Healing Art: Prompt 10 ~ MOOD JOURNAL

Journal Prompt for today: MOOD JOURNAL

It is always a good thing when going through the healing process to keep track of your moods. I remember being told to do this by multiple doctors and psychologists. Keeping track of your moods helps determine where you are at in your mental state.

I have thought of a fun little project to do if you are up to the task and it is inexpensive too. I belong to an art journaling group "Blissfully Art Journaling" over at Yahoo Groups and lately they have discussed the use of what they call "Composition" books. In Canada we call them elementary school exercise books of lined paper. I purchased mine at Walmart for $1.39.

Step 1: Gesso the pages back and front. (I purchased a rather large bottle of Gesso from Michael's for $13.49 and then 40% off). This process can take awhile as it takes time to dry so do not expect to work on your project instantly. Each page needs to dry and you have to separate the pages every now and again so they do not stick together. (Gesso-ing) the page helps the paper to become thicker/stronger in order to take paint, stamps or whatever you want to use to be creative. (I personally waited overnight to begin working on my pages). This is a process you will have to repeat several times for each page you want to work on. I did two at a time.

Step 2: Gather the materials you would like to use ahead of time so that when the pages are dry you can get to work on them. I decided to make my mood journal a calendar with space for each day to record my moods - you don't need a lot of space.

For me... I colored the pages in watercolor first. I drew the tree and cut it out and placed it onto the page with rubber cement. (When using rubber cement make sure you use it on the page and the piece you are gluing and then stick them together, this makes them adhere stronger).

Next: I grabbed one of my scrap pads of paper and cut out pieces to place as a border. Then I cut out the letters using my cuttle bug and alphabet (the alphabet was recently a great find as it was on clearance at Michael's for $54.99 and then was also 40%off with the coupon). I love finding great bargains! To adhere these items I once again used rubber cement though you can also use Crystal Effects or other adherants. I have found that rubber cement doesn't buckle your paper.

I did the same process for the first calendar page "January". The lined paper I found as scrap piece in my scraps, so I just cut them out and adhered them over the water color paint.

I pray that you find this to be a fun project for you. This may take a few days to complete as there are of course 12 months in a year! LOL. Maybe I will continue to share my calendar months with you for a few days and keep things nice and light.

God bless you as you work.