Crafting with Nature

Book excerpt: An Inspiring Collection of Handmade Crafts Using Materials from Nature Fuse your love for crafting and the outdoors with this incredible compilation of DIY crafts, recipes and gifts made with natural materials you can grow or gather yourself. Gardening and crafting expert Amy Renea takes you on a journey to collect plant materials from the woods, the backyard, the garden and even the pantry, then craft those items into something special yet easy to do. She provides detailed tutorials and recipes for things like making solid perfume, crafting wooden buttons to accent a hat, preparing natural dye for easy paper flowers, canning your own fruit jam, handcrafting wreaths, using seed pods to create beautifully rustic earrings and even making your own coconut oil for lotions or sea salt for hand scrubs! And throughout the book, you’ll learn new crafting techniques like wood burning, imprinting leaves onto clay and how to infuse oil with herbs for culinary and cosmetic delights. Each chapter starts with a common plant and a beginner-friendly guide to growing or gathering it, then dives into ideas for what you can make with it. With this book packed full of tutorials, ideas and Amy’s lovely photography, you’ll be inspired to craft with nature all year long.