A fresh start

I've been contemplating a base for a small art journal/altered book project that I've been wanting to do.  I had a bit of time to kill the other day, while waiting for my niece to finish up with an appointment, and I decided to cruise though the dollar store - not for anything in particular, but just to check out what they had.

Lo and behold.....I struck gold!

I found the base for my project....a child's board book!

I warn you though, if you're a book lover like I am, the following picture is pretty gasp inducing!

I coated the entire book with gesso as soon as I got it home - without even stopping to take a photo.  I knew it was going to be the HARDEST part of the project (I HATE "ruining" a book for any reason! Even though the book was purchased specifically to "ruin" this way!).

Once that was done, I was in the mood to begin on my first page!

 This project is going to be about some creative exploration for me (hence the arrows on "experimenting", "making mistakes" and "having fun")...trying some new techniques and products as I go....so I felt this quote was an appropriate start.