My strange beginning to mixed media

Even as I was creating my Spain Slide Show, I decided to take another class from UNM Continuing Education--this one titled "Journaling through Collage."  I really had no idea what I was getting into--I knew what journaling was, but what did collage consist of these days?  I found some magazines from Stampington, and I immediately realized that collage was not what it used to be--and there were so many other things...

I figured I needed decorative papers--the 12"X12" scrapbook papers would do--and rubber stamps.  I probably got my first of these at Michael's and/or Hobby Lobby.  I knew nothing but what my instincts told me.  So I was really looking forward to this class.  The woman who taught the class was the nicest person one could imagine.  She understood the writing part of journaling, but not the modern journal.  She understood the concept of collage, but her abilities had not progressed beyond her high school days (if that), and she had to have been in her 60's!

The cover...

So I began a "collage journal" of that same trip to Spain.  First, I adhered appropriate decorative papers to cover each page of the drawing pad she told us to bring.  I did the cover, too.  I didn't realize it at the time, but this was going to be my first altered book!  (Everyone else, by the way, was doing either new age material or coping with some kind of grief or loss or problem in her journal.)  I began to add photos I had taken, some embellishments, and some rubber stamping. 

At the same time I was taking this class, I began taking card making classes at Rhonda's Creative Crafting (now defunct).  I think I probably used every technique that Rhonda taught at some point in my "collage journal"  (which more resembled an odd type of scrapbook), so the book actually looked pretty decent.  The teacher told me that she was learning a lot from me! 

Following this fiasco, I decided I had, indeed, created a primitive altered book, and I decided that I would try such a book for real, purchasing Bev Brazelton's Altered Books Workshop.  I'll save my altered books period for the next blog post.

Resources:

Stampington