Amy Renea - Crafting with Nature

This book belongs in the collection of every self-respecting gardener or crafter who takes great pride in creating something special with their own hands!

BARBARA CORCORAN, owner of the crafty clothing company Grace & Lace and star of ABCs Shark Tank

Crafting with Nature brings me back to my childhood and all of the natural products and remedies I used to make. The crafts look beautiful yet easy to do, and the photography is gorgeous! I cannot wait to dig in with my children! Truly inspiring.

LAUREN LIESS, founder of Pure Style Home and author of Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating

Pinterest comes to your backyard in this nature-inspired workbook full of beautiful handmade items. This book is a must-read for the creative folks who dont mind getting their hands dirty.

BETH BRYAN, founder of Unskinny Boppy

This book has become THE reference guide for how to maximize my efforts in being a better gardener and crafter. Amy has demystified the processes involved in sourcing supplies and provided simple, step-by-step directions to create usable art. This is garden and craft alchemy at its best!

JENNIFER CARROL, founder of Celebrating Everyday Life magazine

This book takes reduce, reuse and recycle to the next level of beautiful. Making fun from nature is a great way to live a little greenera must-have book for year-round crafting.

SHAWNA CORONADO, author of Grow a Living Wall

As someone who grows lots of herbs and flowers, loves crafts and making natural products for my home, this book speaks volumes to me. What better way to be crafty than by collecting or growing the materials yourself? Amy has written a winner!

LISA STEELE, author of Fresh Eggs Daily

Reading the tutorials in this book can help inspire and enable gardeners and crafters alike to use their plants in new and creative ways.

BALL HORTICULTURAL COMPANY

So many people fail to use the plants in their garden. Plants are so much more than just a bunch of pretty petals. Amys crafty garden tutorials will help you discover a whole new layer of appreciation and pride in your garden.

ROCHELLE GREAYER, founder of Pith + Vigor and author of Cultivating Garden Style

Crafting with Nature is an invaluable source of inspiration and information for anyone passionate about creativity.

MELISSA RIKER, founder of The Happier Homemaker

You might crack open this book and wonder whether it is written for crafters or gardeners. I will hastily answer back both! I have written these grow guides and these tutorials for the makers. For the creatives who want to craft with their hands and the growers who want to get their hands dirty, this book is for you. I want the garden lovers to get bitten by the crafting bug and I want the crafty folk to start growing their own craft supplies. I want the makers to make. I want you to grow and make and make and grow and do it all again. There is nothing so rewarding as creating something with your very own hands, and to create with what you have grown is doubly so.

In each chapter, there will be a grow or gather guide, chart or explanation about certain plants or natural crafting materials. I have chosen plants that are fairly easy to grow and materials that are fairly easy to find so that everyone can be successful. No one enjoys failing on the first attempt, so these plants will give you confidence and help you move on to more difficult and fussy natural crafting materials. Note that some chapters branch out into natural materials you find both outdoors in the woods and indoors in your pantry. These natural materials are free or cheap for the taking and can often be combined with plant materials for fun and functional crafts.

The latter part of each chapter will give you ideas for creating both practical and pretty DIYs with your grown and gathered supplies. Some projects require a full photo-tutorial while others are simply an idea to inspire you. My hope is that you do not simply follow my instructions and call it a day. My sincere hope is that you take these fresh ideas, thought-out methods and these base crafting recipes, and then mix them up with your own creativity. Change up lemongrass for a mixture of tangerine and orange or substitute a richer deeper beeswax for the bleached version I used. Make 100 tiny little wreaths instead of one large one like mine. Experiment. Enjoy. Entertain the idea that I am simply opening a door for crafting with materials that you grow or gather yourself.

Once you have opened the door to creating with natural materials, consider gifting the fruits of your labor. Most of these projects make wonderfully sweet little hostess gifts, birthday tokens or simply a little package to say, I am thinking of you. Most of the projects are consumable, crying out to be used and will not clutter up your friends home with gifts she cannot use. Many of the gifts can simply be tossed onto the compost pile when they have lost their usefulness or luster. From the earth they come and back to dust they return. It is a wonderful way to craft and I hope you join me as we dive in feet first.

To find more details, photos, projects and shopping lists, visit CraftingWithNature.com

Have you opened this book worried that you might have bitten off more than you can chew? Perhaps you love crafting, but plants always seem to die on you. Perhaps you are the garden girl who manages to grow amazing produce to give to your friends, but you wouldnt call your gift giving particularly pretty. Maybe you are scared of both gardening and crafting, but you are drawn to both of them creatively. If any of those scenarios describes you, then this section of garden crafts is specifically for you. These three chapters are meant to be relatively easy, with a high rate of staggering success! I want you to dip your toes into this wonderful world of growing your own craft materials and I want you to be prepared to dive in by the end.

I hope these three chapters get you excited about growing, crafting and giving away your creations! You will learn how to care for and gift little mini-moss gardens, jars full of jewel-toned jellies and jams and some rosemary soap bars or scented salts. These plants are accessible, the crafting supplies are readily available and inexpensive and the methods are straightforward. Are you ready to begin? We start with moss and fairies