Handmade Greeting Cards

Although I wouldn't recommend this book for everyone I think it has some great ideas for those who like artful cards. I have been doing art and making cards for a long time and this book has some great ideas for making cards that are small works of art. It has alot of tasteful card ideas (quite a few asian influenced ideas which I tend to like) as well as ideas for making papers and origami techniques. Many of the cards in the book would be nice as framed art. I have looked at quite a few books on making cards and this is one of my favorites. Although I don't think these cards are difficult to make, they do take more time and effort than making generic crafty cards, but for me it is worth the extra effort. When I give the cards to people they love them.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this book. The author introduced various techniques that were easy to reproduce (even for the childre I teach: from 3rd to 6th grade). The cards made, however, do not look simple or easy. I've made cards that ranged from whimsical to elegant using such techniques. A bonus is that you can learn to decorate plain paper rather than spending a lot of money buying the expensive specialty papers in craft supply stores. This book is truly inspirational. I had so many ideas (having made cards for a long time, I've become kind of dry) that I wanted to try out after reading this book!!