Wreck This Journal: Week 2

Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 8:40 am (fun)
Tags: Wreck This Journal

Journal wrecking commenced last Friday. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read the Week 1 post about the Wreck This Journal book blogging group.)

The journal in its current state

When I told my husband about the book, he looked at me like I was crazy. Then he opened it. He read every page with increasing excitement and asked if he could play too.

Suddenly and vivaciously he chucked the journal across the room and proclaimed, “it said to make a destructive unpredictable movement with the journal so I threw it!”

I love this man.

Here is the destruction that ensued this week…

1. A walk in the rain.
2. Tea bag staining.
3. Fuji apple sticker added.
4. Water-colored the home page, which subsequently bled through to the other side. Bonus!
   

   Water-color and swirl punches on the title page

5. Wrote my name in various pencils, chalks, and markers.
6. Page numbering, starting with 42. Because I can. (If you read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you know why 42.)
   

   Page numbering (not starting at one- where would the fun be in that?)

7. Chewing.
8. Circled the letters of my name in the warning message.
9. Punched swirl and heart shaped holes in intro.
10. Sewing. Beads. I even sewed one page to another with a string of beads hanging between them.
    

    Sewing pages (together) with beads for splashes of color

11. Office supplies: post-it, sticky colored flags, business card, paperclips, staples, highlighter, white-out.
12. A couple of throws.

In these first steps I learned that I really limit myself. So far my destruction is fairly clean: “pretty” water-coloring or containing page destruction to the center portion of the pages. I’m defacing a book, but whether it can be called destruction is debatable.

My husband found me using decorative punches to cut shapes in the first few pages. He wanted to help so I handed him the journal and a swirl punch. Part way through, the punch got caught in the paper. My husband tugged and pulled and twisted the punch to try to free it from the page. I cringed and winced. Then I realized that was entirely the point. He didn’t just one-up me. He blew right by. My journal now has a proud crumply torn bit right on the title page.

I guess I need to work on my destruction skills (though I’m trying to keep the book in decent condition until I mail it to myself). I foresee a long battle ahead. Whether that is a literal battle against the book or a metaphorical battle within my mind remains to be seen.

Watch for the Friday post on The Next Chapter: Wreck This Journal site to see how the rest of the group is doing.

Happy wrecking!

A peak at the pages