Book Review: The Decorated Page, by Gwen Diehn

Although this book bears the subtitle of "Journals, Scrapbooks, and Albums Made Simply Beautiful," it does not cover the type of artistic scrapbooking/journaling/album making that I have been blathering about so far. Before I discovered modern scrapbooking, however, I decorated and embellished my journals and letters copiously...and this book has lots of ideas that are rooted in the artistic creation of personal journals and sketchbooks, including some inspiration from altered book artists. There is a information of interest to the scrapbooker here, including a discussion of basic design structures and interesting painting and collage techniques. There is inspiration here for any paper artist.

I was even more intrigued by the questions the book called up in me -- what do I choose to document in my scrapbooks? Why? How do I express myself on the paper, and do my artistic techniques support the message I am trying to send? Great food for thought. Ms. Diehn also is the author of a soon-to-be-released companion volume entitled The Decorated Journal, which I look forward to reading as soon as it hits the stores!