A little while ago I bought myself a copy of Best of Becky Higgins’ Sketches, so I thought I would share my impression of the book…
Cover
It’s a small, hard cover book that’s only a little bigger than A5 (23cm long x 17cm high to be exact). It’s also spiral bound with semi-gloss pages. The back cover actually folds around the pages and over the front cover and the two covers are held together by magnets – an unusual feature that does a very good job of protecting the pages inside from getting damaged.
Inside The Book
Sketches are groups into tabbed sections according to the number of photos for easy reference. There are six sections beginning with 3-4 photos and stepping up through to 14+ photos (refer below).
The sketches themselves are approximately 1″ high by roughly 2″ wide (not very big disappointingly) and appear at the top of each page. Underneath each sketch is a sample layout and a basic supplies list. At the bottom of some pages there is also a little comment by Becky (usually one sentence) about the sketch in question.
Content
There’s a total of 196 sketches in the book (I counted them twice just to be sure…but I could be out by a couple.) Here’s a breakdown of the sections the sketches were categorised into:
- 3-4 photos (14 sketches)
- 5-6 photos (45 sketches)
- 7-8 photos (61 sketches)
- 9-10 photos (33 sketches)
- 11-13 photos (26 sketches)
- 14+ photo section (17 sketches)
Surprisingly, there are no sketches catering for less than 3 photos on a page – a tiny bit disappointing. You also need to keep in mind that some of these sketches are quite a few years old now and scrapbooking styles have since changed. A couple of examples of what I mean are:
1. All of the sketches are double page sketches, very antiquated these days. On the up side it is possible to split a double page sketch into two single pages sketch ideas, so in sense there’s double the number of sketches in the book if you use them this way. Sometimes the design on one side of the sketch is completely dependent on elements on the other side, so this approach won’t work with all of the sketches.
2. The majority of the sketch ideas do not have any layering or overlapping elements. Instead they tend to feature lots of elements “floating” together on the page. This may not suit some scrappers who follow the current trend of overlapping, layering and “grounding” page elements. A skilled scrapper can probably adapt the sketches to suit today’s styles.
Pros
- Sketches are well organised into tabbed sections.
- Spiral binding contributes to the ease of flipping through pages quickly.
- Simple sketches ideas that are well-suited to beginners.
- Some double page sketches can be split into single pages ideas (effectively doubling the number of sketches in the book).
- Sample layout provided with each sketch.
Cons
- Some sketches may be a little out-of-date in terms of current scrapbooking trends.
- No sketches featuring less than 3 photos.
- Not a lot of sketches in the 3-4 photo section. In fact, 137 of the sketches feature 7 or more photos! (Some people who have a large stash of photos might actually consider this a plus – for me it was a con.)
Cost
I’ve seen the book available here in Australia for around the AU$50 mark, not including shipping. Ouch! My hubby had been telling me how cheap the books were on Amazon at the time, so I finally listened and did a price comparison. Much to my amazement, it worked out much cheaper to purchase from Amazon in the US than locally here in Australia. I purchased the book for AU$28.88 (including delivery from the US). This represented a saving of AU$21 over the cheapest price that I’d seen in Australia (AU$49.95). My order took 3 weeks to arrive, which wasn’t huge issue for me. (I should qualify this by saying that I purchased the book in July 2008 when the Australian dollar was very favourable against the US dollar. You do have to take the prevailing exchange rates into careful consideration when purchasing from overseas.)
Summary
Overall I was happy with my purchase. The book has definitely been a great addition to my scrapbooking library and I find myself referring to it over and over again when I’m stuck for an idea. The sheer number of sketch ideas provided in the book is exceptional value for the price. Although some of the sketches could be considered a little bit dated, they’re still a very good starting point for beginners. To be fair, it’s also up to the individual to think creatively and get the most out of the ideas.
Rating
I’d give the book a 3.5/5 (very good).
Availability
In writing this review, I took a quick look around at where the book is available at the moment (Nov 08). Here are some of the places I found it:
- AU$49.95 plus delivery at Anna’s Craft Cupboard.
- AU$52.95 plus delivery at Scrapbook Shelf.
- AU$59.95 plus delivery at City Scrapbooking.
- US$19.77 plus delivery at Amazon (aff link).
Other Books By Becky
- Creative Sketches for Scrapbooking (aff link).
- Creative Sketches, Vol. 2 (aff link).
- Family History Scrapbooking (aff link).
I hope this book review was useful. Upcoming reviews include Scrapbook Page Maps by Becky Fleck and 52 Scrapbooking Challenges by Elsie Flannigan. Stay tuned…
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