A Year of Creativity: A Craft Date Planner to Meet, Share, and Create Paperback – July 23, 2019

This was the perfect book for what I wanted. Easy activities for the whole year, with ideas to pull from.

A Year of Creativity is a planner with crafting prompts created by a group of four artists from the Netherlands. Originally published in Dutch in 2018, the English translation was released 23rd July 2019 by Quarry on their Quarto imprint. It's 144 pages and available in paperback format.This is a beautifully appealing book. The photography is so calm and coordinated and the concept of a craft date, where everyone brings supplies for all the attendees to complete similar projects reminds me a bit of the old time quilting bees which I remember from my childhood. The social aspects of crafting together and the interaction and mutual support are so valuable. Here's a short definition from the introduction:A Craft Date is a fun date with a handful of creative-types in which you surprise each other with craft and DIY projects and specific materials and make beautiful things together.At each date, a group of participants come up with a self-made project to be carried out by the other attendees and provide everyone with the necessary materials. These materials are chosen based on the specific taste of each attendee and are packaged up and given like a unique personal gift. With these gifts and the step-by-step instructions of the planners in hand, everyone gets to work.The chapter progression is easy to follow and even includes some recipes scattered throughout the book for snacks to have when people come together for social crafting. The page numbers are listed together in the table of contents for easy access. There is a short tutorial chapter which includes very basic instruction for crochet, some fabric related tutorial information, etc. The majority of the page content is used on the 25 project tutorials. The table of contents color codes the tutorials into short-longer-weekend/coop projects, which is very handy.The projects themselves are stylish and varied. There's a lot of crochet, but there's also some sewing, papercrafting, DIYing, painting, and more. I really love the idea of getting friends together for social crafting with the freedom of not having to all work on the same type of craft! I knit and sew a great deal for charity (hospital preemie department, refugee camps in other parts of the world, knitting for refugees, etc) and I have often thought whilst sitting with my knitting buddies how great it would be if they could hang out with my sewing buddies. Craft dates are the perfect solution! It's interesting to me also how often solutions to problems which have popped up during one crafting process can be solved with a technique from another type of crafting. I bet having people who are crafters of different sorts could well give synergistic benefits and expand our boundaries.I received an electronic ARC, so I can't evaluate the finishing on the physical book, but I will say that every other aspect, from typesetting and graphics, to photography, to projects and recipes are very well done and meticulously presented.I loved the included projects. The photography is beautiful and easy to follow. The translation is seamless and I found no errors in the instructions.5 stars. Lovely job!Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This is a hodge podge mix of project suggestions, most without clear instructions, all tied up in a beautifully illustrated book. There are a lot of products promoted that would not necessarily be something an average crafter would use more than a time or two, most of which are on the pricey side.The premise of the book is to plan craft meet ups where everyone works on the same project, and the chapters are organized around some of these. There are topics that would likely make for a very short crafting time together, but that could be fine if the real purpose of the evening is to get together and chat while keeping everyone’s hands busy.An example of these smaller suggestions is a pattern weights project that results in tidy little packets designed to “keep your drawing paper in place when you’re tracing a pattern.”This description highlights one of the weaknesses of the entire book: unless all the friends you invite are into heavy duty crafting, how realistically useful would the final product really be?This project also represents another of the problems with the various “craft date” suggestions: the elaborate invitation packets are expensive and time-consuming to make. There is no mention made of how these kraft paper boxes will be delivered to the guests, and there appears to be an assumption that the host[ess] will be purchasing all the supplies for the evening. Given the time and expense, it does not seem that most of the projects would be realistic for the average reader.There is a general unevenness to the presentation as well. Some of the suggested get-togethers have elaborate packages to be sent to the invitees, while others (a get together afghan suggestion) have few details and no pattern suggestions. Only very experienced crafters are likely to be able to tackle most of these projects without a lot of research for directions in other sources, yet many of the suggested products of these evenings are pretty elementary; a crocheted sleeve for vases? A “craft dates inspiration book” that is just a purchased journal with one’s own personal decorations?Overall, it is hard to recommend this for any audience. It doesn’t even have very many ideas that might inspire one’s own creativity. Lovely to look at but of little real use.