50+ step-by-step projects for cards, gift tags, wrapping paper, and envelopes. · Ideas for all occasions: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, new baby, and new home. · Teaches a wide variety of papercrafting techniques. · Vivienne Bolton is the author of 20+ successful craft books.

Handmade cards are a delight both to give and to receive, and coordinating gift wrap adds an extra special touch. This book presents a range of beautiful and fun cards, boxes, bags, and gift wrap suitable for all occasions. Book jacket.

Perfect for paper crafters, beginner and experienced. Creative Cards is a how-to guide to turning plain paper into personalized and unique gift cards, boxes, bags, tags, and wrapping paper. The book shows how to transform plain paper into something special, and how to wrap a gift for a beautiful presentation. The techniques section explains all the basics, such as using a bone folder, embellishing edges, choosing the right adhesive, working with 3-D decorations, stamping, gilding, die-cutting, and folding, with lots of how-to photographs. Projects are suited to making a single card or large quantities, and are coded to indicate how long they may take to complete. Tip boxes offer handy pointers and there are ready-to-use templates at the back of the book plus a section on choosing and laying out text on a computer. The step-by-step projects include: Baby shower invitation Birth announcement Children's party invitation Birthday card for a man Wedding folder 50th anniversary card New home Valentine Halloween Christmas card For the occasional crafter or the experienced hobbyist, Creative Cards is rich with expert advice and colorful inspiration.

The books that we choose to keep -- let alone read -- can say a lot about who we are and how we see ourselves. In My Ideal Bookshelf, dozens of leading cultural figures share the books that matter to them most; books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world. Contributors include Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Keller, Michael Chabon, Alice Waters, James Patterson, Maira Kalman, Judd Apatow, Chuck Klosterman, Miranda July, Alex Ross, Nancy Pearl, David Chang, Patti Smith, Jennifer Egan, and Dave Eggers, among many others. With colorful and endearingly hand-rendered images of book spines by Jane Mount, and first-person commentary from all the contributors, this is a perfect gift for avid readers, writers, and all who have known the influence of a great book.

Susan Pickering Rothamel, author of the best-selling Encyclopedia of Scrapbook Tools and Techniques (Sterling/Chapelle, 2005), now turns her A-to-Z eye to another popular papercraft: greeting cards. With its detailed definitions of terms, tools, materials, and techniques; illustrated how-to instructions; and hundreds of handmade cards from leading artists, this will become the must-have visual reference for anyone interested in the craft. Photographs of delightful greeting cards appear on every spread, along with step-by-step pictures of key skills. Sidebars on leading card makers discuss the techniques for which they’re celebrated, from Dee Gruenig’s rubber-stamp designs to Alli Bartkowski’s quilling.

Simple pleasures to enchance your life and comfort your soul.

Detailed instructions and patterns for making greeting cards for Christmas and other days.

Shows how to use discarded packaging, such as aluminum foil and cans, cardboard boxes, plastic bags, and bottles, to create toys, pots for plants, and decorative art.

Offering an abundance of information and inspiration, Homemade is a revelatory addition to the craft world—the ultimate reference book on crafting and also a warm, engagingly written book that combines history and personal narrative with the science that makes a craft possible and the passion that inspires it. Carol Endler Sterbenz is a crafter, a teacher, a homemaker, a wife, and a mother. Raised by immigrant parents who taught her the enduring value of resourcefulness and creativity, she makes her lifetime of experience and infinite enthusiasm the foundation for Homemade. Sterbenz provides readers with not only practical information and direction but also a philosophy and methodology of crafting that build confidence and ability, making it easy to achieve truly professional results. Teeming with clear, reliable, and thorough information on everything from tools and materials to techniques, Homemade is an essential guide to seven of the most beloved crafts: beading, the flower arts, paper crafting, hand printing, decoupage, decorative embellishing, and children’s arts and crafts. Crafters—beginners and veterans alike—can turn to Homemade to learn which glues and finishes to use, how to form a perfect beaded loop, assemble a miniature robot, hollow out an egg, emboss paper, make a hand-tied bouquet, or transform a chandelier. Overflowing with hundreds of techniques; easy-to-follow step-by-step directions supported by more than eight hundred beautiful and precise hand-drawn illustrations, diagrams, and patterns; and countless insider secrets and troubleshooting tips, Homemade is an indispensable go-to reference no crafter should be without.

Create celebrations that reflect your values and don't cost the earth.