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Book Review: Better Living Through Origami: 20 Creative Paper Projects for a Beautiful Home by Nellianna van den Baard, Kenneth Veenenbos

Better Living Through Origami: 20 Creative Paper Projects for a Beautiful Home by Nellianna van den Baard and Kenneth Veenenbos invites readers to take papercraft to a new creative level. Learn how to create 20 items of functional home decor using simple, origami inspired paper folding and manipulation techniques, and then show off your DIY creations at the heart of your home. There are step-by-step illustrations to guide readers through the projects, which include beautiful lampshades, creative wall art ideas, an ingenious clock, pretty garlands and decorations, unique vases, candle holders, plant holders, decorative bowls and more. Using readily available paper and card stock, readers can create some stunning designer accents for your home for a fraction of the cost of store-bought versions.
Better Living Through Origami is a craft and decorating book that is different from anything I have tried before. Oh, I have tried origami before- and never really excelled at it. However, I have never tried to include paper crafts into my home decorating. I like that there is a detailed explanation about the tools and materials readers will need to attempt the projects, and the detailed information about the terminology and techniques. Although I think the techniques and link to downloadable templates could have been moved towards the front of the book, before the first project so that readers could use that information to practice before finding a project they love, only to discover they will need to drastically increase their skill level before attempting it. I do like that the projects are labeled with their difficulty levels, to mitigate that sort of frustration.  Since I do have kids and cats, some of the ideas and designs simply would not survive my house. Others just do not fit with my style and tastes, but I could picture them fitting wonderfully in other people's homes or offices.  I did like some of the lamp shades and well decorations, and could admire the craftsmanship and skill that went into not just making these items, but designing and testing them in order to sell, and to share. I think the instructions are understandable, but I could not try them for myself since I did not have access to the diagrams, just the instructions and images of the finished projects. 

Better Living Through Origami is a well organized and written book. The digital copy I received via Netgalley did not include the diagrams, although did contain a link to downloadable templates. Without the diagrams to attempt some of the designs I cannot give it a higher rating, because I can not test the accuracy of the diagrams and their ease of use when combined with the instructions and templates. 

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