Creative Crafting

Archive for the ‘Craft Books & Magazines’ Category

As a beginner I was looking for a book that gave detailed instruction. I never thought that I would find such great instruction and pictures. This is a superb helper and will make my first attempts look like I have been using polymer clay for years. Author is to be commended for such fine and detailed instructions. I highly recommend this book.

It is easy to think of polymer clay as glorified modeling clay, but as a serious craft medium it requires knowing some basic techniques, such as making multicolor canes. These are covered in great detail with excellent photos in Polymer Clay for the First Time. Beginners will find many of their questions answered in this book. After mastering the basics one can move on to complex projects such as miniature villages. The tiny houses in Ritchey’s book are only several inches high and would be just right for a tabletop display or a small-gauge model railroad layout. Buildings include cottages, stores, a church, and a lighthouse. There are also instructions for making shrubbery and grounds. Both books are recommended for public library crafts collections.

I found this little snowman in The Sculpey Way with Polymer Clay.

It took me about 5 hours to make, and I am no expert on polymer clay! They have so many cute projects in this one book for the beginner or expert alike. The instructions are clear and precise. I like the fact that with each project the instructions are followed by a picture showing how it should look. It make it very easy to follow the directions.

I have use other books as a reference and not all of them have been as easy to follow.

The Sculpey Way with Polymer Clay

This is a fine magazine with truly scrumptious recipes if you’re into the kitchen/food thing, home ideas that one can actually use (or that will inspire one to do something similar), and exquisite photography, usually quite stark and simple, of ways to enhance the aesthetic beauty of one’s life.
One can serve a plain meal of soup and bread, and make it look like a feast, if you get into Martha’s way of looking at things, and it does not take a spending spree to have a “Martha Look”. Her basic table settings tend to be white china (one can use mix and match white plates from the local thrift store), clear glass, and colorful fabric…add some well shaped twigs in a glass vase for a centerpiece, and voila ! you have a table that could be shown in this lovely magazine; a rule for “The Look” seems to be the absence of clutter.

CardMaker magazine is devoted exclusively to cardmaking. Looking to learn a new cardmaking technique, look no further! The expert advice and instructions will inspire long-time cardmakers and thrill those who are just getting started. Visit our Web site frequently so you don’t miss any of the exciting things planned.

CardMaker magazine is devoted exclusively to cardmaking. Looking to learn a new cardmaking technique, look no further! The expert advice and instructions will inspire long-time cardmakers and thrill those who are just getting started. Visit our Web site frequently so you don’t miss any of the exciting things planned.

CardMaker is published six times a year with several special issues available for purchase as well. A one-year six-issue subscription is $17.95 plus $1.98 for postage and processing. This offer includes one free issue.

The title of this book, SCRAPBOOKING OFF THE PAGEàAND ON THE WALL: Off the Page And on the Wall (Scrapbooking) says it all. The projects included within its pages take scrapbooking to a new level, turning your memories into artwork to be displayed on the walls rather than in a book. The project ideas include a variety of themes; Family, travel, vacations, babies, sisters, gardening, children’s special moments, graduation, friends, weddings, heritage, cowgirl, love, sports and pet themes and decorations for holidays and around the house. The unique aspects about the scrapbooking projects in this book are the materials on which the photos are displayed. Among them are canvases, shadow boxes, frames of various shapes and sizes, shutters, an aluminium sheet, particleboard, mat board, a clipboard, ceramic tiles, a wood cabinet door, an artificial evergreen wreath and a small wood screen you assemble yourself.

Readily available, inexpensive, and easily manipulated, polymer clay is an ideal beginner’s medium, and Syndee Holt does an admirable job of introducing it. She sets the stage with background on materials and basic handling, then presents 27 approaches and variations as a series of questions on technique whose answers are full-fledged projects. “How do I make a pinroll cane?” for instance, explains a simple cane process and uses it to cover a candleholder. Other cane methods yield jewelry, a frame, a barrette, drawer pulls, and a covered pen, utilizing both basic canes (bull’s eye, banner, checkerboard, blended) and pictorial types (flower, millefiori, star, face, shaman). The final section focuses on molds and textural effects such as metallic and rubber stamp effects to produce brooches, light switch covers, a box, and coasters.