will always share my honest opinion.

A while back I had an e-mail from Helena from hardie grant books, a company, to be honest, I had not come across before, she offered me the opportunity to review two of their craft books (one in November and the other in December)…..  well it would have been most rude not to have a little gander wouldn’t it?

Rather than put all the blurb about the book in my own words it’s easier to just cut and paste and then I won’t miss anything out ……. and then I’ll tell you what I think!

“The crafty Pip Lincolne is back with her third book of sweet and whimsical projects. In Make Hey While the Sun Shines, she shows you 20 gorgeous things to make for the summertime, holiday time, or any time! There are bike seat covers made from vintage fabric, crocheted baubles to decorate your house (or car!), hand-printed gift bags and pretty hand illustrated plates to customise your own ceramics. More adventurous crafters might like to try the Chatty Tote or the handy bottle tote to store your drinks when you head out for the day. Making hey isn't just about sewing and craft though - there are also 5 pull-out recipe cards with delicious goodies to take on a picnic or just enjoy at home. All of the projects have step-by-step instructions and illustrations to guide you through, and with comprehensive sections on sewing, crochet and knitting basics, Make Hey While the Sun Shines is perfect for anyone who is interested in handmaking their own beautiful things.”

I love it, it’s a sturdy book with a hard cover but is ring bound inside. In the front cover is a pocket containing five recipe cards, with room to add a few more of your own.  It’s quirky, but my sort of quirky, and will be a constant source of inspiration for years to come, not only because of the projects it contains, but also the because of the composition of photographs and pages, there is so much to look at, I find them fascinating and a further source of inspiration,  in away it reminds me of a sort of smash book.

The book is divided into four parts, Projects, Crafty How-Tos, Extra Good Ideas and the Recipe Cards, all of which are detailed but easy to read and follow, using the simple illustrations and above all interesting.
The book is available from Amazon priced at £12.09 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Hey-While-Sun-Shines/dp/1742701310/

The project I most wanted to try was “Mix Tape A La Pip”, such a simple idea …. ideas/instructions on how to make your own sticky tapes, something that I had never thought of before, but now I am hooked. 

Pip says this idea can be used on print or plain fabric scraps, which can be embroidered or drawn on, ….. using the principles of the idea, this is what I came up with A La Fiddle Fart …

In Publisher I created a series of tapes using fonts from Two Peas in  Bucket (2Peas DW Meow font size 36, 2Peas Tis The Season font size 14 and 2Peas DW Bow Wow)  http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/shop/fonts/ . The snowmen are from a digi set called Little Joys by Zoe Pearn which I printed on an A4 sheet of canvas paper in Landscape.  When printed, to use up all the canvas,  I added two of my own doodled designs using Promarker pens. ……. and then simply cut them out and put double sided tape on the back ….. voila!

I used one of the tapes on this Sizzix gift card holder …..

To sum up, an inspiring book, that I will refer to and read often and with a great deal of pleasure, however please can I stress that this is only my opinion of the book.
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