The Card Shop : A Dazzling Collection of Handmade Paper Greetings

Rating:
Summary: An excellent, well-rounded set of project ideas
Review: Card givers desiring a more personal touch than Hallmarks or the computer can produce will find Sandra Lounsbury Foose's Card Shop packed with fresh new ideas for handmade cards. From a basic introduction to paper and supplies for ideas for year-round greetings, Card Shop includes ornament cards and bookmarks and provides an excellent, well-rounded set of project ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Just used it to make all my holiday cards!
Review: I have made about half of the cards in this book at least once since I bought it in January, and I look forward to making some more. In fact, I just finished making all of my Christmas and Hanukkah cards from patterns in this book, and they came out pretty well. Most of the patterns lend themselves to personal touches, which keeps things interesting and allows you to get more mileage out of them.
I do, however, recommend a light box for making these cards. I got a cheap one for about $10. The light box gives you two advantages: one, you don't have to cut up your xerox copies of the patterns, which prevents you from losing the little pieces. Two, it's much easier to line up the placement of cutting lines, embellishments and the like.
The only complaint I have about this book is that some of the cards come out a little small. To remedy this, I set the copier to an enlargement setting, resulting in larger patterns.
I look forward to getting much more use out of this book!