No Excuses Art Journaling: Making Time for Creativity Paperback – December 31, 2013

Before I met Gina Rossi Armfield, her book, No Excuses Art Journaling, had me hooked. After I met her at CHA (Craft and Hobby Association Convention in Anaheim), I felt I’d met someone I’d known for a long time and crossed paths with again. She’s warm and happy to share her ideas. Over dinner, I got hooked on her style of art journaling and am having a lot of fun doing a “No-Excuses” journal of my own.Her book is a flat-out, ingenious way to journal. There are easy step-by-step instructions. Take a book-size calendar, weekly preferable. Convert the datebook into a journal by adding the journaling program (a free download) by taping it into the datebook. Add envelopes in each month, to store snippets you will want to use as you go along.Gina also gives you monthly theme pages with quotes, ideas and prompts to put in the calendar for each month. You then add watercolor paper so you can draw, collage or paint, as you decide.That’s just the beginning. Each month has a theme, there are tasks for each week. Feeling overwhelmed? No need. She just wants to make sure you aren’t bored. You can do as much or as little as you want.I decided to use a watercolor sketch book and added sticky-note weekly calendar pages. This page shows some envelopes I made to hold painted leaves and feathers.I decided to use a watercolor sketch book and added sticky-note weekly calendar pages.To help you stay interested, she teaches you some techniques: how to carve your own rubber stamp, how to create collages, how to do contour drawings (so you can create sketches, which you also learn.There are hints to work with photo strips, the color of the day, getting in touch with your emotions and drawing the weather. Just when you think you are going to pop if you don’t grab a journal and get started, she gives examples of her own and from guest artists like Jenny Doh, Jennifer Joanou, Traci Lyn Huskamp, LK Ludwig, Susan Elliott–one for each month of the year.Each artist chose a color palette to work with and answered a set of interview questions. You get an intimate look at each included artist and a view of their interpretation of the assignments.The book is cheerful and peripatetic. You will want to use it as a reference, as a guide, as an inspiration.This book will show you a fresh new way to create a fat, interesting journal while exploring your own seasons and landscapes.

I have a shelf full of art-journaling books - many of them lovely to look at, filled with inspiring work, but hardly any designed to function as a private and fully-detailed class on how to actually create a body of work throughout the course of a year your own. This book is the exception. Hands down, the best book I own on really guiding me through various ways to create unique and personally meaningful pages, how to make and maintain a routine for creativity, and with enough options and flexibility to guide you to create spreads that reflect who you are and what you see/do.Ms. Armfield has a wonderfully logical and makes-sense approach to starting this journey - especially for those who are new to mixed-media art journaling and are trying to find their own personal style. People like me. I have made attempts in the past, but either my pages looked like something not-quite-my-own, or I'd find myself frustrated with my pages, not knowing where to go or what to do. This book has helped me push past both of these obstacles... and finally grasp being able to develop a routine I look forward to.Most of all, I love that Ms. Armfield's approach to collage and mixed media is actually personally meaningful. I've never been comfortable with artists who effectively say, "just glue some stuff down, and paint and stamp and write and doodle over it". In my mind, if the pieces and techniques you chose to put down don't have or express meaning, what's the point? Ms. Armfield has a different approach - helping you to evaluate your own likes/dislikes, your feelings and your preferences, and guides you to chose things deliberately, whether it involves color, image, collage ephemera or text. I finally feel like my pages are coming to life from MY vision and they make sense have true meaning ... not just a collection of visually interesting random-ness.If you want to get started with art-journaling - in whatever media, from collage to sketching to any combination of - this is a must-have book. If you already are into your artistic journey, this book will definitely shed some new and meaningful insight on how to approach a year-long journaling project. Excellent, excellent material and book. Thank you Ms. Armfield!

I do like this book. Unfortunately all of the QR codes that help you get your journal set up and have additional information for the inserts are inactive. This ended up being pretty frustrating.

I fell in love with Gina's easy-to-keep-up-with structure and accessible approach to creative journalling when I bought the Kindle version of this book last year. But honestly, in the Kindle version, page breaks often fall at awkward places, with pictures on one page and accompanying captions on the next. Plus it isn't always convenient to have my iPad (with Kindle reader app) to refer to the monthly prompts and techniques when I want to work in my journal. So finally, after considerable annoyance with trying to manage with what I'd already bought, I went ahead and ordered the printed version for myself. What a treat!!! If you are considering purchasing this book, go STRAIGHT to the printed version - don't mess with the Kindle one! Not only is the physical book much easier to refer to while journalling, the content is SO much better organized than the electronic version. Living outside the US, I buy many Kindle books, but sometimes it pays to shell out for international shipping - this is one of those times.

Compre una edición de segunda mano, y el libro envía intacto, el contenido explendido e inspirador, lo recomiendo.

Excelente livro! Indico!

I love this book. It's clear, fun and easily do able. I didn't use a diary to use the ideas presented in this book instead I just got out a sketchbook and started following the suggestions given. I like the idea of sectioning off smaller areas to fill with simple images on a daily basis. I found these very easy to achieve and only took about 10 minutes. This soon expanded and I moved away from small areas to larger spreads quite naturally. I also found I wanted to include other ideas in my daily practice. There is plenty in this book to keep you coming back for more. If, like me, you haven't been able to start a daily journal of any sort give this book a go as it certainly opened up a daily art habit for me.

After a few months of sitting in my wishlist, I finally bought Armfield's book, and it's been a great source of inspiration. There are small assignments that keep you on track. I especially like the links to her website and projects, and the "artist of the month" pages which offer more inspiration.

I love this book! I never managed to do art in my journal every day. Life simply got in the way. Also, my idea of art journaling was too complexe to do it daily. This book proved me wrong. I am impress!