The Art of the Travel Journal - Book Review

 

Now that COVID travel restrictions are lifted, people are enthusiastically embracing travel once again..  Although travel isn't in my near future, I love any books about journaling, so I jumped at the offer from NetGalley to review an electronic version of this book.

The test with any art-related book for me is:  Does this book inspire me to get out the supplies and dive in?  This book certainly passed the test, and as the author Abbey Sy promised, this kind of journaling is easily transferable to my life at home.  It has given my journaling habit a much-needed kick start.  The guest artist section soon had me discovering new artists to follow on social media. 

If you are new to journaling,  this book has everything you need no matter what format/style you want to try. The book covers art heavy, text heavy, photo heavy, and collage heavy formats, and if you can't decide, try the author's favorite, the ultimate combination! 

The end of the book still needs a few edits to be ready for final publication, in my opinion.  Although promised in the introduction to Chapter 6 Honing Your Habit, I couldn't find the tips on storing journals.  (I was really looking forward to those tips, too!)  Chapter 7 The Guest Artist features some terrific journalers, but the section on Resources is disappointing, and two of three website links are wrong or no longer in service. 

All in all, this is a terrific book despite the weak ending - 4 out of 5 stars!

Miss Fiona

 

You can find the inspiration photo by @mozarts_ride here.  Carey reposted his photo for St. Patrick's Day and I learned something new about the feast day reading it.  

Miss Isabel

 

You can find the details for Miss Isabel, along with the inspiration photo by @mozarts_ride here.  In his Instagram post, Carey goes for a trip down memory lane remembering one of my favorite bands - ZZ Top.

Playing With Inktense Blocks

Years ago my sister bought me a set of 72 Inktense Blocks for Christmas.  (What a lucky girl I am!)  I've been using them lately as a massive set of pan paints to paint truck drawings.  I've been using my Paul Rubens Hot Press Watercolor sketchbook which is lovely to draw and paint in.  It's another more recent gift from Dianne.  She's queen of (the) Amazon.

When One Thing Leads to Another

You have a set!

Hawaiian Ginger

Aloha!

My sister challenged me to make a card from this stamp of a ginger flower.  She also suggested that I include the dots that I used on the previous cards.  I'm thankful for this suggestion; I was thinking it was going to be a little bare but I had no ideas about what to add.  

I used chalk inks for these - on both I used olive for the leaves and stem.  On the the top card I used rouge for the flower, and on the bottom one, wisteria.

Creativity and Making Choices

 

It is much easier for me to start the creative process if I begin by limiting my choices.  I wanted to make some "guy cards" - what we cardmakers call cards suitable for men and boys.  It has been awhile since I printed some trucks, but with my huge selection of wonky drawings, how did I choose which to print?

I have a file which has a few folded cards all ready cut and folded, so I dipped into that and found two brown cards that have been there for far too long.  That limited my choice of trucks by color - perfect.  The card below is going to my nephew for his birthday, and the one above will go in the box for when I need a card quickly.