Snowflake Mandala to color and news

I know the quote

I love cookies baking. During the winter, they have these candles that smell like cookies, and I always buy like a hundred of them.

Jared Padalecki

doesn't actually have much to do with the art. It's a stretch- snowflake, winter. But it was good enough to be a good excuse to use a quote about cookies.

So here's the news- Don't Eat the Paste has had over 5,000,000 page views, and there are a few giveaways planned. The first will be starting soon, and I'll be giving 3 readers a copy of one of my favorite books from last year- Snowflakes, Sunbursts and Stars. It's a collection of origami and kirigami projects to paper craft snowflakes, sunbursts and stars shape.  Now two copies I'll give away here. The 3rd I'll be giving away on my Facebook page! So go like the page if you want a chance to win there. When I send them, they will include some Alaskan postcards, a touristy plastic Alaskan key ring and one of my Don't Eat the Paste wooden coins that say "Ubicumque homo est, ibi benefici locus est" around the edge. It means "Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness."

But before that, it has snowed here, so here's a snowflake to color! Click on the image for a larger version.
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Book Review- Snowflakes, Sunbursts and Stars

Snowflakes, Sunbursts and Stars- 75 Exquisite Paper Designs to Fold, Cut and Curl is one of those books that just excites me down the core of my paper crafting soul.

The reason is because it's kirigami (cut paper designs), origami (folded paper designs) and quilling (coiled paper designs) to create all sorts of gorgeous mandala like designs that can be used for home decoration, on cards or made tiny, as jewelry.

It's a nicely made hardcover book, with tons of projects. Beautifully photographed double page spreads in the beginning show you all the projects. Then the introduction covers tools, techniques and paper types- so if your a complete novice to any of the techniques, you can start just with this book. The introduction covers basics of paper quilling, how to read origami diagrams and how to follow the kirigami instructions.

Each technique is in it's own section, and the projects are all marked by shape- sunbursts, stars or snowflakes.

First is the quilling- these are gorgeous, lacy designs that are diagrammed very well to show how to glue together the components to create filigree shapes. The technique is wonderful and finished pieces are good for jewelry and ornaments.

Origami explains how to make different shapes to work with, starting with cutting a square from a rectangle of paper, then making other shapes. It also shows how the same basic base will look completely different according to the number of sides your base shape has. The bases by themselves are attractive, but then it gets into the projects which develop on those bases for intricate models. Some of those have a lot of folds and are a little bit challenging for me- I'm an experienced paper folder but not an expert.

Kirigami is my favorite section. It explains how to fold the paper to cut 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 sided shapes then shows a bunch of gorgeous snowflakes, stars and sunbursts to cut. There is something so satisfying about opening out a square of folded, cut paper to see the delicate snowflake appear.

I absolutely recommend this book- it's one of my favorite books of 2013!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.