Imagine and Book of Days

First of all, how come nobody told me about the Book of Days?  Huh?  I just discovered it the other day while blog hopping, totally by accident.  OMG.  I'm so in love with it.  There's videos of Effy (our noble leader) creating like almost everyday (you know how much I love videos!)  And there's just so much inspiration.  The concept is so freakin' cool!  If you want to learn more, check it out on my blog down on the right, under the Art Journal 2012 heading.  

Anyway, moving on for a minute, I received another prompt from A Year in the Life of an Art Journal (again, linked down on the right), about imagining yourself____something.  Huh.  Optional use of magazine clippings and a mask.  OH man!  I went to a way dark but happy place with this one.  It turned sooo cool!  

I had no idea what I wanted to imagine for myself, so I was flipping through a magazine and found a Dolce & Gabonna ad (did I even spell that right?) and it was of an Italian looking family, kind of a family portrait, but the "man" of the family was in the forefront of the photo.  Suddenly I knew what I imagined, a whole family.  Not just my little family, me and the kids, but what every little girl dreams of, "the one", her other half, ect.  Yes, I really am that much of a romantic.  So the piece just took on a life of it's own, as they always do.

Okay, so the whole family wouldn't fit, but I managed to rip the important members and put them in there, using gel medium to tack them all down.  Then I cut out the man, and placed him back in the front of the family.  I used a dark walnut ink spray (I'm never using it again-so messy and it took forever to dry) with a plastic fern placed over the family on the right to use as a mask.  But then I couldn't see their faces, so I used a wipe to just rub off their faces.  I white washed over it, added some white dots with punchenellla, and then my journaling with a white paint pen (extra fine point Sharpie--horrible pen!) added some more words with stickers and my BRAND NEW date stamp (from the Smashed line by K&Co.)  

I love it so much because it's so ghosty looking, like you're looking through the fog or great recesses of my brain.  He's there, just out of reach.  LOVE IT!

{title} imagine. {mixed media}

Now, on to my NEW art journal project.  Omg, I've got like three art journals going now.  LOL!  So I missed January completely (and that was the start of the Book of Days project workshop).  Bummed, but it's cool, really.  I signed up (for FREE) and watched a few of Effy's videos.  She rocks!  I discovered yet another kindred spirit!  I love artists.  Anyway, I was hooked immediately and was like, I wanna do that!  So, taking a page from Effy's book, I decided to try my hand at my first altered book.  Ooooh!  So much fun!

I went to my local used book store and found my book.  It was perfect.  The pages are nice and thick, it's sewn in, it's old (1928), and it's the perfect size!  Yay!  So I bought it ($3!) and went home and immediately got to work.  I had a ball and I ended up covered in purple, but it's all good.  I'm not going to go into massive detail on how I created it, you can sign up for the Book of Days workshop yourself and find out how or I'm sure on You Tube.  Anyway, a lot of paint, masks, inks, drippage, spray, and markers later, I give you my cover, and my first inside spread.

*Side note: Because it's now February, I decided to just start mine now.  I'm not going to go back and try to remember to journal about things from January.  Too much stress!  My book of days starts now, February 5th, 2012.  And I can't wait for tomorrow for my first Monday spread!  Here's the images.

For those of you on the caravan with me, you might notice my one word symbol on the cover.  I printed it on tracing paper (not very successfully--the ink ran) and glued it down with liquid medium.

My one word...Breathe.

(I even made a secret pocket!)