Laura Williamson RN

  Yes I made it through Nursing School!  There were many days that I didn't think I would, some days I cried, lots of laughter and I made some awesome friends that I will cherish.
      Now I have to get my life back together and it is going slow.  I am getting used to the working world.  I have a job in corrections, something that I never dreamed of doing. I am sleeping a lot because of working on second shift and getting used to the schedule as well as missing my family.  I am dabbling in my crafts again.  I am still learning about nursing.  That will never end.  

Today I started another project (yes I started another!).  

     I bought two cheap composition books at the store.  I wanted to work on another altered book.  The journals I have bought recently have turned into just that, journals.  First they are full of nursing school and now with my job.  I figure that I will keep them and write in them and well, work on an altered book separate.  It is a great plan...

     I took one of the books and decided on a thick water color paper cover that I can doodle or paint or whatever on.  I grabbed a paintbrush, my mod podge and went to the kitchen table.  My craft table is a shambles, it is on my to-do list!

     I laid attached two pieces of the paper to the front and back of the book with the glue, leaving the spine to cover with ribbon or something.  I will trim the edges later.  Then I thought "hey, I should glue some pages together so that they are thicker!"  Ummmm yeah.  I got a bit carried away  and started at the front of the book glued either 2 or 3 pages together and then from the back.  What you are seeing in this picture is the wax paper I placed between the pages so the ones I want to use don't stick together.  It might be a bit hard to peel that off but better than the whole book stuck together!

This is how it looks, you can see the glue made the lines in the book run a bit, but I don't care because I will be covering them up mostly anyway.

 

I was thinking I might take some of the pages out because once you start sticking things in a book like this it gets really bulky.  I got a lot of pages stuck together in the 45 minuets I was busy with the glue and brush, there is still about half the book left though.  

Right now it is sitting under my old nursing text books to dry.  I want to pull it out but I also know with that much glue, it will need a few days. 

 Things I learned.

• The glue smells, when I came home I could still smell it even though the book is in the office.
• The pages that you are gluing together are smoother (less wrinkled) if you use the next page to press it down.  
• Just gluing the two pieces of paper to the front and back of the cover gives me many options later.  I can trim them even or I can fold them over and glue them down. I was just doing the prep work today.  Get the glue on and let it dry!
• Did I mention that the glue smells, I was thinking of adding some cinnamon or something while I was doing it...maybe I will test that later on something else.
• Waiting to see how it turned out is really hard.
• Thinking about decorating the pages is making me impatient.  
• The whole point of this is that I actually DID IT.   Thinking about it and planning it are no good.  The book only cost $1 and the glue I have sitting on the shelf waiting to be used.  I already paid for it!  I know it might be another project that sits around, but at least I worked on something. 
• I came home from work and hubby has a button off of one of his work shirts.  I guess that goes on the to-do list as well!