InstaCraft: Fun and Simple Projects for Adorable Gifts, Decor, and More is written by Alison Caporimo with photography by Meera Lee Patel and is published by Ulysses Press. It retails in the US for $16.95 and in Canada for $19.95. The Amazon price at the time of writing this is $9.99 for the Kindle version and $13.44 for a paperback. Since receiving my review copy, I have sat down a number of times and flipped through the 50 projects in the book.

The title, InstaCraft, is perfect for this because all of the projects are amazingly fast and simple to do. Most are very child friendly, so I could see this as a great resource for days when you want to get your kids off the computer and have them actively create something with you. Besides the fact that these are all very easy and fast projects, one of the big points that I like about this book is that most of the supplies are easy to find and inexpensive. She recycles a lot of items too like empty jars, Tic Tac containers, glass bottles, and torn tights. I’m just naming a few here, and those items that you would need to purchase are not pricey at all, such as acrylic paint or card stock.

Though most of the projects are very easy, a few that use fingernail polish I am not too sure about as far as longevity. She uses fingernail polish in a few project to paint on metal. I’m not an expert on polish, but I would worry about it chipping and flaking off like it eventually does on nails.

Other than that, however, I found most of the projects to be very clever. Most are geared toward decor items or products you might use in the kitchen. For example, she shows how to turn cookie cutters into picture frames, how to make an instant collage with photos and a clip board, and how to turn light bulbs into glittery ornaments. Each project is set up so that it has a minimum amount of instructions, and these are very visual. So not much reading is involved. The photographs of the finished crafts are also really good. They clearly show the finished items and are not overly “artsy” to the point that you don’t get a clear view of what you are attempting to make.