AJC 2011 11.0 Word for the Year - Believe



I forgive you...



Last week, I decided to forgive myself, to stop my binge eating to keep the past away, and to move forward.

I choose my word for this year at the beginning of 2011, to work on me believing my own worth, etc.  It's taken a while to start my journal for the Art Journal Caravan, but it's actually a journal for all the courses I'm doing this year as I keep on my journey - the cover of journal has the various course details as stickers, like a suitcase for a journey.

My Word 2011: Believe

This year I'm going to believe... Some of the things I've said before but this time I'm aiming to mean it.  This

year my journal's going to be a hybrid one on the whole, as I prefer some texture to my pieces.



This year I'm going to believe this...


Credits:
Spotty Background papers : Week 1 Parcel, Art Journal Caravan 2011, from Studio Tangie Baxter @ http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/
Journal frame, "My Word" Artgirl, "2011" and paint splatter elements: Week 1 Parcel 2011 - as above.
"This year I'm going to", camel, "create", "enjoy the journey" and painted circle corner elements: Starter Kit for Art Journal Caravan 2011, from Studio Tangie Baxter as above.
"Believe" element: Week 1 Parcel, Art Journal Caravan 2010, from Studio Tangie Baxter as above
Fonts : Rough Typewriter,

My AJC10 journey

Looking back I think this would be a true map of my journey last year.  Background - Steamer Trunk set, Studio Tangie Baxter @Scrapbookgraphics, font - Frogfootman, Studio Tangie Baxter (as before)

AJC10.52 (Nearly Finished) - Reflect on what's Good

And finally... from Studio Tangie Baxter @ Scrapbookgraphics - this page using elements and a background from Parcel 52, whilst the font is her Frogfootman

AJC10 week 51, "Color Your World 2.0" and digital She-Art: She aspired to be

She aspired to be

As you may be aware, I'm finishing off Tangie Baxter's Art Journal Caravan of last year and I've also started a number of other online courses.  This is actually for my Art Journal but as it was inspired by the other courses, I've included it here.  The background, journal label, quote and lady are from Tangie's Week 51 parcel for last year's Art Journal Caravan (from http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/) whilst the stars were from her Week 24 parcel for 2010.

Day 2: Wonder [Be Gentle, Be Love e-course]

Quote for Day 2: "Wonder is the beginning of wisdom" - Greek Proverb

The Wonder of Stars.  When the skies are so wide, we are all children of wonder looking up at the magic...

Last week we went on holiday to the Peak District in Derbyshire, the UK.  We stopped in our caravan at a site near Ashbourne.  One night, the sky was so clear and unpolluted by lights that I could see a full skyful of stars.  The visible sky was bigger than it is at home as there were no houses, just trees to obscure the stars.  It was mesmorising staring up - sadly I only have a point and press camera which couldn't capture it and even my husband's DLR camera with tripod couldn't reflect the sight in front of us.


The sky reminded me of the childhood skies I could see, as I used to live in the countryside for a long time and skies were so full of stars then.  The background of my picture is my camera's attempt at recording the night and then I used a white pencil to somehow show what the wonder of it looked like that night.  I love the idea that we are all made of stars, all born to twinkle in our own little ways.


Julie x

She loved her Life - Tangie VIP Red Carpet work

Last year I bought a backstage pass for a behind the scenes access to Tangie Baxter's studio.  Tangie was selling 10 then and repeated the access passes for a second tour this year for 4 months until June.  This means I get previews of her kits on http://www.scrapbookgraphics.com/ and get to play upto a week before the kits going to the shop.  Tangie has a guest spot on Scrap Orchard and this is her kit Stacy-Jane for that http://scraporchard.com/market/product.php?productid=21954&cat=0&page=1 My page didn't make it for the digital previews, but as she was She-Art inspired, I've included her here.  All but the font is from the Stacy-Jane kit - the font is Mad Hatter from Tangie's studio at Scrapbookgraphics.

Be Gentle, Be Love e-course: Day 1: Joyfulness

Begin today. Declare outloud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle & eager to learn through joy. - Sarah Ban Breathnach



Pink Rain



This time of the year, for a brief window, our garden is full of pink snow.  It comes from the blossom of our next-door neighbour's tree.  Yesterday and today it's raining, so unlike Prince, we have pinky rain, pinky rain :)  Although the blossom lasts for just a few days, it always makes me smile, and then I love our pink snow, although you always have to remember to shake the washing out first before folding, otherwise you get a blossom surprise when you dress LOL.

Today I am willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy... :)

Julie x

AJC 2010 - Working through

I've been working through the week agendas for AJC 2010, as I had to stop after last year's surgeries, but I've not been posting my pages here, as it's been a speed thing. However, I love this page I've just made and the sentiment that I came up with last year, so I'm sharing. This is for Week 39, so it's coming along...

Credits: All from Studio Tangie Baxter @ Scrapbookgraphics:

Yacht (reversed and altered) and lifebuoy - AJC 10 week 40 parcel

Background - Junque Journal

Font - Mock Turtle

She-Art Workshop - "Be less invisible"

This is my second Art Lady from Week 1. She is a copy of my first lady, but this one I coloured with watercolour pencils and then wetted the colouring to produce a painted look. The background paper is scrapbooking paper (12x12, trimmed to fit the watercolour paper the picture is on) from K & Company, Classic K Charlotte, and the dove, floral and heart accents are also from K & Company, Elegance Die-cut Cardstock Acetate accents. Her hairbow is a scrap of ribbon I had trimmed with a tiny bit of purple suede, both of which I received as decorations to craft parcels last week. Her waistband is from the background paper's trimming and her pinny square is another scrap (origin now forgotten, I'm afraid). The ripped vellum is from a 6x6 sheet ripped in half and then lined up to cover the backing paper from Papermania's Exquisite Silk Screen Printed Vellum Collection. The saying came to me this week as one to use for this workshop.

She-Art Workshop - The Evolution of a She

As the Soul Restoration course closes, I enrolled on another course, the She-Art Wokshop, being run by a friend of Melody's, Christy Tomlinson -
http://christytomlinson.typepad.com/christytomlinson/workshops.html This course is just a short one but involves mixed media work, which I love. I suppose it's because it allows me to use all my different hobbies - sewing, stamping, collage, scrapbooking etc - altogether. The course started last week, but it's taken me a while to think out what I wanted to do. It was also a working work-in-progress so here are my thoughts in photo form.

The initial layout with no background - I stamped the dress with a 7 gypsies stamp stack I had and used a mask with a white crayon to put a pattern on the dress although the waffle pattern of the watercolour paper I constructed the doll on shows more than the floral mask I used, but hey ho *rolls eyes* The doll's hair is some corrugated card I ripped from a parcel I had this week.

I used a 10"x8" canvas board. For a textured background, I used different wallpapers I picked up at our local B&Q - and as an aside, I found a great wallpaper for our living room when we come to redecorate there later LOL. The coloured elements for her face, arms, legs and dress are scrapbooking papers from Scrappy Chic and the coloured strips are from Julia Van Der Werk (http://www.cemerony.etsy.com/). The flowers in her hair, and on her dress and shoes are from my stash (suppliers not known now) and the birds and "This is my Path" are from the Soul Restoration course supplies. The "hope" scrabble tile is from Artwork To Love (http://www.download.etsy.com/) (I can't remember where the "What a Little Bird said" came from but I'll update this when I came across it again).

For the background I ripped up the cream wallpaper samples to cover the canvas. I put the layers together, but wasn't sure about the black flock or her shoes, the latter which seemed to disappear too much.

So I had a bit of change before finally settling on this version below - and so the name, the Evolution of a She...

Life is Full of Beauty - AJC 2011 Wk11

I've not yet started my journal for this year, but this is my page for this week's quote from Tangie's Week 11 parcel

SR Week 6 - I choose the light

I've had depression for over 12 years, initially diagnosed as post-natal depression, but then as mild-moderate clinical depression. Somedays the light from the end of the tunnel is closer than others, but where possible, I choose the light. For even in darkness, all you need is a candle of hope and a spark...

(This is my attempt at a candle to remind me of this and lessons of week 6)

I am still a work-in-progress, but I'm walking towards the light.

x

My first ever Swap

When I was growing up (here's where I show my age LOL) there was a Saturday morning TV show on BBC1 called "Multi-coloured Swap Shop". A portion of the programme would be broadcast live from a different place in the UK each week and the idea was that if you had an unwanted toy or other item, you could take it and swap with someone else - I digress, but the word "swap" made me think of this. Nope, this blog is about a card swap - a swapping of Soul Restoration truths.


As part of the course, Melody gave us sheets of what she called "truths" - they are similar to positive affirmations, but we were encouraged to make cards to illustrate what truths we liked, to personalise them. My cards I've made for me are ATC sized, but others have made theirs 4x6 size, and amongst the "Brave Girls" (our collective noun) UK-based, we did a swap of cards - making cards with truths we had picked, but addressing them to our fellow swappers. We may have been a small swap group, but I'm waiting to see what the post brings me today... :)


I thoroughly enjoyed making my cards for swapping. I enjoy collage/decoupage but have all sorts of crafting interests and goodies. I sew although that's on hold until my surgery on my right elbow - patchwork and quilting I enjoy - but I also have a lot of stamping stuff and enjoy card-making, although I don't make all my own cards I use, as not everyone nowadays appreciates hand-made cards (but again I digress...)


So these are the truth cards I made, using some digital collage sheets from Flickr Free to Use Collage group http://www.flickr.com/groups/freecollagesheets/ Julia Van Der Werf http://www.etsy.com/shop/cemerony and http://cemerony-share.blogspot.com/ , and www.lunagirl.com

Card 1 - Don't want to miss out

Card 2 - Absolutely worth it

Card 3 - Be thankful

Card 4 - Nurture yourself

Card 5 - It's Happening

Card 6 - Happiness & Peace

Day 2 of my Week 5 layout SR - Personal Happiness equals...

As I said yesterday, the task for this week was to look at the things that mean bliss, happiness or joy to us, as well as those things that bring about feelings of loss, guilt or feeling yucky in us. We were given some prompts but I added some of my own.

The happiness "hearts" are colourful, the yuckiness is a black, cracked heart. The last page leads from the blackness but shows I choose to get through the yuckiness, to recognise the things that lead to feeling yucky, and then choose something different wherever possible :) x

SR Week 5 - My idea of...

I've been away from this for a week, as it's been son's half term, but I was finding this week's tasks difficult - to identify things that mean bliss, happiness or joy to us, as well as those things that bring about feelings of loss, guilt or feeling yucky in us. I always find ideas of good things and me difficult, but for the Art Journal Caravan (2010) we had to explore our greatest joys, and this is the page that I came up with for my joys...

Which gave me a lead into my idea of joy etc. The top page is just the first page for this week, as my hubby and son don't define me, but me being a wife and a mother obviously are my main "jobs" nowadays. But in being with them, particularly on holidays etc, what we do together makes me feel joy, see my situation as truth and from their love, I get my enthusiasm to do things together and for me, etc. My family life isn't always sweetness and light, but whose is? It is however a source of joy and bliss quite a lot of time.

x

SR Week 4: Despite her past... she achieved

This week was about looking at the excuses, reasons, roadblocks along the way that could keep us stuck, underachieving or away from our dreams, and then looking at the truths of the situation. We had 3 pages of roadblocks etc to cut out as many or as few as we wished, and I had a few of my own to add.

It might look intimidating the pages of "They told her", "They" said etc, leading to "She" thought/believed etc, but I actually found it liberating to put names and words to the feelings, beliefs and messages from the past. They’re out there now – I know the events and reasons behind them, but in being out there, they’re less of a part of me.

I’ve also added some details of my more recent achievements – made inspite of the load I was carrying then. I have felt a little bogged down with going back over those times, but I see this all as a detox. Once out, it can’t poison me anymore.

I love this message – that despite what people/my inner critics have historically said, despite all my fears, I have done so much and achieved by doing it anyway :)

SR Week 3 - I am Whole

This page shows the reconcilation of the selves - forgiveness of faults and weaknesses - things not to be ashamed of but rather to be seen as learning opportunities.

Background paper - K & Company, Classic K paper, Ying and Yang symbol, Tangie Baxter @ Scrapbookgraphics, Journal Anthology I

SR Week 3 - Which One Today?

This week we were looking at the different fragments our selves split into over time. We are not perfect, we are human, but to have strengths we must also know weaknesses, as to know happiness, you must also the lows to truly understand the differences. I set the different selves on a ying and yang symbol to reflect balance. The pointing hand reflects the old choices - of one or the other (my black and white thinking of old). The brad allows the symbol to rotate.



Background paper - K & Company, Classic K paper, Ying and Yang symbol from Tangie Baxter @ Scrapbookgraphics, Journal Anthology I, hand from Tangie's Journal Anthology II and brad from my stash

Week 3 - A Soul Restoration Quote

The quote resonanted with me, so I included it in my Truth Book to remind me to keep forgiving myself rather than beating myself up, which I was very good at - for example http://ajewelshiningthrough.blogspot.com/2008/11/what-i-said-was-that-i-blame-you-i_25.html Background paper from my stash (details not known), butterfly album used as template - www.craftworkcards.co.uk, paper used for butterfly - K & Company, Sera sera paper

A Summary of SR Week 2's experiences

The top quote is one that I came across this week via the Kind over Matter website; the bottom one came to me yesterday morning after finishing my timeline. The paper and tag are from K & Company, Sera sera.

Soul Restoration Week 2 - The Story of my Heart

The cover to my timeline

For Week 2 we had to do a representation of our life, using an accordion fold book. I won't be sharing details of my book - not because I'm ashamed of anything - my past is what it is. It's more that it's gone and I've let go of it. The task was difficult but it is designed to put perspective on things - that although the bad times seem to take up all the time, in the scheme of things bad years are just long as good years, they just seem the worst, but even good things happen in bad years.

My first marriage was terrible, but in that time I passed my driving test, which has allowed me so much freedom to go places and make all sorts of journeys on my own. I also learnt what was not for me. The timeline was supposed to go from 1-80 years but I did mine slightly differently - for 41 plus (on the back) I did a panel for each year as so many things have changed since then. Stopped talking to a negative influence in my life, started to forgive myself, graduated with an University degree and finally felt heard and acknowledged in counselling, so able to let go… Perhaps it was that I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the blank years, although I know I have many before me, but in making my recent better times expand, the project felt more relevant to me and my situation. The supplies additional to SR come variously from Tangie Baxter @ Scrapbookgraphics, Cemeromy @ etsy, Traci Bautista and my stash.

Years 1-20: the accordian book had inserts - I added additional ones.

These ones were to reflect my wishes for now.

Years 21-40: The blue background I painted with acrylics to contrast

with the black clouds I added to represent my depression - that although depression feels all encompassing, some good things do happen. For these years,

the inserts reflects the truths on the situations.

Years 41-44: I expanded the timeline to one year per page, with a green painted background, to represent the expansion of my life.

Years 43-46+ My photo is a record of my happier state

You know...and love me regardless

I wasn't going to share this page, as it deals with truths and honesty, but in making the other side of this page, my quiet inner voice became a little clearer. That despite the historical fears, regrets etc and because of my strengths and talents, I am loved...

Credits:

Flower page from an acrylic album (used as template) - Bo Bunny, Acrylic Clear Album

Background (extract from digital mini kit) - Basic Grey, Mellow Starter Kit, Paper - Equinox (http://www.basicgrey.com/digital/shop/collections/show/current/mellow)
Picture of Birds, floral paper pieces and phrases - from Soul Restoration Course supplies