Title: Three Sixty-Five:Â Ideas for Blog posts, Scrapbook Pages, & Art Journal Entries
Author:Â Kam Altar (AKAÂ Campfire Chic)
Price: $5
Buy it here.
Yesterday, on a whim, I purchased Kam’s book. I clicked thru one of her tweets to read this blog post, and a little banner at the top whispered in my ear, “Access 300+Â ideas for blog posts, scrapbook pages, and art journal entries”, and I was like “Take me there!”
You see,  try to art journal and scrapbook paste junk in my smashbook and be all creative… but truthfully, I am NOT that creative. I need to see an idea first before I can do anything with it. Give me a blank sheet of paper and I’m like a deer in headlights. Yeah, it’s bad.
The main reason I purchased it is that I have to finish my Sketchbook Project (it’s really crunch time now) and I’m pulling a blank.
I’ve been a long-time reader of the Campfire Chic blog, and I really admire Kam’s creativity and style, so I figured it would be a worthwhile read. Regardless, I’m always happy to support another independent artist/maker/creative-type.
What’s the point?
Kam says, “I created this 26-page resource as a springboard for your ideas to come to the surface. There is plenty of room for you to write your own notes that will come bubbling to the surface once you start scanning the topics I have complied for you.”
Features
Lots of space for notes/doodles
I really appreciate the fact that she left space especially for notes – I personally like to keep my pdfs on my iPad (as soon as I start printing stuff off it ends up in a pile somewhere and y house becomes a flurry of random stuff), but I think this attests to her understanding of the kind of person who is likely to appreciate such a resource.That being said, even given the space for notes, there is no lack of content. I’ve gone through some e-resources (some of them I hesitate to call  ”eBooks” because they’re so scant) and being disappointed in the amount of content – oftentimes you truly get what you pay for. But with this, I found myself flipping through and thinking “Okay, surely this is the end… wait, no, this must be the end…” but it turns out that 26 pages is a lot!
Broken down into navigable sections
The book is broken down into 23 “chapters”, each covering a different topic. There are general ones like “Goals / To do / Challenges” and more specific ones like “In Your Bag”. It starts with a warm up, with some workbook-style questions on what you hope to get from using the book, etc.
Inspiring content
The first section of topics is “About You”, and I was really excited about the first prompt: Your Handwriting. I realized I have a lot to say about my handwriting, but I honestly never really thought about using it as inspiration for any creative work. Lots of the topics are like this – things that I’m kind of surprised I never really thought about before, but make great subjects.
Payment
The purchase link takes you directly to PayPal. I’m a big fan of paying for things with PayPal because I can pay directly with my debit card or with whatever’s in my account. You don’t need to create a PayPal account if you don’t already have one – and it’s pretty darn secure.
Download
This is an instant download, which is fantastic! Lots of PDF purchases involve waiting 24 hours or so to receive it in an email (which I don’t mind, but let’s face it- I’m impatient), but this takes you directly to a download link after you complete the transaction. Spiffy!
Verdict
Overall, I think this will prove to be a very valuable resource going forward. While there are a few prompts I probably won’t have a use for, there are many more that will provide lots of inspiration. They’re definitely not one-time-use topics; even if you used one every day for a year, you could easily revisit them as your life and circumstances change. And of course, a topic you used in your journal would take on a completely different life on your blog.
I really recommend this – it’s obvious that a lot of work and thought went into it, and for the amount of content, $5 is a steal.
Have you already purchased it? If not, are you going to? Tell me what you think in the comments!
