Visual Journal Angel for Mercedes

Very recently, I happened accidentally upon Mercedes blog, on the very day she posted her first pages in her first visual journal. Well, the pages were exquisite, and I was excited to be there at the beginning. When I was starting out, I was all alone and SO SO SCARED. I told a friend today how much I could have used encouragement, and so I decided to make Mercedes an angel to watch over her as she continues to work on her visual journal. I want Mercedes to feel excited, to keep making these pages because they are good, and she inspires me! Mercedes' Visual Journal Angel! The idea for the mason jar came from SuziBlu, who taught us all how to capture fairies. This time, though, I specifically needed an angel. Mercedes' Angel is surrounded by things which are symbols to me. The beads are for ideas, big and small. The gold beads are for those exciting, really BIG ideas we occasionally receive. There are small white conch shells, because I believe if you listen to a conch shell, the ocean will whisper creative secrets to you. The branch (which is SO hard to see) is a reminder that ideas grow, always. There are also some real seeds that came from a strange tree I walk by. I collected the seeds out of the gutter, painted them, and put them in with the beads, so they can grow, too, and help Mercedes create. The drawers are labeled: palabras del espiritu ... Spirit Words. Quite a while ago, Veronica made me a tin to hold these words, for my journal, and she calls them Spirit Words. Words like: play, imagination, women's intuition, BE. Lovely inspiring words! [Mercedes, I apologize because all the words are in English. The only Spanish rubber stamp I have says, 'Gracias', and that didn't work here.] The word on the glass jar, in front of the angel, says BELIEVE. Kind of a blurry photo, but you can see that the matchbox 'drawers' each pull out. Inside are individual spirit words, stamped on muslin and wrapped like each one is a gift (which, of course, it IS!). This is in my top five favorite rubber stamp images. Her name is Lottie -- I stamped her on some wax paper, colored her with chalks, then laid her over some of the wallpaper that Patty sent me. This is the 'back end', still drying. I may still add some things to this.


Mercedes, I posted these pictures for you to look at. Tell me if you don't like her and I will be happy to make you something different! I didn't want to send her and then find out she wasn't something you would enjoy. BE HONEST!