The art of travel

AEDM days 2 and 3

I'm not sure I made art today, but I made progress. I made a couple of dozen "journal cards" that I can carry with me while I'm on my trip so I can make notes as I go. I also put together a small scrapbook kit -- some scissors, a hole punch, and a glue stick -- so that I can add things to the "scrapbook shell" I made yesterday.

I must admit that I used to make fun of scrapbooking... but I have come to love the process of capturing memories. I don't scrapbook everything, just travel and running. I love to look back through old scrapbooks -- and I do so much more often than I have ever looked back through old photos. And when I'm feeling worried about a race, it's great to look back over my running scrapbook to remind myself how far we've come and how much I love running -- even if I don't always love it WHILE I'm running!

Not sure what tomorrow will bring -- some last-minute laundry, packing, and tidying the house before we leave. I wish I could think of a good airport/airplane project!

AEDM Day 2: NYC scrapbook "shell"

It's day 2 of AEDM... and 5 days before the NYC Marathon. I'm a little anxious about both! I wanted to put together a simple "shell" of a scrapbook to take with me on my trip so that I could both capture memories as they happen and have something on hand to be creative with!

As I type this, I realize that my camera is in the car, so I won't be posting a picture today. (See, it's like this: I always paint my toenail something special before a race... so I've got wet blue and orange polish on my toes. You wouldn't want me to smudge my "powertoes", would you?).

But imagine if you will a chipboard cover, some long, thin envelopes to hold odds and ends, some gorgeous paper inserts, all wrapped in Little Yellow Bicycle's "Pack Your Bags" paper collection. Ever since I signed up for the race back in March I've kept my eye out for NYC embellishments; I'll be adding them as I go along. If I get some time tomorrow I will be making some journal cards to carry with me -- I find that if I don't journal right away, I forget things!

Happy creating, everyone!

AEDM Day 1: Dia de los Muertos Calavera

Today is the first day of "Art Every Day Month". I had hoped to "prepare" better for this month... make sure I had brainstormed some projects, gotten the supplies, etc. But October got away from me and I found myself a little unprepared for this task.

Happily, today is also Dia de los Muertos -- the Day of the Dead. I've always loved the sugar skulls, or calavera, so when I saw plain papier mache skulls at the craft store several weeks ago, I bought a few to play with. Inspiration + on-hand supplies + desperation = a great little project to kick things off.

This was something of an office supplies project -- okay, the white base is poster paint (not Liquid Paper...), but the marks are all in Sharpie or highlighter pens. It was fun to doodle and play with filling the space.