The Artful Bride: Simple Handmade Wedding Projects

By April L. Paffrath and Laura McFadden 80 pages. Retails $22.00. Rockport Publishers.

This was the book that launched the Artful Bride series. The cover picture sums up the creativity and stylishness of this book. It’s a picture of a red flowered triple tier wedding cake that upon closer examination, is made of cardboard and actually a cardbox for the wedding! The 30 projects are varied in style and type and are divided into correspondence; gifts and goodies; ceremony details; and reception and décor. Although most of the projects are stylish, some of the projects are more fun and cheesy, such as the windup monkey name cards. Each project comes with large picture illustrations, with the more complicated ones accompanied by several photos and excellent instructions. Beginners can easily make many of the projects. There are also two articles providing tips on budgeting time and crafty ways of finding help.

Examples of my favorite projects include:

• Eco-Invite – enclosing a small green leaf
• Origami announcement
• A picture frame decorated with glass pebbles magnifying words and flower pictures
• Beaded ring, necklace, and bracelet
• A guest survival kit for the hotel room
• Retro ball-bearing toy
• Flower shoe decorations
• Candles wrapped with pictures of the bride and groom
• Japanese style photo album with ribbon binding

Designer Style Jewelry by Haab

By Sherri Haab. 128 pages. Watson-Guptill Publications.

This wonderful book showcases a wide variety of non-precious materials and techniques in jewelry-making. I love the author Sheri Haab’s ability to create gallery-quality pieces from different materials. The book has clear step by step written and large number of picture instructions. It starts off with a description of each type of findings, tools, stringing materials and glues used. Although the book covers wire wrapping, what sets it apart is the examples of jewelry that uses nonmetal materials. It teaches you how to make jewelry using crochet, shrink art, polymer clay, resin and transfer on leather. Each type of technique has an explanation of the technique and several examples that you can make. The resulting pieces look folksy and retro-hip. The book ends with two pages of templates and a supplier’s list.

Examples of my favorite projects include:

• Stone pendant with wire-wrapped bezel
• Crocheted beaded geamstone necklace
• Vintage photo pendant and earrings using transfer on shrink plastic
• Mica pearl pendants
• Resin filled bottlecap pins and pendants
• Retro pictures transferred on leather bracelet