Wreck This Journal: The Final Week

It is the final week of the Wreck This Journal play-along and I've spent some time thinking about what I have learned during these crazy two months.

I learned that while I am not willing to bake a journal into a batch of brownies, I am willing to take it in the shower, leave it on the sidewalk to dry and be mildly amused when a bird poops on it.

Here are some other things I earned:

Butter cream frosting starts to smell pretty funky after a month or so.

You can paint with coffee.


Crayons and markers are fun to play with and I don't do that nearly as much as I ought to.

Ash, at least paper ash does not adhere well no matter what kind of glue you use.

There are a lot of four letter words.

Blue is still my favorite color.


I had a blast with this project and it opened up all kinds of doors in my head. The act of wrecking loosened me up and I'm grateful for that.

Wreck This Journal: Week Eight

I played with fire this week.



This was the most fun I've had with the journal. I felt inspired and daring. I loved setting this tiny blaze in the dark.

Wreck This Journal: Week Seven

So, it's been another quiet week for the journal. While my wreckage has slowed way down, I have spent a good deal of time thinking about what I'm learning, not only from the journal itself (hello, control issues) but from the rest of the wrecking crew who have so fearlessly threw themselves at this project with their whole hearts, and paintboxes, and glue guns, and feather collections. I have been truly inspired.

I tackled a couple of pages, broke some rules, made a mess and it felt pretty good.

Here are my implements of destruction.

Yes, I used bouncy balls.

I clipped my journal to a lawn chair, dipped the balls in paint and threw them at the "white things only" page.

Mess! Rule breaking!

I took the leftover paint and use a chopstick to smear it on this page. Then I rolled the chopstick over the paint smears which spread them out. For good measure, I rolled a golf ball in what little paint was left and rolled it over the pages.

I highly recommend golf balls. It created some nice funky texture.

This was a lot of fun for me. I haven't really played with paint since Max gave up finger painting. It felt really good.

I'm looking forward to next week. I think I'm going to play with fire!

Wreck This Journal: Week Six

It was a slow wrecking week for me. I am bumping up against some of the prompts that are the most out of my comfort zone, and spent a good deal of time avoiding my journal.



Here's to diving in head first next week!

Wreck This Journal: Week Five

Two days. It took my journal two days to dry out in the hot South Texas sun, and by the time it was dry, it was time to leave for our family vacation.


I took the journal with me but it rarely saw the light of day. So, I left a memento in the bed at the hotel


and when we got home, we brought the journal out to play.

Wreck This Journal: Week Four

It's been a slow journal wrecking week over here. Lots of small tasks have gotten in the way of any major wreckage, so last night I had to resort to something drastic - the shower.

I brought the journal in with me and though I felt very comfortable being naked with it, I couldn't help but let out a few little squeals as my journal soaked up all that water and became heavier and heavier.

It was saturated.

It's currently outside on the sidewalk, drying out in the sun.

Wreck This Journal: Week Three

I did not tackle the pages that frighten me the most this week, I played it safe, but I played. I had fun. I played with my coffee.

I doodled around my fruit stickers.

I use Sharpies for some of this and got some fantastic bleed through on the next page.

The Kid and I played Journal Golf which seemed a lot more like journal soccer to me.

It's not too late to play along and join in the wreckage.

Wreck This Journal: Week Two

I had a blast this week, roaming around the internet and seeing all the "wreckage" - over 100 bloggers are participating, including Karen! Follow the linked sidebar button if you'd like to check out how some other folks are "wrecking" this week, or play along.

This week The Kid and I smeared leftover birthday cake with green icing and some vanilla ice cream on a page. The smearing was fun but the end result was kind of yucky looking thus, no picture. It did help me let go a little and be less worried about messing up, making a mistake or "ruining" something. The cake page is messy and will probably lose it's buttercream smell sometime soon but ha ha, who cares, I just moved on to another page.

Here's my favorite wreck of the week - the "poke holes with a pencil page". I used a knitting needle because sharp pencils are a little hard to come by in our house. (Can anyone recommend a decent pencil sharpener, please?) After I poked my random holes, I connected them with a little bit of old sock yarn.
I think it looks a little like a kite.

Wreck This Journal: Where to Begin?

Beginning is always the hardest part, isn't it? I pulled out my copy this morning and flipped through the pages, some writing prompts, a page for four letter words (The Kid was delighted with this one), burn this page (what?), lick this page (huh?). My palms were suddenly sweaty and I wondered what in the world I'd gotten myself into.

I am not one of those pristine book kind of people. I write in the margins. I eat toast while I'm reading, sometimes propping the book open with the butter dish. Open almost any book on my shelf and some sand might fall out, or sawdust, or crumbs, or blades of grass, so I'm not hung up on the concept of "defacing" a book. I am a little intimidated by some of the brilliant, arty women who are participating in this book group.

But I want to play. I want to get out there. I want to be brave and silly and stretch.

I put the book down and went into the kitchen. Slicing strawberries, I came across one that was mushy and shaped a little like a cloud. I used it as a stamp to decorate my title page.

Baby steps.