One of my stuggles has been to stay focus on a project and continue it to the end. I have noticed that isn't easy for me and very often I move from project to project, never completeing one before moving on to the next. I thought that it was a matter of distraction, or boredom. And I do think that plays a part. Really though, I do finish the project... in my own way.
I just wrote an updated post about my Junk Journal. That was truly an on again off again project. Mainly because I hated how the cover came out. I hadn't done much work to it, other than adding ribbons to support the inner pages and once I finished the cover I didn't like it. I fooled around with it adding a bit of sparkle. Glitter is always good, right? Well the sparkle might have been nice but my glitter glue changed the color of my paper in a really icky way. The dark maroon color over the plum background went terribly wrong. My clear glitter glue turned whatever was underneath it, maroon zebra stripes and leopard spots an aweful looking green. Yucko! I have no idea how the clear glue could possiblly turn (of all colors) green but there it is. What I thought was a once dark, boring cover, now looked absolutly dreadful - and I hated even looking at it. I had no idea what to do with it. Sure I could paint over it and start all over but I didn't feel it, at all. So I put it aside.
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| Junk Journal |
No worries. While I was making my Junk Journal, I happened apon an article about Midori Journals. They are a nifty little journal cover that you put little notebooks/booklet and such in. The notebooks and other additions are held in by elastic cords strung in the middle of the inside of the cover. As I looked at it I thought, hey, I could make one of those. So I had some stiff, treated cotton fabric and went to town. I actually covered it with the purple leopard spotted paper I used for the Junk Journal. It was the lighter color that I had used as an embellishment. I glued the papers on the canvas really thick and it turned out pretty nice. I liked the cover way better than my Junk Journal... except when I folded the cover over at the binding the paper started to get little tears in it. Now I have used this paper technique on another collaged covers and I didn't have a bit of trouble with tears. It didn't make me happy, but I did finish by stringing the elastic and using it as my daily traveling journal until I could get one I really liked (that didn't look like a mess).
I jumped from that to designing the booklets for my Midori. At first I made more structured type daily pages. I was going to use my computer to make the pages but sadly I had computer problems and my desktop was out of commission and I needed that to format pages correctly. Or did I?
I really wanted to start using my Midori daily to keep track of some of the things I wasn't handling so well. Like budget and finances, blog statistics, my calendar. So I hand made my own, using washi tape and my own lettering. The resulting booklets, which was only going to be a test until I got my computer up and running, turned out to be really cool. I used one booklet. Changed the pages a bit. Tried it some more. Finally I decided I really didn't like wasting so much space if I didn't have something to write in the sections I had made for my daily pages. So I made a blank booklet on fun colored papers with a grid pattern. Even though I missed my graphics, I felt like I only used the space I needed per day and that was better.
I used the new booklet for several weeks and then... I just stopped using my Midori. Again, I had found another project to work on. I wanted to make a special journal for keeping track of my tarot practice. I use tarot cards, not for fortune telling but more as a way to look at different options and different ways of looking at things happening in my life. I am slowly learning the cards. To make it easy I wanted to make a journal where I could write down my meanings and notes about each card. I wanted to have different sections so that I could easily find what I was looking for. And I wanted it to be fun! I had a Molskine Journal that I wasn't using... So I grabbed it and used foam stamps I made from jewelry, coins, shells... all sorts of stuff around the house, got out my distressed ink pads and stamped each section with a color and design that I thought went with that particular section. It was super easy and I loved how it came out. [ It is a quick (because you really don't have to wait for the ink to dry before going on to the next page), easy, way to bring color and design to your pages. If you use lighter colors you can see any ink pen you might use to journal in it. If you use darker colors you may want to use a dark black felt tip like marker or even a dark brush tip marker for your journaling.]
I finished that and do you think I have used it yet? No. I haven't. I am focusing on an online class and my daily practices.
So, why do I jump from project to project? Why can't I finish? Well in a way I do finish. The secret is in the making of this or that... I look at something, decide, hey I can figure out how to make that... and I do. My hope is that I will get back to it and really use whatever I have made. But if I don't, the point is I made whatever it is, in the first place. That is what the original goal and I did it.
How 'bout you? Do you find yourself jumping from project to project? How does that feel to you? Please, let me know!
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