Wreck This Journal: 3rd Update!

I, regrettably, have neglected my journal for the greater part of the gap between the last post. I touch it now, on average, once a week, yet it still manages to continue growing and morphing into the gargantuan super-book it now is. Progress with it has been slow, but good.

"crack the spine" featuring horribly-drawn spines and a jellyfish with the lyrics to Brand New's "Seventy Times Seven." "leave this page blank on purpose," which I didn't exactly do. I cut up strips of cardstock and glued them on, then splattered bleach on the page, which made it look all cool and bleach-y.

"glue, staple, or tape these pages together" I did all three by covering it with electrical tape, covering the font with transparent tape, gluing the previous page on top, and then stapling the top of the page. I often forget about this page, even though it's really cool looking.

 "document your dinner," or lunch. I went out for sushi with some friends (one of which has a WTJ) and poured miso soup, soy sauce, chipotle sauce, chicken terriyaki, rice, salad, and other dishes all over the page then smudged it and kept the chop sticks and menue and glued those in. The poor waitress probably thought I was having a mental breakdown.

"test page for pens, paints, markers, or art supplies." This page has been constantly changing since I got the journal. I actually had to go through my pen/pencil cup a few months back and tested all of them on this page. A few Christmas stamps also got tested out on the upper right corner.

"collect the stamps off of all your mail." This page disappointing me big time initially, because what little mail I get doesn't typically come with stamps on it. Then I stumbled across a small box filled with all these cool stamps I kept from a few years back, and the page now  has SOMETHING on it. Scope the sweet UP stamp.

the "sudden unpredictable movement" page also led the journal to a stand-up mixer (this page open) with a dough hook that tore a hole clear through the page. Poor thing didn't stand a chance.

"glue random items here" is making significant progress, although I've never featured this page. It has literally LAYERS of items, all of which either were found or retired from use, or just looked cool. The right page actually fell out from the weight of everything accumulating on it and I had to HOT GLUE the poor thing back in.

"create a drawing using a piece (or several pieces) of your hair." This page is kind of ground-breaking and a lot of conversation-starting and even more gag reflex-inducing. I really hate hair balls and piles of hair and cleaning hair brushes, anything like that, so literally taking a two-week-old ball of hair out of my shower drain and modpodging it into my journal was a huge feat of courage for me. The left page is still in progress, but I really love how it's turning out.

"stain log" and the blank page before it. The stain log has taken FOREVER to even get this far. Nothing is really stainable that I encounter everyday so when I find something that is I take advantage of it, although I normally forget. Does anyone know of anything that stains green? This page could use some green.

"figure out a way to freeze this page." I believe I posted a progress picture of this page (I actually did. Scope it here). I liked the way it was at first, but I love how it looks now. I ended up leaving the journal buried in snow for a day when I volunteered at a youth winter camp a few weeks back and all the pages bled into each other and got all soggy and awesome. It looks like a light leak.

 "slide the journal (this page face-down) down a long hallway." I also posted the progress for this page and promised an explanation. While cleaning said youth room, we took a TON of glow-in-the-dark-stars off the ceiling, and I figured I would stick them in my journal. I really love this page because it just looks rad.

The poor book is getting so fat and out of control. I also lost the writing on the bottom edge when I ran a paint roller (covered in paint) over the bottom, which bled into the book. You can see it on a few pages, at the bottom of the pages.

 The binding is SO CLOSE to just falling apart at the seams. This is also the journal splayed out naturally. I don't know why it thinks it can just do this in front of everyone on the internet. Geeze. No discretion.

I'll keep adding tidbits as time progresses, but it's growing so fragile that I have to limit how much I work on it at once, and I definitely can't carry it around with me anymore - it doesn't fit in any of my bags!