Art Therapy Workshop this weekend....

I worked really hard this weekend at a workshop on a handmade journal.  It was big and bold and so extremely exhausting.  I literally slept 12 hours after I painted and put this together.  But when I woke up this morning/afternoon, ready for the next session in the workshop, I felt so accomplished.  I have not been able to create anything of this magnitude in such a long long time that it felt good to hold it in my hands, even knowing that I still needed to add the quotes and journaling and words to each page, but just to have a completed "shell" of a project.  So without further delay, I present to you, my first Shadows of My Heart Art Journal:

This is my front cover.  The wings of the heart actually bend around so that they tuck under so when it's folded you only see the heart.  There will be a quote and wording when this is finally finished.  But this weekend, I just wanted to get the shell done.

When you open the journal, this is the first two page layout.  It will have journaling in the middle of the flower also, but for now, this is what it is. 

The next page is a 3 page pullout.  The purple flower and the heart are on the first two pages and the pink flower is on a fold-in page.  Again, I will add quotes and wording later.

The last two page layout.  I had to add my ladybug on here somewhere.  It just wouldn't be a Shadow of my Heart without one.

The back cover.  You can kind of see the wings of the heart from the front cover on the right hand side.  This journal is large.  It's about 12" tall (give or take a half inch here or there).  I was a lot of fun, but like I said, so exhausting.  But I accomplished it.  And after my 12 hours of sleep I had enough energy to complete the final class this afternoon.

 It scared me to death because I usually don't do a lot with watercolors, but this class was ALL about watercolors.  (The journal was done with acrylic paints). 

I now feel like I mastered watercolors.  By the way, all of these were hand drawn and hand painted by me.  No paint by numbers or fill in the blanks.  And I'm pretty stinking happy with them.  So, welcome to Shadows of My Heart.