Recommended holiday craft book: A Greener Christmas

edited by Sheherazade Goldsmith
745.59412 GRE
Find it in the catalog!

A Greener Christmas is filled with a variety creative ideas for holiday crafts, decorations, gifts, and recipes. Even if you are a novice crafter you will find projects to complete, such as natural cards, recycled paper cards, or fabric Christmas cards. If you enjoy sewing, colorful crafts like fabric garland, glove purses, or a flock of festive birds are projects you may like to tackle. I really appreciate that the idea for these crafts is that you are using what you already have on hand. Many times I come across interesting projects that require materials I would have to go out and purchase before I could even start any of the steps. Now whenever I work on crafts and greeting cards my goal is to reuse as many materials as possible in the creation of something new.

Not into crafts at all? I still recommend this book to you if you enjoy baking or cooking. Goldsmith provides tips on buying locally, choosing seasonal foods, and more. Plus you'll find many mouth-watering recipes to make for holiday get-togethers, like shortbread cookies, spiced nuts, mulled drinks, ginger cake, and four types of stuffing.

A Greener Christmas is also a great gift to buy for a friend or family member who enjoys crafting and baking. The book includes many color photos of both the finished products and the instructions, which I'm always happy to see and is extremely helpful.

Recommended craft book: Collage Playground

Collage Playground: A Fresh Approach to Creating Mixed-Media Art
by Kimberly Santiago
NEW 702.812 SAN
Find it in the catalog!


In this book Kimberly Santiago shares many creative ideas that she uses in her collage projects, which look like mini works of art. I found the book useful in triggering my imagination for how I could apply Santiago's techniques to other projects I enjoy working on, such as homemade cards and envelopes. While Santiago provides directions for making specific collage projects, I focused on the Collage Elements chapter, which demonstrates how to make collage sheets, altered book pages, weaving, and transparency art. When learning about the different collage elements I thought about how I can reuse materials I already own, like old book and magazine pages.

I immediately tried out the weaving technique:

I tore out some book pages, shaded one page with different colors of crayons, and used an exacto knife to cut the weaving slits into the other book page. Since I was using an old history book with yellowed and delicate pages, I had to start over a few times when cutting the weaving slits, since they keep ripping. I'm going to make pages like this for my next batch of homemade cards.

Check out Collage Playground and you will become inspired to create, create, create!

Good Mail Day

Good Mail Day: A Primer for Making Eye-Popping Postal Art by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler NEW NON-FICTION (FAMILY) 709.04 HIN Find it in the catalog!

"Read me the letter, baby, do not leave out the words."
-- Pete Yorn, "Strange Condition"

Letters. Cards. Postcards. Correspondence. I love mail. I obsess over creating cards and writing letters. I love surprising friends and family with mail and I love looking in the mailbox and finding something hand-addressed to me. This does not happen too often lately, as people prefer to use email, Facebook, or even texting over "snail mail." Well, I consider snail mail to be awesome mail! Read the book Good Mail Day and you too will see the awesome possibilities of what you can send someone in the mail. Don't use the excuse that you're too busy to write letters. Even a short, handwritten note or postcard sent to someone in the mail will most likely totally brighten his or her day.

Not only will this book motivate you to write a letter, but it will also motivate you to recycle everyday items (even trash) while making something creative at the same time. According to Hinchcliff and Wheeler the First Commandment of Mail Art is "Thou shalt not feel the need for fancy-pants supplies and equipment." The authors provide many colorful examples of hand illustrated envelopes and mail art and share creative ideas like making a "transit map" on a plane or bus trip or gathering materials from a walk around the block to create mail art. Included in the book is an envelope template you can copy and then trace to create your own envelopes.

Click below to see a few examples of what I was inspired to make: