"Wreck This Journal" Chronicles: Chapter 1

This is so much fun! I had a ball doing a lot of "wrecking" tonight at my parents' house.

"INSTRUCTIONS...
1. Carry this with you EVERYWHERE you go!
2. Follow the instructions on every page.
3. Order is not important.
4. Instructions are open to interpretation.
5. Experiment! (Work against your better judgement!)

WARNING: During the process of this book you will get dirty.
You may find yourself covered in paint,or any other number of foreign substances.
You will get wet.
You may be asked to do things you question.
You may grieve for the perfect state that you found your book in.
You may begin to see creative destruction everywhere.
You may begin to live more recklessly!"

My favorite part is doodling. I'm quite the doodler...

I got a lot more stains to go, but here's the first. It's the stain I make most often...usually on my hubby's cheek. And there's the lipstick color I use in case anyone was dying to know (it has to be 952A...the A is very important...952 is a completely different shade).

We tested all the pens in the "pen mug" at my parents' house and threw out the ones the didn't work anymore (there were less than I expected). Mom and Adam helped. I still have a lot of space left to fill though.

More coming soon!

Until then...go on YouTube and do a search for "Wreck This Journal" and see the crazy & funny ways other people have wrecked their journals. WARNING: You may need to weed through some of the videos, because some of them are kind of offensive because they're done by teenage girls who like to drop the F-bomb and/or show way too much cleavage (yeah...skip the one that's titled "Wreck This Journal. DOOO IT").

There is one that's kind of funny with this girl and her boyfriend (or brother...I can't tell) doing the page where you're supposed to throw something (pencil, markers, a ball/rock dipped in paint) at a target (they keep missing the book and hitting the person holding the book). There is also one pretty geeky guy that does the "burn this page" page with a LASER! It's kind of long and you gotta fast forward through a lot of boring geek speak about his laser (that includes big science-guy words like "nanometers"), but it's pretty cool that he did it with a LASER! I may use CJ's woodburning tool to do my burning page.

I may do a video to document the more active aspects of wrecking the journal (then I'll have to figure out how to post video to my blog). I wish I'd recorded poking the holes in the page with a pencil...I was giggling the whole time. My family thought I was nuts. Dad didn't get the point of the journal. I had to explain that it's to break the perfectionism so many people get when it comes to journals (myself included). And to enjoy the experience rather than having a perfect end product.

Christmas Present Post Part 2: Fraggles, Muppets, & Wreck This Journal

It's no secret that I'm a lover of all things Muppets...including my favorite show from my childhood, Fraggle Rock.

Believe it or not, the stuffed Fraggles and the DVD were given to me by seperate people. The 3rd Season DVD set was from CJ. The Fraggle toys were from my brother, Adam, and his girlfriend, Theresa. I guess Theresa got all of them out of a claw machine that is on the boardwalk at the New Jersey shore (while Adam supplied the quarters). The only one I don't have now is Mokey, which I guess wasn't available in the claw machine...but I consider it a labor of love to spend the time getting each of the characters from a claw machine.

The other really cool gift my Adam gave me was a Muppet Whatnot Gift Kit that he said should be coming in the mail soon. Then I can go online and order it from FAO Schwartz (a store in NYC).
"Once they get their puppet design just the way they want it, they can either visit the Muppet Whatnot Workshop in New York and have it made right there, OR starting in February 2009 they can use the online Whatnot Designer to submit thair orders, which will be completed in 3-4 weeks"

Oh, and that basket is an antique picnic basket Mom got for me. Apparantly I was asking once about where to get one.

Remember back when I posted about KittyPinkStars and mentioned that I wanted Wreck This Journal for Christmas? I guess my mom went right out and bought it for me after reading that post. I think I'll be taking my cue from KittyPinkStars Blog and photographing my journal's various phases of destruction and posting it on my blog.

Take a good look...it will never look this way again.

Yay!...project!

My Fellow Monstermakers: KittyPinkStars

This week's monstermaker is KittyPinkStars. I've come accross her a couple times on my crafty blog internet travels. She deserves a post.

I love her quirky little characters. It almost seems unfair to call her a "monstermaker" since her creations are so sweet looking. They make me want to consume large amounts of sugary treats...kind of like how I always seem to crave chocolate when watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the new Tim Burton & Johnny Depp one...Gene Wilder creeps me out).

Kitty makes most of her little guys out of socks (a woman after my own heart! GO SOCKS!), and also knits some of them. And of course...she has an Etsy shop if you want one of her sweets-loving critters for your very own.

One day I may attempt to knit a monster...but for now my knitting skills are limited to to simple scarves and fingerless gloves/gauntlets...maybe a hat on the Knifty Knitter loom.

Anyway...her blog is fun. She is "pink,kooky,obsessed by all things japanese,sweet treats,kittens,knitting random things! Oh and making sock creatures!" She seems like a very fun & quirky gal. I think we'd get along well if we ever met. Her most recent posts are about the Wreck This Journal...which I would love to do myself someday. Seeing what she did with hers inspires me. I just have a hard time justifying spending money on a journal to destroy. But I suppose that's the point...to break oneself of OCD-like perfectionism. I have the same habit she does of having a compulsion to buy blank journals, but then not writing in them for fear of "ruining" them.

Yeah...I need that Wreck This Journal. Will someone buy it for me for Christmas?

*Both pictures are from KittyPinkStars' blog & flickr pool*