I really enjoyed this book. I'm a crafter but I have difficulty doing any collaging because I don't know what I'm doing and I felt daunted by the process of not creating something perfect. This book gave me the threshold knowledge to figure out the basic elements and some inspiration to get started. I feel like much of the wisdom in this book is great for anyone who wants to add more creativity into their life. I strongly believe that people who don't consider themselves "crafty" could benefit from implementing a little bit of creativity into their everyday lives. Thanks for the advance review copy.

I cannot wait to get a physical copy of this book to add to my art room. Collage Your Life seamlessly combines collage pieces from real artists, collage prompts, and tutorials for a variety of bookbinding techniques.

The books walks readers through the basics of collage: supplies that might be useful, techniques that you can use in your work, and prompts for inspiration. The book balances visual inspiration (absolutely beautiful collage pieces) with prompts and meaningful insights.

Every summer I participate in a few small scale art challenges to engage my brain. This summer I know I will be incorporating some of the techniques included in this book.

I received an ARC of Collage Your Life from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and Storey Publishing for letting me check out this cool craft book!

This book is absolutely perfect for the crafter with lots of supplies and no idea where to start! Each little section had a fun theme about breaking out of your comfort zone and the time being now. I really loved these little themes and it made for a great starting point for each craft idea.

Even though these are really quite simplistic ideas, it leaves a lot of room for the crafter to make big bold choices using the craft supplies they already have on hand. This book doesn't tell you to go out and buy a bunch of supplies, but to use scraps around the house, which is truly the biggest charm about collaging if you ask me! I personally found some of the collages to be a little busy, but mine didn't need to be a crystal copy of those designs to be beautiful.

Following short tutorials were absolutely beautiful high quality images of art. I almost think this would make for a fantastic table book. Each piece of art also identifies who made it and briefly how it was done, which was very appreciated as there was no "guess work".

I'll admit I probably won't jump up to go work on collage, but I truly will be using these techniques as well as my plethora of ticket stubs, stickers, and other supplies to make beautiful art in my bullet journal! Overall, this book is very inspirational to all levels of crafters and would make a great gift for a multimedia artist!

If you’re into collating, you would find this book interesting and helpful. I like easy art and collage seems easy enough to me, but this book takes collages to a whole new level. I really liked the prompt ideas. My least favorite aspect was that it seemed to make collages appear simple but then gave a million ideas for how to make them complex.

I wish the book had more tutorials and less visuals of other pieces of work. I found many of the collages too cluttered for my taste. I want more step by step with more guides on finding materials for collage and how to finish

As a beginner collage artist, I was drawn to Melanie Mowinski’s Collage Your Life on NetGalley to see if I could find inspiration, new techniques, or general principles for collage creation. I obtained a copy and wish to give my unbiased opinion. I have to say I found a great deal of usable information in this title.

The book jumps right into the collage process without any long introduction or explanation of the author’s background and experience, which I honestly appreciated. The information on tools, adhesives, materials and ephemera, etc. was well documented and illustrated. It provides a clear picture of how to get started in collage without providing limitations to the artist’s personal preferences and aesthetic.

The author spends time going over general design concepts and color theory. This is at a pretty basic level, but there is enough here to get the process started and to inspire the beginner. I don’t expect a book of this type to deeply cover these concepts as they can be more fully explored through other books, online, classes, etc. This is true of many of the techniques described, as well. There is enough explanation, and adequate illustration to get the beginner going on a variety of techniques.

The best part of Collage Your Life is the incredible volume of inspiration. Many artist’s work is presented with a brief overview of their use of materials and techniques, as well as their personal preference in collage. A beginner can see how an artist chose to use the medium to tell their story or their viewpoint. In addition, the author has created a series of prompts to help the beginner get started their exploration of materials, techniques, and story telling. The prompts can push the beginner to experiment and push past the fear of making “bad” art, as the author states.

I found reading Collage Your Life to be very inspirational and motivated me to dig through my garbage for found materials. This is the type of book a new artist to a medium needs - information and inspiration to get them started without formulaic instruction that limits their creativity.

Absolutely beautiful book for anyone interested in art and crafts. It is full of inspirational projects and guidance for beginners and experienced artists alike. Beautifully illustrated and it has definitely got my creative juices flowing and I would highly recommend it as a cool gift for creatives.

In recent years I have started journaling more. I am also a self-confessed hoarder and am always keeping tickets, leaflets, and photos I was looking for a way to incorporate these into my journal.

Collage Your Life is a great introduction to collaging and making art! The book has three sections. The first focuses on the building blocks of collages. Helping you build a toolkit for your artwork. Explaining the materials and also giving in-depth information about the different types of tools. E.g. explaining all the different types of glue and when to use them. The second section is about developing your technique and style, explaining all the different styles and showing examples of each style. However, it is the third section that is the most fun, the one with the prompts!

This book is beautiful to look through and has a great mixture of helpful guidance, inspiration from collage artists and lots of ideas to inspire collage projects. A book to return to again and again for inspiration.

Not quite what I was expecting, this book is more serious about collage as an art form, rather than the scrapbooking ideas I thought it would have. I'm not a serious artist, so that side of things didn't really work for me. Some of the collages were rather strange to my eye, but it was interesting to see how about 20 artists used collage to express themselves. Not something I'd look at again though.

What I did like - the introduction to equipment and the summary of some ideas to consider using when collaging - repetition, perspective, lines etc. That I can see myself using when putting pictures together.

Didn't quite meet my expectations but a good book if looking for a more serious guide to this art form.

Melanie Mowinski shares basic collage techniques with beautiful color photographs. She includes the selection of tools, materials, and adhesives. The book features 55 prompts to jumpstart your practice. The prompts feature basic projects that inspire you to exercise your creativity and uniqueness.

There are profiles of collage artists that include their backgrounds and their artistic processes.

The last part of the book features instructions for creating handmade collage books and journals.

Collage is my favorite kind of art so I tend to gravitate toward books like this. This is a gold mine of inspiration for collage artists at all skill levels.

The author believes a successful art practice takes "commitment, regular preparation and rehearsal, and focused attention on continual skill refinement." You should strive to create a piece of art every day. Practice takes practice.

If you commit to making one collage a day using the techniques and prompts in this book, I guarantee you will see great improvement in your process and the end results of your efforts.

Collage your Life is a guide to creating collages of paper ephemera and mixed media.

The book begins with an introduction of tools followed by a comprehensive look at colour and design theories. The second section is all about HOW to create your designs. From planning to printmaking, painting and transfers, stitching and glueing and all other ways of altering paper. The third section is all about inspiration: art prompts, artist profiles and samples of works. And the final section gives a brief look at bookbinding, for you to store and collate your collages.

Ideal for scrapbookers or collage artists, this book is all about developing the practice of collaging.

~Many thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~

there are some fun ideas in this book and I can see carving out some "me" time to have fun making some of these pages.

Absolutely loved the imagery, imagination and the detailed way to start collating.

Lots of techniques are also discussed like transfers, gesso, block printing. Various profiles are also discussed.

Really enjoyed reading the book and all the creative forms of collage. This could start out as a great hobby and turn into something much more immersive.

My thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC.

Very lush photography with clear directions and prompts that spark inspiration.
I think with some alteration, this could provide some ideas for our library adult crafts.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Collage Your Life is a beautiful craft book full of I spiraling, prompts and guidance.
I've always wanted to make a scrap book and keep scraps of things but get nervous in how to display and use them. This book has given me so many ideas and lots of inspiration. The author gives advice and information on everything from glue and cutting tools to projects and materials. This is so beautifully put together and I'm now itching to get started on my own scrap book very soon.
This is a great book for beginners like me but could also be inspirational to people with experience in scrapbooking too.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC :).
This was a good discovery for me. I never did collage and this book give good inspiration and techniques. However I think this is actually made for people that are family with collage as it appear a little bit complicated and technical.
The book is nice to look and turn the page, there is nice illustrations :).

Not at all what I expected!
I was a little silly assuming the bit of scrapbooking I have done was what "collage" was about - so I was not prepared for what this taught me.
While I probably won't use it (I was looking for ways to use mostly pictures), it was a book I would've never otherwise picked up and I learnt a lot of new techniques which I can apply in other art projects, but I also read for the first time about the theory behind art and all the elements to consider.
For a novice, it's very detailed and in-depth, but definitely interesting!

This is an excellent guide to collage in many ways and has a great deal of information about supplies, techniques and inspiration. The style of the projects reminded me quite a lot of ATCs (altered trading cards). Most of the examples are not really my style of artwork and I can't put my finger on why I didn't enjoy it more, but that's on me and not a fault of the book. I think perhaps it was just too packed and cluttered with projects and art and words, which shouldn't be a bad thing but somehow felt claustrophobic for me. It will be an especially good fit for those new to collage and crafting, but who want detailed instructions and more sophisticated tutorials. Loaded with photos.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

As I’ve got older I have really started to enjoy art, particularly collage and the use of it in scrapbooking so this book sounded fabulous. I really liked reading about various techniques, different papers & the mixing of various materials for effect. The photos and artwork are really beautiful (although not all to my taste) and I really think this book would look fabulous both in an artist’s studio or as a coffee table book. It was really informative and I can’t wait to treat myself to a physical copy.