Kaleidoscope: Ideas & Projects to Spark Your Creativity (Paperback)

by Suzanne Simanaitis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Indulge your creative cravings! Explore dozens of stories, exercises and instructive projects, all designed to feed, encourage and sometimes flex your creative muscle. You'll tap into the joy of drawing, be encouraged to create art in bed, create your own folded-paper shrine, discover the liberation of stream-writing, practice idea brainstorming, make your own duct-tape purse, learn to quiet the negative voice in your head, dream up your own creative studio space and much, much more. Inspiring art and eye-candy on every page--a Kaleidoscope of creative energy awaits you today!

About the Author
Suzanne Simanaitis is the editor, co-founder, and creative director of ARTitude Zine, a quarterly self-published magazine distributed to over 70 retail outlets in 28 states and four countries.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (February 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581808798
• ISBN-13: 978-1581808797
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #252,673 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Little Something for Everyone - Really, January 20, 2007

By	S. Fishburn (Fort Collins, Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In true "Arts and Crafts" tradition, Kaleidoscope is another elegant AND useful volume for which you will want to find permanent space on your inspiration shelf. A fun 8x10 size and richly designed pages filled with information, observation and art are the first things to notice. Once again North Light has created a publication that rocks the possibility of an "art" book seeming sensuous!
Although the book is introduced and has random thoughts and several articles by Suz, editor and publisher of ARTitude, an enormously popular zine among mixed-media and collage artists, it's literally filled to bursting with "articles" by Sylvia Luna, Elsie Sampson (Chinese Sweatshop), Marney Makridakis (Artella) - nearly three dozen other equally clever and articulate artists and journalers. Additionally, a dozen more artists contributed images alone.
Indexed under Art Technique, Improvisation in Art and Art Psychology, its sections are as diverse as "Mark Making", "Sanctuary", and "Obstacles". Its articles include "Personal Symbols, Found and Made", "Purging for Peace", and "Reluctant Journaling". There are also several projects including an instructional for making a trés swell Packing Tape Purse. Kaleidoscope may not have it all, but it has a LOT.

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much More !!, January 23, 2007

By	Mixed-Media Maven "Jen" (Jacksonville, Florida) - See all my reviews

when i ordered this book it was because suz simantis's name was on the cover. when i got the book yesterday, at first i was a little disappointed because i thought it was more of a "how-to" book of techniques and projects.

Boy was i wrong! i spent the entire night reading this terrific book! it was so much better than a tech book full of projects! it really spurred me on to think of the many excuses that i come up with why not to do art and really puts them into perspective. there are a few projects to do and they were fun, especially julianna coles postcards, but i really got a lot of inspiration reading this book and i picked up my journal for the first time in about 7 months!

this book is well worth the investment and will be on my bookshelf for many years!

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creativity with a Side of Inspiration, January 30, 2007

By	Elizabeth Metz "Muse" (Crescent, Iowa, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been waiting for this book to come out, and POUNCED on it when I finally saw it, buying it sight-unseen.

And I'm not disappointed. It's like a full-book-length zine, with contributors who have literally STUFFED the pages with creative encouragement, inspiration, and motivation. All with a decidedly unique style that screams "MAKE STUFF! MAKE STUFF NOW!"

It's not a patternbook. As in, there aren't step-by-step instructions so that you, too, can make the exact same thing pictured, just like everyone else. Instead, it's about the Art of Life and a Life full of Art and better yet...a Life of CREATING. If you've been inspired by the pretty pictures in other books and then ran off and did your own thing with the techniques, you will *love* this book.

It's definitely on my studio table as inspiration fodder, and has been carried into my bedroom for some reading pleasure, as well. I can't recommend it highly enough.