A Letter From America .....

Ages ago, I took part in a Book Mark Swap in Kathryn's Soul Jounrnal Group - in fact so long ago I had almost forgotten about it ....
Today when I arrived home from work there was a packet laying on the doormat with loads of impresive US stamps and customs stuff all over it and inside were these ....Many thanks to Lay Hoon, Marci and Christy - they are all absolutely beautiful ....

More Soul Journal No. 2 Pages ....

It was such a lovely day today, that I sat out in the garden with a coffee and a couple of chocolate biscuits and did the journalling on my latest Soul Journal pages.

There was no breeze and I ended up with my Acrylic Dabbers, a Flower Stencil, a Mustard Seed Distress Ink Pad and a Swirl Stamp from the Rhonna Farrer Swirls V2 plate - quite the little workshop al fresco ....

The prompts for the last two weeks were Healing Love and I so did not follow the prompt - lol; and Personal Lexicon, where in true me style, got completely carried away ....

I think it was only meant to be a double page spread - me - I did four pages - the whole alphabet (or most of it anyway). I have caught up now but for how long - lol
I am really pleased with the way these pages have turned out.

There's quite a few layers - torn old dictionary pages, gesso, watered down acrylic paint, pictures, journalling, more acrylic paint (from the Dabbers), stencilled flowers, gold swirls - all making loads of layers (credit to Suzi Blu for teaching me that)

Arty Girs Challenge - Autumn ....

Arty Girlz Challenge this week is Autumn ....
Rather than enter a card or a tag this time, I thought I would enter a page from my new Soul Journal that I am working on and is one of a two page layout - representing Lost and Found. The leaves are real leaves which have been scanned (not by me, I hasten to add, but by Kathryn, who is leading the Soul Journal project).Mind you, as I'm posting this, I'm thinking Autumn on a beautiful day like today? ....

My Soul Journal ...

It has taken me the last three hours or so to work out how to create a slideshow, but very loud drum roll and fanfare - here it is over on the right - just in case you miss it ....
Each page was made on one side of a single sheet of paper. To create the back to back pages of the Journal I stitched the pages together. The covers are bare chipboard, covered with gesso and acrylic paint and dabbed, smeared, swooshed and everything else. The first and last pages were stuck to the inside of the two covers, so as to keep the double page spreads running. All the pages were then bound with the Bind It All.
I didn't really want to call this My Soul Journal and everything else I thought of didn't seem right. I thought that No. 1 could be the first of many ....
I really am quite proud of this and even now I keep adding bits and pieces to it.
I hope you all like it too.

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 ....