Journal Craft Inspirations

The Decorated Page by Gwen Diehn

Some reviews from Amazon -

Reviewed by C. Ebeling (PA USA) May 24, 2007
I came to THE DECORATED PAGE as a text-centric journal-keeper who rarely added anything else, and that would be nothing much more than gluing in a comic strip, artifact or article relative to the content of an entry. I was leery of a book with this title: what mattered was the text, so why decorate extraneously for decoration sake? Then I read what Gwen Diehn had to say (and show) and I immediately went out and bought a small inexpensive watercolor set, water color pencils and a pack of cheap brushes. Diehn offers general how-to information about various techniques and tools and her book is richly illustrated with photographs of a variety of journals. This is a fine companion volume to the author’s other book, THE DECORATED JOURNAL. Both are good for beginner or more advanced journal keepers and artists.

What Diehn has to say is, other media can augment the meaning of the text with mood, highlighting and/or explicit illustration. She recounts her own revelation while keeping a scientific nature observation journal for a college course, and it was that story that woke me up. I’m not breaking my allegiance to text, and I am not decorating for the sake of decorating, but when I record the time of sunrise, for instance, I first lay some streaks of color that record the visual impact of it and write atop the streaks, and when I include a bulleted list or a tide chart, I set it off on a color block. It’s a start and I thank Diehn for the encouragement.

Reviewed by Sm Heacock - September 18, 2005
I ordered this book in preparation for a trip to Alaska. I have always tried to keep travel journals, but since this waa a special trip, I wanted to do a special journal. I used sponging, stencilling, and watercolor techniques on my pages before I left (as suggested by the author) so I always had a colorful page for my journaling. The photos and explanations were very clear and it was fun to do a few pages each night in preparing for the trip. Some pages were left blank and I even tried my hand at sketching again while on the trip. I found that the Uniball waterproof pens worked very well for writing and sketching. I saved many pieces of souvenir folders, leaves, cocktail picks, etc. to add to my finished journal. The trip was so fabulous and exhausting I will have to complete my journal now that I am home. It will be a great accompanying volume to my photo album.

Reviewed by “diana-holden” 13 May 2003
Yes,this is the book I’ve been waiting for! It’s full of good ideas and gives constructive help with techniques,design and presentation without being proscriptive. It is clearly written by an artist and generously presents the work of other artists so that the reader has a privileged view of pages created by other journal-keepers. The photograhic illustrations are very helpful in suggesting appropriate media and showing how the artist has used this in decorating the page.
This is the book for anyone wanting to make altered books and decorated pages and retain their own degree of individuality. They are not pages to copy (Thank goodness!), but they certainly point in the direction of creative expression. This book will be very useful for anyone who keeps a sketchbook and wants to lift it to a more exciting level.