What is a Smash Book?

Art deco inspired watercolor in Smash Book

 A Smash Book is the brand name

for a spiral bound scrapbook with

patterned card stock pages by 

K & C Company.  It's an outgrowth of

the scrapbooking phenomenon, but targeted

to people who don't have time to do a 

complicated lay-out.  The pages already

have background patterns, and you can 

glue in photos, ticket stubs, mail, or any

ephemera from your day.

I choose to use mine as an art journal,

to make collages or sketches, or whatever

I feel like making that day.

I have seen a number of artists creating

their own hand-made 'smash books' with

assorted papers.  I have several that I've made,

and am enjoying them very much. Sometimes

I 'respond' to the background of the page,

and sometimes I cover it up completely!

Basically, we artists make book art from

whatever we want to...

Above, a page in a journal that I hand-made

when I signed up for Mary Ann Moss'

Full Tilt Boogie class. (I highly recommend it)

Above, a page from the Scrappy Journal

that Elizabeth made for me. Her construction

is machine sewn onto the fabric cover. She

used a wonderful array of paper and

packaging scraps with just enough blank

space to add art work. It is one of my 

favorite art journals!

When I refer to my Smash Book, I am 

actually referring to the brand name book I

ordered on Amazon, (I am seeing them

 in some of our discount stores now too) 

which I use as a visual art journal. 

 I have noticed however, that

the term is becoming rather like "Coke."  

Often people will refer to Coke when they are

talking about any cola beverage, not just that

brand name.  And often the term 'Art Journal' refers

to any number of type of books: a travel journal, 

a smash book, a sketchbook, a garden

 or nature journal...you get the idea.

The definition of some things are rather 

fluid, especially for artists!

Spread in the Scrappy Journal

 What do you call your journal?