Creative Journaling A Guide to Over 100 Techniques and Ideas for Amazing Dot Grid, Junk, Mixed Media, and Travel Pages

Creative Journaling by Renee Day is a tutorial guide with illustrations for bullet journaling. Due out 14th Jan 2020 from Quarto on their Rock Point imprint, it's 208 pages and will be available in paperback format.

The instruction and tutorials here are easy to follow and the book is accessible and appealing. The introductory chapters (~8% of the content) cover general ideas, materials, and techniques. The following chapters give overviews over specific types of journals (dot grid, junk journaling aka altered book multi-media, mixed media, travel journaling, and more). The book also includes a fairly comprehensive resources list for further reading and learning.

The author's writing style is encouraging and positive. One thing she said really stuck with me:

 As a kid, I’d collect journals but would never use them in fear of ruining them. After my collection started to grow, I would use my least favorite journal from the bunch first while keeping my favorites in mint condition.

 This is 100% me. This book has so many nice short 1-2 page suggestions and tutorials to vary the look and use of the pages with inks, washi tape, different layouts and more. I found a lot of inspiration here to use in my own journals with which I'm becoming braver and more confident. Mostly, I'm having a blast actually learning and *using* my journals.

Five stars. This would be a superlative choice for a journaling friend, especially bundled with some gorgeous washi tape and pens/markers.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.