I was sent items from Quarto Knows. All opinions are my own.

For a few years now, I’ve turned to Quarto Knows for gifts for some of the creative kids in my life. I have two teenage nieces who are artistic or crafty, and I like some creative things myself. Quarto Knows offers books on all sorts of different topics. Biographies, children’s books, fitness related books, you name it. My personal favorite category on their site is the Quarto Creates section. Here you’ll find books that are focused on different arts or crafts topics or skills.

One of my nieces has taken an interest in watercolor pens. If you haven’t seen these, they’re markers with a brush tip but instead of being bold like typical alcohol-based markers, they are watercolors! Some of them come with a water pen to allow you to control how much color is dispersed. It can be a really beautiful way to make paintings. Others use the watercolor brush pens to write in an artistic way, almost along the lines of calligraphy.

I found two items from Quarto Creates for my niece. The first is called Brush Pen Illustration. It shows how to draw over 200 things using brush pens! These instructions will work for any type of brush pen, not just watercolor brush pens but I thought my niece would enjoy it. It covers how to draw all sorts of things, a koala, a pineapple, a tulip, all sorts of things! This book is $16.99.

The second book I Got for my niece is called The Art Of Brush Lettering. This is based on the art of calligraphy, but it can be done with calligraphy “dip pens”, with watercolor brushes, or with brush pens. It covers detailed techniques like how to sit properly to achieve different angles, how to apply pressure in different ways to get different results, and of course, how to create the letters in a wide range of different styles. This book is $24.99.

Some of my favorite Quarto Creates items are more like kits. I got this to try out myself. It is called Origami Flowers Super Paper Pack. It includes 200 origami pages in different colors and prints, and tutorials for making 10 different styles of flowers. I thought these would be fun to make homemade decor, or to give as gifts. This book is $12.99.

The last one was also for myself. It is titled How To Embroider Almost Everything. Ithas 500+ easy stitch tutorials. I started doing cross stitch about 2.5 years ago, and then about a year ago I decided to try regular embroidery and found that I like it quite a bit. The downside to embroidery is that it’s harder to find patterns, and I am not good at sketching things out by hand. This book has lots of rather simple objects, just basic outlines but they can be traced onto fabric and embroidered. The book covers some basic stitches, but they really are very basic, similar to what you see on the front of the cover. Still, there are lots of cute designs to play with in here. A great book for an embroidery newbie. This book is $22.99.

Be sure to check out QuartoKnows.com to see their full range of products. They have great options for the creative people in your life as I have shown here, but they cover a lot of other areas too.

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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