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Oh Joy!: 60 Ways to Create and Give Joy
A beautiful, colorful, inspired guide to help anyone bring joy and whimsy into their lives with stylish projects, from home decor to food to fashion, from the popular Oh Joy blogger and Pinterest sensation. Thirteen million Pinterest members look to Joy Cho, a designer, blogger, mother, and founder of the Oh Joy blog, for creative inspiration. Now, she builds on that success to offer a cornucopia of new ideas in this simple yet sophisticated full-color book. Following the unique aesthetic and joyful tone of her blog, Oh Joy! shows you how to add style, detail, color, flavor, and bliss to your daily life. For Joy, it's the small things that can make a big impact, like decorating cakes with fun toppers, or brightening your home with vibrant pops of color. Joy wants to help you make your world a happier, prettier place and her boundless enthusiasm is infectious. Oh Joy! is packed with quick, easy, and fun projects and fabulous notions Incorporate beauty into the things you do—make your everyday life feel more colorful, fresh, and fun—and get an intimate, gorgeous look into the world of Joy Cho with Oh Joy!
Unknown Binding
First published April 7, 2015
9 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
April 22, 2017
Lots of clever and cute ideas to visually spruce up the furniture and fruit salads in your life.
A lot of it seems ephemeral - crafts that take hours but last only moments (wrapping paper, vegetable confetti) but I think that's the point, adding whimsy to things we wouldn't normally put the effort into.
Lovely photography, could have used more step-by-step illustrations and less reliance on specialized hardware (letter-shaped ice cube trays, etc, etc)
A lot of it seems ephemeral - crafts that take hours but last only moments (wrapping paper, vegetable confetti) but I think that's the point, adding whimsy to things we wouldn't normally put the effort into.
Lovely photography, could have used more step-by-step illustrations and less reliance on specialized hardware (letter-shaped ice cube trays, etc, etc)
July 18, 2018
I feel like interior design is pretty self explanatory like I rlly didn't learn anything . The ideas I liked were the confetti cake where they cut out different cake flavours with the circle cutter, and the diy soap and gold acrylic paint scratch off thing.
December 25, 2021
Meh. It's very inspirational in terms of ideas for brightening up your life with colors and textures. In terms of practical instructions or ideas I'd actually use... falls quite short.
For ideas, this has a few good ones, but mostly it's pretty average. Just lots of ideas for pulling in color and texture into everyday things - adding flowers, adding bright pops of color, adding vintage pieces, etc. Makes for a very bright and happy photo book, but not necessarily a lot of projects I'd actually use. Some of the fun foods (the mini neopolitan cakes, the letter cookie cutters with fruit) but all the silk flowers everywhere, the 3D wall pieces? I have a cat, and all I can see is how much cat hair those textured wall pieces would collect! Basically, not for me.
Worst part, though, was the text. The instructions are really weak. There isn't tons of actual text with the directions, and not quite enough pictures to really fill in the gaps. Take the drawstring shopping bag, for example. There's no direction on how to tie the cords to the main line, or what type of knot you're using as you're knotting the bag together... You can get some idea of what to do from the pictures, but it's still relying heavily on your own previous knowledge and filling in a lot of the gaps on your own. Another example - the Flora-Do photo prop. It's got the basic instructions, but no supporting pictures. A picture of the supplies and the finished project being modeled. Literally nothing else.
And then sometimes the captions were completely unnecessary (there was one page spread which had the same caption repeated 3 times, instead of having 3 different captions). And even the "sources" information was weak. Is honeycomb paper a specialty paper? A craft supply? And "neon EL wire" is sourced from Amazon, but what exactly is it? Is there anything we need to think about when we buy it, work with it? Really needed more practical editing.
Honestly, this felt overall like an inspirational photo book, rather than a practical project book.
For ideas, this has a few good ones, but mostly it's pretty average. Just lots of ideas for pulling in color and texture into everyday things - adding flowers, adding bright pops of color, adding vintage pieces, etc. Makes for a very bright and happy photo book, but not necessarily a lot of projects I'd actually use. Some of the fun foods (the mini neopolitan cakes, the letter cookie cutters with fruit) but all the silk flowers everywhere, the 3D wall pieces? I have a cat, and all I can see is how much cat hair those textured wall pieces would collect! Basically, not for me.
Worst part, though, was the text. The instructions are really weak. There isn't tons of actual text with the directions, and not quite enough pictures to really fill in the gaps. Take the drawstring shopping bag, for example. There's no direction on how to tie the cords to the main line, or what type of knot you're using as you're knotting the bag together... You can get some idea of what to do from the pictures, but it's still relying heavily on your own previous knowledge and filling in a lot of the gaps on your own. Another example - the Flora-Do photo prop. It's got the basic instructions, but no supporting pictures. A picture of the supplies and the finished project being modeled. Literally nothing else.
And then sometimes the captions were completely unnecessary (there was one page spread which had the same caption repeated 3 times, instead of having 3 different captions). And even the "sources" information was weak. Is honeycomb paper a specialty paper? A craft supply? And "neon EL wire" is sourced from Amazon, but what exactly is it? Is there anything we need to think about when we buy it, work with it? Really needed more practical editing.
Honestly, this felt overall like an inspirational photo book, rather than a practical project book.
May 28, 2015
I've been reading joy's blog for a long time now and enjoy her craft ideas and hearing about her family and their life in la. This blog to book doesn't translate especially well. There are nice photos but little engaging content in my opinion.
May 23, 2015
This book is full of cute and whimsical ideas for your home. Most of them are not really my style, but it is still a beautiful book to look through and enjoy.
November 29, 2015
Ain't nobody got time for any of this.
April 3, 2016
This book is full of simple, slightly obvious ways to give others little presents. Pick this up and read it fast when you need a smile.
July 19, 2025
This is a delightful book full of charming little crafts to brighten up your day. However, that being said, I preferred the book Hello Tokyo: 30+ Handmade Projects and Fun Ideas for a Cute, Tokyo-Inspired Lifestyle, which does a similar thing.
April 22, 2021
I got this book because reading DIY books is what I used to do when I was little, so I thought it would help with the stress. Unfortunately this was... not great. While the colors and photography was cute, the craft projects were mostly not very useful or fun-looking. Did it help calm me down? A little. But would I do any of the projects from it? Probably not.
March 19, 2022
Some of these ideas were unique and fun, but honestly this book is challenging to navigate. A lot of the photos are so busy it's hard to tell which object is the craft and which is background. Pretty sparse on directions, too. The book reminds me of confetti - fun and whimsical, but it's hard to focus on any one thing.
September 27, 2017
I expected more tutorials and craft projects than I was given. It's more of a photography book with tips about how to make your own creations with a few recipes and projects thrown in. Not at all what I expected from the book's description. The templates provided in the back were nice though.
June 12, 2017
Not every blog should be a book.
December 26, 2019
Fun projects to fill your life with fun and color. Great photos.
July 11, 2020
I enjoyed the colorful photos and saved a few projects to try later.
December 10, 2023
No fucking page numbers. Who do they think they are, graphic novels?
Dotty wall art, magic fortune jar, hanger notes, plaster pop, surprise scratchers, a mini fesast
Dotty wall art, magic fortune jar, hanger notes, plaster pop, surprise scratchers, a mini fesast
March 3, 2017
I was a little disappointed in this book. I found a couple of ideas,but overall I already seen most of the stuff in other blogs and books. I would recommend to get this book from libaray first and if you like it then buy.
August 10, 2020
This is a fun book full of easy to follow instructions for projects with varying levels of practicality/applicability.
July 21, 2016
Cute book and very colorful and whimsical, if you are into that kind of thing. Love her blog, just didn't translate well into a book. Directions were kind of sparse on each of the projects, so it's likely that more inexperienced crafters will have trouble (Pinterest Fail). I checked this book out for one particular project, but the directions didn't really make how to do the project any more clear. Many of the crafts are pretty cheesy and basic; not really any groundbreaking methods or ideas that allow you to do classy projects with a minimum of fuss. Good for the tweens and tweens at heart who are not overly concerned with execution.
May 4, 2015
I really liked the whimsy and creativity of this book, but I felt it was a little skimpy on content. A large chunk of the book is used for templates -- you're supposed to run copies of the printed art/stencils/etc. Besides the fact that copies of color images aren't very nice, you want me to run copies of a thick, hard-bound book? Just give me a permalink, please. But, if you take out the templates, et al, the book is nearly half as thick. I really like the content; it's adorable, fun and full of inspiration. I just would have rather waited longer for a ... fuller book.
July 11, 2015
Oh Joy! looks so cute and pretty, but it could have been better on the inside. I really like some of the ideas - candy cords, blooming background, pop up wrap, and party puffs - but others were either too boring/obvious or too hard to figure out. I liked the idea of the ombre cake, but it took me 3 passes to figure out that you were supposed to use freeze-dried fruit because it only says it in the bottom corner in tiny white letters on a grey background, NOT in the actual directions. I am hoping her blog is better!
February 5, 2017
Took an hour to read it. Marked no pages. The food confetti was the only thing I took away that I might try. In this age of Pinterest, and magabooks, craft books are somewhat dated by the time they are printed. Glad I ordered from library.
May 7, 2016
This book is very well made. Aesthetically, it's awesome. It's bright, colorful, and cool. The tips and projects are cool and left me brimming with DIY ideas.
HOWEVER: it's kind of skimpy content-wise. A lot of the written content is either unnecessary or does not contain enough information to convey the instructions effectively.
HOWEVER: it's kind of skimpy content-wise. A lot of the written content is either unnecessary or does not contain enough information to convey the instructions effectively.
March 4, 2016
"Whimsical" is right...cute and fun but very, very light. Very SoCal really. A couple of sweet ideas for my three year old that I may use for his next birthday, but the whole book comes off as much more tween-y than grown adult. Cheerful though...
February 17, 2016
I love joy and her creativity! loved this book :)
April 20, 2015
Pretty book with great ideas for YA programs.
May 4, 2015
Honestly, most of these projects seem kind of junky to me. But the photography is great!
July 11, 2015
Colorful book --- needed more content.
May 18, 2015
It is pretty to look at, but light on actual content. I like the idea of veggie confetti and am interested in someday making my own neon sign, but that's about it.
May 30, 2015
There were some cute ideas, but content was sparse.
June 12, 2015
cute ideas for projects with the alpha -bit. I had no idea contact paper came in gold. I do not get why any one would want to make confetti out of veggies. Eclectic book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews