Nature's Art Box: From T-Shirts To Twig Baskets, 65 Cool Projects For Crafty Kids To Make With Natural Materials You Can Find Anywhere »

Laura C. Martin has been writing about nature, crafts, and gardening for 25 years. She has served as garden editor for Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles and Georgia magazines. She is the author of 18 books, most recently The Art and Craft of Pounding Flowers, which was featured on the Discovery Channel. Her lectures and workshops on crafts and gardening delight audiences across the United States.

Whether it's a city park, a suburban backyard, a farmer's field, or the sandy seashore, there's a treasure trove of natural art materials out there. Twigs, vines, pinecones, flowers, leaves, rocks, shells, moss, feathers - they're all gifts of the earth. Add just a few inexpensive store-bought items, such as glue, string, and wire, and anyone can create beautiful, natural works of art.

In NATURE'S ART BOX, writer, gardener, and nature-crafter Laura C. Martin offers 65 cool projects kids will love to make, using materials they can find just about anywhere. She explains how to make paints and inks from flowers and other plants; how to use shells, moss, seedpods, and cones to embellish large objects; how to build elf-sized furniture; how to decorate picture frames, birdhouses, and keepsake boxes with woodland treasures; and how to dig clay, weave vines, and make natural dyes to color T-shirts.

While Martin teaches kids to see the possibilities of the natural world, she also teaches them to respect what the earth offers. She warns them against stripping bark off live trees, plucking every flower in the field, and clearing the ground of every nut and seed. NATURE'S ART BOX helps kids learn to be good artists and conscientious stewards of nature's resources.

Publishers Weekly

Nature's Art Box: From T-shirts to Twig Baskets, 65 Cool Projects for Crafty Kids to Make with Natural Materials You Can Find Anywhere, by Laura Martin, illus. by David Cain, presents projects anyone can make using natural objects. Dividing her text into seven sections such as "Gourds, Pods, Husks and Seeds" and "Flowers and Leaves," the author encourages kids to see artistic potential in a handful of twigs, pine cones and more. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.