Week 1 - A peek at Penelope's journal this week ...

Each week I'll be doing the same exercises as you in my own journal, and using the same materials. I thought it might be interesting for you to see what pops up in my journal. Not to compare it to yours in any way (which I fully expect will be completely your own and personal).

On the first page (you'll recall) we created a Positive Self-Portrait Collage, creating a face from various materials - magazine images, a shoe calendar, scrapbooking papers, washi tape and markers. Here's mine:

I had a bit of luck when it came to creating hair. I'd already chosen a background with a lovely sunset, and when it came time to add hair, it turned out the trees in the foreground nicely solved the problem ~ even though I hadn't planned it when I chose the background ~ just a happy accident! The eyes are shoe buckles, and the lips are a boot zipper. The lapels are from a pair of  mocassins. For the words, I laid down strips of washi tape and wrote on them with felt pen. That way if I wanted to choose another word (or move it around) I could peel up the tape without damaging the picture.

Feel free to scan and email me your collaged face (or whatever you collaged on the first page) if you want me to share it here, along with any comments or insights you may have had that you want to share. You can be anonymous if you like, just let me know you don't want your name used.

On the next two pages ("double spread" in journalling lingo), I put my (planned) September calendar and goals. I've been putting a red checkmark on the things I followed through on. 

And the next double spread is the exercise about "Why I Journal". I luckily found a maze in one of the Oprah magazines, and I think the orangey stuff was the inside of a loaf of bread perhaps? It's interesting to me that on both double spreads I seem to be favouring a green/blue + yellow/orange colour scheme, which I assume has something to do with the arrival of fall. 

I'm sharing these pages because I want to show you what can happen when you journal. That it's not about pretty, it's about process. I genuinely have no plan when I set out. I see something I like visually, I add text that's meaningful to me, et voila: journal pages. 

I hope you find this sharing useful. I am, as always, open to your feedback and questions.