Customer Reviews

Scrap City: Scrapbooking for Urban Divas and Small Town Rebels

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wild, funny, simple, strong - the 50 pages showcased in Scrap City run the gamut.
The author, Paul Gambino, puts the spin of a film industry career into this book and from organization to creation, it's a unique, interesting & delightful take
on recording our adventures along the roads of life.
The book itself is gorgeous! Thick paperstock, hardcover, nearly square, brilliant color printing. The layouts vary from strikingly simple to crazy busy, with something to be gleaned from each. Studying these pages will help develop the eye of a beginning scrapper, please & inspire those already adept.
If I could have only 4 books on the subject, from what's available RIGHT NOW, I'd pick this one, The Scrapbooker's Color Palette, The Book Book and 7gypsies in Paris.

I loved this book because it provided a glance into lives of scrapbookers who are not the stereotypical "soccer mom" type of scrapbookers. It was truly a breath of fresh air to see scrapbooking pages from strippers, a woman in a rock band, tattoos, and a woman in a burlesque show. Another great thing about this book is that not only does it have a wide variety of scrappers showcased, but it also relies on creativity of the scrappers rather than "cutesy" embellishments and other mass produced scrapbooking products. I would definitely recommend this book because you can see layouts from "conventional" scrappers and the not-so-conventional scrappers all in one book.

Remember those really cool kids in high school? I mean the REALLY cool ones, the ones who weren't afraid to do their own thing and go their own way? Here's your chance to peek at some of their scrapbooks!

What I really like about this book is that the artists aren't concerned with being "on-trend". The lay-outs are cool and vary so much from artist to artist, it refreshes your brain after seeing the magazines where it's hard to distinuish one artist from another. The variety inspires me to do things my way and encourages me to shake things up a bit.

Bravo!

(Disclaimer: If in high school your main aim was to be exactly like everyone else, this might not be the book for you. But you should give it a try, you just might see something you like. :-)

This is different than any other scrapbook book out there! Not so much in the art work itself (although there are some really uniquely made things) but it is the subjects that the artwork has been created for. It inspires you to scrap about the not so great moments in life, the personal things in life, intimate details about your relationships or yourself, wild & crazy things you do....real life not doctored up pages that look like an ad for laundry detergent!! The artists themselves are fresh & interesting to read about, especially if you are tired of seeing the same people & their families over & over being published in the usual magazines.

This book is really great! I am single with no children...that kind of leaves me out of the scrapbooking mainstream! It was so refreshing to see artists and their layouts not focused on the usual themes. I felt validated, and am not so embarassed to admint I like scrapbooking now. It can actually be pretty cool, as this book demonstrates. The info in the back is useful, especially to newbies, but is also a good refersher for "veterans." The only reason I didn't give it a full 5 stars is because the directions could be more thorough and clear. Plus there are several typos, but now I'm being nit-picky! Hope there's a sequel!

I am a non-traditional scrapbooker. Don't fit the typical scrapbooker demographic whatsoever. I live in a huge city, have no kids, eclectic interests, and somewhat of an alternative lifestyle. I tried, and tried, and tried to get excited about other idea books, magazines, etc... but could never really relate to the layouts and themes featured within. I saw "Scrap City" on a rack of idea books in a store, opened it, and was immediately taken with the colors, the themes, the textures! And more than anything, the way I could totally relate to the themes of the layouts and other projects. Finally an idea book that resonated with my soul and validated my love of scrapbooking by showing projects and layouts I could truly relate to. Aside from scrapbook layouts, the book features other projects, including handmade books, altered art, and more. At the back of the book there is some good information on the basics of scrapbooking, techniques and tools and the like. And ideas on how to inspire your creativity. Definately the book I will be referring back to most often to spark my creativity and inspire new ideas.

This book is really fun and funny to read, and opens creative doors in your mind. IT's time for a scrap booking book that isn't about "beautiful people" living in perfect suburbs! I like the different lay out and art ideas. My critique is that I wished for better "how-to's". This is a compilation of pages and suggestions from the scrappers who made the pages, and their stories are interesting. The pages are not shown step by step, like in other scrap book books, and some additional guidance of achieving the art effects would have been good. Overall, an inspiration to make scrapbooks that are about more than my own face or my kid's first tooth ;-)

I don't think there's ever been a book on scrapbooking that has the diversity of people and layouts as Scrap City. Show me one other book out there that has the guts to have a page submitted by a burlesk performer (a wonderful layout I might add), only to be followed up by a skate-kid mom and then introduce a page designed by a male scrapbooker.
Great layouts. Interesting bios on all the contributors. Funny and entertaining commentary. An adequate how-to section. Just a great book.

I LOVE this book! FINALLY a fresh take on scrapbooking. Paul Gambino has given the scrapbooking world a much needed break from the type of layouts we've seen over and over and over. The art is amazing, the artists stories are fascinating, the layout of the book is excellent and there's nuts and bolts practical information thrown in for good measure! This is the most unqiue scrapbook idea book I've ever seen...Please tell us this is only the first of many Scrap City publications!

Wow! This book is fabulous. The layouts are beautiful. It reflects artists that capture the spirit of their lives in a way that hasn't been presented before. The art, humor, style and fresh ideas are worth a long look. Then to read all the fabulous stories about the artist makes you want to know more about them, what makes them tick and really study their work. I look forward to the second installment to see the growth in scrapbooking as never seen before. Paul, you are presenting ideas for a segment of the scrapbooking world that has been untapped, unheard and unseen.