Cards With Eyelets
By Betsy Lurvink 

     If you were a child that made creatures with moving parts out of card and digbies, then this new craft is certainly for you! This book showcases the latest range of Marij Rahder cutting sheets and the new colored eyelets that come with assorted metal collars in fancy shapes. Get the simple tool that is used to apply them, and you are away. Cut out the parts from the sheets, attach the eyelets and hey, presto! a card that has moving parts and can either be operated with a cord or posed by hand. Arms and legs wave, tails wag, wings flap and a swingboat sails to and fro in a jungle setting.

     This book also showcases the Sizzix die cutter, which as it retails at just over £100, is beyond the range of many people's pockets, and then there are the dies that go with it at around £10 each for one shape. Fortunately, many craft businesses have them and sell the die cuts, which here appear to great advantage and act as a foil to the bright and busy designs. The instructions are clear and concise, and this is an easy craft to do that would appeal to any crafting older child who likes to cut things out and the moving parts appeal to the child in us all. Marij Rahder is on top form here with the sheets which are all humorous; normally, I don't care for humorous cards but I love these: a family squashed into a tiny vehicle, a clown trying to ride a pig, jungle animals in a swingboat and a circus strongman lifting a weight. Betsy Lurvink has made some delightful cards with them, too, for a multitude of occasions (mainly birthday, get well, birth or just to say hi). There are no Christmas or Easter cards in here, but it is nice to see something a bit different and many of the cards in here would fit in better for those tricky occasions when you want to cheer somebody up or say "sorry" or "thank you," which makes it a useful book. The new border punches get put through their paces, too, and our old friends--the patterned vellum, corner punches and 26 gauge colored wire--are in here as well. Fortunately for crafters on a budget, the main items are colored card, the cutting sheets and eyelets plus some die cuts, mainly in transport shapes.

     I had a lot of fun making up the cards in this book and so will you!