Jess Boctor

Author: Jess Boctor

  • Ten Commandments for My Life Right Now.

    2. Do three things every day: pray, sing, write.

    3. Do not take Paul for granted.

    5. Do not watch TV by yourself.

    6. Do not pick on yourself.

    7. Apply the do-it-now rule.

    8. Be thankful.

    9. Do not spend money you do not have.

    10. Be intentional in cherishing your community.

    Continuing the adventure, 

    Jess

  • GPP Street Team: In a Scrape

    Michelle Ward puts out a new challenge every month for her Green Pepper Press Street Team. This months Crusade is all about using paint and a scraping tool to create cool backgrounds by blending your paint without any use of a brush. 

    I knew exactly which book I was going to use for this exercise; my play book. I call it my play book because it is the book because it is the book that I play in. It was an old textbook which I found downtown with a sign, “free” over it. I love the way the text usually peeks through my art work, often times even providing inspiration for the work I do. 

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    In the first page you can see where a sketch from the page before has bled through. The second image is of the three colors I choose to use; mama always said to design using 3’s and 5’s. The third image is of the background completed, I cheated a little and used my heat gun to speed up the drying process. 

    I have this great stencil of a robot which I used with white gesso and black paint in mirror images. The white robot I decided needed wings. I created the feather edge effect by using my card at angle and pushing the corner into the paint. I also used a oil board number stencil along the bottom for a border; I was using a lot of paint which made the stencil bleed. I liked the overall messy affect which it gave the pages and the thickness I laid it on gave the page more dimension.

    I let the pages dry over night and came back today with paint pens in hand. I outlined the robot images with more detail, as well as the number border along the bottom. Since I am a writer at heart, I also did a quick hand written journal entry on either side with contrasting color. I like the way my curly que hand writing is very different from the very linear robots and numbers. Overall, I am very excited about the way my pages turned out and will keep my scraping technique in my back pocket of tricks.

    If you would like to particapate just head over to the Green Pepper Press blog and read Michelle’s instructions.

    Continuing the adventure, 

    Jessica 

     

  • Pismo 2010

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  • Something Sweet for Your @Livescribe

    Paul and I are going on vacation this weekend. So I wanted something sweet and small to carry with me to doodle and journal in. Mostly I wanted an excuse to make this book. 

    This candy book is made up of a lemon heads box, three 20 page sections of dot paper, ribbon, and some pretty lining pages. I included the navigation buttons on each of the colored section pages, which can also act as book markers.

    Continuing the adventure,  

    Jess

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  • Old School Flip Book

    I love my Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe.
    Some of my posts here have been generated using the Pulse, including Erika’s Song and some of my journal entries. 
    So I thought it would be fun to see if I couldn’t make some of my own, dot paper amazing notebooks and journals. What better way to start than with some old data storage devices?
    Take 2 old school 5″ x 5″ floppy discs, add dot paper and Voila! You have one super cool flip note book.
    I hand bound the notebook using a modified coptic stitch with reinforced edges. The flip book opens from top to bottom and lays flat once opened. There are Livescribe navigation buttons running along the left hand side. 

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    I used 8.5″ x 11″ dot paper, so the pages run a little funny when they show up in your Livescribe desktop, the PDF example below shows how the images run top to bottom, left to right.

    Example.pdf

    If you would like one of your own Old School Flip Book, I would be happy to make you one. Just click the Buy Now button to order one through Google Checkout and I will get stitching. You can even pick what color interior you want: Red, Blue, Yellow, Black or White.

    $30.00 – Old School Flip Book-Red $30.00 – Old School Flip Book-Blue $30.00 – Old School Flip Book-Yellow $30.00 – Old School Flip Book-White $30.00 – Old School Flip Book-Black

  • Wild Tomatoes

    I had to trim back my tomato vine today.

    Let me rephrase that, I had to hack the vine back into submission under the threat that it might take over my whole yard. The vine had grown out of the support I had set for it and was engulfing it neighbor sage and spilling out onto the patio. As the long vine branches stretched out they hide the branches underneath from the sun and killed them. So much energy was spent on continually expanding that it could no longer support the original structure, so while on the outside the vine appeared to be thriving, it was filled with a dead center. Fruit was being grown in so many directions, that it was wasted. It rotted on the vine, bugs were gnawing at, or, as I finally started to cut away the overgrowth the fruit was simply thrown away still green and incomplete.

    As I was cutting the branches away, it really began to make me think about my own life. It made me think of the times when I spent so much energy trying to do everything, to be anything I thought someone might have needed me to be. I would stretch and push myself so much that I didn’t have the energy necessary to keep it going. I’ve been dead inside, producing fruit that goes uncared for, unfinished and rots. The worst part is, I set myself up for the pruning that God always brings. The painful hacking away of things that distract and make me lose focus. I’ve gone through this cycle so many times, that you would think I had learned my lesson.

    But as I look at my life; at my spiritual, physical and metal health, I realize that it just isn’t true. If you could see through the branches and look at my roots you would realize that I am more unfocused, more dead inside, and more desperate than I have ever felt. On the outside, there are green leaves and fruit, but it is all just a cover up. 

    The good news is that this time, I have realized the mistake myself. I have the shears in my hand and I don’t have to wait for God to change my life’s circumstances, for relationships to break, or for another mental breakdown before I start cutting away the unnecessary. I can start now. I can start today.

    Continuing the adventure, 

    Jess

  • Call Me Jonah

    You might as well call me Jonah

    Cause I’m running
    Away from these things you’re stirring up
    The mud I thought had settled
    Is clouding my vision
    I would rather be eaten alive
    Than try to learn to deal.

    ————————————-
    Continuing the adventure, 

    Jess