Book Club: Scraptastic! by Ashley Calder

I loved reading all the comments on this post where people shared their favorite art and craft books.  And I was immediately struck by two things:

1. I was shocked by how many people didn't own any craft or art books.
2. I realized that I buy a ton of art and craft books, but I don't read them.

And well, I got to thinking.  Thinking is such a beautifully dangerous thing, isn't it?  I got to thinking and I decided that I wanted to rectify those two things. So...I'm starting a brand new feature here on the blog!  Yay!

Each month I'll share a little bit about an art or craft book that I own and then share a project I made inspired by the book.  Hopefully some of you can share thoughts or projects you've made based on that book too!  Easy peasy book club!

Welcome to our first official book club meeting!

Today we're going to be discussing Scraptastic! by Ashley Calder.

(I borrowed the image from Amazon and by the way, the book is a steal at $9.20 right now!)

This book was just a bit ahead of its time.  If it were to come out now it would be an instant best seller, I'm sure.  It was released in 2007 and it's full of painting, sewing, and mixed media techniques.

Scraptastic! is broken into four chapters:

1. Messy
2. Sparkly
3. Touchy Feely
4. Snazzy

To give you some flavor, here are just a few of the techniques from the "Messy" chapter: Watercolor on Yupo Paper, Glazing Medium, Frisket Film Mask, and Batik-Style Painting with Masking Fluid.  Pretty awesome list of techniques, right?  And definitely techniques that would suit paper artists of all kinds.  In fact, many of Ashley's pages remind me of art journal pages.  

Each of the fifty techniques in the book is given a two-page spread.  The left side of the spread has:

• a large photo of a scrapbook page using the technique
• a description of the medium or tool being used with tips on making it work for you
• a page supply list

The  right side of the spread has:

• a photo and text step-by-step (no technique has more than four steps) for the technique
• the techniques with fewer steps also have a photo of a bonus project (tag, card, etc.) with some tips.

Not only is it very easy to understand how each technique works, but I really appreciate Ashley's whimsical style.  I find her unconventional assymetrical designs appealing.  And it's inspiring to see how she takes simple techniques and breathes new life into them with a little bit of imagination and creativity.

Here's a spread in my art journal inspired by Scraptastic!

The quote is from this art journal page by Karen Grunberg.

I ruined a brand new paintbrush in the process (darn liquid frisket), but I have a brand new-to-me technique to add to my repetoire!  I can see using a lot of the techniques in Scraptastic! over and over again.  And I really don't think you have to be a scrapbooker to appreciate Ashley's cool style and great ideas.  This book definitely gets two thumbs up from me.

I will tell you that I think it would be quite difficult to exactly duplicate any of Ashley's pages.  The pages are mostly there for inspiration with each technique explained, but not the actual page.  That's not a problem for me, because I love technique books!  But I know a lot of people like to be able to duplicate the projects in the book.  That said, if you have an experienced eye, you might be able to.  Supply lists for each page are included.

Here's the linky list for Scraptastic:

Have you read Scraptastic!?  What do you think about it?

Thanks for stopping by!

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P.S. For easy reference all these "Book Club" posts will be archived under the "Book Club" logo in the far right column of the blog.