[Bookshelf] Review of Scrapbook Asian Style by Kristy Harris

Kristy Harris has done two very unusual things in her newly published book Scrapbook Asian Style!: Create One-of-a-kind Projects with Asian-inspired Materials, Colors and Motifs. First, she’s created a book with a distinctive ethnic style – almost unheard-of in the scrapbook world – and at the same time she’s made it applicable to everyone, no matter what their ethnicity.

Harris moved to Singapore in 1990 to practice international law. She lives there with her husband and two children, and is the founder of Far Flung Craft, a company that specializes in Asian-inspired papers and embellishments for scrapbookers and papercrafters.

If you love patterned paper (and as long as you don’t absolutely hate Asian prints), this book is full of beautiful examples of prints used to their full potential. There is layout after layout featuring multiple, rich prints used perfectly together. Alongside the layouts displaying beautiful Asian papers are layouts using lush prints from familiar names like Basic Grey, My Minds Eye and Crate Paper.

The true magic of this book though, is that it shows you how to create clean and simple (which is basically an Asian aesthetic by another name) that doesn’t look basic. Most of the layouts in this book are created from only paper and a few simple embellishments but they don’t look bare. The secret to this lies in the use of the pattern papers – using multiple rich patterns together provides even the simplest layout construction a visual complexity. It was a concept I really hadn’t thought much about before seeing this book, but now I know that simple or fast layouts don’t have to look basic or bare because of these examples!

Because of their solidly classic “clean and simple” lines, so many of the layouts in this book are so scrapliftable – even the ones that are heavily Asian in theme. I copied this layout from the original layout on page 59, which was titled “Year of the Snake”: (sorry about the poor layout photo – it wouldn’t scan well because of the 3D metal on it)

(Supply List- Patterned Paper: Basic Grey Urban Prairie; Rub-ons: Basic Grey Periphery (floral) and American Crafts Kate MiniMarks (alpha); Stickers: Making Memories Spotlight(alpha); Embellishments: Magic Scraps Lg. Nickel Label Holders & Creative Imaginations Allison Connors Flower Clips; Font: Calibri.

My layout retains the exact same structure of the original layout but because of the different color scheme and embellishments, it has a totally different feeling. I’m looking forward to doing more lifts from this book because that one was so quick and easy and I am so happy with the results!

Scrapbook Asian Style is currently available from Amazon for $16.47 (cover price $24.95). Retailers can contact the publisher, Tuttle Publishing, for information on carrying it.