Reviews

"My Creative Companion" by Becky Higgins (Nov, 2001)

I must admit that it has taken me a while to warm up to the Becky Higgins style. While I've always liked the simplicity of her work (both in style and use of cardstock as opposed to patterned paper), she always used a bit too much "non" scrapbooking stuff to really appeal to me. But now I am really warming to her style.

Her new ideas book, called "My Creative Companion" is aptly named. Instead of a book full of pre-designed layout for you to copy, the book is based around the concept of giving ideas for various page elements and then leaving the final design (colours, materials, placement) up to you.

The book is approximately A5 in size, spiral bound and divided into 6 tabbed sections:

• Accents
• Borders
• Journalling and Titles
• Layout Design
• Photo Mats
• Odds and Ends

Each section contains pages of thumbnail sketches of ideas drawn in the distinctive illustrative/coloured pencil style of Becky Higgins. Each sections gives small illustrations of base elements that can be combined with ideas from the other sections to create a completed layouts. Ideas are kept simple, so that with a change of colour of cardstock or change of design of punch, you can develop an accent, border or photo mat that will suit your style and requirements.

All the ideas are very simple, which fits in the Higgins style and in my mind, leaves enough room for the individual to personalise as needed.

At the end of each section, a page of completed layouts are given to demonstate how elements from that section were used in a real life situation.

This book is not cheap, retailing for around $70 but it does have the advantage of being rather timeless. There isn't an emphasis on one particular trendy thing (although brads and eyelets are used), so the ideas really shouldn't date.

My one criticism would be the physical design of the book. Because its spiral bound, what you get is what you are stuck with. I think that Creative Keepsakes could've done themselves a big favour by putting this book into a 3 ring binder, which would've allowed two things. Firstly, it would have allowed them to put out regular updates that could be bought and added to the folder. Secondly, it would allow people to add their own ideas (and cut outs from other sources). This would've been aided by perhaps putting in some pre-printed blank pages for people to draw in?

I would recommend this book to people who have hit that creative wall, where perhaps all your layouts are starting to look the same and you just can't think of anything new. This book is great at getting the creative juices flowing and getting you back to work putting photos in layouts.

Rating: 7/10

Details: "My Creative Companion" by Becky Higgins, published by Primedia Group (2001), ISBN: 1 929180 36 5

Price: $69.95