Book of Days 2013, Volume 1...

I'm so excited to be starting my brand new Book of Days for 2013 - yeayyy!!! 

Here's what the book looks like...

 

This is my first time working with paper like this.  It's handmade and super thick and rough!

The first thing I did was paint the cover...

 

 

To give you an idea of how rough the paper is, here are a few pics of the process of creating my first background. I colored over the page with gelato crayons, and then blended them with water and gesso...

 

The pinks are my attempt at coloring. The yellow shows how it looked after adding water.  I discovered I can't use too much water right on the bare paper or it starts falling apart...

 Thankfully it took to blending well with gesso.

 and here's my first finished spread.  My word for 2013 is balance...

Thanks so much for visiting and for your kind words.  I wish you a wonderful weekend my friends!