The "Spell Book"

So here I am bored out of my mind chilling at the house. Austin is away training again but tis the season for the spooks! So I am channeling my inner Sharron Needles and making my own grimoire!!! I'm taking inspiration from the movie "Thirteen Ghosts."

PART 1 - The Black Zodiac Symbols

Supplies

• Inks!!! I am using Jim Holtz - Vintage Photo, a giant ink pad I got for $2.99 at Hobby Lobby in black, and Mixed Media Ink - Schoolhouse? I dunno it's just red. $15
• Scroll stamps - I found a few at Hobby Lobby one is a Edgar Allen Poe - Nevermore!! $10.99
• Journaling Frames - Creative Imaginations - Narratives $3.99
• Calligraphy Pen - 2.0mm
• Some cotton swabs for rubbing the ink on the paper. 

The Steps

    I looked up some images that they used in the film of the symbols of the Black Zodiac. There are "13" but I am only going to use the original 12... I might throw in the 13th one later. The signs are The First Born Son,  The Torso, The Bound Woman, The Withered Lover, The Torn Prince, The Angry Princess, The Pilgrimess, The Great Child, The Dire Mother, The Hammer, The Jackal (sign of hell's winter), and The Juggernaut. Now how cool does that all sound? Anyway Here are the symbols:

Now I have bad handwriting on a good day (my mother told me I should have been a doctor), but I am a perfectionist. So I just lightly drew out the symbol on one of the frames like so:

This is the Torn Prince if you couldn't tell. It's not perfect but with the distressing that I will be doing you wont be able to really tell/care. It's just a basic guideline for the pen work. So guess whats next? That's right - time to ink it out! 

Like I said perfection doesn't matter too much here, actually the more uneven or messed up lines the more authentic it looks. If you look closely at the symbols you will see that they have blobs and uneven strokes. Next we will stamp the scrolling letters across the frame. It's important to do this after you ink in the symbol or else you will just end up not being able to fill in the pencil because you wont be able to see it. Go ahead ask me how I know that!

Alright now for the distressing part. All I did was take a cotton round or ball, dobbed it on the ink pad (Vintage Photo) and rubbed it on the frame. You might want to Lay it on paper and only have half  of the inked cotton rubbing on the frame because the first few strokes are going to be dark. If you get too much on one spot just take the cotton ball and blend it towards the middle of the photo. you can add blobs of ink in certain places to give it a more worn effect if you want. 

Any ways.... there you have it. Now I only have 3 more left to do then I'll post the pictures up of all of them. Noe this is just going to be part of the spell book page it will sit in the corner (attached by some sticky dots). 

THIS IS HALLOWEEN!!!!

Ok I am undertaking a project this season. I want to make a sort of Grimoire, but more like the Arcanum from thirteen ghosts. If I could get pictures of all the characters in the Black Zodiac and obviously I can't re-create it entirely I don't really know what the latin is that is written on the pages but.... I'll do what I can. Maybe I will add in some symbols I think I have a signs and symbols book laying around here. Maybe distress the pages in some coffee... does that work on paper? bah... I better get started.

Weight Loss Surgery

Well I am starting my WLS journey. I talked to the doctor and got the referral. For those that don't know you have to have a BMI (body mass index) of 40 to get the surgery or have a BMI of 35 with a co-morbidity. Which is health problem related to your weight i.e. acid reflux disease, sleep apnea, diabetes, high cholesterol ect... Well I have acid reflux and was all good to go until I found out that my insurance no longer recognizes acid reflux as a co-morbidity. joy....  <-- sarcasm. But my surgeon would not be deterred! I have an appt for a sleep study to determine if I have sleep apnea and I need to get some blood drawn to see if I have some high cholesterol. *crosses fingers* I hope it all goes well. I want this so bad! I don't think of it as cheating when it comes to weight loss. Many people have asked me that. I know what my body is like. It can loose weight but a single candy bar will turn all my hard work into nothing. I consider it a helping hand. A permanent solution to a very bad problem. I will start to detail all my progress on this blog. Maybe it will serve as inspiration to other or just give others the idea that help is out there to those who want it bad enough!!!

Here is a little overview of the surgery I will be having. As you can see they will be sectioning off a small portion of my stomach then re-routing some of my small intestines so as to help less fat be absorbed into my body. Looks scary doesn't it. You should see the diet I have to go on after the surgery! I know  your thinking "Janell, if you have to diet after the surgery why don't you just diet before the surgery and not have it all together!" Well you cheeky reader aren't you... uh... cheeky. in order to get your stomach used to the new  way it will ingest nutrients and food and water it takes a lot of time. I will be on a clear liquids diet for a few weeks, then can move up to full liquids then to mushy food, then to solids. But that won't be for at least a month or two. There are always downs to an up (every magic comes with a price!). Sugars are going to be limited for the rest of my life as well as a lot of other really good foods. But it's not that I am not allowed to eat them it is that my body will physically get sick if I do. So why bother. Questions? Comments? Advice?

current weight: 231 lbs