Heal Your Heart Art - Class Two

Hello Dear Friends,
This was the second week of the online class, taught by my friend Bill of Purple Moose Heart Art.  This week, he was teaching us how to practice gratitude.  He talked about starting a Gratitude Journal in a composition notebook and made a very simple routine that would be easy to follow, even if your Inner Critic is following around too close by!  But as I started the project, I realized I wanted to do it just a little bit differently!  First of all, I thought I had saved out a composition book in my stash of art supplies that I pulled out of our garage sale items, but then realized I had sold it after all (ooops!).  So, always being one looking for a reason to make a book from scratch, I made one!  I found some rolled up brown kraft paper that I had hoarded away and used that for the cover.  Then, I used some torn out pages from an old dictionary that a friend had given me that was falling apart and used them for the pages, turning some upside-down and leaving some right-side up.  I then punched holes along the sides and tied the whole thing up with some purple ribbon from my ribbon collection.  Then, it was time for the stack of old magazines to come out!  Instead of just a picture to illustrate what I was grateful for, I made some collages from the pictures I tore out of the magazines.  Also, he had asked us to start with writing a list of what we were grateful for and I did do that to guide me, but decided not to use my list in my notebook, mainly because I don't like how I write, so I tore out letters from the magazines to make my captions.  What I found was that making it a bigger project, I felt like I was more fully practicing and being mindful of being grateful.  Here is how my journal turned out (click the images to see them larger):

I rubberstamped the cover and colored the orange

of the "O" in "Journal" with crayons.

The first page...

And now...

...I unfold the piéce de resistance!

I can't wait for Bill's next class!

And speaking of vivid colors,

wait until you see my next blog post,

when I take you to Paris and outer space

at the same time!!!