Affirmation Journal

What feels like ages ago but was probably only a mere month, I came across a challenge that I could not WAIT to participate in (and then look what happened...I waited...as is the life of any mom.) Tracy of Tracy Weinzapfel Studios, amazingly talented, and President of the one and only Helmar USA, amazing adhesive, challenged her followers to create an affirmation journal. She provided a link that was the key to making a journal tailored to my specific desires. I was looking to push my crafting business into high gear. I needed to remind myself that it was okay to pursue these interests more aggressively, that cleaning the house could wait. I haven't really been very good about getting in the craft room to add items to my Etsy shop or catch up in the kids' albums. I let the fact that my husband works his butt off and I stay at home to raise the kids affect what I do each day. I tend to clean a lot, not being able to say "It's okay if that's messy, I can clean it later," thinking about how hard hubby works so that I can be here to clean. If I worked, it wouldn't be as difficult. I'd be working, how can I possibly get it all done? I need to be able to call crafting my "work" to be able to succeed. I need to justify all of these hours on the computer, posting items and tweaking my shop or blog design, not to mention finding unique ways to advertise.

I started off at the site Tracy recommends, bmindful. It has a variety of categories for affirmations, making it easy to choose affirmations that will work for you. I chose a few nice career-related affirmations, words that would really get through to my brain that I need that craft room time to push this business to a new level.

I sat down and got to work, and here is what I came up with:

The cover, a mix of acrylic paint and stickers. the flower is stamped and painted over:

The inside of the cover features a stamp I love so very much. If you can't make out the words, it reads "creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. art is knowing which ones to keep." I stamped it randomly all over the inside cover after painting it green and adding little bits and pieces from my stash, making only one of the quotes visible. Love how it turned out!

Here is the first page, and how I created the wonderfully textured paint effect. I started by affixing a scrap of window screen from contractor hubby :) (thanks dear!) and painting over it with acrylic paint.

See that wonderful texture? I love dimension!

And here's the finished page. I rolled the paper edges at the bottom and finally used this great wing stamp :) I've had it for over a year now and was glad to finally use it! I also brought out the texture of the paint by running a charcoal ink pad over it lightly.

A close up of the rolled edges :)

I love how it is coming together, and plan to share another page or two this week at some point. After all, I have to remember that this is very important to me...time for this busy mom of 3 to do something just for ME. Hey, that's catchy...

If you decide to make an affirmation journal in your life for any reason whatsoever, head over and drop Tracy a line...she'd really love to see what you've done!