Monique's journal pages completed

Almost at the end of the round robin with just one more journal to go. Monique's journal was really fun to work in. She bound it in leather to look like the River Song book from Doctor Who and made removable signatures for us all to work in.

This Ralph Waldo Emerson quote was the theme for the journal:

Each signature had a Da Vinci lady on one of the panels. I've added colour to her eyes and lips, a piece of washi tape running vertically, and a gold sticker.

This is my sign-in tag, gelli-printed with circles and then sketchily outlined in white with a uniball signo pen. On the other side are a few things about me also written in white. 

This is the outside of the signature, opened out. The two end pieces are flaps that fold back inside. The right hand end is a ghost gelli-print from the tag. The left hand end has gelli-printed greaseproof paper with white writing.

Monique had popped an envelope of goodies in a pocket in each signature. I refilled the envelope with a few bits and pieces of printed, stamped, embossed, and inked papers and tags.

This is the inside. I split the quote into three parts to journal it: what is behind - the past. What is before - the future. What is within - ourselves in the present. 

I've used the open flap up to the half pocket to do about the past. The background is made of a map, some spray inks through a stencil, and an embossed dandelion seed head. In my case, the past is literally another country, having lived in the UK for forty years and then moved to Australia five years ago.

Then the middle page and the pocket were used for the future, which is unknown. And here are a couple of close-ups of these spreads:

This is the signature with the central page turned and the small flap opened to make a spread for the 'within' part of the quote. The gold letters are stickers by Luckies of London. My husband bought me a set with several alphabets and decorations.
Thinking about what is within us made me think of the literal organs and most obviously, the heart. This heart is drawn on greaseproof paper and glued on with gel medium:

The quote made me think about how we cannot change the past and we cannot know the future, but if we each bring everything we are and everything we have to the present moment, we can be a powerful force for good. Being fully present, listening with full attention to the person who's talking to you, can have a huge effect on someone - more than you might know in the moment.

And now the journal is ready to make its way to Canada, to Gayle, it's last stop before it makes its way back to Monique in the Netherlands.

Monique wanted to have the postage somehow included in the journal to show the journey it had been on around the world. I used the strap on the back of the signature to slip in the stamps and sticker from the parcel.