G-11 Mystical Mamas Circle Journal Group

[crftyscrapper]

Mystical Mamas Circle Journal Group
Okay, lets get busy!

First mailing date is: Feb 20, 2009
This gives us a month to make our first pages. We will mail thereafter on the 20th of every month.

Mailing 1 (Feb): - mailing date; Feb 20

crftyscrapper mails to: Bright-Spark
Bright-Spark mails to: Turquoise
Turquoise mails to: Nicky-received
Nicky mails to: micromummy-received
micromummy mails to: Norabear-received
Norabear mails to: crftyscrapper-sent

Mailing 2 (March): - mailing date; March 20

crftyscrapper mails to: Turquoise
Bright-Spark mails to: Nicky-received
Turquoise mails to: micromummy-received
Nicky mails to: Norabear-received
micromummy mails to: crftyscrapper
Norabear mails to: Bright-Spark-received

Mailing 3 (April): - mailing date; April 20

crftyscrapper mails to: Nicky
Bright-Spark mails to: micromummy-received
Turquoise mails to: Norabear-mailed
Nicky mails to: crftyscrapper
micromummy mails to: Bright-Spark-received
Norabear mails to: Turquoise

Mailing 4 (May): - mailing date; May 20

crftyscrapper mails to: micromummy
Bright-Spark mails to: Norabear-received
Turquoise mails to: crftyscrapper
Nicky mails to: Bright-Spark-received
micromummy mails to: Turquoise-received
Norabear mails to: Nicky

Mailing 5 (June): - mailing date; June 20

crftyscrapper mails to: Norabear
Bright-Spark mails to: crftyscrapper
Turquoise mails to: Bright-Spark
Nicky mails to: Turquoise
micromummy mails to: Nicky-mailed
Norabear mails to: micromummy


Please remember to stick to the guidelines below for your partner. Any questions please feel free to ask in the thread or pm your partner. (I prefer the thread so others can use the answer when they work on that person's pages.)


Please remember to leave i-trader for your partner when you have received their page(s).


1. crftyscrapper - 8x8 - two page spread - on watercolor paper please. I would like inspirational quotes/poems with whatever scenery or picturing you think would go best with the text. Hand-drawn, handpainted, and mixed media are all welcomed! (prefer no collage) Please put your info on the front in an inconspicous place so when I assemble my book I will still know who did what!

2. Bright-Spark - I would like 8 x 8 two page spreads on the theme of the female body. -- It could be an interpretation of the classical shape of a female body, it could be a collage of a vintage nude, a celebration of the way women dress. It's about how wonderful women are.... Any media, hand drawn, hand painted or collage accepted.

3. Turquoise - I would like and 8x8 two page spread please in the theme of : Legends, Spookiness and Folklore. I suppose basically you can call it a Paranormal Journal? -- I am interested in Folklore, Urban Legends, Crypzoology (SP?), Haunted places, General spookiness. Examples include stuff like: Bigfoot, Salem, Erzebeth Bathory, Sawny Bean, Leprechans, Witch, Mother Shipton, The Bell Witch, Mothman, Bloody Mary, Vampires, Sweeny Todd, Werewolves etc. etc.. I am open to really anything within the theme, the only thing I don't want is made up stuff from the movies, like it has to have been a real legend or story passed down. --I am open to all kinds of media, and mediums. I like handrawn, collage, fabric, stamps...anything really, once it looks nice

4. Nicky - 8x8 - two page spread - Hand-drawn, handpainted is my preference (not too keen on collage). Theme: Witches and Wizards (would love to expand my collection on this since the last time the results were amazing!).

5. micromummy - 8x8 pages and the theme to be anything vintage with a romantic aspect. Colours, materials, dangly bits, ribbons, bows or anything collage I would love.

6. Norabear - I would like stars. Anything to do with stars. They are beautiful and fill me with hope and joy. Any media. Hrm, size. Looks like everyone is doing 8x8, so I'll do that size as well.
==========
RECEIVED PAGES
Crftyscrapper - Norabear
Bright-Spark - Norabear, Nicky, Micromummy
Turquoise - Micromummy, Bright-Spark, NoraBear
Nicky - Turquioise, Bright-Spark, Micromummy
Micromummy - Nicky, Bright-Spark
Norabear - Micromummy, Nicky, Bright-Spark

[crftyscrapper]

If you have the capablities, please post pictures of the pages to the thread before you mail them. That way the rest of us have a chance to ooo & ahh them!!!

[Turquoise]

Awesome, I am glad this has started and I am so keen to get a start on Nicky's page, which hopefully I will do over the next two weeks. I never handpainted a Witch/Wizard before so it'll be a challenge for me...Will upload it when I am finished

[Norabear]

Found it!

Hey, crftyscrapper, can you post/PM some of your favorite inspirational quotes so I can see what you like?

[crftyscrapper]

Reply post #1

Found it!

Hey, crftyscrapper, can you post/PM some of your favorite inspirational quotes so I can see what you like?

WARNING!!!! This is a very long post!

I amend my theme to be inspirational or thoughtful quotes or poems!

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)
The Highwayman

PART ONE

I

THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

II

He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

III

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

IV

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

V

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

VI

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West.



PART TWO

I

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.

II

They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

III

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now, keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

IV

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

V

The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .

VI

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!

VII

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

VIII

He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

IX

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

* * * * * *

X

And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

XI

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

[crftyscrapper]

Reply post #2

NICKEL CREEK LYRICS

"The Lighthouse's Tale"

I am a lighthouse, worn by the weather and the waves.
I keep my lamp lit, to warn the sailors on their way.

I'll tell a story, paint you a picture from my past.
I was so happy, but joy in this life seldom lasts.

I had a keeper, he helped me warn the ships at sea.
We had grown closer, 'till his joy meant everything to me.

And he was to marry, a girl who shone with beauty and light.
And they loved each other, and with me watched the sunsets into night.

[Chorus:]
And the waves crashing around me, the sand slips out to sea.
And the winds that blow remind me, of what has been, and what can never be.

She'd had to leave us, my keeper he prayed for a safe return.
But when the night came, the weather to a raging storm had turned.

He watched her ship fight, but in vain against the wild and terrible wave.
In me so helpless, as dashed against the rock she met her end.

[Chorus]

Then on the next day, my keeper found her washed up on the SHORE.
He kissed her cold face, that they'd be together soon he'd swore.

I saw him crying, watched as he buried her in the sand.
And then he climbed my tower, and off of the edge of me he ran.

[Chorus]

I am a lighthouse, worn by the weather and the waves.
And though I am empty, I still warn the sailors on their way.

[crftyscrapper]

Reply #3

Beauty is not so much what you see as what you dream.
- Walloon Proverb

People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.
- Salma Hayek

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

A smile is a light in the window of the soul indicating that the heart is at home.
- Anonymous

It is the marriage of the soul with Nature that makes the intellect fruitful, and gives birth to imagination.
- Henry David Thoreau

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.
- Anne Frank

See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...we need silence to be able to touch souls.
- Mother Teresa

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.
- Emily Dickenson

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. ~Jean Paul Richter

You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night. ~Denise Levertov

It is difficult to realize how great a part of all that is cheerful and delightful in the recollections of our own life is associated with trees. ~Wilson Flagg

Alone with myself
The trees bend to caress me
The shade hugs my heart.
~Candy Polgar

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. ~Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies, 1928

We can learn a lot from trees: they're always grounded but never stop reaching heavenward. ~Everett Mámor

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~Kahlil Gibran

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. ~e.e. cummings

The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
~George Gordon, Lord Byron

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment. ~Jane Austen

The sun is the epitome of benevolence - it is lifegiving and warmthgiving and happinessgiving, and to it we owe our thanksgiving. ~Jessi Lane Adams

As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens. ~Stephen Graham, The Gentle Art of Tramping

The woods were made for the hunters of dreams,
The brooks for the fishers of song;
To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game
The streams and the woods belong.
~Sam Walter Foss

I am not a lover of lawns. Rather would I see daisies in their thousands, ground ivy, hawkweed, and even the hated plantain with tall stems, and dandelions with splendid flowers and fairy down, than the too-well-tended lawn. ~W.H. Hudson

You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters. ~St. Bernard

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. ~John Burroughs

[crftyscrapper]

Norabear - I hope I gave you enough to spark images in your mind. *LOL*

[Norabear]

Uh yeah.



This is my favorite poem. What do you think?

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

~ Edgar Allan Poe

[crftyscrapper]

Oooooo.....I like that!

[Norabear]

Okay then! I'll use that. There will be some acrylic paint or watercolor, some collage, perhaps some beading and/or fibers - multi-media of various sorts.

[crftyscrapper]

Sounds great!

[Turquoise]

Thanks for posting those poems and quotes Craftyscrapper, I enjoyed reading those... I love that Highwayman poem..

[Norabear]

Since this is my first journal swap, would it be okay if I share my thought processes on the pieces I'm creating for feedback? Or should I restrict it to my critique group?

[crftyscrapper]

By all means post them here and your critique group if it makes you feel more comfortable. When I was in college I always looked forward to critique day because I would always learn something to apply next time.

[crftyscrapper]

Thank you Turquoise. I have been collecting stuff like that for years. This is a very small sampling. I tried to choose ones that bring images to mind.

[Norabear]

So while I was laying in bed this morning, I started planning crfty's pages.

I have some lovely Arches watercolor paper as a base. For the background, I will use acrylic washes of blues/greens/purples. I've never done washes before, so I'll practice some on cheaper watercolor paper first. I thought of doing watercolor, but I only have an inexpensive beginner's set of 8 in a pan. I think they are Crayola. Whereas, I have lots of acrylic colors.

For the text, I'm going to see if I can hand write it small enough on cardstock. One section of the poem will be on each page. Otherwise, I'll have to print it in a nice font. I thought of doing transparency so you see more of the background, but I've not found a way that I like of attaching them. The edges of the cardstock will be gold foiled. The text piece will be off-center to the right - one page bottom right, other page top right.

For decoration, first I'm going to cross-stitch a small shell for each page and frame it with a circle of cardstock. Then I'm thinking of cutting out a one or two inch strip of water/ocean from a magazine page and laying it diagonally off-center down the page under the text and cross-stitch.

Lastly, I'll splatter gold paint to dot the page with "golden sand."

Thoughts?

[crftyscrapper]

Sounds really well thought out Norabear. Can't wait to see it.

[crftyscrapper]

I just had to share. I just bought an 8x8 scrapbook album with 10 top loading sheet protectors included off ebay. ($10 including shipping) So when I get my first pages they will have someplace safe to go!

[Norabear]

Cool. Do they have more? Maybe I should check it out.