Watch Me Fly!

Mission accomplished! Yesterday, I put the final touches on my Whispers Art Journal. I bought some gold chain, red and orange beads, and some gold letter beads to spell out "Watch Me Fly" - it seems like an appropriate title for my first Taking Flight project.

Last night Nikki and I got together for our Monday Night Art Night and had a show and tell with our first completed project! We're both very happy with the way our journals turned out, and even better...we were both happy with the process! Both of us veered a bit from the original instructions of Kelly Rae's book, but we know that part of the point was to make these "our own."

Instead of ribbon and fabric letters, I went with the chain and beads to hold my book together (I realized that ribbons just aren't my thing, and I wanted to include beads somewhere!). And on the inside, I put several recycled map envelopes which will, over time, hold some "treasures" from this part of my creative journey. I also used acrylic paints for the cover portrait instead of the Shiva Oil Paint Sticks which the author suggested using (I didn't have the paint sticks yet, and didn't feel like waiting for them! But I have them now, so stay tuned!). I noticed that the acrylic paints made the portrait "stand out" more than the muted oil paint portrait example in the book. This seemed very appropriate, because this part of my creative journey is all about me "getting out there" instead of hiding my gifts and talents.

Nikki's journal had her own unique twists on it as well. Instead of a human face on the cover, she drew a clock face (clever, clever!). And she decided to leave out the inside pages completely, which makes the journal look more like a piece of art to display. We are both so proud of ourselves for completing the first project! Maybe you heard us celebrating and yelling, "Yea! Us!!"

PS...(Check out Nikki's final project on her blog - One Faithful Step)