From My Bookshelf

These first five jewelry making books are my latest favorites. Jewelry with chains is very popular now, especially several strands of mixed metals. I really get inspired by looking at and reading these cleverly artistic books. While some of them have actual project instructions many of them serve to get my creative juices flowing. The most unique book in this bunch is Enchanted Adornments, a whimsical book with attractive jewelry designs and stories to go with them.

I read dozens of magazines at a time, some useful and some just full of advertisements. These two will appeal to card crafters and scrapbookers. Card Maker is not new but it never fails to provide new, clever card creations. You can learn a lot by just looking at the photos, but the magazine contains good information and tips as well. The other magazine is new to me and has a fascinating concept of providing sketches of card layouts along with sample projects. Once you start with a good sketch it is easy to coordinate colors, patterns and embellishments. The last four books I want to show you are rather eclectic. If you are a recycler, the bottom two books should appeal to you. The one about plastic is very clever and will amuse both children and adults. The other recycling book has projects of a more useful nature, like tote bags made from potato chip bags or old sweaters. I love to receive pretty mail and the Good Mail book is a teaching tool which helps me create pretty mail to send to others. Finally, Collage Journals is an artistic book designed for those who want to put their journaling in a museum quality setting. For the moment this book is giving me good ideas but I haven't become a journal artist yet. Anyway, I hope this deviation from my usual posts will get you to check out the craft magazine and book racks.