I didn't do absolutely nothing while I was sick

I went through an old popcorn tin I keep some memorabilia in and found a treasure. Not only did I find my Dad's old Army shirt, turned vest, I used to wear during my punk days all safety pinned up. I also found a book of my old poetry. As I read through, it occurred to me how bad it was. It was really awful, to be quite honest. I wrote poetry from my mid teens to my mid twenties, as a cathartic exercise. I had a lot of problems back then, so writing poetry was a necessary release, since I did not have access to a therapist or many friends who were understanding enough to stick around after they knew what I was really going through emotionally. I don't necessarily want to hold on to all of that. After inspecting the journal itself, I saw it would be perfect to alter. I tore out half the pages and went straight to work making backgrounds. My main goal was to cover up that old poetry, so I dragged out the garbage I have been saving and started gluing away.

Inside the front cover, I tore part of a drop cloth I had covered with paint into pieces and glued them in.

Then, I proceeded to glue in pages of the wrappers of things I have frequent contact with: Halls, tea, granola bars, the insert from an old Jane's Addiction CD, hot cereal, art supplies, you name it, I covered the pages with it. Yesterday evening, I did another round of gelatin prints and pasted a bunch of those in, as well. Nothing was safe. The combination of using items that may have been in a landfill somewhere and covering up those years of pain was very cathartic. I am not forgetting the lessons I learned but I can choose to not keep these monuments to my emotional pain around as a shrine. It is good to let go.

An exercise from the Altered Background e-course on http://gulfspritesartjournal.ning.com. This is Christy Sobolewski's site. This particular class is free, and I would highly recommend it. There are even more interesting ones that you have to pay for that I have my eye on when I am employed again.

Christy Sobolewski had a video somewhere about using stamps to cover a page. This may have been from her Altered backgrounds class, too. This is my favorite stamp, an eye. I just made a big, ill-advised impulse purchase from JoAnn's that includes a few more stamps, so I can't wait to do this technique with them!

Tea bag and Halls packaging. Gee, can you tell I have been sick?

Packaging from granola bars and more. I like the mirrored look, though I'll be darned if I know how to deal with it later.

Cleaned food packaging.

Fancy patterned tape from Daiso, the Japanese dollar store I love so much.

Another Altered backgrounds exercise. I wasn't crazy about the other one, but I LOVE this one. Who would have thought security envelopes were so pretty?

These two pages are gelatin prints on wax paper that was used until I couldn't use them anymore. I love these!

Gelatin prints on a slick, green paper insert that was between two sheets of alphabet stencils. 

I am now a handful of pages away from getting all the pages covered, and I have some ideas brewing about how to move along in the process with this journal. I feel like I am getting to the point where I am willing to move beyond the comfort of doing general backgrounds. I am at a good place and I  will be happy to see where the rest of this journal takes me.

Now, as for the gelatin prints, this round was not nearly as successful as the last, but I have some pages I am particularly fond of. It is a lucky thing for my pocketbook that JoAnn's does not have Gelli Arts Printing Plates for purchase online, because I would have snapped one up. I did, however take full advantage of their outrageous sale on scrapbooking/stamping/fine arts/jewelry making supplies. Lots of 40% off items and many more 25% off. And to top it off, if you spent over $40, shipping was free. I saved over $50, which tells you how much I spent. <blush> This online excursion is starting to get me up to speed on my crafting supplies: Cling and clear stamps, as well as acrylic plates for printing, Staz On ink pad, Acrylic inks in a few colors, Several 6"x6" Crafter's Workshop templates that I can use in more printmaking and more, a new self healing mat (!!),  circle and edge rounding stamps, Distress Stains in a few colors, Walnut ink crystals, some Gelatos, die cut flourishes, a matstack that was on clearance, and a couple of packages of gem drops to embellish handmade journals. It is going to be very exciting to get this package. I looked at glimmer mists and wow! $7.99?! No wonder people are making their own. I have a little shopping list for when I go back to Daiso. I think I will be able to pick up some spray bottles and possibly some eyeshadow powder that can stand in for micah powder (since that is what the pearly colors are). I may even have something that I can use (metallic Lumiere paints), so all I have to do is get the spray bottles. I have paint and glue. I also want to make some regular color misters for fast stenciling.

I guess I will leave you with more gelatin prints. You will notice I did a lot of prints ripped out pages from a Japanese Buddhist text and index cards. The index cards curled really bad, so I will need to straighten them out, but they look pretty neat.  I did some on junk mail, too, and it wasn't all successful. I think it would be advisable to cover up anything too bold or big with a thin layer of an opaque paint. I thought I might get an interesting look with the text showing. Not so much, sadly.