Dance of the Sun Junk Journal
Hey, everyone! Stephanie Manuel of Smiling Sunlight, one of our amazing Junk Journal Design Team Members, created a fabulous Dance of the Sun Junk Journal for us this week. As you know, we feature one new Junk Journal project each week created by one of our creative team of artists. Our Design Team Members select from the 100’s of Vintage Image Bundles on our Premium Membership Site, for their creations, in order to show you beautiful ways to use those images. We hope you will be totally inspired by this series!
Therefore, please make sure you check out the video tour at the bottom of the page…please scroll all the way down to see it. Are you ready to be inspired? I will step out of the way and let Stephanie tell you all about her incredible project…
Hi everyone, it’s Stephanie from Smiling Sunlight with my next journal as a member of the Graphics Fairy Design Team. I approached the creation of this journal as an Artist’s Book, for it to be interactive, portable, movable and easily shared as a one-of-a-kind work of art. I used the tab binding technique to attach the pages making it a no-sew journal. Most of the materials have been recycled such as file folders, book pages, tea tea-dyed printed paper. I’m pleased to present to you “Dance of the Sun Journal”. Inspired by my studies of ancient civilizations, I wanted to share about two wonderful Celtic celebrations: Beltane and Samhain. These festivals follow the dance of the sun and reinforce our connection with nature. Beltane is celebrated on the 1st of May marking the beginning of the light period. It’s when nature comes back to life through spring birds and flowers. Samhain is celebrated on the 1st of November as a way to express gratitude for the harvest, making provisions for winter and honouring ancestors.
I digitally designed the cover images for them to look like old portrait paintings of a Celtic lady and her inner child version. When the journal is wide open, they face each other. Beltane is represented on the front cover as the inner child with her rabbit, both wearing spring flower crowns. Samhain is represented as the Celtic lady on the back cover with a black cat and autumn flowers. To design these portraits I combined several digital techniques that I learned on the Graphics Fairy Premium Membership website in the Digital Tutorial section.
To show the connection between these 2 celebrations I created the first page as a flip flap. The top part of the bird is the Nightingale, a spring bird representing Beltane and the bottom part is a Blackbird representing Samhain. There are a lot of symbolism in nature linked to these festivals and they come across the journal as hidden messages in tabs, like wishes from the inner child to her adult version.
The Goddess of love and fertility is celebrated during Beltane where women and girls make spring flower crowns to wear. It’s also a way to celebrate the female intuitive energy and the goddess within. Lily of the Valley is a flower associated with the month of May representing rebirth and love.
Here is my version of the Goddess of love and fertility wearing her spring flower crown. On the night of Beltane, new couples traditionally jump over a fire to celebrate their union. I created a spinning card to represent that ritual.
The flip card shows how these 2 festivals are celebrated. During Beltane, children will play music and dance while during Samhain they will decorate and light up pumpkins. The animal totems associated with these festivals were digitally designed. The cat – bat – owl represents protection and wisdom during Samhain and the rabbit – stag – butterfly represents rebirth and fertility during Beltane.
A pull up card shows the dancing around the Maypole tradition during Beltane festival. On one side you can see trees in the forest among which a special one will be chosen and cut down to make the Maypole. Then when the card is pulled up, the other side reveals dancers braiding colourful ribbons symbolising the dance of the sun.
The Green Man or Horned God is a powerful symbol representing our balanced connection to nature and the cycle of life. I digitally created a Green Boy with stag antlers and oak leaf foliage as a mask.
You can watch the full flip through video on The Graphics Fairy YouTube channel (link below) and here is the list of images that I used.
It has been a real pleasure to share my creations with you during this beautiful season as a member of the Graphics Fairy Design Team. I invite you to connect and follow me on Instagram as Smiling Sunlight, where I’ll continue to share creative explorations and creations. Thank you very much!
DANCE OF THE SUN JUNK JOURNAL SHOW & TELL VIDEO TOUR
Premium site bundles used:
> The Horologist
> Easter Morning
> Kitty Cat Ephemera
> Forget Me Not
> Abstract Winter Acrylics
> Secret Garden
> Sage Meadows
> Tulip Mania
> Poppies and Daisies
> Easter Flora and Fauna
> Butterflies and Blooms
> Vintage Halloween
> Black & White Cut Flowers
> Autumn Botanicals
> Red, Green & White Flowers
> Woodland Wonders
> Fall Botanicals
> The Dancer
> Ballerina Fairies
> Vibrant Valentines
> Babies and Children
> Little Women
> Vintage Bohemian Style
> Celestial
Stephanie
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