Wreck This Journal
Keri Smith

I’ve been a big fan of Keri Smith’s illustrations-and-ideas ever since my beloved Jen sent me home from Maryland with a copy of Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life. In this first sprial-bound tome I learned how to make Keri’s “magic book,” which was the basis of my free love give away project last February.

Now I’m head over heals in love with one of Keri’s latest magic tricks, Wreck This Journal — a book designed to bust you right out of the strangling perfectionism that keeps you from living creatively. Each page urges you to mess it up…rip it to shreds, punch it full of holes, cover it with staples, and so on. While some people are making art of this destruction, others are gleefully playing along and just making a mess. Yesterday I burned a page inside the house, only to find my whole kitchen was magically dusted with grey ash “snow.”

Cate, my seven year old, loves this book as much as I do and has gleefully spilled drinks on it, smashed it full of blackberries, and thrown it into the sea. Keri even has a flickr pool set up for you to show off your handy work. Go ahead, give it a try! I trip dog dare you!

Anyone who posts a page of their wrecked journal in Keri’s pool in the next month, and drops me a note in the comments below will be in a drawing to win a copy of Living Out Loud.

P.s. Congratulations to last week’s winner Melissa (from a drawing of two!), who gets my copy of Water for Elephants.