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

Susan Hensley’s Art For Your Sanity is not a long book, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s much more of an invitation, someone walking with you for a short while to potentially open a heavy gate. The ideas are easy to grasp and simple to modify, to play with and explore in their own way. The low barrier to entry in keeping such a freely messy journal of lived experiences makes the idea approachable and encourages an open sort of curiosity about the self and the world around us - something which is often lost in the chaos of day-to-day living. It’s a solid choice for a short, easy-to-read (and often much-needed) perspective shift.

Happy release day to this book!

Art for Your Sanity is a self-help book about art journaling. Throughout the book, the author details what art journaling did for her mental health and why she encourages more people to start doing it, too.
Personally, I'm not a big self-help book fan, and while I am an aspiring artist and designer, I'm not planning on starting an art journal. However, I still found this to be an interesting, inspiring, and quick read despite being in the self-help genre. I especially found the parts about what being creative does for you to be particularly fascinating. I also liked that the author didn't force the subject into a 200 page book but kept it short, enjoyable, and to the point. It was so short that I easily read it in one sitting.
I would say this book is perfect for people who want to discover a new relaxing hobby and become more creative. My personal rating is three and a half stars (rounded up to four).

***thank you NetGalley for this free arc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5*

I really enjoyed this book on art journaling. I particularly liked how this was part how-to, part memoir - the author's anecdotes made it more personal and interesting. Though art journaling is pretty straightforward, it can still seem intimidating and this book made it very approachable. A great read for creatives and "non-creatives" alike.

I have a feeling that the writing of this book was incredibly cathartic for the author but I'm not sure it is a book that can offer much support to people looking to get in to art journalling. There were a lot of motivational quotes but it would have been inspiring and creative to have seen these quotes reflected within the author's art journal and for more illustrations to have been used throughout the book of the actual journal process itself rather than finished pages. For such a creative topic, it feels incredibly lacking in creative layout and presentation.