Send Something Beautiful, by Emily Hogarth. Review.

Send Something Beautiful

By Emily Hogarth

Apple Press 2014

Paperback, £14.99

ISBN 978-1-84543-548-6

Star rating: ****

Thanks for visiting my 200th blogpost. I have a nice treat for you today - Emily Hogarth's new title.

Emily Hogarth is an Edinburgh-based papercut illustrator. Her motto is “making the everyday magical”. This charming new collection of postable projects and stationery items comes up with the goods. (Papercraft Post, indeed!).

In the digital age, communication by snail mail – and stationery in particular – has novelty value. And the 25 postable papercraft projects in this book provide memorable moments of all-singing, all-dancing entertainment for the recipients.  Many of the projects are interactive.

Since papercutting is Emily Hogarth’s forte, the majority of the book’s projects are handcrafted papercut creations –  but there are also simple origami makes (Origami Hearts, a puffy star necklace), and entry-level printmaking – a handcut leaf stamp. Some of my favourite projects include the Parrot invitations with flapping wings, the Flower Twist card (a volvelle of sorts), and the paper leaf garland. The Love Birds pop-up is simple but stunning, a little bit of additional dimensional interest goes a long way.

The “production values” of the book itself are top notch. It is a quality paperback, with a reinforced cover. There’s a beautifully-executed aeogramme-themed graphic design motif. Each project has a beauty shot and step-by-step how-tos with photos. Templates for the project are back-of-book (you will need to enlarge them on a photocopier).

A few small gripes that do little to detract from a delightful book:

•         Apparently this book has crafty contributors, including the wonderful Mr Yen, papercutter extraordinaire. However, the projects are not attributed. I do wish each project had been credited. As an aficionado of papercrafting, I would have liked to have been able to clock the personal styles of the contributing artists.

•         Please show me more – the lead project is a sweet postable cress garden. Brilliant idea – but there should be a pic of the garden in use complete with sprouting cress. Same goes for the ingenious Message Card with cut-out banner slots. A pic of a be-messaged card should have been provided.

This book is very giftable – for beginning to intermediate papercrafters.  I would also recommend  checking out Emily Hogarth’s two other papercraft titles,The Crafter's Guide to Papercutting (a popular classic), and Papercutting for Special Occasions.

Note: I was supplied with review copies of all the featured titles.