Review/Giveaway: Journal It!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED – CONGRATULATIONS TO REBECCA FROM MAINE.

Today’s post is another review and giveaway. The fine people of Lark Crafts sent me this new book, Journal It! Perspectives in Creative Journaling by Jenny Doh to review and also giveaway. So let’s get right to the review.

Journal It! by Jenny Doh
Journal It! by Jenny Doh

According to the publisher, Journal It! is the first of it’s kind, offering a collection of 19 of the best teachers, authors, and artists in the mixed media world and their favorite signature techniques, tips, and creativity boosters for art journaling. A wealth of techniques and exercises is offered with variations and tips, plenty of how-to photos, inspiring images to ignite readers’ creative fire, and plenty of personable reflections from each artist about why they do the things they do.

Featured work varies from layered look to “messy” art journaling, which uses a combination of several techniques, to minimalist journalers who use a less-is-more approach.

I love art journals and journal writing and when I saw this cover, I just couldn’t wait to read and review it. Right under the title of the book is artwork from an artist whose work I love – Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. So let’s see who else is in this book.

As the tagline implies, this is a collection of artists and their perspectives on art journaling. What was interesting about this book is that I was only familiar with two of the artists in this book: Julie and Alisa Burke.  I was delighted to see so many artists who were new to me.

This is just one spread by one of my favorite in this book, Roben-Marie Smith.

Roben-Marie Smith in Journal It!
Roben-Marie Smith in Journal It!

I often like to scan craft books before I read and review them, and I really liked how certain words in the artists’ descriptions about their art journaling were pulled out of the text with a written font. It makes for an interesting layout and easy to scan to decide who I want to read first.

Alison Worman in Journal It!
Alison Worman in Journal It!
Belinda Fireman in Journal It!
Belinda Fireman in Journal It!

But it’s not just about the artists “talking” about their art journaling, they give lots of tips and techniques. If you are at all interested in art journaling, learning some new techniques, and seeing what others are doing in this art, this is the book for you. For me, it’s a great book for my library to refer to and learn from.

Here is a little video that gives you a little more information on Journal It!

Journal It! contains 144 pages, retails for $21.95, and available through your favorite bookseller or  online from Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

I am so happy that Lark Crafts has generously donated a book for this giveaway so I can keep my review copy!

You can win Journal It! just by commenting on this blog post. Commenting via email, on Open Salon, Facebook, or Goggle+ will NOT enter you in this contest. You must comment to this blog post on the Bloombakecreate blog to be entered in the giveaway. The deadline for this giveaway is Monday, December 3, 2012 at 8 a.m. CST. Due to postage costs, if you are not a US resident and would be willing to pay the cost of postage over US cost, please feel free to join in on this giveaway. Good Luck!

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are 100% my own. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review and received no monetary compensation.