Art for Your Sanity : How Art Journaling Can Help You Manage Chaos and Unleash Joy. Some good encouragement for just giving it a go whatever your artist capability. which is good. However I would have liked to see more examples and practical advice for different techniques. Overall good for all the encouragement.

Art For Your Sanity by Susan Hensley is a wonderful resource for anyone looking to start an art journaling practice. Even if you feel you're not talented artistically, I believe you'll find encouragement in this quick and easy read.

This book offers simple and fun examples that take the pressure off the final product while focusing on the process itself and how you can work through emotions. Hensley shares journaling ideas and starting points that make the process feel accessible and not so overwhelming. She covers the emotional benefits of art journaling and explains how the creative process can address various emotional and mental health issues such as uncertainty, fear, anger, sadness, and anxiety. This book is an inspiring guide that makes art fun for anyone with the desire to give it a try, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in mixing creativity and play with their emotional healing practice.

Thank you to SH&H Publishing LLC and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am an urban sketcher, an artist and keen diarist and enjoy putting together scrapbooks. I was therefore drawn to this book as I was quite interested in combining some of these skills and how that would work in producing a journal, which I’ve not done before.

The book is quite well laid out and I think he’s aimed at beginners first and foremost. There is practical guidance and the emphasis on well-being which I guess is the motivation of many diarists and artists generally as a kind of spin off from their work. The author provides some inspiring stories and insights Into the helpfulness of journaling during the pandemic and includes a range of useful techniques, including mindful drawing, collage, as well as simply doodling et cetera. Journaling is certainly a useful way of exploring your feelings and emotions without any limits being placed on you, focusing on positivity and looking fresh at the world also way of recording and visualising daily life. Perhaps it is the human response to trying to make sense of our daily lives.

I found the book refreshing and open and I think many people would benefit from reading this book. My thanks to the publisher SH&H Publishing LLC for providing, an advance reader copy digitally and to the author. My opinions are my own.

An ok read but not what I was expecting- would have loved more tips and details on different techniques

While sharing how art journaling has helped her in many aspects of life, the author encourages her readers to pick up the practice. While the book is well- written, I felt disappointed that it was not more practical with more pages given to tips and techniques. Beginners would have benefitted with more ideas and galleries of examples of different styles of art journaling.

Thank you SH&H Publishing LLC and NetGalley for a copy of Art for Your Sanity.

"When you were a child, there was no better feeling than picking up a crayon and letting your imagination run free. The joy, simplicity, and freedom of just creating was easy and honest. As you became an adult, life became complicated and overwhelming. When navigating the tricky path of inevitable life changes—like job loss, relationships, infertility, grief, or uncertainty of the future—it can be a struggle to find that simple clarity again. How can you manage the chaos and find your authentic self again?"

What a wonderful book to assure me that my junk journal is actually beneficial for me! I love how Susan Hensley provides a guide, ideas, and examples in this book. Great for those who need that little nudge to start their art journal!

4.5 stars. Art journaling has always fascinated me. I’ve always wanted to do it, but needed help getting started. I read a couple other books before, but they were too complicated. This book explained things well. It also had a few prompts and plenty of examples. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and art journal, but this book will definitely be helpful when I do. I got an advanced readers copy from NetGalley but my review is unbiased.

This author provides a wonderful guide to more than writing in one's journal, she provides ideas and possibilities. The reader is encouraged to stretch their creative muscle and enjoy the experimental exercises. As an artist who has lost my way, this was a welcome roadmap and invitation to return to my happy self. It is not a 'how to' manual, it is more like encouragement from a loved one or favorite teacher. I savored this book and dove into the process. I am happy to share my experience here with others.

As an artist and an art teacher, I found this so helpful to separate work from passion. It has also helped a few students along the way, as we all know middle school can be a rough time.

This made me cry but in a good way. It reached out to me in a personal way. You know when you want to do art yet your overwhelmed and are in doubt whether you should pursue that interest considering the reality of being an adult. Highly recommend!

This was very helpful for me. I'm planning to start journaling for my books. These 60 so pages made me realise how easy it can be.

Loved this one! Great and fun read. Highly recommend.
Many thanks to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for my ARC.

This is a sweet, short, self-published book about art journaling. The author gives basic information with a lot of pictures of pages from her own books and some personal anecdotes. She seems enthusiastic and supportive, but I didn’t really get much from the book. I have done art journaling for many years and think the book would have benefited from photos of other people’s books and styles, ideas outside of crayon, basic painting and collage (there are so many – add pockets, stickers, cut-outs, found poems, batik resist effects with watercolor over white crayon or glue, cut windows, do free writing, glue in photos, add bullet journal pages and mood trackers…), and a little more substance.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.

A very quick read on how to use art journaling to help sort out the messiness of life and being human. Some really good tips here. I will be referencing it often as I start the process of art journaling.

Really enjoyed this book and will definitely be buying a physical copy. It simplifies something into words that I have been looking for, for a while now. Art journaling has always looked fun, but I never knew how much it could help my wellbeing and it always seemed a little overwhelming in knowing where to begin. This book relieves the stress and increases the ideas of mindfulness.

I enjoy art journaling and was looking forward to this one. However, with little guidance or structure, this reads like a long essay about the author’s art journal.

The authors journey with art journaling is lovely to read about and I enjoyed seeing pictures of her journal. I especially like how there are prompts included as I often feel stuck/uninspired when I start a new hobby.

Need to get inspired to start your art journal again? Want to understand what art journaling is before you dive in?
Then check out this quick little book.

In this book, Hensley has created a beginners guide to inspire anyone to art journal. I have art journaled before, so I picked this book up to see how I could do it differently. The book wasn't quite what I expected as I planned to think about different art styles throughout and how to use those in an art journal. Instead, the book is more freeing than that. Hensely doesn't restrict you to different art forms. Instead, she discusses more about the way it doesn't matter what type of art journaling you are doing. Her only goal is to just get you try it. Through the inclusion of pieces from her own art journal, Hensley discusses how she chooses colors based on mood and how she will reflect back on the pieces she creates on times when she needs them. Basically, Hensely wants you to know that your art journal is just for you.

One critique I have would be that as the book went along, it did start to feel repetitive. After about the fourth chapter where Hensley discussed another time she used her art journal for reflective purposes, I definitely understood the gist. There could have been space for Hensley to infuse her message of self care through art journaling alongside maybe some coloring pages, more art journal prompt ideas, blank spaces for the reader to try, or more information about tools to use or even different artistic styles.

Overall, I would give this book a 3/5 stars because in the end the goal was accomplished and I'm about to head out and purchase magazines to start my art journal again.

I enjoyed this book and learned something too. Hensley encourages us to let our four year old artist out to play. She suggests using children's art supplies to enhance this feeling. But collage, watercolor, crayons, paint - whatever you want to use is fine. The important thing is learning to express yourself.
I loved the examples she shared with us. And I loved that you don't have to be creating "art" to use an art journal. The book is short but packs a punch.
I received this book from NetGalley and SH&H Publishing in exchange for an honest review. I received no compensation for my review.

This was a quick, engaging read. I enjoyed the message and intention, but felt that it fell a little short. The title and description gave me a different perspective on to what this book would offer. Although I think it's a great reflection on beginner artistry and how anyone can be creative, it wasn't much beyond that. I feel as though the author perhaps should have considered a different medium for writing, it felt more like a blog post. I liked her examples that accompanied the writing however and the overall reading experience was enjoyable