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Join Martha Stewart for a celebration of handcrafted holidays all year-round!
New Year’s – Valentine’s Day – Easter – Mother’s Day – Father’s Day – Fourth of July – Halloween – Thanksgiving – Hanukkah – Christmas
Let Martha inspire your creativity with the most beautiful crafts. The 225 handmade projects include cards and greetings, decorations, gifts and gift wrapping, tabletop accents, party favors, and kids’ crafts, as well as more holiday-specific activities, such as egg-dyeing, pumpkin carving, and tree trimming. Each idea is sure to make the holidays more festive—and memorable.
It's another round of Martha Stewart holiday magic! This time, the crafts masters at Martha Stewart Living Magazine have gathered a 352-page cornucopia of projects for any holiday or special occasion. Whether you're making home decorations for Christmas or Thanksgiving; party favors for birthdays or Halloween; or simply small "visiting gifts," Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts can make the occasion more festive. Family fun.
MARTHA STEWART is the author of dozens of bestselling books on cooking, entertaining, gardening, weddings, and decorating. She is the host of The Martha Stewart Show, the Emmy-winning, daily national syndicated program, and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which publishes several magazines, including Martha Stewart Living; produces Martha Stewart Living Radio, channel 112 on SIRIUS Satellite Radio; and provides a wealth of ideas and information on www.marthastewart.com.
Here's the Scoop:¿
There is no question that Martha Stewart has long been the reigning queen of DIY home crafts and decorations. In this holiday-centered book, she has gathered the best of her ideas, giving us up-close and fully realized directions on how to create extraordinary crafts and gifts for home, family and friends. Martha doesn't disappoint her fans, and anyone is bound to find something beautiful to create in this holiday crafting book.
Major holidays are segmented and ideas for crafts, home decorating and gift giving are shown for each one: New Year's, Valentine's Day, Easter, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas...and all others in between! The large spread photographs are lovely, the ideas are not expensive, but are easily accessible; and, the resulting crafts present bright, festive, magical, and even enchanting pieces.
Here's What I Liked:
Valentine's Day:
Red tulips in double glass vases with red cinnamon candy hearts were vibrant, beautiful and made an easy presentation for a dinner arrangement.
Also, a carnation heart made of multiples of pink carnations on floral foam to make a centerpiece is quick and gorgeous!
Easter :
Fabulous egg-dyeing techniques using natural formulas made from coffee, cabbage, blueberries, beets and spices made incredibly beautiful and exotic eggs. And, Martha gives specific directions for marbleizing eggs! Actually, most of her egg crafting was exceptional.
Thanksgiving :
Gourd candles made from hollowed out mini gourds with colored, melted candles are just amazing little jewels! Pumpkin carving is fabulous!
Christmas :
I loved the cookie cutter ornament ideas made from various paper goods, family pictures and such. The gilded, and verdigris Polish inspired eggs, and the ribbon poinsettia wreath was just to die for.
Hanukkah :
Paper packages, a menorah, and satin stars are glowing and sparkling in Martha's hands.
Here's what I found lacking:
Often the crafts are more complex than one would want to become engaged in.
The directions are not clear cut; that is, they are not in a "recipe/materials" format, but are listed in text, which I found to be more difficult to follow. I needed to break it down for myself on my own paper.
Diagrams sometimes took too much for granted, or at least seemed to expect the more experienced crafter could "fill in the blanks." I wasn't up to some of that!
Several projects were quite time-consuming for very little return or impact.
And, finally, I found the pictures too small in the working segments.
Overall Rating: 3 stars ~ I can't highly recommend it
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.CuteEverything
Posted November 30, 2011
Martha Stewart¿s Handmade Holiday Crafts has fantastic homemade gift and decor ideas from New Year¿s to Christmas and every holiday in between. There are two hundred and twenty five of the best ideas which have been culled from the vast amount of crafts at Martha Stewart. It is beautifully photographed with clear step-by-step instructions and illustrations for the projects. Each chapter begins with a brief synopsis of each holiday and the common ideas associated with it. I loved the glossy, spooky fun ¿Jar-O¿-Lanterns¿, which are made by painting orange enamel paints onto glass jars and adding a wire handle and fun faces with black paint. Lovely pop-up bouquet cards are a perfect Mother¿s Day gift and the adorable money and gift card wrappers are great for the winter holidays. Martha Stewart¿s Handmade Holiday Crafts makes it so convenient by having all of these wonderful crafts in one volume, and any one of these suggestions would change a normal holiday celebration into something truly magical!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I LOVE this book! Every page had something beautiful to make. Not only that, but each craft photo gave me ideas for my own designs to add even more to these stunning creations. I am a HUGE FAN of Ms. Stewart, and this book justifies that!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.tmt0221
Posted October 6, 2011
This book has 225 handmade projects for all holidays all year round. A few of the projects and ideas are quilled greeting cards, glitter balloons, table setting ideas, harvest centerpieces, etc. Some of the projects are really nice and the ideas are good to have to.
The instructions seem alright to me, but not everyone may agree . You can find a few of these projects on her website. One thing you should know before you buy the book is that you have to get the patterns off her website. You are only given thumbnails of each clipart or template in the book. So if you don't have internet access, what will you do?
Copy of book was from Publisher.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Typical of Martha Stewart, there are some wonderful projects for decorating your home or preparing for a party, including for children's parties. Most of the projects can be made primarily with items you already have around the house, making them excellent for families trying to make some meaningful decorations without spending much money. It's definitely worth thumbing through at your local library to see if any of the seasonal ideas inspire you.
Disclaimer: A copy of this book was provided by the publisher.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.PennylanezHome
Posted November 16, 2012
Typical Martha projects, medium difficulty. Great illustrations. A good addition to any crafter's library.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Martha Stewart's Handmade Holliday Crafts
A good craft book chock full of great ideas. I made the Gourd Candles and they were fun and beautiful. I received a lot of compliments. I also used the pumpkin carving tips and carved the coolest pumpkin.
There are many craft ideas for every Holliday from Hanukkah to the Fourth of July. The crafts are fun and creative. But, this is not a book for beginners. The instructions aren't always clear and the pictures are needed, so you need to be a seasoned crafter.
Overview
Join Martha Stewart for a celebration of handcrafted holidays all year-round!
New Year’s – Valentine’s Day – Easter – Mother’s Day – Father’s Day – Fourth of July – Halloween – Thanksgiving – Hanukkah – Christmas
Let Martha inspire your creativity with the most beautiful crafts. The 225 handmade projects include cards and greetings, decorations, gifts and gift ...