Cigar box journal -- unmasked

Last year, I inherited a stack of old cigar boxes from my Uncle Dave, who used them to store pieces of his model trains. After he died, the boxes first went to his son Jim, my cousin, then to another cousin, Cindie, and finally made their way to me.


Knowing I could never use so many boxes, I offered to share them with my collage workshop group. John, our fearless leader, came up with a fun project. We made collaged journals to put inside the boxes, then collaged the boxes themselves. 

Here's the lid of my box. The theme is "unmasked." 

Inside, I made three sections -- one for the large journal we made and two smaller ones, for mini books I hope to make in the future.

Here are the front and back of the journal. The binding is called "Japanese stab." For page backgrounds, I snipped architectural details from magazines.

The pages reveal my obsession with people in masks. These guys belong in a Sci-Fi movie.

Make-up is a mask for these young girls.

My mom had a hair dryer like this one. My husband once had to wear a hazmat suit for a terrible job he got right out of college.

 War and science often involve wearing masks. I wonder why?

 Only one mask here, a colorfully angry one.