A little jaunt into my altered art territory

Okay... so I also do altered art stuff as well... though more aptly altered objects. This is the 8x8 Mulberry Album from Pioneer (also available as a 12 x 12 and each album is slightly different in color and leaves/flower petals). I'm a texture kind of girl. I used to describe my wardrobe as "if it doesn't feel good, I don't own it." Of course, Hurricane Katrina took my collections of absolutely everything so there went the velvets, chenille, brushed cotton and linen, silk and the rest of it. Mulberry paper feels good in the hands. It is soft and nubby and you just KNOW you are holding something someone made... but it is a little too feminine for my tastes so... here's how this happened. I wanted a new journal and nothing I saw in the stores I was grabbing me. This album however kept finding it's way into my hands. I love the feel of it. "Ah, but it's an album," my brain would say and I would dutifully put it back on the shelf and walk away. And then, as I was learning to use the Tim Holtz Masks, I thought... "wow, I bet this would look cool on Mulberry paper." While green is not usually one of my favs in colour choices, the leaves in this paper really caught my eye so I purchased it. I sanded the paper a bit to create an even more textured surface so that the ink would not be uniform in it's application. The ink (Craft Smart, green) I applied straight from the pad. While it was drying, I outlined the edges with a Micron dark green pen to give some extra definition to the shape. Once dry, the green was too green for me, so I took the VersaMagic chalk ink in Aloe Vera and sponged that over the surface and highlighted some of the curves. The Life Unscripted Stamp (Hampton Art) is stamped on with Soot Black Distress Ink.
Then it was just a simple replace the plastic scrapbook sleeve pages with paper and I now have a journal that suits me. For more on Pioneer, check them out at http://www.memoryscrapbooks.com/ . You'll likely be surprised at how many albums you already love are from them. I also have to give a plug for their military medallions which are truly beautiful. I have a deep respect for those who choose to serve this country and protect our freedoms and I think it's great to have scrapbook embellishments that really are impressive. (for more on military scrapbooking, K and Company also has a great line).
Now, I'm generally a fast scrapper. It usually takes me more time to clean my workspace and find my supplies than it does to actually create a project or layout but this one took some time. Mulberry paper is absorbent, so the dry time was excruciatingly long for me. I also spent a lot of time trying to decide on text for the cover and finally gave up. One night while I was organizing the stamps at work, I saw this one and I knew it was the right thing. So this project had a completion time of well over a month, but the actual work was about two hours; the drying time was about 36 hours. And here's my last plug for my National Scrapbooking Day giveaway. Post a comment anywhere on my blog to be eligible to win my little giveaway.