How to Be Creative If You Never Thought You Could

Rating:
Summary: More than a Fabulous craft how-to book...
Review: ...This book encourages you to explore your creative self as well as use your creative thoughts to make a tangible expression.

Tera Leigh has not only put out a fantastic craft instruction book with beautiful, easy to recreate projects with step by step instructions and wonderful photography, but an inspirational tome that helps you nurture and understand the creative muse present in every person.

Tera has written this in a way that allows the reader to feel that she is right there encouraging that reader to create a project that is worthy of gifting to the most hard to please relative. She also gives you permission to make mistakes, to learn and grow from those mistakes, and to use them as an opportunity to transform them into a serendipidous new project.

I personally would reccomend this book to everyone- from the novice crafter to the experienced, and especially to those who harbor any self doubt as to their creative abilities.

Rating:
Summary: How to Be Creative If You Never Thought You Could
Review: Once again Tera Leigh provides us with insightful information covering an area many of us may have thought about at one time or another but didn't know how to explore, our own creativity.

You have a master teacher pointing you in the right direction so your own creativity can take over. The photography and detail is of the same outstanding quality as it was in her first book, "The Complete Book of Decorative Painting" and shows the care to detail and thoughtfulness that went into the completion of this book.

This exciting new book was created to show novice crafters that they could be creative by simply opening their mind to discover their own ability to be creative. Tera Leigh through her own creativity makes it easy for readers to discover their own creative spirit.

There are 16 easy, fun projects that lead you to explore the use of a number of craft media and techniques, including: Rubber stamping, Decorative painting, Silk flower arranging, Metal and wire crafts, Bookmaking and papermaking, Mosaics, Collage and decoupage and more. Readers will also find many other valuable tips and ideas for overcoming obstacles to their own creativity and getting past "creator's block."

Rating:
Summary: Practical Creativity
Review: Tera Leigh's book is a very accessible guide to discovering your own creative talents. The full color format and step by step photographs make it easy to follow the instructions, while still leaving plenty of room to be "creative". I also particularly like all of the sidebars which include a lot of good references to other sources--books and websites and suppliers, as well as tips and suggestions.
Tera is a terrific "creativity coach" and devotes a lot of space to topics such as building your confidence and banishing your inner critic. The variety of projects presented and the manner in which Tera guides you through them makes this a useful and inspiring book.

Rating:
Summary: Practical Creativity
Review: Tera Leigh's book is a very accessible guide to discovering your own creative talents. The full color format and step by step photographs make it easy to follow the instructions, while still leaving plenty of room to be "creative". I also particularly like all of the sidebars which include a lot of good references to other sources--books and websites and suppliers, as well as tips and suggestions.
Tera is a terrific "creativity coach" and devotes a lot of space to topics such as building your confidence and banishing your inner critic. The variety of projects presented and the manner in which Tera guides you through them makes this a useful and inspiring book.

Rating:
Summary: This book will get your creative juices flowing!
Review: Tera's latest book is a gold mine for people who yearn to be creative, but don't know where to start. The projects are easy and produce wonderful results - the perfect recipe for giving you the confidence to expand your own ceativity. The side boxes include tips that take you a step further in creating something that reflects your uniqueness. Before you know it, the ideas are exploding in your head and you're on your way to creative bliss! All through the book you hear Tera's generous advice, encouraging you like a favorite teacher. I'm an avid paper crafter and I have paid up to $40 for a class to learn some of the techniques Tera has included in this book. Both the beginner and the advanced artist will learn from these fun projects.

Rating:
Summary: This book will get your creative juices flowing!
Review: Tera's latest book is a gold mine for people who yearn to be creative, but don't know where to start. The projects are easy and produce wonderful results - the perfect recipe for giving you the confidence to expand your own ceativity. The side boxes include tips that take you a step further in creating something that reflects your uniqueness. Before you know it, the ideas are exploding in your head and you're on your way to creative bliss! All through the book you hear Tera's generous advice, encouraging you like a favorite teacher. I'm an avid paper crafter and I have paid up to $40 for a class to learn some of the techniques Tera has included in this book. Both the beginner and the advanced artist will learn from these fun projects.

Rating:
Summary: alt. title: Sparking creativity in the creative person!
Review: Today I got Tera's new book in the mail, "How To Be Creative If You Never Thought You Could." I think an alternate title could be "How to spark your creativity when you know you are creative!" I felt a surge of creativity when I opened it.

This is not your run-of-the-mill project book. I generally steer away from project books because they are geared toward step-by-steps for a certain card, or a new stamper. Tera explains the project, but with every project she also talks about creativity, alternate ways to complete the project, and gives creative reinforcement/permission to be creative. It is good reading even if you don't plan to follow any of the project instructions. The text is well-written (grammar problems in craft books are a pet-peeve of mine, and I can tell that equal emphasis was given to text and creativity in this publication.) More than that, the techniques are universal, and not the same things you see in all the stamping technique books. Projects run from stamping to paper making to mosaics to wire art and beading- there is bound to be something fun that is also new to try, no matter your skill level or how very creative or non-creative you are feeling. They'd also be great projects to work with friends who are afraid to play, because they aren't overly complicated or technical projects.

Following Tera's instructions I stamped on copper and aged it with liver of sulfur. It was as easy as it is described (on page 86 of the new book.) I did it with a text stamp, and worked as nicely as the swirls in the project book.

If all those things aren't great reasons to buy this book, supporting a nice person is reason. Tera has encouraged creativity in others in her daily life. She runs a nonprofit through her website, Tera's Wish. She shares openly about her life and creative blocks in her book, and encourages the reader to "go for it." Tera is a genuinely good person, and we should support kind, talented people with our pocketbooks when we can. :)

Amazon offers the book at a great price. :)

Melanie Sage

Rating:
Summary: alt. title: Sparking creativity in the creative person!
Review: Today I got Tera's new book in the mail, "How To Be Creative If You Never Thought You Could." I think an alternate title could be "How to spark your creativity when you know you are creative!" I felt a surge of creativity when I opened it.

This is not your run-of-the-mill project book. I generally steer away from project books because they are geared toward step-by-steps for a certain card, or a new stamper. Tera explains the project, but with every project she also talks about creativity, alternate ways to complete the project, and gives creative reinforcement/permission to be creative. It is good reading even if you don't plan to follow any of the project instructions. The text is well-written (grammar problems in craft books are a pet-peeve of mine, and I can tell that equal emphasis was given to text and creativity in this publication.) More than that, the techniques are universal, and not the same things you see in all the stamping technique books. Projects run from stamping to paper making to mosaics to wire art and beading- there is bound to be something fun that is also new to try, no matter your skill level or how very creative or non-creative you are feeling. They'd also be great projects to work with friends who are afraid to play, because they aren't overly complicated or technical projects.

Following Tera's instructions I stamped on copper and aged it with liver of sulfur. It was as easy as it is described (on page 86 of the new book.) I did it with a text stamp, and worked as nicely as the swirls in the project book.

If all those things aren't great reasons to buy this book, supporting a nice person is reason. Tera has encouraged creativity in others in her daily life. She runs a nonprofit through her website, Tera's Wish. She shares openly about her life and creative blocks in her book, and encourages the reader to "go for it." Tera is a genuinely good person, and we should support kind, talented people with our pocketbooks when we can. :)

Amazon offers the book at a great price. :)

Melanie Sage