Using the Bling Bling Paper Towel

My 3rd Act Circle women are making our own art journals to work in this time around, and I think I bit off a little more than I can chew. I decided to make a hard cover photo album, and its a little more complicated that I thought it would be. But that's the way I learn.

Remember all that beautiful dyed and stamped paper towel? That's what I'm using to make the cover. So, I've got my hard cover cut from the back of an old drawing tablet, and I use mat medium to glue the paper towel to the cover, rolling it down tight with a brayer. Don't worry about wrinkles--we know wrinkles add character.

Scissors to trip the paper after it's glued down on the front side, gel medium, brush to spread the medium, and brayer to smooth and flatten...but to really flatten after gluing the paper all down, put the cover between two pieces of wax paper under a big book to dry.




See, there really is a good reason to keep big books around.

Now, all I have to do is drill holes, fill with watercolor paper and fasten together. Stay tuned!

Sow's Ear?? or Silk Purse?!?

So far on my "blinging paper towel" experiment! I LOVE it! The papers are almost translucent and, at this point in the stamping process, look like Japanese silk...ME? I think their gorgeous! Who knew?

October's Journal Pages

You know, sometimes we get too busy or too distracted to plug into our creative side on a regular basis, so it really helps to have an incentive. Our 3rd Act crones are working on collabrative journals over the course of a year, so each month I have an extra "push" available. This month, I was given 4 white pages to be creative on--it's usually only two, so this was really cool. And I had so much fun.

What's really neat about these journals is there's no plan when we begin. All of us have talked about how special it is that the Muse shows up and something wonderful happens with each journal. This month, it seems Spirit was speaking: "Wake up, and stay awake!" It's good to be reminded.

Signature Pages for My "It's A New Day Cook Book"

And these are my "sign-in" pages. Hopefully all my wonderful 3rd Act sisters will put there photos here and sign in. So, the only thing left now, is to work on the cover! Who knows??? At least I have the title. :) So much fun!

MAGIC BEANS...

This is what my son has called my "magic beans" page. He's written a song called "Magic Beans" about all the fairy tales we believed to be true as we grew up--and we get to mid-life and discover:

Well nothin' ever sprouted
From the spot where momma threw them on the ground.
No singing harps, no golden eggs,
No giant's feasts could ever be found.
Now the banks foreclosed the farm,
Momma's sick, and Jack ain't ever around.

....Magic Beans don't sprout...

So, perhaps this IS my protest of what I expected out of life at one time. It WAS the model presented to me of "a good life". These "magic beans" haven't sprouted for me, but what I have instead is EVER SO MUCH MORE!

NO MORE COOKIES!

A few days back, I decided to use my 42 year old Better Homes and Garden Cookbook for Third Act's collaborative art journal. Talk about FUN! It's like it let off a whole lot of steam, the intro pages just kept coming! This is the first page. Ask Jim--this Granma doesn't cook much of ANYTHING anymore. Been there, done that!