It’s time for February’s challenge over at The Mirror Crack’d. This month we would love to see your Album/Journal covers. We are sponsored by Woodware Craft Collection with a fabulous £12 voucher to be spent at your favourite Woodware stockist, either online or in store. Please note though you will be responsible for your own postage!
![Journal Cover 1a Journal Cover 1a](//lh5.ggpht.com/-5ExeerCDpuM/VNNZ1fFwmYI/AAAAAAAALmI/r1YpUw8yH_4/Journal%252520Cover%2525201a_thumb%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800)
My cover is for my Journal. The words on it come from my inner desires I guess. Right from a very early age I have had the most vivid dreams of flying. I used to live opposite a park and in my dream it would start off with me playing on the swings. I would swing higher and higher until eventually I would go right over the top of the bar and it would launch me into the air. At first I would be terrified I was about to crash to the ground, but quickly I realised that actually I was levitating there or floating.
When I relaxed and stopped being terrified of falling I started to fly. There was no flapping of my arms or legs, I just glided effortlessly in the sky, swooping and swirling with no effort. It was so vivid I could recall later what the park looked like from the sky, how my house and garden looked from above. What people I knew looked like from above them too. When I used to wake up I would rush to get dressed and go out to the swings to try and repeat what had happened in my dream, as I was convinced that the dream had been real. I was always deeply disappointed when the swing would only go so high and I couldn’t really fly.
Years later, when it became fashionable to buy one of those aerial photographs of your house I realised that what I had been seeing in my dreams all those times was actually very accurate! Who knows, maybe I was having an out of body experience, or maybe I really was flying! As I have gotten older the dreams have lessened in frequency, but nowadays if I have that dream, rather than being disappointed it hasn’t happened for real, it feels like an old friend has come to visit me.
Anyhow, that is why I chose the words and the images for my journal cover because they reflect what is truly inside me, a deep desire to recapture that fabulous feeling of my dreams……
There are no holes in my cover yet because I am a bit of a tidy freak and will want it to line up with all the pages neatly, so once I have enough pages to fill it. I will punch it then! Anyhow, I started off with a 9x12” canvas board, which had been pre-gessoed, and roughly laid out what I fancied.
![Playing Playing](//lh6.ggpht.com/-by3cQBpP__Y/VNJ6fglhdZI/AAAAAAAALiQ/s0Hh-RmdSHA/Playing_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800)
I had a play around with butterflies and where the words should go until I came up with this, which I gessoed over a couple of times to cover up the brown of the lazer cut birdcages and the difference in colour of the letters. When I was happy with that I used a stencil to add texture paste to the butterfly, as you can see from the finished piece I later added a second butterfly, which I also texturised. I added more texture paste to the background just to give a bit of a more textured feel. I realised at this stage I should have added some stencilled areas before sticking my letters and bird cages down, but it was too late at this stage as I couldn’t get the stencils flat enough to paste through, which is why the rough areas of paste instead. A lesson for next time!
![02 02](//lh5.ggpht.com/-iJjdkWyXMC4/VNJ6jHp2-aI/AAAAAAAALiw/cDa3QFK1ad8/02_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800)
Then I just went to town with Prima Color Bloom Sprays.
When I finally had them roughly how I wanted them, I went over the letters with spray and a paintbrush with a different colour to the background because otherwise the words were lost. I also used gilding wax on the birdcages in Silver and on their hanging supports on one in pink and the other in blue. I did the same with the birds themselves. I buffed up the cages and holders to a shine.
![Cage 2 Cage 2](//lh4.ggpht.com/-S15qKSrQVEQ/VNJ_N0WmypI/AAAAAAAALkw/MDxER9L-RWI/Cage%2525202_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800)
The dragonfly I painted with sprays, and when it was all dry I added some stickles to it’s wings and body, and also to the butterflies.
![Dragonfly Dragonfly](//lh4.ggpht.com/-Wo5gob9l2-0/VNJ_Z9Vq7NI/AAAAAAAALlA/RdV5WLoQsAM/Dragonfly_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800)
The next picture captures the glitter trails I added to the butterflies and the dragonfly.
![Journal Cover 2 Journal Cover 2](//lh5.ggpht.com/-Ngl09TDb7OU/VNJ_v_TXTiI/AAAAAAAALlQ/qHUTKqg9d1I/Journal%252520Cover%2525202_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800)
I also went all around the edge with the silver gilding wax to give it a more lived in look.
And finally from a different angle, showing all the different dimensions.
![Angle Angle](//lh5.ggpht.com/-JGVDfS6HJR0/VNJ__6ibExI/AAAAAAAALlg/BnAX5iCTM78/Angle_thumb%25255B5%25255D.png?imgmax=800)
I am entering this into:-
2 Creative Chicks – #23 Anything Goes (no cards)
Come and Get It - Texture
Decorate to Celebrate – Anything Goes with 3D
Fantastic Tuesday – #71 Anything Goes with Twist of Purple
Fussy and Fancy – #131 Things With Wings
Hiding in My Craftroom – #185 Freestyle
Imagination Crafts – Feb: Anything Goes
Not Just Cards – #12 Anything Goes
Rhedd’s Creative Spirit – Feb: Mixed Media/Alt Art Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers – #26 Snarkers Choice ‘U is for Unused – The majority of the letters on the piece above have been in my stash since before I grew a beard (the menopause sure is a killer!)’
![LIN W LIN W](//lh3.ggpht.com/-0l0SpI7vdlc/VNNZ2SkianI/AAAAAAAALmY/nQLVxW438Es/LIN%252520W_thumb%25255B1%25255D.png?imgmax=800)