Imperfect Lives: Scrapbooking the Reality of Your Everyday [Paperback]

Tara Governo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2006

This book celebrates scrapbookers who have the courage to tackle honest, raw and realistic subjects, the real life situations that have made them grow as people and artists. "Imperfect Lives" is designed for crafters who want to creatively scrapbook the realities of life including motherhood, the hard work of marriage, the heartbreak of divorce and the challenges of aging. Inside, readers will discover a wide range of trendsetting, artistic styles from collage to whimsical to graphic, that exemplify the whole range of life experience. With stories and circumstances ranging from profound and compelling to edgy and honest, "Imperfect Lives" revolutionises the art of scrapbooking by offering pages that capture the true essence of real, everyday life.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Laura Solomon and Tara Governo are avid scrapbookers and founding partners of Reality Scrapbooking (www.realityscrapbooking.com), a website that promotes talk and inspiration for creating pages that reflect real life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Memory Makers (October 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892127946
• ISBN-13: 978-1892127945
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,052,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful and encouraging., March 6, 2007

By 

L - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imperfect Lives: Scrapbooking the Reality of Your Everyday (Paperback)

We all know we don't have perfect lives but when you look at LOs in the magazines you would think that there are so many lucky or perfect people. And for those who do scrap the 'real life' moments that aren't as joyful we never know what to do with them. This book gave me the courage to scrap more of the real things in our life and not just the happy moments. Thank you to all the ladies who shared with us their most personal and sometimes most difficult moments. Not only have you encouraged others to scrap theirs you also given us inspiration and ideas as to how to do it.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Using all the raw material of our lives, March 17, 2008

By 

Ellen Etc. (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Imperfect Lives: Scrapbooking the Reality of Your Everyday (Paperback)

It's not all suns and flowers in life, and here we have 60 women giving permission to scrap about the stress of motherhood, postpartum depression, aging, death, loss - about one's own personal experience, not just the obligatory birthday and holiday layouts.

It's intense to read it straight through, both because of the difficult nature of most of the page themes, and what becomes a continuity of style with similar die-cut letters and 7gypsies-type patterned papers. Now, the kind of collage that I enjoy doing uses the good old technique of cutting up magazines, and we all know those images are copyrighted, but if you aren't going to publish or reproduce your pages, don't worry about it; you bought the magazine, go ahead and chop.

I also didn't see much of the edgier kind of person represented; most of the selections are from your scrapbooking addict or demo artist who has a traditional life with husband and beautiful (always "beautiful") children. (And if I never hear another woman describe herself as a "mommy" again, I will consider my world a better place.)

One major irritation with this book from a publishing perspective was the bound-in postcard that one could tear out and mail in to subscribe to Memory Makers magazine. Cheesy! Whatever marketing genius came up with that idea ought to be spanked and sent to bed without dessert. Look guy, we don't want magazine subscription cards in our BOOKs, OK? If you DID tear it out along the perforation, you'd have a nasty little stub left there like the wilted peel of a banana.

But these women reveal themselves, and I appreciated it. Read this book over several days at least. A good companion book to read along with it is Art Journals and Creative Healing: Restoring the Spirit Through Self-Expression, which also goes into techniques for expressing the seamy side of being human. Most of us don't need tons of encouragement to appreciate the things in life we like. It's a different story with the difficult issues, but they also represent a part of ourselves and they may actually offer more avenues for personal growth.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Stories, February 1, 2008

By 

N. Worrall-Thornton (Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imperfect Lives: Scrapbooking the Reality of Your Everyday (Paperback)

Wow. It's always hard to tell the hard stories whether it's medical or personal histories. This is a great book to inspire where to start on the real stuff!!