Designer Trice Boerens is a paper crafts genius.  Her inventive book, Fantastiques Whimsies, contains 27 pose-able characters that can be mixed and matched to create unique embellishments for a variety of craft projects.  Readers can choose from angels, animals, geishas, skeletons, robots, pirates, and sumo wrestlers.  Everyday objects, like fish bowls, ornate fans, treasure chests, and road signs, serve as torsos for the whimsical creatures.  Easy-to-assemble, the pieces contained in the book pop out with little effort and can be joined together with metal brads. Added to the front of matchbooks, journals, and greeting cards, the Whimsies take center stage.

Fantastiques Whimsies is an invitation to think outside the box and let your imagination run wild.  Examples from the book include a geisha with a fish bowl body, a grinning skeleton attached to a classic copy of Edgar Alan Poe’s most notable works, and a Victorian gentleman stuffed into an envelope with the words “Don’t Forget to Write” scrawled across the front of it.  Instructions printed on the inside cover of the book demonstrate how to laminate the punch-outs and give the Whimsies a glossy finish.  Suggestions for Found Object Torsos include:

• Seed Pockets
• Candy Wrappers
• Business Cards
• Menus
• Maps

Readers can add flair to their projects by gluing bits of ribbon and lace to the characters or by attaching beads and buttons to the torsos with wire.  They can also use extra scraps of fabrics or pieces of yarn by attaching them to the Whimsies.  Nothing is too funky or absurd.  In fact, Boerens’s unspoken rule is: the more unusual, the better.

A fun take on altered art, the book’s playful designs can even be incorporated into holiday cards and decorations.  I am including a few of the characters that I created in a Christmas ornament swap.

A steal at $12.95, the 24-page book is available through C&T Publishing whose mission is to “Innovate.  Educate.  Create.”