Customer Reviews

Crafting Beautiful Journals & Albums: How to Personalize, Embellish, and Make Diaries and Scrapbooks

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Anna Morgan has the eye of a czarina when it comes to creating visual richness. The book is full of marvelous ideas great and small, many of which are quite inexpensive. For example, she suggests saving colored foil candy wrappers to smooth out and use as raw material to decorate the covers of books. Now why didn't I think of that the last time I crumpled and discarded a candy wrapper?

Morgan presents three categories of ideas: ones to use in decorating the covers of books, ones to use in embellishing the interior pages of books, and ones to use in making unusual books themselves.It has very clear instructions for all the projects, and has many detailed photographs and drawings. Very useful are variations on each idea, so you can see examples of how she takes her concept and reapplies it to make it look totally different.

If this book has a fault, it is that papermaking and bookbinding, both of which are described in the book, might each be the subject of detailed treatises much longer than this volume. No matter, this book is an inspiration.

I'm so inspired by this book, that I can hardly wait to get home from vacation so I can pull out my craft supplies. One project is a vacation journal with a cover sprinkled with sand and sea shells. It's beautiful.
She shows a variety of designs and techniques like weaving torn paper, using embossing liquid, and making your own special papers (one uses corn silks). I like the examples using lace to frame an old photo, and ways to dress up ordinary books (a standard visitor's book and a ring binder). These are great for personal use or make very special gifts.

If you like organized scraping with awesome results this book has it. I hope she has more books out there, I haven't really checked yet. What a bargin this book sells for $20.00 + , I got it for less than half of that.

Thanks Amazon!

I haven't had a chance to peruse this yet, but it looks like a great book to help with crafting journals. Thank you!

I have been teaching myself about handmade books in the last few years, and am always on the lookout for resources that shed light on this subject, either by finished examples which provide inspiration, or which are written by artisans who also have a clear teaching style. For me, this book, Crafting Beautiful Journals & Albums, by Anna Morgan, is a rare and accessible example that melds both of my wishes.

The layout of the book is conveniently divided into three sections: cover design, ways to arrange and utilize the interior pages, and making books with specific styles that enhance a theme. Within each section there are illustrated step-by-step instructions rendered in a friendly " watercolor sketchbook" style. And even though the book was originally published in the UK, the terminology and materials seem to be universally understood.

There is a brief overview of papermaking, which seemed to me to be slightly out of place with the tone of the rest of the book which was in part, appealing by its inclusion of readily available materials.

Overall, this is a resource book which I will reach for over and over as I progress in my skills and expand my interests into many styles of handmade books, and one which I would recommend to others.