Book of Days for October 31st...

You may know by now that I love Ravens.  I love the mystical lore and symbolism that surrounds them; and consider the raven to be my animal totem.  It may or may not surprise you to find out that my favorite poem is "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe.

I thought All Hallows Eve would be the perfect time to put the two together on a Book of Days page; so I listened to Vincent Price reading the poem on youtube to set the mood, while I put together this page...

Here's how it turned out...

 

and here are the steps I took to get there...

 I keep meaning to take a photo of what the pages look like before I start working.  Ack.  Sorry.  This one was patterned scrapbook paper on the left and sheet music on the right with some giftwrap collaged on top.  My first step was to apply some modeling paste through a stencil with a credit card.  Then I painted over the whole page with orange and pink heavy body acrylic.


 Here's a closeup of what the modeling paste part looked like...

Then I covered the whole thing with black acrylic - eek!  But I didn't wait for it to dry...

I took a baby wipe and wiped most of it off, just leaving a border.  Then I drew a raven in the corner...

 Here's a detail shot of the raven.  I first drew in a basic outline with a china marker.  Then added details with colored pencils, india ink and a little white pen for the eyes...

 

And here's another look at the finished page.  I wrote in some words from "The Raven" with india ink and a brush.  I also added my journaling around the edges of the page.  To finish it I added some turquoise neocolor II crayon scribblings around the edges.  Here's another look at the finished page...

 The journaling reads:
"I don't have kids who trick or treat or go to any parties myself; but I've come to love the mystical feeling of All Hallow's Eve.  They say that the veil between the two worlds is thinnest at this time.  Makes me wonder if it's true; who might be with me tonite."

I'm loving my Book of Days so much, I decided to sign up for the Effy Wild's Book of Days premium program, which should be fun!  It starts December 31st! For more info - click here.

I've been thinking alot about my creative plans for 2013, have you?  I'm not feeling much of a need to do regular scrapbook layouts lately; so that may just fall by the wayside next year.  This is actually good, because it will free up some time to focus on more art journaling and lots of fun with Project Life!

Also- just a reminder that "Mixed Emotions;" the Art journaling workshop that I am teaching with Marit Barentsen is scheduled for February 4 - March 14, and it's going to be tons of fun!  It's all about expressing emotion in your journaling!  My favorite thing - yeayyy!!!  Click here to read my blogpost with lots more info or on the widget in the right sidebar to register!  Let me know if you have any questions!  I hope you will join us!

Have an awesome week my friends!