Secrets

This layout was done for Lisa N's (aka Raining) "Skeletons In The Closet" challenge over at Scraps Of Darkness. This is an amazing challenge that forces you "out of the box" and takes it to a personal level. The challenge was to scrap your emotions-not a photo-based on the Goo Goo Doll's song "Iris".  I chose the following words from the song to inspire my piece:
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

This piece is very personal and every inch of it came from something in my life. The outside represents the secrets that I kept my whole childhood. How on the outside everything looked beautiful and tranquil. The locked gate represents how I locked everything inside and let no one in to see the truth.

When you fold open the gates-you reveal the truth. The broken heart, broken dreams, broken trust, broken spirit. The girl represents me with her mouth that I sewed shut to keep the secrets, and the key around her neck that is the key to her freedom. The Poem is one I wrote about those years as a young girl and the wrenching heartbreak I felt.

I started with a piece of canvas from May's kit that I painted with acrylic paint and gel medium to get the texture. I then took a piece of Dusty Attic (Bracket Frames) and Painted it with white acrylic paint, rock candied it and went over it with Tattered Angels Tinsel Town Glam Glitz. I then punched some of the kit pps and adhered it like lace around the DA piece. I fussy cut out the tree from some more of the pps.

I

I took a Dusty Attic Gate and stained it with TA Espresso Bean Glam, tore apart a Prima vine from my stash and added the little roses from my stash to decorate the gates. I then glued on a vintage lock that I had. I cut some more of the kit pp, twice the length of the gate and folded the ends inward so that the gate could open.

The walk way is some Tim Holtz Acrylic pieces that I broke and stained then used a piece of chipboard for the backing, and layed the tiles using Snow Tex.

The title was made from Chipboard that was included in the May kit and spritzed with some of the Lindy's mist from the color add on.

I

I printed out the poem I had written and glued it to the inside middle section of the gate swing out.

Lost

I have bought into the lie,
sold my soul to the world

Forgotten my noble birth,
the darkness has unfirled

The light has gone out,
my blood is frozen in my veins
My heart has hardened to stone,
surrendered to life's pain

Come wake me from this nightmare,
I am in such misery
Show me the grace of Your love,
breathe Your Life back into me

I have fallen,
fallen so far down
I know now what I have lost,
is it too late to turn around?

I hear that soulless whisper
"Your too lost to be saved."

This doesn't feel just like another
pit, it feels just like my grave

My tormented mind cries for death,
My wounded soul cries for redemption
I am on my knees praying and crying,
Do I still have Your salvation?

I'm holding my last breath, afraid to exhale
My tears have turned to ice, my existance
is a living hell

The monsters here are very real,
the demons of my past now possess my soul

My God, my Savior, please come save me now,
piece me back together, make me whole

Save my soul tonight
Bring me back to Your light
Hurry before by the numbness, I am overcome

I have fallen,
fallen so far down
Oh God, I feel so lost

I painted the back ground of the section with a paint dabber,  painted the wings with TA Stilleto Glam and then added the clip art to the top, sewed her mouth shut, and affixed the key around her neck.

I used the same paint dabber for the opposite side then added the "broken" with all the words around it. I drew the heart out onto chipboard, cut it out colored it with silver ink, rock candied it then did some inking and rubbing to get the grunge look.

Thank you for taking the time to look at such a personal piece. I believe that we can all do pretty, but it is when we do honest, real and yes, sometimes ugly that we sometimes achieve something out of the ordinary-art. ~ Renea