Beautiful You, Radiant You-21 Secrets

Okay, this is a combo mandala dream board page in my Moleskine watercolor book (the big one). I learned how to make it, after I did the inner work, and was inspired by Ingrid Murray in her workshop Beautiful You, Radiant You. I learned about all sorts of techniques from her, then just let myself play. To start with, I wrote down things I wanted in pencil around the center. That, over the background, painted with acrylic inks, is as far as I got for several days. I just couldn't figure out how I wanted to proceed and with what, so I kept it in mind while I worked on another project.

Then the other day we got a Real Simple magazine in the mail, and there they were! All these wonderful images and words that seemed to jump out to me, just begging to be in my journal. So I happily started tearing, cutting, and gluing. All of the images are from this months issue, except the watch and the words "find your essence," which came out of an old Marie Claire magazine.

I know we're not supposed to use the magazine images just like they are, because of copyright issues, but I just couldn't bear to change or cover them. I'm not going to sell the page or anything. It's for a class project and my own personal use, so maybe it will be ok.

I am now a Senior Citizen, so the young girl boldly striding across the page carrying grapes represents a huge reminder about health, exercise, and eating right. The terrarium and birds represent my love of nature, and I can not imagine my life without animals in it. The two older ladies and the music signify that I want more art, music, and dancing in my life. The cross drawn on the watch top is my faith, and the watch is a reminder that my time on this earth is swiftly running out, and I need to make the most of every moment I have left. Friends and family are included in the writing.

I forgot a place to hide secrets, and I know I could have meshed the images together better, but I like it so much, just the way it is, that I can't bear to cover anything up. I like the openess, yet the connectiveness of the images, so I'm leaving it as is. Following my heart on this one! I will probably add some writing among the images later on, but for now it is what it is, and I hope I don't get into trouble for sharing the images with you.

I have left spaces on all the pages I've shared to go back and write personal things later. For now, I'm learning and enjoying the process of creating the pages. I eventually want to start printing off my own photos and using them in my journals instead of borrowing magazine images, or maybe combine the two?

Keep creating!