Making your own greetings cards has become such a popular hobby in the past few years, and even some of the most unlikely places are selling supplies for this fascinating craft. Perhaps one of the best things about it—apart from seeing the looks on loved ones’ faces when they see your creation—is that it is not one craft, but many. Buying books on all the different techniques costs a lot, so it is just as well that there are some compendiums on the market like this one.

This book is filled with projects taken from several other books, mainly from the "Simple and Stunning" series. Several authors have contributed, and thus you can learn how to make cards not only using many methods and materials, but also in a range of styles. Art Nouveau, Oriental, Victorian, naïve rustic art, fairies and florals are all covered, which ought to satisfy a large range of people, including some men and teenagers. You can learn through photographed and captioned staged projects how to come to grips with crafts such as paper piercing, paper tole, embossing on metal, working with polymer clays, painting and using computer clipart, to name a few. These cards are almost exclusively of the type aimed at general occasions such as birthdays, thank you, get well soon, etc, rather than specific festivals, and I only found one definite Christmas card. Given the date of this review and the book’s publishing date too, I think that perhaps the best way to use this book is like the primer that it is. There are some excellent instructions in here and these ought to give even a comparative beginner the necessary skills to set to work on some more seasonal work. Of course, it would also make an excellent gift for any crafters on your shopping list.