Classic Paper Techniques for Greeting Cards & Gifts

Ten paper crafting techniques--rubber stamping, dry embossing, overlay stenciling, paper piercing, quilling, paper casting, paper weaving, illusion braiding, tea bag folding, and paper quilting--are combined in this North Light craft book (2005) to create greeting cards, photo frames, albums, and decorative boxes. The author begins with a brief one-page introduction, then discusses the basic materials (paper, adhesives, tools, and embellishments) and techniques (such as using a decorative paper punch), that are common to her nine groups of projects. Most of the projects are exquisite but complicated, so I would recommend "Classic Paper Techniques" for intermediate paper artists. The author is fond of repeated geometric designs and creates some very elaborate-looking, but beautiful projects (with the emphasis on greeting cards) that I definitely want to copy. The only technique that I haven't tried yet, is paper casting, although it would be a good use for my old blender, and for the lint that collects in the dryer screen! This book contains many color photographs, and the techniques are described step-by-step with both text and pictures. Variations are also illustrated for most of the projects. The author has created a list of resources at the end of this book where you can find the materials that were used for her projects (I wish all craft authors would provide this). There is also a short index.

This is a very good book for beginners probably advanced card makers alike. It covers all the basics on the tools. The projects are beautiful. It covers embellishments like eyelets, stamping, dry embossing, paper piercing, stenciling, weaving, quilling and paper casting. The book doesn't provide templates for all the projects. They have one for the braded spine but not the braided medallion. They use metal templates for the piercing but they could have easily provided a paper template. It is chalked full of wonderful ideas and how to instructions. You'll find yourself wanting to buy a lot of different supplies some are not available locally here but the book provides a resource list in the back.