Invasion of the Plush Monsters!: Wickedly Weird Creatures You Just Gotta Sew
by Veronica Alice Gunter, published by Lark Books (May 6, 2008)

This book is strange, but in the best possible way. Packed full of weird and odd plushy monsters, Invasion of the plush monsters! is great to look at, not only for the monsters themselves, but for the headlines that introduce each individual project. When you see a page titled “Nauseators Overwhelm Air Traffic Controllers” or “Terrifying Totebaggers Stage Full-Moon Foray”, how can you help but want to bust out the fur fabric and fleece, and make a monster?

The patterns in this book include lots of plush monsters for cuddling or decorating your space, as well as some bags, slippers and hats. This book is marketed at children and in the marketing blurb states so simple to sew that kids can do it—as long as they have this book, the only one of its kind created just for children.

My 8 year old monster child and I attempted to sew the ‘Big Belly monster’, and while the instructions were for the most part fairly straightforward, there were a few assumptions made, and between us we couldn’t figure out a few of the steps. In the end we created a passable monster (and my 8 year old monster loves it!), but between the instructions and the difficulty of manipulating and sewing with fur fabric, I would really recommend a pair of big hands to work with any little hands that are keen to create any of the monsters in this book.

Even if you don’t feel like sewing any of these monsters, they are worth checking out!

About the author: Kate is a busy mother of four and has far too many craft projects on the go at any one time. These could include, but are not limited to, crochet, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

A couple of years ago Soulemamas post on drawing time with children (which she also discussed in her book) really resonated with me, I love to sit with the children at the table while we all draw our own thing, chatting about our ideas, getting inspiration from each other as well as the favourite book of the moment. At the moment we are all really into drawing mythical creatures, Guardians and monsters. Our latest inspiring book on this subject is 100 days of monsters by Stefan G. Bucher who also has a website dailymonster.com

100 Days Of Monsters by Stefan Bucher, published by How (March 5, 2008).

The drawings in this book are based on ink blobs, and then the online community has given the little fellas names and personalities, written poetry about them etc. They have inspired creativity in a whole bunch of people and now they are inspiring us in our house.