Book Review: Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts

One book that I couldn’t resist buying recently was Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts. I was first introduced to the magic of Martha when we lived in the USA. I used to love the Martha Stewart Living Magazine and of course would always go right to the craft pages. Now Sarah and I enjoy watching the Martha Show and have a number of her cook books.

Handmade Holiday Crafts promises 225 Inspired Projects for Year Round Celebrations, and it doesn’t disappoint. The book is divided into chapters that cover all the major holidays including: New Years, Valentines Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, Halloween,Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. Each section contains loads of inspiring projects and photos that focus on table settings, party décor, gift wrapping ideas, cards, party favours and kids craft. Many of the ideas could be “tweaked” to make them suitable for a number of different holidays. Although I have seen most of the projects before on the Martha website or in her Living magazine, it is lovely to have them compiled together in one beautifully presented hard cover book. It is the sort of book that you could turn to for inspiration time and time again.

As the next holiday that we will be celebrating is Christmas, I thought I would show you a project from the book.

Ribbon Gift card Pockets

Ribbon Gift Card pockets are the perfect size to hold a gift card or cash before popping into a Christmas stocking  These were easily constructed by stitching a piece of wide ribbon to a ready made shipping tag.

I added some Christmas themed ribbon, and stamped a Christmas greeting to the tag

 I didn’t have much wide ribbon on hand in my ribbon stash, so also made one with a small scrap of fabric, which also worked well.

I bought my copy of Handmade Holiday Crafts from The Book Depository (free worldwide shipping).