Paper Celebrations by Jane Alford (a David and Charles Book by F&W Publications ISBN # 13:978-0-7153-2793-7, MSRP $19.99) can provide you with ideas to combine celebrations and crafting. The 120 pages of this book are a wealth of information and inspiration. Jane’s book is a collection of over 50 projects designed to help one celebrate many different occasions. I thought the pages devoted to the tools needed for papercrafting were a little skimpy, but that may be because I’m a tool junkie and I have so many! She offers 4 pages of “how to” information for basic techniques such as covering different kinds of boxes and albums, and making tassels. Then begin the chapters with projects.
Pocket Love features a 4-page pocket book for a baby, with a coordinating card box. Wonder Folds has a very clever house card perfect for a new home. The same folds make a wonderful Nativity card. Five different boxes are taught in the next chapter.
We all have memories to cherish and several chapters will help one immortalize them. Remember the strings of paper dolls we made as children? Jane uses this technique with flowers, hearts and even teddy bears to create special cards. Halloween is addressed with baskets featuring bats, witches and pumpkins.
Paper pricking, or piercing as it is often called, is one of my favorite techniques. The chapter Pricked to Perfection is my favorite in the entire book. The daffodil gift bag, tag and card will be perfect for a variety of occasions. The same projects could be adapted with other colors and motifs to work for a man, too.
I could go on and on. Other parts of he book are devoted to different techniques including iris folding, tea bag folding, simple origami and more. Each chapter provides step-by-step instructions for the techniques, as well as excellent color step by step photos to help you. There are cards, boxes, fans, concertina cards, baskets and other fun projects. I especially liked the fact that each chapter offered several versions of the technique taught. Most of the templates and patterns for each chapter are provided at full size. If not, a note tells you how much to enlarge the design. Be aware that the measurements are metric, and conversions may be necessary. Although this is a bit of a hassle, I didn’t consider it enough of a drawback to keep me from purchasing the book.
