"Begin" and "Alive" Art Journal Pages

Here are this week's art journal pages. They are both for the Flickr art journal challenge group. I'm trying to catch up on the previous words as well as creating for the new word. The first one is "begin..." and I've included the things I need to do like, "to dream," "to try again," "to change," and "to be happy." I used pink as a background because it seemed like a bright color, a color for a beginning. The letters are fabric stickers that I got for free when some scrapbook store around the corner from my school was closing and gave a bunch of their inventory to the school. It was like Christmas!
The second page is "Alive ABCs." This one includes the first transparency I made on my printer (I found a box of ink jet transparencies at the DI for $1.00. After pricing them at Office Max for $30, I decided I couldn't pass up on this brand new box.), butterfly stickers and black Sharpie(from the dollar store), cheepo acrylic paint (I never use the artist's acrylic paint; I just use the cheepo craft paint because I love the colors and the price), letter brads, glitter gel pens, and vintage text from an old elementary school vocabulary book that cost all of 50 cents.
The words for the ABCs are ache, breathe, cheer, dancing, earn, and fear. Here's what I've journaled along with the words: "To be truly alive...We must ache, so we know who to comfort others. We must breathe, so we can find our place of peace and calm. We must cheer our family and friends...and ourselves. We must dance, even if it is just a happy jig in our hearts. We must earn the peace and happiness we desire, so that we do not take them for granted. We must fear, and then we must conquer that fear."

I think the "Alive" page is going to be another one of those pages that I keep looking back on when I need a lift.