Reveal Your True Self by Sharon

Mmmn.... what do I reveal?  How much do I reveal?

The beach comber 

This is the quiet, observant me

The one who is upset by the fish that has become stranded on a high tide.

The one who becomes wildly excited by a flock of tiny waders

racing along the wind swept shore

The researcher 

who wants to know what that is

and how does it fit into the universe

The collector

who has several drawers full of flotsam and jetsam

set in resin or hung in long strings down her notice board

The artist 

who wonders at the infinite subtlety of nature

and the beauty of the tiny broken creatures as she walks by

A mother, a lover, a friend

Loves easily and is hurt by the unthinking

How much did I reveal?

Do you know me now?

Momento Mori by Sharon

Gosh I learnt a lot from this journal.  Google ran hot and my courage was a lot like a steam train.  It took a long time to heat up but finally got over the hill and came down running.

It turns out that I was somewhat afraid to look death - particularly mine, in the face.  I didn't want to create a day of the dead look - that's not me and neither did I want to be in tears every time I worked on it.
I started out thinking that in someone else's comment they said to try to think of it as something we pass on.  The light bulb moment came as I started to think about the three generations of hand written recipe books that I have but somehow that seemed a bit glib.  So I went back to google.  I ended up finding an arm of momento mori called veritas art.

There is a great article in 'Art of manliness."  It talks about veritas art (certainty of death) and lists some of the common symbols such as bubble (I already use them), smoke (too hard), hourglass, watches (already did a painting of fob watches) rotting fruit and flowers, sheet music, books....  Finally I had something that I could handle.

So off I went and ended up using the image of a rose that had dropped all its petals, some random sheet music that I had lost most of the pages to and an old wood cut that I did many eons ago of myself.  I ended up with so many ideas that I may have gone over board.

So in the end - thanks.  I love a challenge and I think I rose to it in the end.

"Veritas - truth

• the fleeting beauty of a bubble

• the haunting melody of a piano heard in the middle of the night

• the flickering light of a candle

• the temporary perfection of a rose

• the time together of three generations

These are some of the precious moments I celebrate."

Jan gets some Wisdom from Alice

This was a beautiful journal to receive, so well made and inviting.

I have taken my lead from the Wisdom of Alice. Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end. Then stop.

I looked at a few sayings from Alice and the one I chose really took my fancy.  I liked the tea cups theme too and with help from a UTube by Vicky Papaioannou , I had fun creating my page.

This was the base I worked on, I collaged on some images of cards. Then I collaged on the tea cups I created and some vintage Alice images.

I also am in love with my special helpful hint envelope with a lovely picture and saying.

Louise's pages in Oriental

I have not been very arty at all lately, things have been really full on at home and the sheer size of all that is going on has been overwhelming and all the while this little beauty has been quietly beckoning to me from my self. The picture above is the tittle page Roz made in he journal, the whole journal is a delight.

Initially I was playing around with an idea for something clean and simple and sophisticated, I wanted to use paper and pattern and I started this page and it just sat there for a while until I finally added the fan.

In the mean time I had an idea about an Asian sunset,

so I played with dylusion sprays for the background and a simple ink drawing, and then the ideas were really flowing so I did a third page.

Playing with suggested textures here , I was after the feeling of languishing in luxury, silks and velvets, precious metals and succulent fruit.

So I have added an extra page into your journal Roz and I hope you like them.

Janene's page in Jan's journal 'Just three words'

I thought that I would have trouble trying to think of just three words, but it came to me quite quickly.  Shine your light.  We all need to do that more often as we hide behind our fears, we need to show ourselves more and say 'YES' I can do that... and shine our lights brightly for all to see  :-).

Cheers

Janene

My spread in Nicole's Out of the Box journal

+I made all of the "treasures" out of cardboard and aluminium foil coloured with alcohol ink and/or embossing powder. I also used distress paint and ink,  a copper leafing pen, a silver metallic pen, and gilders paste.There are a couple of die cuts and some buttons as well as some rhinestones.
I did the spread on the brown card that Nicole supplied in the box. I almost forgot to mention that I started the background off with a layer of used tea bags that had been dried and cut apart and adhered with diluted PVA. Not very apparent in the pics but the texture is there to see and feel.
Hope you like it Nicole.

'Memento Mori' - Deb's page

'Memento Mori'- Latin for 'remember you will die'. Remember you will die- we are mortal beings interacting with an eternal cycle of life. While there is life there must be death, and both are ever-present. My problems are all existential- if ever I'm wondering directly about anything that isn't existential, I'm wondering about how it relates to something that is. So I guess it's only natural that my journal theme be something so... epic. It has occurred to me that we, as people, are just about never exposed to the reality of our own death like other living things. This is a result of life being less about survival as about pleasure, because our basic needs are being taken care of.