Yesterday I featured a post by author Marthe Jocelyn with instructions for creating easy collage art. That post also features a giveaway of a Rainy Day Art pack to someone who comments. Today, I’m reviewing Jocelyn’s book Sneaky Art: Crafty Surprises to Hide in Plain Sight. Sneaky Art provide inspiration for simple art projects that can brighten the day of someone you love or even a total stranger. The sneaky referred to in the title refers to how the art is displayed. For instance, the instructions for Lucky Penny talk about how to use cut-out letters, stickers, colored index cards, glue and tape to create little pieces of art with a penny attached. The lettering says something like “pick me up.” The trick after making the art is to place the pennies where someone walking along on a sidewalk or some other path will find them.

Each project is simple to execute and fun to contemplate how it will be received. There’s even a certain amount of pleasure to be derived from figuring out how to be sneaky about leaving the work to be found. One of my favorite projects in the book is for Painted Stones, which are rocks that can be painted with white correction fluid and placed in a field of other rocks. This is a great project for kids to take on and place their creations amongst other rocks in a garden path or in some other easily visible spot where the whole family can enjoy them.

Its spiral-bound format makes Sneaky Art easy to follow along with, as the instruction pages lay flat on a counter or floor as you work with the materials suggested. In particular, I like the idea that each suggestion for a sneaky piece of art is sure to inspire you to think of spin-offs, other projects that are fun to plan and execute. Since most of the materials are things commonly found in most homes, it’s easy to get started on making your own creations and sneaking art into all kinds of situations.

The time commitment is all yours to determine. You can decide whether to spend your time planning and creating sneaky art during the whole of a rainy afternoon or whip something up in a short amount of time. Either way it’s sure to be fun.

The publisher gave me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.