Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Memory Flashes

One of Shimelle's recent journaling prompts was to use "memory flashes" to get to the heart of certain events.  I chose the moment we realized that we would be able to adopt our daughter, Clara.  The journaling along the bottom reads: "Thoughts and emotions from when we learned that Clara would be able to join our family."  The first bird (Paul) says "I knew I would never let her go, no matter what."  The second bird (me) says "complete fulfilled content relieved."  The third bird (Henry) says "I'm happy.  I said, 'I like this baby.'"  The fourth bird (Clara) says "I'm joining my forever family."  
Yeah, it made me all teary eyed to write it.  It's amazing how that journaling trick works!
From a design standpoint, the birds are made using the butcher paper collage technique and the background involves underpainting.  The placement of the birds involves ideas of grouping and repetition (or something).  I'm learning soooo many design ideas in Dina's class that I can't keep them all straight. But I really like this page.  

16 comments:

The Scrappy Tree said...

That's lovely Rinda, so touching :)

Amy said...

This is a beautiful page in so many ways, but it is the journaling and the memories which are so precious that make this page truly wonderful :-) Clara is a lucky girl to have her Mum create such a wonderful piece of art to celebrate her family.

Sian said...

I really like this page too :) And I can only echo what Amy has said so perfectly

debs14 said...

Another little piece of your family jigsaw falls into place, I never realised that Clara was adopted into your family. But what a lovely way to document it, I love the lines of journalling coming from each little bird. Families are often described with birds and nests comparison (suspect I may be suffering from empty nest syndrome at times!) and this is such a lovely page.

Julie Shoemaker said...

I love this page too Rinda, everything about it. I'm taking this AJ course, my first one, but have fallen behind. I think you've nailed these techniques...beautiful.

laurie said...

so beautiful how pictures can tell stories. your page and story are very touching and i can imagine how emotional it was to create this.

humel said...

Wow, this is so clever, so beautiful, and so moving xx

scrappyjacky said...

This is so beautiful....and so poignant....a wonderful 'memory' page. Love the use of the birds....and the way you have done the journaling...it all brought a tear to my eye as well.
And thank you so much for the lovely comment you left on my blog...I feel very much the same way.

Irene said...

Love the page, especially the birds and the journaling. Awesome.

Anonymous said...

what a wonderful way to capture those feelings...

Mariana

alexa said...

Very lovely page and sentiments - love that phrase "my forever family" - very moving. Don't know that the butcher paper technique involves but it's very effective ...

Heather said...

I too love the phrase 'forever family' and had no idea Clara was adopted. A lovely sentiment & a lovely simple way to recall everyones feelings xx

Melissa said...

A beautiful way to document these wonderfully moving memory flashes! Thanks for sharing.

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

This is just lovely! Wonderful memory to recreate this way!

Sarah said...

How gorgeous and wonderful and amazing and wow xx

Anonymous said...

This is such a beautiful page. I love how the journaling flows along behind each bird and along the bottom. Beautiful sentiments to savor as well.