Art-O-Mat love

picture from Art-O-Mat

Madame Pickwick

Sherbrooke, QC

On Saturday of last week (titled Very Interesting) I talked about the Art-O-Mat and posted a video on how one of the artists put together her art for the machines. If you haven't seen it, you still have time to run over there and watch the video.  The Art-O-Mats are former cigarette machines that now dispense packs of art.  The list of artists that participate in this program is extensive.  (see the list here)

So stick with me here.

One of my Wreck This Journal friends, Kavindra wrote on my Confessions post.  She gave me a wonderful pep talk about taking my fabulous self to my reunion in a great looking outfit.  Then she mentioned that she had also read the Very Interesting post and watched the Art-O-Mat video, then visited the website, then jumped in her car as soon as she realized there was an Art-O-Mat near her!   She also mentioned that if I wanted one, she would gladly pull the lever again and mail off a special gift to me.

I wrote her back and said that I wasn't too proud to say YES to her offer.  I wanted something from an Art-O-Mat and I wasn't afraid to beg.   Actually I was just so excited that she had one near her and that she got something that it was a shock to my system to read that she wanted to send me something!!!

From her description of the events it sounded like she took off like Batman to the nearest Art-O-Mat.  She then emailed back and said that she was actually Batman and Robin because her husband got in on the act with her!

The story just got better and better.  Superheros, art, giving and blogging. 


Well - The envelope arrived today and I jumped up and down, up and down when I pulled the package out of the mailbox.  Here's what Kavindra picked out for me.

She sent the Seek Peace card along with the pack of art from the machine.  She even put a lovely sticker on the front of the purple envelope, which is a Chagall painting (The Flying Sleigh.)  Purple is my favorite color :)  and she posted the envelope with real stamps, so I can add those two $1 stamps in my Wreck This Journal stamp page!  All this excitement and I still hadn't opened up the box or read the card.

The box was titled "Dreams" created by Nikki Wheeler and according to the note included in the pack...

...the "Dreams" series began during the creation of some fabric beads.  The little scrolls tied up spoke tom me.  Inside they hold so many dreams.  These dreams are easily effected by one's experiences and circumstances.  Each little work speaks to different situations one may be encountering, with the hope of one's dreams for the future.

Nikki Wheeler goes on to say...I am honored that you now own a little creation of mine.  I would love to hear from you.

This is just such a cool piece of art!  I love the three scrolls.  I don't know if it reminds me of dreams because right now with my sister having a baby next month and this will be her third child - I'm seeing my nieces and the new baby in this piece.  Maybe I'll think of them having sweet dreams!  This was a great pick.  Perfectly wonderful.

Then! Then I turn over the Seek Peace card to read what Kavindra wrote to me.

I really think that blogging is the best thing that has ever happened to me when it comes to friendship and giving.  So many of the bloggers that I have met are so incredibly giving.  I have to admit that I hadn't gotten over to Lisa's (Kavindra) blog for a few weeks, but while we were in Wreck This Journal I was there each week.  I really enjoyed her blog, her creativeness and her whole attitude.  So to have her read something of mine, go out and buy something because of something I suggested, then to buy something for me, write a note, go to the post office, stand in line and mail off this package to me is just so lovely. 

Delighted?  You're delighted?  Oh I'm totally delighted, too.  Thank you Lisa!  Thank you so very much.  This made my week.  Thank you.

Kristin - The Goat

Wreck This Journal Finale

Hey folks! It's Friday so that means it's the update for Wreck This Journal.

What do you mean it's NOT Friday?

It's Saturday?

Really?



Hey Folks! It's Saturday, so that means I'm a day late for my Wreck This Journal update!! This is the last week that The Next Chapter, Wreck This Journal group is meeting to talk about the journal. I may have to have another update in the future as I'm not quite finished with the book. My niece Zora REALLY wants to do the "Eat some candy and lick this page" page. She tried a few times when I was visiting her, but she choose some very watery popsicles that didn't leave any mark at all. I've also got a few other pages that need to be finished, but I'm about 99% done as of today.

This page has been batted around the house, chewed, tossed into the air and otherwise played with so much by Mocha that the page is actually kind of soft. I finally decided to pick it up off the floor and put it back in the journal.

This isn't the greatest picture of me...it isn't that bad either - but it was one of the only ones I could find where my face was large enough so that I could get a decent shot of it for the blog. (It's always about the blog, isn't it?!)

I used a few of the special effects features in Photobucket to deface my photo. I think I used create a cartoon image then the blueprint effect. I now have a little heart on my cheek :)


The left hand page. This was HARD. This took me days to complete. If you can't tell, they are all little houses. Some have antennas on the roofs.


This is my "wrap something with this" page. The image is totally taken from Warrior Girl's header. I loved all of her lollipop trees...loved them so much that I had to recreate it. Thanks Rowena!! The paper is folded up and one flap is glued to the inside of the front cover of my journal.

This is the paper unfolded. I've cut the center out of a card I received from a friend of mine and placed it inside the paper.



This is my Document Time Passing page. I thought about this for a long time. I wanted something visual that would represent passing time. I can't remember what I was lighting with a match, but the second I burned it I had one of those Ah-Ha moments. I hollered out - This is passing time!!


This picture is of a card that I've had for about 15 years. It used to be in a frame and over the years it ended up being loose and just in a pile of mementos in the closet. I like the picture because I had a white cat for several years and this reminded me of her. Well, in the middle of this journal wrecking adventure I found this card on the floor of the closet and it was bent and no longer frame worthy. I was so bummed. Then I thought of the journal. I thought that maybe I could glue it in the journal, even in its not so pretty state. I glued it onto the back of the "tear this page out and put it through the wash" page and then covered the whole thing in glitter glue. This is the perfect place for this card.


This is my fruit sticker page. I think this was taken a few weeks ago, because this page has more stamps on it now - but here it is anyway :) I think the Breyers label is a nice touch.

I would like to thank all of the participants in WTJ. This adventure was so much more fun than I ever imagined. Jaime Ridler who is the creator of The Next Chapter group has announced her next book. It's called The Joy Diet and she will start on Sept 18th. If you'd like to be a part of that group, please go to her new blog, HERE, to join the mailing list. I'm sure it will be just as much fun and inspiring as Wreck This Journal. I don't think you'll be tossing your book out of a window or anything, but it'll be fun, I'm just positive.

Thanks again!
Kristin

Wreck This Journal Week 8

The past two weeks have been a lot of fun for my dear journal, but the past week in particular was so much fun for my niece! She and I spent a lot of time going through all of the pages and talking about them. When I got to "Chew This Page" I thought she was going to bite my hand off! Instead she took a rather large chunk out of the side of the page. Now that's enthusiasm!

Last week I mentioned that I sent my journal through the United States Postal Service approx. 1200 miles from my home in Jacksonville, FL to my Mother's home in Michigan. I arrived on Wednesday and the journal arrived on Thursday. It looked like it had never been touched. Not a speck of dirt. If you'd like to read the story of trying to get it sent, you can find that story here.



While at my Mother's home I decided to "compost this page" in her compost bin. I don't have one in my condo at home, so this was a nice alternative.

I sent off one of my favorite pages to Dawn. She said on her blog that she had a few favorites she wanted to send, so I raised my hand and we exchanged favorites.



I was thrilled to see that she sent the fruit sticker page - it was filled to the brim with stickers!! There were a lot of stickers I had never seen before and since we've had this directive (to collect fruit stickers) I seem to have a vast knowledge of the fruit and veggie stickers in my local store.






The envelope she sent was FABULOUS! It was interactive and inventive and wonderful. She also enclosed a Fortune Teller Fish. Have you ever seen one of them. Gosh, I haven't since I was a kid. Here's an online picture of the fish. I couldn't get a good picture of it. My fish moved it's head and tail at the same time, so it claims that I'm in love - awwwww.



Thanks so much Dawn!! It was a pleasure!!


I live on the top floor of a 5 story condo and there isn't a good way to throw anything out the windows because everything is screened within an inch of it's life. So when I got to my sisters home in Michigan I realized she had a 2nd story and it would be perfect to toss the journal. Zora was more than happy to help in that department.



Here's Zora flinging to journal out the window! Do you see the book? I'm so excited - I got an action shot!




A few minutes later, we tied a string to the journal and we all went for a walk around the block.



Here's the journal after the walk. It's not nearly as damaged as I assumed it would be...but still totally wrecked :)

at the end of the trip, we decided to swing the journal wildly and hit the walls -- or utility poles :) We had an injury in this event though - the string burned Zora's finger from the flinging friction. We had to stop and get a band aid. Life is all better now. This is the journal post flinging.



Since I've only got one more week with The Next Chapter Group and this journal, I thought I'd better show you as much of the finished pages as possible. I can hardly believe it's been two months that I've been wrecking and playing. How fun.











Mocha once again helping - the instructions were...crumple this page. So I did. She got excited and batted that page around the house for a very long time. She even scared herself silly and ended up with a giant fluffed up tail and wild eyes. Cats are so much fun.

I didn't get to anyone's blog last week, that participated in WTJ - I plan to see everyone this week though. I'm excited to catch up and see all of the fun things everyone has done. If you'd like to see more journal wrecking, please head on over to Jamie's place and The Next Chapter group.

Have a Wonderful Weekend!
Kristin

WTJ goes postal.

I just had THE most delightful conversation with the postal man behind the counter at my post office. I handed him my journal, addressed, taped and ready to make it's journal from the Southern United States all the way up to the Great Lakes.

He, postal employee, picked up the journal and looked at the ends, which were not taped -- they were hoping for a little wear and tear on their travels - and he voiced his concern over it's safety. I told him that the book was called "Wreck This Journal" and that it could handle some wear and tear...but if he insisted, I had some tape in my purse and I could tape it some more.

He asked if I needed it sent next day? He assured me that it would get the best treatment going Next Day Air. I told him that I'd prefer just First Class. I told him that I'd send it book rate, but I needed it to arrive in a week.

He put WTJ on the postal scale and he let out this giant sigh - "It's too heavy to go first class, it'll need to go Priority. Here fill out this address label," as he slid a label and a pen at me, "and I'll get a nice envelope to put the book into."

I said, "We'll just send it this way. No need for an envelope. The book is up for a little adventure."

He said, "But I have to put a sticker or two on it."

I said, "Great! The more the merrier!"

He sighed and asked me to place the Priority Mail stickers on WTJ. I did, one on each side. Then he printed off a metered stamp, which bummed me out because I forgot to tell him I wanted regular stamps. shoot. The funny thing though, he did not ask if I had anything fragile, liquid or perishable in my book. I would have said no, but I would have had to think about it a second!

Journal baby is now in the hands of the United States Postal Service.

It's making it's way to Michigan, to my Mother's home, where I will be arriving in two days. I thought this was a very interesting way to mail it to myself, mailing it from my home and sending it to where I will be traveling! It's about 1200 miles door to door. Quite a journey for such a young book.

Exciting stuff, huh? I bet you're on the edge of your seat wondering how this will turn out! I'll let you know when it arrives and I'll take lots of photos.

Have a great week!
Kristin


Edited 7/17/2009 (Friday) - The journal arrived in my mother's mailbox, safe and sound, yesterday. It might have even been cleaner than when it left! There wasn't a scratch on it. My niece and I are going to be doing quite a bit of wrecking this week, so I'll be taking lots of photos of that.

I'm a part of Jamie's Next Chapter group and I encourage you to see all of the fabulous journal wrecking going on over there. Thanks for stopping by, it's great having you.

Wreck This Journal part 5

Welcome another fabulous installation of Wreck This Journal. You can find all of the participants at Jamie's Next Chapter. 67 people participated last week, although I only made it to 40 of their sites this past week. I can't wait to see how many join up this week and I hope to visit everyone, as it is one of my favorite things to do these days -- sit and look at wreckage lol

Here's my journal this week. I made my first vlog last week, but decided to go back to photos this week. Many of the photos can be enlarged - click on the picture if you want to see it up close and personal.




I did a little bit of window shopping this week when I stumbled upon a stack of WTJs. I can't begin to tell you how funny they looked! They were so small, clean and fresh! I had to move the display around a bit to get my journal out to pose with it's brothers and sisters.

Mine is on the left :)


I love setting the book up like this. It just naturally fans out like that now. Gorgeous, isn't she?!!

I showed this last week, but I added in a quote I found - although I didn't catch the author --

"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions"

That was just perfect for that page, don't you think?

I sat down on the couch one evening and started just going through this litany of things I needed to do, wanted to do, etc. So I decided that it was the perfect time to fill out this page. I blurred out a few things to protect the innocent. The house in the middle was a house my husband and I went to a week or two ago. This was from the sales flier. My internal dialog always includes - "I don't want to move...oooh, that's a cute place!"




These are supposed to be little houses with chimneys. This page is still evolving, but I wanted to include it now because I didn't have many coloring projects this week.

I've been working on this page since the beginning - funny I cut off the page number. I started and ended with 22. I haven't placed a single other page number in the entire book.



These dolls are a cut out from a magazine. I added in the polka dots, if you couldn't tell.

I drank from the funnel a few weeks ago, but forgot to show it - I then let it dry, folded it up and taped it back in the book.


My Previous Wreckages -- All on one page! HERE I have to say - as I was looking through them, I have two weeks titled Week 3. Now, that's a wreck!! I won't change it though as it goes right along with going with the flow of creativity, wrecking and letting go.

One of my dear friends, Bob (I call her Bob, she calls me Bob - ahhh friendship!) was following along with my journal wreckage and last week she and her daughter just happened to spend a few hours in a bookstore and they just happened to pick up a book for each of them! They immediately came home and started in on their journals. I'm so proud of you Bob! Enjoy!!

I hope you enjoy my journal. I've been so inspired by so many of the other wreckers. Thank you for being a part of this -- and thanks to all of you NOT a part of the group for reading along :) It's great having you!

Have a fabulous weekend!
Kristin


edited to add ***I've got two swaps going on for the Favorite Page(s). I haven't sent out either, nor I have received any. One of my swap partners asked for an additional week, so I agreed! I need to embellish my favorite pages just a little bit more, then they are going in the mail!

Wreck This Journal part 4

It's another fabulous installation of Wreck This Journal. There are so many people participating (and I've enjoyed going to each blog seeing what each person has done) that I'm still so very grateful that I found Jamie's Next Chapter. I've never had so much fun coloring, cutting, gluing and creating. Please go visit the other wreckers if you have a chance. 80 people participated last week. That's 80 different ways to wreck a journal! I can't wait to see how many join up this week.


I became brave today. I made a video of me talking about the journal. Someone else last week said that they just hit the start button and talked and just did it. So, that's what I did. I didn't comb my hair or put on lipstick or anything, I just went for it! I was so nervous! I rarely post my picture, let alone a video. Ah well, this is all about breaking out of our shells, right?!

So, here's my submission this week for Wreck this Journal. Please laugh and enjoy the show!! I have a few photos below, too, as I wasn't able to get everything into just a few minutes. AND due to the lack of patience on my part - I totally cut off the end of my video. LOL Being a dork is so much fun.




Here is the page that I sent off to my friend and her family. I can't believe I cut off the most important part of my video! Well, here, let me explain. Rachel folded the paper in half and asked each child to draw only on their own side - no peeking! Turns out each child was thinking of dinosaurs! Bill, the dad, got in on the act and he added in the football (being a football coach, it sort of figures lol). Rachel made it all into a football theme and added in the finishing touches, plus the referee. I love it.

Here is the picture. You can click to enlarge it.



I took the envelope that this arrived in, cut it to fit the book and then taped this page to the envelope and taped the whole thing back into the journal. Excellent! Thanks to Kole and Gage, Bill and Rachel for helping me! You guys did a great job!!




Here is the paper chain that I made from the book. The paper chain is hanging from my lamp pull chain. I took a few dozen photos of this and promptly forgot about it. Now, any of you with cats know that I have just created a VERY tempting plaything. It finally was just too much for her.

She begged me to take it off the lamp and toss it on the floor for her. I finally obliged. She managed to tear the thing apart in about 5 minutes. She wrecked my paper chain! Good Kitty!





Oh my goodness, I nearly forgot! I took my journal into the shower the other day. This is the before photo - and pretty much, it's the after, too. I didn't plunge it into water or anything, but I got sufficiently wet for a regular shower. I was quite pleased.

Have a fabulous weekend! Here in the United States we are celebrating our Independence Day on Saturday. I'm looking forward to all of the Fireworks that I can see right from my patio.

Kristin

Wreck This Journal part 3

Welcome to this weeks Wreck This Journal update!! I've done a lot of wrecking, drawing, handing the book to friends, asking them to write in it and I even sent off the "ask a friend to destroy this" page in the mail to a friend that has two young boys. I can't wait to see what they end up doing with that page.

I spent most of last week going door to door to all of Wreckers that participated in Jamie's The Next Chapter group. Everyone who participates has the exact same journal, but everyone does something different or interprets the prompts on each page differently somehow.

If you get a chance, please go visit some or all of the Journal Wreckers at The Next Chapter.

Write with a pen in mouth.
I really disliked the prompt for this page because I'm not an artist and I don't just come up with things to draw. So writing with a pen in my mouth, concentrating on moving the pen, there was virtually no way I could think of what I was drawing while concentrating on getting the pen to stay in my mouth and draw on the page.

So I did what any non-drawer does. I saw a picture of a girl with glasses and I said - BINGO! that's what I'll draw! So that's how I came up with the subject material for this particular masterpiece :)


I write out all of my grocery lists on post-its, so when I was finished with them, I put them on the Write Your Grocery List page. I noticed that on one of the orange notes I put down Yogrit. My sister used to say that when she was a kid and I've never stopped grinning over that particular word, so I use it when I can. I know...it's yogurt.


This is my contribution to the Magazine page...this came from SKIRT magazine. I think it was last months issue. You can click on the picture to enlarge it to read the text. I made little cuts on the side to make it sort of skirt-flirty. I've fluffed it up several times, but it goes flat as soon as I close the book.

I colored in the opposite page. Not quite sure what else I'm going to do with that page, but it needs more.

I drew two sets of fat lines and thin lines and thought they looked like bar codes, so I started taking the bar codes off of items that I purchased and added them to this page. Fun, huh?

This was a lot of fun. I was looking forward to doing the Create a Nonstop Line page. I was watching the TV show MONK while doing this page and it was their Christmas episode, so I drew the wreath and the tree. My husband was frying up some bacon, so that's what the wavy lines represent. Zora and Stella are my nieces and since I was thinking of them, I added their names to the non-stop line.


This the Found Objects/Things page. Some of the items were found in my house, but several of the items were found outside. I tore out the Make a Funnel page and then I drank the water from the funnel. After it dried, I put it here. The "it" card is an eBay promotional card. I've got a bread tag, a rubberband from some veggies, popscicle sticks, a discount tag, the little bird from an expired CC and the match book cover from a book of matches that came in an MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) that I got during Hurricane Francis a few years back. I think this will become more full by the end of July.

Someone else in the WTJ group also used dryer lint for the Put Pocket Lint here page. I don't normally wear pants with pockets, so this really was my non pocket lint, I'm just positive!


Tear this page out - Put it through the laundry. I did! I taped it to the last page and back cover of the book.
Remember when I said I needed help getting a picture together in my brain in order to draw? Well I went over to Claudine Hellmuths blog and saw this beachy picture and immediately sketched the Kristin version on the Color This Entire Page page. So this picture was inspired by Claudine Hellmuth. I enjoyed coming up with the design and coloring it, it was a lot of un.

I worked on so many more pages, but I'm going to hold off showing you all of them because I'm going to need to show something the last weeks of the event! I'm cruising through this book and am really having a blast.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Have a wonderful Fabulous Weekend!
Kristin