If you have a penchant for altered book art and happen to be in the vicinity of Longwood Gardens in southeastern Pennsylvania this holiday season, I highly recommend a visit. Here are several photos that my sister snapped on a recent trip to show you why the seasonal decor in the Conservatory's Music Room is especially exciting for paper lovers.

Children's book 'gifts' with handmade book page toppers
The overall theme for the 2018 display is Trees Reimagined. Pennsylvania artist Dannielle Vincent, with the help of her husband Lee, handcrafted a multitude of book sculptures, folded books, framed book art, and paper ornaments over a period of three months. Dannielle told me that an intern of Longwood's chief display designer, Jim Sutton, noticed her work for sale at an area market, picked up her business card, and notified him immediately. They looked over Dannielle's Etsy shop, PreMadeReMade and contracted her to create art pieces for the display.


Interesting…

Makers, allow me to introduce Crafty Wizard, a UK paper craft supply company owned by Lee and Alex, who are husband and wife. You'll find over 1000 quality paper crafting items in their online shop, many of which are not available elsewhere in the UK. Products include quilling paper and quilling tools, scrapbooking papers, washi tape, grosgrain ribbon, paper string, adhesive gems, die cuts, and more.


Crafty Wizard's mission is to be the best on the market, and Lee and Alex proudly offer friendly, personalized service, monthly promotions, and competitive prices. Working directly with paper manufacturers ensures they stock only top quality papers. Shipping is always free for UK residents and every product is checked before packing so nothing will be sent damaged.


Crafty Wizard offers a selection of quilling tools and paper strips in 3mm, 5mm, and 10mm widths that include single colors, as well as multi color and shaded color packs. Tools include Border Buddy shaping sets, coil…

In September I was contacted by an editorial assistant at Britain's Making Jewellery magazine who had come across my paper jewelry. They were planning to do a feature about quilled jewelry in an upcoming issue - would I like my designs to be included and could I send over high-res images? Yes and yes!


I replied to say that just last year my how-to book about making quilled jewelry had been released. This led to checking with Interweave to make sure it was fine to use images from The Art of Quilling Paper Jewelry, and I later learned that a review of the book would be included as well.


When I received the issue of Making Jewellery in the mail last week, I was delighted to see that they had indeed used the photos in the grandest way - super-size! - and had written a really nice review.


All in all, the magazine devoted fourteen pages to quilled jewelry - how nice is that! There is a basic tutorial for getting started, another for a pair of pretty earrings, and many examples of quille…

Paul Jackson's book, Cut and Fold Techniques for Promotional Materials, has been very popular with marketers who have looked to it since 2013 for attention-grabbing ways of announcing new products. I'm happy to announce that Paul, who has written more than thirty books on paper arts and crafts, has updated this title. Cut and Fold Techniques for Promotional Materials, Revised Editionincludes four additional projects that are shown in detail over sixteen pages.

If you have been part of the online paper community for any length of time, chances are good that you've come across Helen Hiebert, paper maker, artist, author, and so much more. She is known for her in-person and online courses, and an annual Twelve Months of Paper Calendar that is both a how-to book and wall calendar. A unique paper project is shown monthly with complete instructions, and most take thirty minutes or less to complete.

One of my favorite ways to prepare for Christmas is to give small, but beautiful paper craft tree ornaments to friends and family. Over the years I've made lots of different kinds and have gifted wonderful ones made by others as well. While thinking of ideas for this year, I visited Etsy and rounded up a gorgeous assortment of handmade ornaments... have a look!

Knowing that many of you enjoy making 3D paper craft figures that are simply printed, cut, creased, and glued into shape, I wanted to alert you to the newest designs from Éric François, the clever low poly model creator at Ecogami Shop. (Back in June I showed you his seaside figures.) With the holidays approaching, here are a variety of winter-themed and Christmas designs.

Paper crafters, I have good news for you! If you've admired beautiful, on-edge paper letters, wanted to try, but wondered how the heck quilled lettering is done, Cecelia Louie of Etsy shop Paper Zen has released E-books that provide patterns and templates for each letter of the alphabet. Learn Cecelia's foolproof method and you'll be a quilling star!


One E-book contains uppercase letters and the other, lowercase. Cecelia walks you through the steps via printable pattern and template files, excellent You Tube videos (she recommends this video as a good starting place: How to Outline a Quilling Letter A) in which she demonstrates step-by-step ways of enhancing letters, as well as shares many tips and freebies on her blog Paper Zen. Each book contains a pattern for the 26 letters of the alphabet for you to print and use as a template. Cecelia's videos show exactly how to make paper strips stand up straight and tall, turn sharp corners, and go around curves smoothly.
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