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| Artful Journals: Making & Embellishing Memory Books, Garden Diaries & Travel Albums  |
I was attracted to this book by the lovely watercolors scattered about inside. Janet Takahashi, an artist and calligrapher, marries her painting skills with her journal making expertise to come up with this sweet DIY book. The projects are presented as photographs but the instructions and other images are in the form of painted illustrations. She also includes tips on basic drawing and watercolor painting in the book.
There are introductions to what makes up a book, journal-making terms, tools and materials needed to make and embellish journals and even on keeping a journal, if you want to start but have never done so and are not sure what that is all about. For each project, Takahashi makes some suggestions on what to include in the journal and there are brief visual and text descriptions of what's inside. But she doesn't go into much detail on the content and embellishment, so if you're looking for specific instructions, creative ideas and blow-by-blow accounts in these areas, this is not the book for you.
Much of the book is in fact devoted to different binding methods and book/journal forms. I like the ideas. Among the more than 20 journals featured in Artful Journals are the very simply bound Summertime Journal and Garden Journal, an accordion-style Nature-Watching Journal and a Hopelessly Sentimental Journal in a bound cardboard box where you can keep your treasured possessions. There are also journals for cooking recipes and memories, kid's quotes, travel, weddings, lifting your spirit, diary writing, sketches etc Many of these can of course be adapted for other craft projects or journals you can personalize for your own needs.
The projects require varying expertise but most are simple and can be tackle by beginner. The instructions are generally clear, but there seem to be a few missing holes with the author assuming that the reader already knows some of the tools and techniques involved in bookmaking. For example, the Postcards Journal (which was the first project I tried because it's so easy and I have tons of postcards) is bound with a "ledger post" but the book doesn't explain what that is or how to use it. The good thing is it was easy to get around with some common sense. I looked around the house and ended up using a screw and bolt. This is how my postcard journal turned out.
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| postcard journal |
Nice, if I say so myself. I love that map paper I used, it came out much better than I'd expected although my stamps are a little too white, I think. Maybe I should stain them a little...
Here are a couple of photos of the book.
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| Artful Journals by Janet Takahashi |
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| Artful Journals by Janet Takahashi |
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| Artful Journals by Janet Takahashi |
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| Artful Journals by Janet Takahashi |
A good book to get creative ideas and very lovely paintings by the author.
4 stars
buy at Amazon
buy at The Book Depository (free shipping worldwide)
Artful Journals: Making & Embellishing Memory Books, Garden Diaries & Travel Albums
Author: Janet Takahashi
Publisher: Lark/Chapelle (November 1, 2007)
ISBN: 978-1-600595424 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-600590696 (hardcover)
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by liberal sprinkles
