Excellent technical reference book for pop-ups!

Does exactly what it says on the tin! This book is entitled 'Paper Engineering for pop-up books and cards' and this is exactly what this book is all about. If you've ever wondered how those clever pop-up books and cards work, then this is the book for you! In the past, I have always had to re-engineer cards and books I have purchased in order to understand the mechanism behind the magic. Mark Hiner's book unveils these mysteries for you. This book is not a picture book but a 'how to do it' book. The book starts off by stating its purpose and then very briefly covers a bit of the history of 'pop-up'. It is clearly laid out and well organised with explanatory diagrams and notes. Ten mechanisms are discussed and card templates provided for all of them. The idea being that you use these templates to produce actual working models of each mechanism and store them inside the book for future reference. This way you get valuable 'hands on' experience and success is virtually guaranteed!

For each mechanism, Mark Hiner discusses the technical considerations, what could go wrong and the 'do's and don'ts'. This is extremely useful and is almost as good as having Mark sat at the side of you. Mark also suggests possible uses for each mechanism which is a great help to those of us that are somewhat creatively challenged! I can thoughly recommend this book, my only grouse and it is an entirely personal one, is the format, which is landscape and I find this difficult to accomodate on my bookshelves without it looking untidy.

Exceptionally simple

Interesting and fun way to waste a few hours of your life but is way too below the level expected of any medical undergraduate. But I guess medical education is moving on from the days when I did it (gosh do I sound old?) when you were expected to know the course and distribution of almost every nerve!

A visual and creative delight

If, like me, you cannot wait to take delivery of your book on your favourite subject, then this will not disappoint. It is full of delightful and innovative projects - some advanced, others not so, but all clearly described with a clever, easy-to-follow instruction system. The author's own personal tragedy adds poignancy to many of the projects without being intrusive. She offers much interesting and useful advice to help get you going and her own work is so clever and inspiring that you just want to get started immediately. Highly recommended

Inspirational for all levels of crafters!

As an enthusiastic amateur crafter of three years experience I found this book a refreshing source of new ideas and techniques to expand my range of activities - all were clearly described and illustrated. I have already tried out two new styles - the iris folding and the teabag folding with great success.

I'm hooked!

I orderd this on a whim to learn about origami. As the previous reviewer, I worked fairly quickly through the easy book, and am now working my way through the birds and animals. They get much harder... not harder to understand, but just to get the folding really accurately, but it is really satisfying to see how much better yourfolding gets. I've had to order much more paper!

An excellent first origami book for any child

I am a veteran in origami, and after carefully looking at numerous books, chose this book as the first origami book for my 7 year old daughter. She absolutely loves it, and is able to slowly work her way through the models which range from the very simple cats and dogs, and slowly increase in difficulty through a fox, a piano, a butterly, a fancy box, plus lots lots more. All are within easy reach of a complete beginner. I don't think I could have chosen a better beginners books for her, and have since gone on to buy 4 further copies for several of her friends and my niece! I would recommend this book to any child who would like to learn origami without any hesitation. Brilliant!

Cardmaker Heaven

This book is exactly what I was looking for. Finally a decent collection of messages and verses! <br />I have a market stall selling my custom design cards and bookmarks and have been desperate to find decent quality text for using royalty free. The book has content for every percievable card occasion and now allows me to concentrate on my designs rather than worry about inventing a decent verse for the inside!

Fabulous"Fabulous origami boxes"

A great book if you already know a little origami. Bought as a gift for my husband and it has kept him occupied for two months now. The diagrams are clear and easy to follow. The boxes look great and the number of possible permutations by using different coloured paper or variations on the basic boxes is great.

Mixed Media Explorations by Beryl Taylor

If like me you are looking for inspiration to create some thing new with your art work then I would certainly recommend this book. The designs Beryl Taylor has put together are very imaginative. Her step by step projects to help you are easy to follow also you are shown the smaller details close up which go into each design which I found very useful. In my view it is a superb book offering you an abundance of endless designs. So if you wish to boost your creativity then this is the book to buy.

DOES WHAT IT PROMISES

The author delivers a stunning collection of models, traditional mixed with modern. There is also an account of re-creating forgotten Japanese models and an appreciation of recently rediscovered German models.<br /><br />The book is written using the international origami symbol system, so no problems following the diagrams.<br /><br />Model difficulty level ranges from simple to intermediate. This is real origami, no strings, cuts, wires or glue required.<br /><br />It's relatively cheap too!

You need to see this book words cant desribe...

....after a long wait I have finally just got this book, and like the first it is inspiration! The work in this book just brings your mind alive with ideas and you will have the sudden urge to climb into this book! The colours, the textures just leap off the pages! Like the first you will never get enough of this book, you will have to keep going back for more....and if your only starting out in Journaling/Collaging/Book Art ...well then this will be your addiction now go and try your best to absorb it all, because this is the book to inspire! :)

Great book

I just LOVE this book! Good layout ideas and properly explained for the beginner. I find myself referring to this book again and again and again. Especially when I think my LO's are getting 'busy' looking, it makes me rethink my LO to get a page that is much cleaner and keep focus on pic that the Lay Out was intended for in the first place. Highly recommended from me,( a beginner!)

Make fabulous art - just smaller!

I like this book. It is colourful and attractive and it contains the promised step-by-step instructions for completing cards using different techniques. In many ways, it's a 5 star book - if you like ATCs, or think you might like to have a go, there is lots here. However, if you are unfamiliar with these delightful little pieces of art, you could be forgiven for thinking it was compulsory for them to be in this style!<br />I gave the book 4 stars, not because I didn't like it, but because it has a (very) few limitations. It is an American book, and many of the techniques call for products that are unfamiliar to me, and I have no idea where to get them. The resources list includes company websites, but no stockists, and no specific international information whatever. This probably isn't as unhelpful as it appears, as stockists come and go. The sites suggested for swapping online are all on Yahoo. Again, nothing wrong with that, it just seems a little limited.<br />I'm keen to get working, and to do a little online research to try and find out if I can get liquid watercolours and what on earth Nevr-dull might be, but something else I would have liked is some suggestions of how to develop one's own design processes, rather than just trying to reproduce the cards shown. <br />I would recommend this book to you wholeheartedly if you are attracted by the picture - in this case, you probably can judge a book by its cover!