Soul Journal .....

I found Sarah Whitmire and her Soul Journalling Project last week, through my friend, Ed's Blog and was absolutely hooked as soon as I started reading about the Soul Journal.

The Project takes shape through a series of daily prompts. Needless to say, I found the Project on Day 14 !!! On Day 18, Sarah went on a week's trip to New York - great I thought - catch up time. I did try - despite the interferences of daily life like going to work, housework, going to bed and the like - and even to the point where I took a couple of days off work but you know how it is - the best laid plans and all that ..... But despite that, I would like to share with you what I have been doing on this Project so far ......

Page 1 - Claiming Your Journal ....
Page 2 is your Soul Armour .... what you need to shield you from outside criticism and your inner critic; and what you need to protect and nourish your inner spirit ......
Pages 3 and 4 are based on Pictures of specific items from Magazines and following Sarah's journalling prompts, these are they ..... I loved doing this as it is so totally different to other things I have done - in fact it took me back to being a little girl again, cutting pictures out of magazines and sticking them in those sugar paper scrap books.

Pages 5 and 6 I had great difficulty getting my head around. The prompt was to fill the two pages with small writing starting "I Forgot To Tell You ...." Deep, dark, confessional secrets, things never said, an imaginery conversation, talking to yourself - wierd. Wierd, because when you finished your writing you were asked to cover it all up with tape - any kind of tape, parcel tape, electrical tape, duct tape, masking tape - and then apply gesso and wipe it off, and then paint and wipe that off too. I have to say though, despite the wierdness, the end result is beautiful - I have two almost fabric like pages. As I am using loose paper for the pages at the moment, I might make two more of these pages for the covers, or even use these two ....
In Pages 7 and 8 we Recreate Our Home complete with our Paper Doll Family ..... These two pages are still 'under construction' and if they look like Sarah's then I apologise. I can't draw to save my life - not even a wavy line - but I do have some original ideas now that I have the basic layout! ....
Pages 9 to 14 are three double page spread Collage Pot Pourris. Each double spread has a number of prompts as to what is to be included in each spread but they have to be done in a random order. For a relative novice at this sort of abstract thing, initially this was quite difficult but once I got into it, I just went with it, so much so that for someone who is a bit of a conformist, I found myself breaking some of the 'rules' ....
Pages 9 and 10 are complete (?) ......Here are a couple more of this batch of six pages - all still 'under construction' ....

Sadly, the Project is at an end now. There are still a number of other pages to do but I will continue working on them until my Soul Journal is complete, but then will it ever be complete .... you can always change and add stuff to it.
So there you have it - one very messy kitchen (I worked there because there was space to spread out), one tub of gesso down, one set of Sharpie markers acquired, glue and acrylic paint everywhere, a pile of torn and ripped magazines - but one very happy lady !!!!
Congratulations to all who have read through this very long post and I hope you enjoyed it ....