My Life as a Quilt - scrapbooked AJC10 Week 3

This creative piece came to me this morning as I was sitting in bed. The quilt is imaginary but a good metaphor for my ability to remember everything and to add to it, embellishing the bad things so that they stood out. But now I'm letting go and forgeting some of the negatives, mending the memories and re-framing them with new more positive things.

Credits:

Background paper - Berna Datema, Best of Friends - Papers contact sheet

Ribbons - Miss Vivi, The Essentials - Ribbons

Journal Book element - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan, Steamer Trunk elements

"Mend" - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan Week 3 parcel

Black Journalling Pen - Kuretake

Wording:

My Life as a Quilt

For years I had a negative "quilt"

A Remembrance quilt of kind

And each year I'd add a square

Mentally in my mind.

Each hateful word said of me

Each failure or deed unkind

Was lovingly added and

Embellished on, in my mind.

But this year my "quilt" will be positive

Unpicking the critic so unkind:

No "stupid"s or "useless" here

Just words both true and kind.

Each old square will be dismantled

Forgotten, forgiven, unloved

No longer used as weapons

To twist my thoughts. Enough!

I'll take away the inner critic

Stop listening to his words

For critics aren't paid to be nice

It's meanness that's their worth.

My journey may be long to mend

To unwrite the past so wrong

But I've got fellow travellers

And together we'll raise a happier song.

Struggling against the Bars - scrapbooked AJC10

This was a creative piece that I write last year on my main blog. *Warning* the piece deals with personal and weight issues - the words may trigger. Part of the reason I'm doing the Caravan is as a distraction as I confront my binge eating issues: I'm still struggling against the bars. The words are below after the credits.

Credits:

Background paper (rotated 90 degrees) - Tangie Baxter, Journal Anthology papers
Cage and the bird - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan week 2 parcel


Struggling Against the Bars

My past is my cage
And some days it's tight,
Keeping my arms by my side
Squeezing the breath and my flesh
Like a mask for a face
That's not mine.
But other days I'm a bird
Let free to soar,
And see all the colours
And more.

My weight is my cage
Hanging heavy on my limbs
But I want to be rid now.
I look to the future
But I can't see today
How to get through.
So I must look to the bird
Unburdened and free
To see how the weight
Can be lost
By slipping my chains
Or struggling against the bars
For a while.

This week's quote from the Art Journal Caravan 2010

Each week the journey project gives a task, a blog to look at for ideas, a verb of the week - this week's is accept, some questions to inspire a journal page, a "Poke, pick or prod" section for contemplation and a quote. This page includes this week's quote...



Credits:

Background paper, Rosalynn Carter quote, floral sparkles and the bird (reversed) - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan week 2 parcel
Ring stain - Studio Helene, Cocoa Bean elements

AJC10 Week 2 - Fears and wishes

This is my first all digital scrapbook page - so no dodgy photos this time. I came across the quote from a journal book and it led to my other recorded thoughts on the matter. Getting to know how to use my photoshop software a bit more today :)

Credits:

Background page - Tangie Baxter, Journal Anthology papers

Bird (reversed) - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan Week 2 parcel

Splat and Stars - Tangie Baxter, Journal Anthology elements
Label - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan Week 1 parcel

AJC10 Week 2 - Choose what to accept

One of my problems in the past was accepting anything good about me, as I was told how useless or stupid I was by others, which my inner critic then repeated to me after the original speakers moved out of my life. When I do hear my inner critic now, I aim to challenge it and stop accepting that it's right. The thought bubbles are things that I should accept instead. The birdie is there to tie in with the weekly calendar task.

Credits:

Bird - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan week 2 parcel elements
Background paper - Tangie Baxter, Journal Anthology Papers
"Accept this" - Dyno Junior dynotape

Silhouette - adapted to look like me from Wikipedia entry about Silhouette

My own thought bubbles

AJC10 Week 2 - my week in journalling

The theme this week are to produce a stylised "Weekly Based Journal Calendars" influenced by the artist Geninne. The instructions were to "Think outside the box, how can you implement an "idea" from her and make it your own" and the Verb of the Week is "Accept". Geninne's journals involve a lot of drawings, particularly of birds, and dividing the page up with black marker pen lines.

This is my work-in-progress for this week. The idea of doing a calendar did scare me as I didn't feel that I currently do enough to fill a diary, although my thoughts can fill my day without anything else going on. So this is why it says "Sometimes my life feels very small... but my journey has only just begun"; a journey of letting go and of discovery, to learn who I am. The layout is also my first try at including some digital elements, other than just photoshop fonts, on the background paper - the flags at the top and a splat in the middle of the page.

Credits:

Background paper, bird, journal labels, paint splatter, flag set - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan week 2 parcel elements

Word Card altered - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan week 1 parcel elements

Air Balloon, Around the World sticker - Tangie Baxter, Art Journal Caravan, Steamer trunk elements

Follow your Heart - Tangie Baxter, Journal Anthology elements

Calendar day squares - from a 2009 freebie calendar I got from a magazine