by Mimi Christensen
This book is an interesting collection of papercrafts put together by a freelance designer of paper projects for websites, television, and publications. She has divided this book into 4 sections, one with her private collection, one for the home, one for gifts and one of favourite things. This book is in my own book collection and I was not compensated for reviewing it.
It starts with simplistic designs from the author’s private collection including templates and simple directions. From shadow boxes, portfolios and folded types of books, this section is an example of how to take simple and easy and make it look artsy and sophisticated with the choice of papers and elements. The photographs are gorgeous and the templates are easy to draw out and understand.
The second part is about art for the home and includes ideas on things that can be utilized to decorate your home. Taking an item such as envelopes and creating a sophisticated piece of framed art takes imagination! Here, you can find instructions on updating candles and napkins, recovering boxes and frames with stunning papers, remaking lamp shades, and labels for empty jars.
The third part is about gift giving and sometimes, the created gift from the heart is the perfect one for that special person. Here, you’ll find packaging ideas, unusual tags and gift bags, and ideas for notecards. I have not purchased a ready made card for the last 15 years, preferring to make my own in order to fulfil my creative needs as well as giving an original card as a gift. This section has different ways to make cards with unusual fronts. I like the unusual folds and ways of taking the card a bit out of the normal way.
The last section is about the author’s favourite things. There are templates for an unusual clothesline garland that would look fantastic in a laundry room. Other projects include scrapbook page template and various ornaments.
Finally, the last part of the book contains a gallery of various papercraft artists.
Overall, I would say the book is beautiful, easy to understand, full of different types of papercrafting to try out with templates included. Instructions are easy to understand and the photos are large, stunning, and show the how tos. Some of the projects are a bit too simplistic for my taste. I prefer a little complexity but I can take the easy and quick and with a bit of creativity, make it my own. Utilize the book in that way and you will enjoy it.
