Melanie Mowinski's "Collage Your Life" is an inspiring guide for anyone interested in exploring the art of collage. Whether you're a seasoned artist or a complete beginner, this book offers a wealth of information, techniques, and prompts designed to ignite your creativity and help you express yourself through this versatile medium.

Mowinski emphasizes the accessibility of collage, requiring minimal materials and no prior artistic experience, making it a welcoming entry point for those curious about the art form. The book covers a wide range of techniques, from basic cutting and pasting to more advanced methods like lettering, stamping, and image transfers. Clear instructions and helpful illustrations make it easy to follow along and experiment with different approaches.

One of the book's greatest strengths is its collection of creative prompts. These prompts encourage readers to delve deeper into their own experiences and emotions, using collage as a tool for self-discovery and storytelling.

"Collage Your Life" is filled with vibrant and diverse examples from both the author and other contributing artists. These visuals serve as inspiration and demonstrate the endless possibilities within the medium.

While the book covers a lot of ground, its organization could be slightly improved; some readers may find themselves flipping back and forth between sections to find specific information. Additionally, more experienced collage artists might desire a deeper exploration of specific techniques or styles.

Overall, "Collage Your Life" is a valuable resource for anyone looking to tap into the creative potential of collage. It is beautifully presented, with clear instructions, inspiring prompts, and a wealth of visual examples. Whether you're seeking a new artistic outlet or simply looking for a fun and engaging way to express yourself, this book is sure to spark your imagination and get you creating. It comes highly recommended for both beginners and experienced artists interested in collage.

Lots of wonderful ideas for ways to collage and to use collage in your projects. I loved the designer highlights, and the personal stories.

An absolute treasure trove of ideas inspiration and practical advice in this wonderful book on using scrapbooking and collage for self-reflection, expression and even meditation. Beautifully illustrated throughout.

Just wow, I loved this book. I've just started on a journey of creative journalling and this book is perfect to help me, the book includes lots of techniques such as lettering, stencilling and stamping plus lots more. There are inspiring examples that will help you find your own style, the possibilities are endless. A beautiful way to save memories forever that include your own personality.

Collage Your Life: Techniques, Prompts, and Inspiration for Creative Self-Expression and Visual Storytelling was written by Melanie Mowinski.

Summary: Various collage techniques are covered in this book designed to give prompts, ideas, and help readers develop their own collage style.

My Thoughts: This book just wasn’t for me. I had thought from the description that a beginner could dig into this book, but I was quickly overwhelmed.

The book starts out with a list of supplies that can be used for collage, along with tips on how to use them. There was SO much information in this section.

I think it would be a good reference section for someone who has been doing collage for a while, as I am sure the tips discussed would be great for problem-solving issues, and learning more about collage.

I just felt I was already lost from the beginning, and it made me feel like the book was just too advanced for me.

If you have experience in collage, this might be the right fit for you, but I unfortunately, just wasn’t able to get into it.

I would like to thank Story Publishing for providing me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for my review. Thank you.

Really great introduction to collage - really enjoyed it and still think about many of the tips and information in the book

This is a really well put together book. I used to make collages in high school, but nothing near what people with actual artistic talent do. It was all images from magazines with a bit of zhush to them. And it was done with Elmer's glue, on poster board.

I still have them, somewhere. Let's not wonder too much about that one.

But this book just punched my half dead creative brain lobe in the balls.

A lot of books like these spend most of the book talking about what materials to use, with pictures of other people's beautiful work. This book absolutely does that, including explaining what these materials do in a way that helps beginners but probably wouldn't make an actual collage artist roll their eyes and toss the book aside.

But more than that, there are TONS of prompts to help the reader get their hands dirty. And despite not having time to breathe, let alone make art, I have never been so motivated to try.

I won't, because I can barely make time to read a book. But now I REALLY want to.

This book was received as an ARC from Storey Publishing - Storey Publishing, LLC in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

At first, I added this book to my list for new craft collage ideas, and I ended up getting so much more. When I was a child, I loved cutting out pictures from magazines, and collaged my notebooks, posters, and much more. When I was cutting, gluing, and taping I did feel a sense of Zen, and the activity was therapeutic. I admire Melanie Mowinski's knowledge, creativity, and ideas she expressed in this book, and being a former art teacher made her knowledge very credible. There is a collage to fight any mental battle, and everyone can find a collage suitable for them. I highly recommend this book for anyone. Anyone can make a collage, and everyone (whether they admit it or not) is struggling with a mental battle, and this is a healthy way to overcome it.

A creative, powerful, and effective book presented in a brilliant fashion. This book deserves 5 stars.

This is a really beautiful and creative book that was an absolute joy to read and truly inspirational!

A lovely mix of inspiration and practical advice. Great discussion of techniques and what you need to get started collaging! A good resource for beginner and advanced artists alike. Recommended. Thank you NetGalley for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lots of pictures and good tips! I loved the freedom and 'no one right way' flow the book had. No judgement and it is a great read for anyone stuck in a creative rut -definitely gets the juices flowing!

This was a really fun book! I enjoyed reading about all the different techniques that are involved in collaging. I learned a few things and I think that this would be a good addition to any crafters repertoire.

Super groovy guide to collage that works for any skill level - newbs will learn all kinds of fun and useful things to get them started, with prompts to inspire if you need some help with ideas and SO MANY FABULOUS PICTURES!!! I was drooling just looking at all the pics, inspo for days! - and experienced collage artists will find a lot to spark creativity as well, and there are so many techniques covered, they might even find some new skills to try out! All techniques are easily riff-able, and my brain is just itching to get to work. Included in the back is a guide to make your own collage book, and lots and lots of reference lists, books, websites, resources, etc. Just a fabulous book, both visually and content-wise!

#CollageYourLife #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC digital edition.

Unfortunately, I was unable to read this in the time allotted. It remains on my “to be read” list for the future.

An Approach between Art, Self-Expression, and Storytelling
Melanie Mowinski presents "Collage Your Life. Techniques, Prompts, and Inspiration for Creative Self-Expression and Visual Storytelling", published by Storey Publishing. The book contains four parts: 1) Build Your Materials, 2) Develop Your Techniques, 3) 55 Prompts to Jumpstart Your Practice, and 4) Create the Container. I like Mowinski's statement: "Let the ephemera you collect and love guide you to create. Doing so just might lead you to your own visual style. You might discover you like bold imagery on a muted background, or three-dimensions paired with flat stylized shapes. You may like to include feathers or found objects in compositions, or decide that you only want to use the color green. Whatever it is, it is YOU" (p. viii). She also says: "What you make doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you make something" (p. viii, 2). Mowinski begins the book with chapter that builds the skills but offers a lot of creative inspiration throughout the whole book. The book is very inspirational and aesthetic. I like also the last chapter where the author shows how to create collage books out of simple materials. The book also includes a reading list, a list with information about resources, materials and inspirations. She lists the featured artists as well as the contributors. It is also very helpful that the book contains an index. I recommend this book for all who are interested in collages, might they be beginners or advanced artists.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#CollageYourLife #Netgalley

Bust out the mod podge I’m making a collage! This book has so many colorful ideas and useful tips, I can’t wait to get started!!!

Colorful, creative, inspiring, and instructive. This is the perfect intro to collage for beginners but also has useful tips for more experienced artists. Brimming with beautiful designs, this is far more than a basic instructional how-to book. I plan to turn to this again and again for reference and just to leaf through. I simply must have a paper copy for my collection!

Thank you #NetGalley #StoreyPublishing and #MelanieMowinski for the digital ARC of #CollageYourLife in exchange for my honest review!

I loved this book!! Collage can go so many different ways and end up in a million different directions, technique-wise, that your head can explode. This book was a perfect compendium of showing basic techniques and using other artists' work to help inspire you to into creating your own styles.

This was one of those art books that I couldn't flip through a few pages without wanting to start making art...all of the photographs are inspiring and the descriptions are easy to follow. The prompts the author provides also allows you many different creative ways to incorporate yourself into your collage art. I've already recommended this book to my collage artist friends.

I was provided an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very nicely laid-out book about collage. While it does say it's good for beginner to advanced collage makers, I feel like it's definitely an intermediate level as there are some terms and items that people who haven't crafted before may not be familiar with. It covered many different areas of art and art theory. The first section discussed colour theory, collage supplies, and tools often used with collage. The second section discussed collaging techniques, as well as adhesives and mixed media that could be used to create collage such as stamps and stencils. The third section was a collection of 55 diverse prompts showcasing many different artists and their styles.
Overall a really nice book.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read this Arc.

This book visually has incredible images. It does a pretty good job detailing a breakdown of tools, materials, and types of paper one would need. I felt this book was a little too wordy for me. I would have preferred more images rather than such detailed information. I'm a more visual person anyway. I would use this probably more as a reference and not so much as reading material. That's just my opinion though.