Tricks & Treats: The Ultimate Halloween Book

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Halloween book this is not!
Review: Any book that bills itself the "Ultimate" had better be at least very good. This book doesn't fit the bill. A beautiful book, but the contents are reworked ideas most crafters have seen before. You'll get more bang for your buck buying a Halloween crafting magazine. Most projects are much too difficult for kids. Cute food ideas.

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Halloween book this is not!
Review: Any book that bills itself the "Ultimate" had better be at least very good. This book doesn't fit the bill. A beautiful book, but the contents are reworked ideas most crafters have seen before. You'll get more bang for your buck buying a Halloween crafting magazine. Most projects are much too difficult for kids. Cute food ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Not ultimate, but decent
Review: I recently bought this book thru an online auction expecting it to be as the title says; ultimate. Really, it's not. Don't get me wrong. Halloween is my favorite holiday and fall is my favorite time of the year, and I celebrate by heavily participating. This book is mostly for at-home moms who prefer and have the extra time to make the items listed in the book...including the childrens costumes. Nowadays everyone is so on the go that they don't have time to make their own costumes, but run to the nearest gag shop or Walmart so they don't have to waste any time. Including the aprons, sweatshirts and stuff like that. The things I did find interesting and worth trying were the "all-over" jack-o-lantern patterns, the "haunted" doll house, and the cookie ideas. It would have been nice for them to have listed a few plastic canvas patterns, which is more of what I do and is a little more popular and less time consuming for "just-for-fun" craft makers, like myself. I rate this in-between with the stars because it's not all that ultimate, but there is something for everyone to try in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not ultimate, but decent
Review: I recently bought this book thru an online auction expecting it to be as the title says; ultimate. Really, it's not. Don't get me wrong. Halloween is my favorite holiday and fall is my favorite time of the year, and I celebrate by heavily participating. This book is mostly for at-home moms who prefer and have the extra time to make the items listed in the book...including the childrens costumes. Nowadays everyone is so on the go that they don't have time to make their own costumes, but run to the nearest gag shop or Walmart so they don't have to waste any time. Including the aprons, sweatshirts and stuff like that. The things I did find interesting and worth trying were the "all-over" jack-o-lantern patterns, the "haunted" doll house, and the cookie ideas. It would have been nice for them to have listed a few plastic canvas patterns, which is more of what I do and is a little more popular and less time consuming for "just-for-fun" craft makers, like myself. I rate this in-between with the stars because it's not all that ultimate, but there is something for everyone to try in this book.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC!!
Review: This is a GREAT Halloween book, perhaps one of the best! It has a little bit of everything, including some wonderful and original ideas for Halloween. ie- recipies for Halloween cookies, designs for Halloween jackets, how to turn your small pumpkins into excellent looking cats and your squashes into black and white ghosts. Also has tons of fantastic decorations and many cute and original Halloween costumes for little kids. This is great, and totally worth it!

Rating:
Summary: A Christmas book with pumpkins
Review: What I found really weird about this book was (besides having nothing really new or interesting in it) was that it was essentially a Christmas craft and gift book with a Halloween theme overlay.

What I've always enjoyed about Halloween is that it is a time to do fun and goofy things that you don't normally do during the rest of the year - dress up like a rock star, dangle fake bodies in your yard, make food that looks like trash.

I feel like this book misses the spirit of Halloween while relying on the basic expectations of the Christmas holiday to do alot of hand-made gifts, and annoyingly complicated recipes.

If you are an accomplished craft maker or seamstress, you might get some ideas from this book, but for the average person hosting a Halloween party or dressing your kids lookng for new ideas, I'd look elsewhere.