Soul Journey Bookmark

I am a little late posting my pictures of my Soul Journey Bookmark, because I forgot to scan it before I sent it off to Sarah. She so kindly scanned it for me, so- THANK YOU SARAH!
I can't wait to see what bookmark I get in return. It is so fun to do swaps, because it is like a little surprise gift in the mail. I am not really big on surprises, but art surprises are great. I really had a super fun time making this bookmark- I really junked it up. Sometimes I think I go overboard, but hey- that's the fun part right?






















Some of the things on my bookmark are: Twill tape letters (soul) with pastel baby pins, epoxy letters (journey), pink german scrap. On the other side I used several white rub-ons, some felt adhesive lace, rhinestone trim, and then embelished with white and black pen. I then added lots of fibers, a key, moon and a couple of pieces of natural mother of pearl charms. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. It was interesting how different it looks from the original art pages it came from.

More Collage Potpourri (Day 18)

These were pages 5 and 6 of the six pages we did of the collage pages. I have to say at first I HATED these ones. I did all the prompts, and at first I thought it was going along just fine. I got to the point where I was doing the color wash, and everything went down hill in a hurry. I just kept going with the idea that it would work itself out, and I just tried to not think about it.
Well, then I added my stencil of the face. Oh my- things just were not going well- I tried to wipe it off, and it just got worse. I broke out the gesso, and started covering part of it up. I loved my number 5, so I worked around it as best I could. I noticed that the sharpie "things I did today" started bleeding through the gesso, so that was an interesting development.
The whole thing was still ICK. So, I stole my daughters "teeny bopper" magazines and started cutting them up- I found the cutest purfume bottles in an advertisement, and the little doll bottles are awesome so I thought I would just cover up as much of my ugly as I could. I am much happier with it now. I had to put some crowns on them, just 'cause- that's what girls are all about right?

Collage Potpourri (Day 17)

I am drowning in numbers- Save me!!!!!
Just kidding, I actually had a ton of fun finding numbers to fill these pages. The three best things I found were the crossword puzzle, the "sexiest men of the year" listing by ages- 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, and then the 1-2-3 baby blocks. They all got covered up with paint, and you can barely see them, but it is still cool that they are there.
I had a great time smearing paint with the fork, and getting sharpie all over my hands from drawing around them.
I think the hardest part of this page was finding just the perfect "meaningful words" to add to it. I added them with white out around the outside of the pages and then also added the "I CAN" inside the hand shape, just to remind myself of that fact!

Stencil Pages (day 16)

Ok,
I am a few days late in getting this posted, for one the paint took like~ TWO whole days to dry! I will definitely do that different next time. I blopped it on directly from the bottle. I think next time I am going to try to splatter it from a brush, or maybe sprinkle it off a toothbrush- messier, but not so thick.
The other reason is, I was gone all day on Thursday, out of town picking my girls up from the airport. They were out of town all week visiting their grandparents. I am so glad to have them home. I missed them so much, but they had such a wonderful time, and really miss seeing their grandparents, and their Aunt. It was only for a week.
Here are the pages I did, and I love the stencil technique that Sarah has taught us. It turned out great. I think I will be using that one again.

I have to tell you a little funny- one of the things we were supposed to add was some pencil somewhere on the page. I decided that since I used a child's hand, that I was going to put a beak, eye and gobble on the thumb and make it a turkey like I used to do when I was a kid. (it is really hard to see in the picture, but if you click the pictures they will get really big, and you can kind of see it.)

My Soul Journey

I have been working on a project the last few weeks, that I have not talked about on my blog. I have had a few friends on one of the groups I am on encourage me to share, so here goes.
I have been working on the Soul Journal Project hosted by
Sarah Whitmire.
It is an awesome project, and has already been an amazing journey for me, that is why I am calling it my "Soul Journey" and not my "soul journal".
I am finding out many things about myself while doing this. I am learning so many really fun techniques, and getting outside of my comfort zone. Especially with paint! For some unknown reason, I fear paint, and the whole mess of it all.
It is almost as bad as when my kids were little and I had anxiety attacks when they would play with PlayDoh. I was mortified that it would get on the carpet. (I am so NOT a neat freak, but that would just really get me riled up.)
I am learning to open the seals on my bottles of paint, and dip the brushes in. It's still a little stressful, but I am doing it none the less.
I have used more gesso than I thought was possible, and gel medium - everywhere. I am loving it. What an adventure!
Here are my pages so far... I started a day late, so I am still a day behind, so I won't have my pages posted as quickly as I hoped. (Maybe I can get caught up- we'll have to see how busy things get)
The first picture is of my "Identification" page and my "Guard My Journey" page.

This next page was really fun, it took awhile to find all the pictures in magazines, because I had three magazines laying around in my house, and two were Family Circle and one was a Better Homes and Gardens. Not much variety. I refuse to cut up my Somerset Studios, or Cloth Paper Scissors- I don't subscribe to anything else, and I couldn't think of anywhere to get old magazines. I usually find my muse late at night too, so I just kept digging til I found something to work with. It turned out ok.

WOW-
This next one was a hard page for me... I was dealing with some strong feelings at the time when I was working on this page, so the journal prompt of "I forgot to tell you..." was really good for me. I was able to just release. Then I could cover it all up, and be done with it. I used several kinds of tapes. I was able to find some bandage tape, which I specifically used as a "healing aide". I am not sure that this page is complete yet, but I am also not sure yet where I want to go with it, so it will have to sit til I feel inspired about it.

Lastly this is my House/Family page, it was so fun, there are two pictures of my house page, and then a third of just my doll family.
The house is a pocket for my family. It is only a symbol, and not a true representation of our actual home, but that was not the point. I added a big tree, because the neighbors have a big tree up against the fence between our yard and their's and then the corner of their house.

This is a photo of my family in the house, and then a picture of the complete paper dolls. I had so much fun making the dolls. I have only made paper dolls one other time, and it is great fun.


Thanks for those of you lovely ladies that have encouraged me to share- it is hard sometimes to feel like you are going to be criticized for being new, inexperienced, or just sometimes unoriginal, but you have to learn somehow. I am grateful for the creative, welcoming, inspiring artists who are so willing to share their knowledge, kindness, and passion for this art form. You are priceless.