Sunday, June 15, 2008

Life Artist by Ali Edwards

Life Artist, Scrapbooking Life’s Journey by Ali Edwards

When I wrote this book, my goal was to create the sort of book that I love to read: one that both inspires and motivates. As you read this book, I want you to feel the overwhelming desire to create something. To upload some photos, to paint a canvas, to jot down a few notes, to make a layout, to try a challenge, to tell a story - Ali Edwards


Scrapbooking celebrity Ali Edwards who is well-known for her charming ability to capture the everyday moments of life on beautiful layouts is back with her third book, a book that explores scrapbooking as a form of life art.

Incidentally, Life Artist is the first scrapbooking book that I have read. I have stacks of scrapbooking magazines but I had never thought of buying a specific book about scrapbooking, after all scrapbooking magazines are not only cheaper I reasoned to myself, but they have heaps of tips and techniques and what have you…but after reading Life Artist from cover to cover, I now have a ‘must-have’ book on my list.

Filled with hundreds of new ideas to incorporate into your scrapbooking lifestyle, I discovered a whole different, side to scrapbooking. I find that sometimes, scrapbooking has lost its original true meaning; that of capturing the poignant, the sad, the happy and every other emotion and memory in between and finding a way to preserve these memories which will invariably be forgotten should it not be recorded down. There are scrappers out there that want you to follow and copy their styles and their way of creating and this strangely enough has curbed our own self-expression and creativity. So what if your layouts hasn’t win prizes or accolades, it’s the memory that is captured that matters the most, is it not?


In the pages of Life Artist you will be able to set your imagination and your artistic ability free. The Life Art Challenges that you scattered in the pages of Life Artist will make you to think and will definitely challenge you to start thinking about creating the sort of layout and project that you have always wanted to create without feeling any reservation. These little challenges, will push you to try new things or perhaps go back to the basics of scrapping.

Separated into eight interesting chapters such as “It is OK” and “Embrace Imperfection” you will realize that Life Artist is not your run of the mill scrapbooking book. Not only will this book challenge the way you see scrapbooking, but you will also be presented with many new ideas and a variety of unique projects that begs for your attention. Life Artist is also written in an easy to understand manner and with a smattering of Q&A sections in every chapter, which does help us to see Ali and her creative processes in a whole new light.


I think that I have said quite a fair bit to tempt you to read Life Artist, so I will leave you with a few of Ali’s Life Art Principles:

* It means celebrating everyday things
* It’s about being real
* It means sharing yourself

So if you are wondering about my recommendation, well this is not only one for your book shelves, but Life Artist is the sort of book that can be applied to everyday life ~ a definite keeper!


No comments: