This year’s Arts & Crafts holiday gift guide is filled with books to get the creative juices flowing. From learning to sketch (with a bonus mindfulness practice!) to mending well-loved clothes and home items, from sewing garments that fit your unique body to prompts to inspire aspiring authors, there’s something for every artist or crafter on your list!
Mindful Sketching
by Peggy Dean
For the artist (or those aspiring to be), with Mindful Sketching you can express your own creativity and develop a life-changing mindfulness practice in this guide for all levels by bestselling author and artist Peggy Dean. Grab a sketchbook and get started!
Super Subversive Cross Stitch
by Julie Jackson
From the OG of the Subversive Cross Stitch movement (and brand of the same name) comes Super Subversive Cross Stitch. Featuring 50 easy-to-make designs—both brand-new patterns and fan favorites—stitched together with trademark wit, it’s here to provide crafters with the snarky inspirations they love to stitch!
Sewing Love
by Sanae Ishida
The perfect gift for those wanting to learn to sew beautiful, simple handmade clothes and begin a journey to loving their body. In this garment-making primer, sewing is an act of radical kindness and self-care. Draft patterns and sew clothes that fit all unique bodies!
Mending Life
by Nina Montenegro and Sonya Montenegro
Learn the art of visible mending—a joyful, meditative, and restorative practice—to repair the clothes and belongings you love! Mending Life is a beautiful modern sewing and mending guide with vibrant, full-color illustrations woven throughout and a great gift for the DIYer on your list.
What’s Your Story?
by Margot Leitman
Whether you want to give a memorable toast, nail a business presentation, or perform onstage, Moth champion storyteller Margot Leitman will have you brainstorming ideas in this engaging workbook, developing them into fully fleshed-out stories, and telling them aloud in no time!
Animal Friends to Sew
by Sanae Ishida
A beginner’s sewing book, Animal Friends to Sew features easy projects to sew beautiful handmade animals. Divided into three main categories of cute creatures (decor, toys, and wearables) these projects will delight the maker as much as the recipient.
Write It!
by Jessica Jacobs and Nikole Brown
Discover your creative voice and learn to write poetry in this easy-to-use guided journal with 100 poetry prompts–a 2021 Young People’s Poet Laureate Pick! This lovely guided journal can be both a canvas for exploration and a treasured keepsake showcasing your creative voice. Includes decorative pages, a ribbon and a beautiful cloth hardbound cover.
Sewing Happiness
by Sanae Ishida
This how-to guide and personal memoir features 20 meditative sewing projects and inspiring stories that promote creativity, happiness, and fulfillment. Complete with photos and easy-to-follow steps, Sewing Happiness is at once a guide to the craft of sewing and a guide to enjoying life in all its beautiful imperfections.
