Paper Fun! Projects to Fold, Bend, Cut and Curl  (American Girl)  Ages 9+, $17.95
"Paper Fun is so much fun, you’ll absolutely love it!" reports our 10-year-old reviewer.  "You can do all of these cool crafts just from paper! I made a pair of funky earrings and an ID tag. It’s pretty easy to do too, but you have to have fine motor skills. Just read the instructions. You will be amazed at what you can make from paper! You can do Paper fun any day! I give this crazy craft kit 5 stars!"

Tiny Treats: Fun Foods to Make and Eat (American Girl)  Ages 8+, $17.95
According to our 12-year-old reviewer, "Tiny Treats is tons of fun if you like to cook. You can make so many tiny treats that are edible! For example, you can make breakfast treats to edible coin purses! It’s easy too! More things you can make are mini pizzas, strawberry shakes, sub sandwiches, watermelon, and birthday cakes! These recipes are good for tea parties! Have fun and create away!"


Fashion Angels Design Sketch Book (The Beadshop Online) Ages 8+, $14.99 
Our 8-year-old tester, a sewer, knitter, potter, and budding artist just loved this set.  Since she's already creating fashion items for her dolls on her grandmother's sewing machine she just loved this kit.  She had a blast creating designs for the Fashion Angels.  The book contains a pad of Fashion Angel templates, markers, mini color pencils, a sharpener, and an eraser. When your done designing you can save all your drawings in the inside pocket. This is a great, creative gift!

Chicken Socks Melty Beads Activity Book (Klutz) Ages 4+, $12.95
If you've ever tried to do the melty bead crafts with kids aged 4 you'd quickly find out that the beads and templates are much too small for their little fingers.  Finally there's a kit that is packed with BIG beads that a four year old can pick up.  Our testers had a blast for hours making the creatures in the books.  The book comes with 600 big beads, a sturdy plastic pegboard, 1 ironing sheet and plenty of ideas. It's another Klutz winner!

Origami - For years my family and I would go to the Museum of Natural History in New York where they had a huge Christmas Tree decorated in Origami decorations.  Last year when we went they had lessons on how to do it, but it's pretty tricky.  This book maps out really fun origami creatures from the jumping frog and paper airplane to a picture frame and box.  The book comes with a huge stack of colorful paper and great ideas.  Just another great craft that once you master requires no tools, or special items and isn't costly.  Just paper and time!  

Sticker Art (American Girl)  Stickers have never been more fun.  This book has a ton of ideas on how you can design jewelry or embellish furniture (with mom's permission) using more than 1,000 stickers and supplies that are included with the book.  Our tester updated her glasses, her eyeglass case, and according to her mom it didn't stop there!  She's covered her lampshade for a real cool effect!

American Girl Room Crafts (American Girl) This is a great tween/teen book to give to your granddaughter.  They'll get ideas on how to redo their room with crafts that they can make for themselves.  They have simple easy directions, good clear pictures and great ideas.

The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes  (Klutz) Ever struggled to remember how to make a paper airplane for your grandchild?  Well, suffer no more.  This fabulous book not only takes the guess work out of making paper airplanes, it also provides a hefty stack of colorful paper to make them with.  Paper airplanes provide hours of entertainment for little ones and big ones alike.  Have a blast with this book - our testers did!

Christmas Window Art (Klutz)  Here's a fun craft that will spread holiday cheer throughout your house.  This book includes six bottles of a special peel-off window paint in all the holiday colors.  The step-by-step instructions make it very easy to do.  The book includes 101 Christmas designs, but don't feel limited to those - try your own too.  This craft is for 9-12 year olds but we found that younger children can easily do this too.  Just provide the outline and let them do the rest!

Painted Pet Rocks (Klutz)  -  Did you grow up in during the Pet Rock phase?  Well our tester remembered them well.  She didn't own them, but her kids did and she had a great time reliving this memory with her granddaughter.  This kit comes complete with a paintbrush, eight colors of acrylic paint, five pairs of wiggle eyes, and a river-smooth rock.  The nice thing about this kit is that you can find tons of rocks and still have paint leftover!