Necessary Bindings

If this is your first visit to Wrapped Emotions, welcome and thanks for coming. You should begin by reading this to learn what it's all about.

Here's the wrap on last week's project.

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This week I want to correct a mistake made when I first explained my thinking behind Wrapped Emotions...

Many of the completed projects will be in a final form that can be kept in a binder...an art journal...if you so choose. Or you may simply enjoy them for a while and disperse or dispose of them as you see fit. I have chosen to purchase a spiral bound art journal 10"x10" whose pages will serve as the base for many of my creations. Some 3-D projects will not be suitable for the journal.

There was a flaw in my thinking. Having our completed WE projects be disposable, not bound firmly in some manner, diminishes their importance...gives them no validity. So I am changing my mind because...

Loose pages can be shuffled, crumpled, lost, trashed. Loose pages can be stuffed here and there. The wind can blow them out of your hand. They are less important when disconnected.

Our WE creations should represent something substantial. A book has substance...pages bound together...like your day to day life. Your creations and thoughts deserve the same substance. The time you set aside to create, connect and express yourself should not be treated loosely. It deserves a proper binding to signify it's substance.

This week I want you to purchase or make an art journal in which to create your projects or to put photos of your creations which are not worked on paper. An art journal being a (spiral-my choice) bound book of sturdy blank pages of any dimensions you choose. You can find them at an art supply store, arts and craft store, even T*rget and W*lmart. You may construct your own book of bound, blank pages in any manner you choose.

Once you have the journal, take your first WE project (the collage) and mount it in the book. Trim it, cut it into pieces if you need to, re-collage it, but put it in there. Then from your blog print a copy of your photo and post for your last week's project and mount it in the book. Do any additional art work, embellishment or collage you choose as you add these creations to your art journal. You're creative. You can make them fit. You do not need a huge book. If this is your first week participating, wonderful. Simply purchase or construct your art journal.

Next, make the journal your own. Decorate the cover. No specific instructions. No list of materials, no specific medium.

Now snap photos of your journal's cover and the two completed pages. Post the photos on your blog. If this is your first WE project, you'll post a photo of your journal cover.

What you are creating now has substance. It is real. It is not being treated loosely. The wind cannot blow it away. As time goes by you will better understand the importance of the binding...the wrapped emotions.

Links to enjoy and inspire:

How To Collage In Your Art Journal
Teesha Moore Art Journals
Art Junk

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Here's the how-to of weekly participation:

• Leisurely, happily create your project for the week.
• Post a photo or scan of it on your blog any time, any day Monday through Saturday with as many or as few words as you choose to accompany it...no words?...no problem...unless the week's prompt calls for words.
  
• If you so choose, and I love it when you choose, include the WE button in your post. If you choose not to post the button (and I will still love you), please link back to the current week's post at WE within the text of your post. Thank you. Grab the button code.
  
• Come to Wrapped Emotions and sign Mr. Linky with the direct link to your WE post for the week. Please don't make visitors scroll and search for your week's contribution by merely linking to your homepage.
  
• After signing Mr. Linky, please also leave a comment on the Mr. Linky post at WE. I will be drawing for the weekly gift from comments.
  
• Use Mr. Linky to visit the blogs of fellow participants. You have all week to pop in and out to visit. Offer words of observation, sheer delight and when called for, words of support, encouragement or comfort.
  
• Check back each Monday for the new WE prompt and to see if you won the previous week's gift, which will be chosen by random.org from the comments. (Do you have an online store? Would you like to feature it at WE?)

Questions or comments about this week's prompt...please let me hear from you on this post. I love it when you talk to me.

*If you have completed your Necessary Bindings project, sign Mr. Linky here.