This was an enjoyable read! One of my favorite hobbies is scrapbooking, so I was curious to see what tips I might pick up from this book to use in future projects. For example, I want to try the trick to encapsulate specific items using the clear plastic windows found in envelopes!

Collage Your Life by Melanie Mowinski is an excellent guide for anyone who wants to create serious or casual art. It provides practical step-by-step instructions on everything from curating supplies to creating personal works of art. These instructions are easy to follow and supported by lovely photographs. The text is interspersed with visual inspiration and artist profiles. Many of the messages conveyed by the working artists are applicable to everyday life for everyone, not just artists. Highly recommended.

Collage Your Life by Melanie Mowinski is an excellent book to help guide the beginner and inspire the experienced.

The book begins with a breakdown of the tools of the trade and explains what each offers and how they work together. You will find step-by-step instructions for various tricks (like transferring images using packing tape and water).

The images are bright and colorful.

This guide is as much "Why collage?" as it is "How to Collage?" The author invites readers to make art a daily practice (and collage specifically) as she guides us through challenges that exercise and investigate feelings as well as explore techniques, styles, and media (supplies).

A wide range of artists are profiled, with styles and motivations as different as they are. Where one paints her own colorful and harmonic paper to create cut-out paintings, another combines bright and dynamic magazine cut-outs for a playful visual.

Using printed words is also encouraged, to express the artist's beliefs, a message, or a poem of some sort.

The opening subject surprised and impressed me the most; learn to be okay with creating bad art. Nobody makes masterpieces every time. Sometimes moving on, starting again, or using one piece as parts for another work is necessary. Don't stake your ego on perfection!

This was an interesting and fun journey through an art I knew little about, and I feel confident that I can combine my experience with this new information, and start collage myself!

4/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the free preview of this ebook; the review is voluntary.

#CollageYourLife #NetGalley

Collage Your Life by Melanie Mowinski

Techniques, Prompts, and Inspiration
Creative self-expression and visual story telling


Beautiful, succinct, complete, and filled with wonderful creative ideas – This is a book I would love to own!

What I liked:
* The introduction spoke to me, made me think about what *I* like and would love to create with what I have collected or might collect in the future
* The illustrations of completed projects as well as photos of steps in creating finished projects
* The lists and descriptions of tools and materials
* The artistic information related to the building blocks of design – complete and informative – elements, color, principles, composition, etc
* Techniques: some I had seen before and some new and intriguing
* How to add text
* How to make your own stencils and stamps
* A variety of ways to create your own books
* The prompts…a teacher’s or artist’s treasure trove of ideas

What I didn’t like:
* I can’t think of one thing I didn’t like

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

"If it inspires you somehow, use it."

The author/artist demonstrates how using collected materials, and simple around-the-house materials, you can create beautiful and fascinating works of art using collage. Some of her featured projects also use rubber stamps, and stencils. There are plenty of prompts that will help jump-start your creativity, including profiles of other artists, along with examples of their work.

This is an invaluable resource for inspiring both beginner and experienced collage artists.

The book begins with an overview of the tools and materials used in collage as well as the basics of design and composition. Mowinski explains techniques including adhesives, gesso, stamps and stencils. She then goes on to a large section of prompts and profiles. Some of them may not work for you, or you might tweak a prompt, or skip the introduction to it and get straight to the parameters. In any case there plenty of ways to explore and the profiles showcase the hows and whys of the work of various people. There are also reading and resource lists, the latter is especially useful for finding images to use.

The sky is the limit. Children and adults of all ages can enjoy making collages.

Collage Your Life by Melanie Mowinski details how basic household supplies like scissors, adhesives, brushes, gesso, tapes, doilies, stencils, stamps, magazines, paint, pens, and lace are used to make special collage keepsakes. The author explains simple techniques and surfaces one can collage on. Readers are encouraged to engage in projects that are special to them by expressing their tastes.

There is an extensive section on using color to make mixed media art. This outstanding book features lessons from twenty-three well-known artists. The pictures are fabulous. The featured artists and their projects provide a wealth of information and ideas.

I am in love with Collage Your Life and can't wait to purchase my copy when it's published on June 21, 2022.

Thank you NetGalley and Storey Publishing for allowing me to review this gorgeous e-book.

Thank you, Netgalley and the author/publisher, for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book. This in no way affects my review, all opinions are my own.

This book does not provide much new information in terms of techniques and materials for those who are more experienced with mixed media/collage projects. However, I looooove the prompts the author includes for inspiration. Super interesting approaches to starting a project. I love that the prompts also include examples of pages created based on the prompt. The artists who created those pages are very talented.

The book is definitely a great resource for beginners. The author includes tools, mediums, the "canvas" for the collage, tips and tricks, etc.

With that being said, this book is great both for beginners and experienced crafters.

Don't let the name fool you! While this book IS loaded with tips and tricks for collaging, it is also wonderful for scrapbooking, bullet journaling and any multimedia art project you are interested in doing.

Melanie Mowinski's Collage Your Life is a perfect way to get started with collage and visual storytelling. This comprehensive guide would be suitable for beginners to more experienced artists. She includes information on what tools you need to get started as well as suggestions for additional ones as your progress in the craft of collage. Stamping, lettering and stencils methods are included as well as prompts to get you started on your next project. As a journaler, I can see the value of a book like this and believe other crafts, artists and creative people would enjoy it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

I’m not sure what to feel about this book. It has plenty of instructions and explanations, so it’s great for beginners, but at the same time, I think, because of the title, I was expecting something more scrapbook style and instead the examples were very artistic, which is not an aesthetic I enjoy much. As someone who studied design in college, if you have one of those illustration techniques or different mediums in art classes, this would be great for that.

This book can be used for absolute beginners, more advanced or professional collagers, artists or dabblers alike. It has a sound background on how to choose the right materials and equipment, plenty of examples when explaining colour theory and composition and takes you right from choosing initial materials, layering processes and providing you with muses as well. One of the headings states that 'one size does not fit all' but the beauty of this book is that all will find parts of this book very useful even if some parts aren't for you. A very interesting book that will be used for reference again and again. Thank you to the author and Netgalley for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. There was a lot of information in here about color theory, composition, different supplies that can be helpful, and encouragement not only to discover new ideas, but to help you foster what you've already been working on.
I enjoy making mixed media art, and in a way, it's a collage style. I was pleased to find that mixed media was mentioned and highlighted for a portion of the book about a third of the way through. The prompts and ideas are helpful as well. It's also nice to be introduced to some key concepts and ideas and then encouraged to start working with them immediately instead of feeling that you need to go through the entire book to start making your next project.
The work that is highlighted throughout the book is such a range of collage pieces as well. There are simplified pieces, and those that are much more complex. It's nice to be inspired by artwork when you're learning/developing a new skill. I enjoyed the content of this book very much.

This book guides the reader through the design, construction, artistic elements and tools required to create striking collage spreads.

The writing style is one of encouragement- for the reader to try a new medium, revisit a past hobby or develop their current craft in a new style. The emphasis is on practise; to develop one's practice, one must practise (the phrase used in the book is less visually pleasing using the UK English spelling but remains applicable).

It's nice for such a book to be written with a contemporary audience in mind. For example, the ephemera suggested for use in these spreads is more of the sort that people collect nowadays, as opposed to fixating on outdated items; vintage transport tickets are lovely but, truthfully, when was the last time anyone used one? Also, most of the suggestions are of a low price point (like the low-tech printing) making them attainable to a wide audience.

Between the information and guidance are example collages from various creators. These help to portray the range of possible styles that can be used, as well as emphasising particular points made in the text. Some of the spreads are truly stunning, such as p33 & p102. Also interesting are the artist profiles covering a breadth of different mediums and styles.

As a mixed media collage artist I am very picky about collage books. I can't wait to buy this book in person as I think it's one of the best I have seen on the subject and I have a LOT of collage books. I think it's a great primer for beginners but also has a lot of inspiration for experience artists. The tone of the book was helpful and just overall an excellent book on the subject. SO GOOD!!

I liked this book. It seems very accessible. It would appeal to people who are intimidated by creative processes as well as practicing artists. It has a low barrier to access because it suggests simple techniques and materials, but it also shows elevated examples of collage. I think it would give confident creators ideas about how to do more with this art form. I think it would inspire confidence in beginner artists who would find the materials and process approachable but see that the products can be really special. The pictures in this book are gorgeous. I love the cover.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book was so unexpected. I figured there wasn’t much to collating but I was wrong. There are so many techniques and ways to approach this art/hobby/craft. Consider me inspired, I now want to go glue and cut up all my magazines. What a fun read that goes fairly in depth on collaging as an art form

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! It is going to make a beautiful coffee table book that I refer to all the time!! It is beautifully done and the how to instructions and prompts are wonderful. Melanie Mowinkski put a lot of love into creating this book and it shows on every page!!! WOW! This one is a show stopper!!!

Collage is an underrated art/craft. It's a good form of expression that you can take on without spending a lot of money - you just need some paper, glue, and some magazines or something. However, this is a more advanced collage book. It is more "mixed media" which I really love because it expands what we know about simple collage.