The journey begins! I’m very excited to be launching this challenge, though I started off with a bit of disadvantage. I woke up today to 55º temps–Inside my home! The pilot light for my gas wall heater went out last night, and the power company could not come re-light it for me until tomorrow. So I’ve been running the oven on my (electric) stove with the door open, and bundling up in my down vest. Plus the dry, cold winter air has caused cracking and sore skin on two knuckles and one thumb. Still, the adventure must go on!
One might think that it’s a breeze to sit down and create an art project in a day. Yet there is so much that goes into it that most people don’t think about. There is a project to dream up, a design to create, measurements to take, and assembling of the base, in this case the outer covers of my next little Magical Adventure Journal. Luckily, I already knew the size I wanted to make this one (smaller than more recent albums) and had picked out the paper collection.
Then I had to choose which page of the papers to use on which part of the covers, measure acurately and cut exactly. I glued the end pieces to the spine by attaching strips cut from an old hankerchief and gluing that to spine and ends. Along the way I stopped to refill my small glue bottle from the gallon jug, chatted with a couple of friends on Facebook, and cut out the butterfly to adorn the front cover. Before any of this, I sent out dozens of emails to announce my Year of Art Project and invite everyone to subscribe.
For me, one of the most time-consuming aspects of creating my art is choosing which papers and embellishments to use, sometimes sorting through large amounts of stash before finding the exact right element! I love the process of building each piece, and there is much more to creating art than just slapping paper to cardboard. It’s a totally engaging, delightful, frustrating, satisfying, magical experience!
So here is my first project for the first day. I will be covering the spine and adding final embellishments when the rest of the journal is assembled, so I’m calling it finished for now. EnJoy!
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Fiber Fancies 