Kathreen Ricketson

I am a mother and maker. I live in Canberra Australia with my husband Rob and my two cheeky and creative kids, together we publish a kid’s e-magazine, it’s called Action Pack because it is full of Activities for primary aged children to make and do. In 2006 I founded Whipup.net, a leading voice in the online craft community and the go-to site for craft inspiration, tutorials and advice. As well as making and crafting and experimenting, we also love to go on camping holidays, go swimming and get outside and have lots of adventures together. We are all really keen readers, gardeners and cooks too!

I started blogging back in 2004, fresh out of art school with a couple of little kids in tow, with Redcurrent and now I occasionally write recipes and parenting stuff, with my little bro, at Red Cordial Revolution.

I used to write regular eco craft and lifestyle column for Treehugger back in 2007, before I began writing books for Chronicle. In 2010 I wrote a semi-regular craft column for Woman’s Day Australia. In between all of this I was the designer at Art Monthly Australia Magazine. Now I work from home full time, writing books, working on whipup.net and the Action Pack Magazines and the occasional freelance writing and editing commission. Feel free to email me Kricketson[at]gmail.com

A selection of our online tutorials:
Bow and arrow for kids by Rob Shugg and Kathreen Ricketson - This project first appeared in CRAFT Volume 07, pages 138-141.
Natural dye table runner
Puppet pals, Sleepy doll and quilt, and Cosy couch throw were first published in Australian Woman’s Day Magazine in 2010.

You might like to read more about me – I have been interviewed a few times about my work: CraftSanity, CraftyPod, CraftZine (and again at craftzine), CraftBoom, Design*Sponge, BIG kids magazine, Paper n stitch, Go make me.

I have written two quilting books: Whip Up Mini Quilts (Chronicle 2010) and Little Bits Quilting Bee (Chronicle 2011) - they each have their own page so you can click on the links to find out more about these books and see what’s inside. Both of these quilting books as well as the Kids’ Crafternoon series were illustrated by my husband Rob Shugg.

I also worked with Hardie Grant to put together a series of craft books for kids: Kids’ Crafternoon — Sewing, Papercraft, Felting and Beading. I had a lot of fun working with some talented contributors for these books and my two kids were especially helpful in helping me test many of the instructions for the projects in these books.