Altered Journal

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  The Tension Doesn't Help You Progress
I have been enjoying swimming lately.  I have taken some private lessons and now I participate in a group swim session when I am in town.  This week while I was swimming my coach offered me a piece of advice, "Relax your hands.  You can move through the water just as effectively if you just relax."  I hadn't even realized how tightly I was cupping my hands as I swam, pulling through the water.  When I relaxed my hands I became aware of how much of that tension hadn't stopped with my hands.  Holding my hands so tightly had caused me to tense my shoulders and my arms.  It felt so freeing to just let it all relax.  Such a simple piece of advice with such a huge impact.  The same is true with our art.  Our tension of not knowing how to start or what to make or whether or not it will be good enough can hold us back.  Relax the tension and allow yourself to progress.
I seem to be developing a habit of stopping in a store called Mosaic at the Denver Airport when I travel for work.  The habit is to purchase some type of creative book - my gift to myself for going on the road :)  On my last trip I purchased the book Creative Awakenings by Sheri Gaynor.  I'm not through the entire book yet, but I was intrigued by a project she shares at the beginning of the book - a Book of Dreams journal.  What I was most intrigued by were the instructions for how to alter the spiral bound book.  Lucky for me I often come across free spiral-bound notebooks that are presented to participants at conferences.  Books that would otherwise be thrown away if there are more books than participants.  How fortuitous that on the same trip that I bought the book, I was also able to pick up a blank journal!  Or maybe not fortuitous at all...just the Universe working its magic :)  So I decided to try altering the journal and here is the result!  I'm quite pleased with it for my first try - a mix of painting, alcohol inks, metal embossing, trial and error and fun :)  Now the only question is what will I fill it with????