Creative Blogging!

Good Monday Morning Crafty Bloggers!  Last week Mary Brack asked me to participate in a Blog Hop with a difference!  I was stunned to say the least, but honored at the same time! As I am fairly new to this online community, I really appreciated Mary thinking of me and allowing me to share with you all!

As this was a different kind of blog hop in that all I had to do was answer four questions, I was up for the task!  I’ve been told I have the gift for gab (or as some would say….I like to talk a lot..LOL), so here goes my crack at!

What am I working on?

Right now I am working on a journal page and a couple of tags.  I have also started jotting down my Christmas list.  I love making things for people as opposed to buying something, when I can, because I feel like it just has a more personal tone to it.  It is a little piece of “me” given to them.  It is something that I worked on and took the time to think about who they are to me and then base whatever I am making around that.  We all have gifts inside of us that we can give that far outweigh or are more valuable than anything you could buy in a store!

Part of my "creative," and very messy, work space!

How does my work differ to others of its genre?

I tried to think about what “genre” I fit into and wasn’t really sure.  As most of my projects are done in a journal, I guess you could say my “genre” is art journaling.  I have separate journals for mixed media, water color, nature journaling, and Zentangle.  I also love to do mixed media canvas, make cards, art tags and ATC’s.  So again, not sure of the “genre,” but there you go!  I would like to believe that the difference of my work in any of these areas is that the inspiration comes up out of the Spirit that is dwelling in me!  I am a devout Christian and I continually seek what God may be saying to me at the moment.  I would like to think that whatever piece I create comes from the Holy Spirit’s leading.

Why do I write/create what I do?

That’s a really good question.  I will say it all started out of my drive to get over fears that I had always kept inside of me.  You could call it a midlife crisis, but I would like to call it a bondage breaker!  Growing up I had always wanted to create things, but didn’t have enough self-confidence to try the things I wanted to.  So initially, I started creating to press through my fears.  But once I started, it was like a flood gate opened and I couldn’t stop!  As I mentioned before, I am a devout Christian and as this started as a breakthrough, I knew that I wanted to continue my creativity out of what God was speaking to me.  So my creativity is an outreach, it’s a ministry, it’s an expression of me, it’s an opportunity to be a vessel and sow God’s Word!  And lastly, it’s so much fun to create!  I love getting sticky, messy and just seeing what God does through me!  The end results always make me smile!

How does your creating/writing process work?

                        

For me, its God inspired.  I do daily Bible devotions and Bible studies, and as I study, I keep a pad to the side that I write inspiring scripture or key words that come out of my studying.  I also like to draw a quick sketch (however cryptic it may be) so that I don’t forget where my train of thought was at that moment in case I don’t have the time to work on it just yet.  Then when it’s time for a new project, I will pick one from my list that is speaking to me at the moment.  I love seasons and holidays and I love creating according to those special occasions.  I love doing birthday cards or thank you cards with personal touches as well so I just try to keep a list with dates jotted down and as with all things, I will go to that same list and pull some scripture or important word to bless them with.  My favorite part of the process is watching them receive their gift!  Not for the accolades or because I think it is so wonderful, but just to see and know that I have blessed someone with an encouraging word!  God always has a way paved for His plan to be worked out, whether I choose to be a part of it or not!  I just happen to choose to be a part, honored to be used by Him!

Well, as part of the hop, I want to introduce you to a blogger that I follow whose projects I anticipate and love seeing.  Her name is Susan Carol!  You can go visit her blog Faith Words Faith Expressions!  I met Susan through this wonderful community and have enjoyed getting to know her beautiful spirit!  She shares her art through her faith with amazing journal page spreads, cards and crafty projects!

Hop on over and visit Susan’s creative blog and on next Monday, October 6^th, she will introduce us to some of her friends!  I am so glad you took the time to visit here on my blog!  Thanks again to Mary for inviting me to come hop along!

Blessings to you!

Who I Am!

Good Happy Thursday!  Well here in the south, it's cold and rainy!  I happen to like how it is outside right now, but I know some folks are not liking the drabness!  I was ready for summer relief, so I am embracing every moment because I know next week it will be back up in the 80's....good old Georgia! LOL

The spread I want to share from one of my journals that I love was totally inspired by Barbara Strembicki from Joggles!   I love watching Barb's videos because she is so precise and descriptive with all her details and there's just something about her voice that makes me want to keep coming back for more!  I think I have watched them all, but the vid that inspired me for this spread was one that my Google+ friend Zsuzsa suggested here!  In this video, Barb is actually doing "art cards" and I totally have that on my list to try my hand at, but in the mean time, I wanted to do a spread in my journal inspired by that!

This was a fun spread that started out with lots of kinks and ended up something I liked. I began with gesso on the page because initially I didn't know where I was going with the page.  Sometime back, I made a whole bunch of homemade acrylic sprays experimenting with various brands of acrylic paints and ended up liking the sprays I made.  Beats buying sprays when you can do it yourself! LOL  All that said, I hadn't used them in awhile, so needless to say the pump sprays had sat and gotten clogged. After trying several and getting a few sprays here and there and clumpy this and that, I just decided to quit! LOL After I walked away and it dried, I liked what I ended up with, so I marched on!  I used a cool background stamp that was circles that I knew I wanted to use and a homemade circle stamp that I used as well.  I then took the top off of one of the clogged sprays and drew a few circles to start my doodles.  Those didn't turn out so hot either, geez Louise! LOL  So I pulled out my favorite Silks Acrylic Glazes and moved on!!

I followed Barb's ideas and drew several circles using different glazes and finally liked where it was going and continued on.  I finished the circles using a Sharpie fine point and doodled away!  When I was done, I embellished with glitter glues and paint pens and then shaded with my can't do without charcoal pencil and smudge stick.  I had some scrap paper that I cut into a couple of sizes and adhered down with some Tim Holtz tape using Liquitex matte gel medium.  I also shaded those with charcoal pencil.  I used a Unity sentiment stamp from the July 2014 Layers of Life set with Colorbox ink and clear embossing powder on some white card stock that had been stamped lightly with a background stamp.  I distressed the edges with StazOn black ink and adhered it down with the matte gel medium.  I also shaded that with my charcoal pencil.  I liked how my kinks ironed out! LOL!

Part of being who I am as a Christian is becoming ALL God has called me to be!  In that I NEVER apologize for who I am in Christ because in His Word, Jesus states that "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in Heaven." (Matt 10:32).  I want to make sure that I confess Christ above all else and give Him the glory that He richly deserves for ALL He has done for me!  It is a process, becoming, but thank God that He left me One in the Holy Spirit to help peel back the layers of ALL He is through revelation as I seek to grow in Him!  God is NOT done with me yet....I am a work in progress!  What about you?

You be blessed today, you wonderful work of God, as you confess Christ!

Worship the King!

Happy Wednesday all!  This week I have been doing a bit of running around for my first born's 14th birthday party this coming up weekend!  I just can't believe she is 14!  My husband and I started late in life, so we, by some folks standards, are "older" parents!  All or our friends' children are in college or married or they even have grandchildren!  I laugh because sometimes when my girls are with their dad out somewhere people will ask "Oh, is this your grandfather!" LOL, LOL, LOL!  Of course, I take FULL advantage of that! But I would change NOTHING about our waiting to have either one of our beautiful children!

With fall coming on and this yummy cool snap we have in the air and some of our southern leaves beginning to change, it all reminded me of my reverence and worship of my Jesus! Seeing my favorite time of year coming on with all it's colorful splendor reminds me how much our Father in Heaven loves us to honor us with the changing of the seasons!  It displays His glory that we could see and know!  As I thought about that, it reminded me of Psalm 24..."The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him!" (v.1-2)  The rest of 24 goes on to reference a personal relationship with our Lord and those that seek Him can WORSHIP in His presence!  That's my FAVORITE thing to do.....Worship the King of Glory!!

My page today comes from a heart of worship.  I was in one of my neat little antique marts the other day and found this really old dictionary that had the front cover torn off and as such I could see the cover page which drew me straight away!  It was of this glorious angel overlooking some people reading.  Well being that the book was in bad shape I snapped it up knowing I could haggle and get a good deal.  And deal I did....$.50!  Love it, all day long!  I knew I would use that page in my art journal and then use the rest of the book pages for other things.

I started with collaging the page with various papers from from "scrap" drawer - I never throw anything away! After I covered the page, I went over it with watered down gesso because I like to see some of the paper peeping through.  I then got out my Faber-Castell Gelatos and went to town!  I wish could say I remember which colors, but alas, I do not!  I like to smudge with my fingers, but again because I like to see what's behind, I did add water and thin it out.  I also used some Vintage Photo Distress Ink on the edges.  I drew and cut out a female form on book page and colored her with nude gelato and then cut her skirt and shirt from some scrap paper and also used some gelatos on both to enrich the colors.

The dictionary page was damaged a good bit, but I cut the angel from the dictionary page and had to end up making my own wings because they were damaged on the book page.  I just used more scrap paper and colored with gelatos.  I adhered it all down with Liquitex matte medium and then shaded with Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen.  I stamped my sentiment using Memento black with an old stamp set that I had that I got from a flea market one time.

As I was inspired by Psalm 24, I wrote around the edges verses from Psalm 24.  The Spirit also inspired me to recall the heavenly crowns believers will receive that are mentioned in the New Testament.  They are the imperishable crowns; the crown of rejoicing, the crown of righteousness, the crown of glory, and the crown of life!  I was reminded that these are the rewards of heaven that God promises to those who are faithful! I want to be found faithful worshiping and honoring the Son of our most high God, how about you?

Today, as you look around this beautiful land we call earth, remember that it is the Lord's...the world and ALL its people belong to Him!  Be blessed as you worship the King of Glory! 

For the Joy and Hope of it All!

Oh Happy Friday!!  It's been a crazy week for me with so many things that have been on my plate, but with Friday, comes Saturday.......cleaning day!! Ugghh!  But I am so very thankful for the provision of a wonderful home that I can clean!  Still not my most favorite thing to do, but I can have a joy and a hope even in cleaning!!

The joy and hope in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is available and abundant DAILY!!  Isn't that encouraging?  In God's Word it says "May the God of hope fill you with ALL joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit!" (Romans 15:13) That makes my heart so FULL that I could bust!  Imagine being FILLED with SO MUCH joy and peace that you are just OVERFLOWING (or I like to think of a cup that has a crack in it and its so full that it's OVERFLOWING and OOZING out the cracks, it's so FULL) with hope!!!  That hope that comes from the Holy Spirit not only edifies your spirit man, but it filters out and can only edify others!!  That's how our Heavenly Father operates....you TRUST in Him and the work on the cross through His Son, Jesus Christ, and He will FILL YOU UP with ALL His goodness!  He wants to bless you BEYOND what you could EVER think or imagine!  Why?  Because He's about bringing ALL His children back into the Heavenly fold!!  Glory!  

I have been on a tag kick lately!  Do you ever get like that?  Sometimes all I want to do is journal pages and then sometimes all I want to do is cards or tags, etc....  Well the last couple of weeks (a lot of it because of lack of "art time") I have been doing tags.  I can do tags in a little less time than a journal and that makes me feel like I have had my "art time."  I do love doing tags!

The two tags I want to share today are left overs from a recent DIY project and were totally inspired by one of my FAVE artists, Limor Webber!  There are so many incredibly talented artists out there that I identify with or who have the flow I am looking for, so Limor is just ONE.  But I think I have watched ALL her YouTube and Ustream vids! Not only is she talented, but she just cracks me up! Her latest Ustream on mixed media tags is what inspired me here!  That being said, I am STILL learning AT BEST!  I still have a quirkiness with adding elements.  I don't have an ABUNDANCE of elements like she does (and she shows her hoards in the Ustream vid, LOL!!) but what little I do have, I am still learning to use.

Both of these were shipping tags I bought at Office Depot in a box of 100 for next to nothing...can't beat that!  I white washed them with gesso and then stamped one with one of my favorite script stamps from Inkadinkado and the other with a polka dot background stamp from Inkadinkado and then a number stamp from Unity.  I then pulled out my yummy Silks Acrylic Glazes in Pink Azalea, Pretty Peridot, Sky Blue, and Sunflower and dotted them out on my craft mat and then watered them down a bit.  I just proceeded to smear and drip them over both tags.

On the "Hope" tag, I used a butterfly stamp from Prima on just plain paper and then painted it with some of the same Silks and then sprayed a Tsukineko's Goosebumps sparkle texture spray.  I really have enjoyed using that product, although from the picture you can't really tell what sort of effect it gives the butterfly.  I experiment on everything with that stuff! LOL!!  I then just had some scrap coffee filter paper that I had sprayed with Dylusions, Bubblegum Pink (I think), that I put down with Mod Podge and then stamped the sentiment "hope" on some book page that I had white washed with gesso and adhered it to some chipboard with Mod Podge.  I just took some of that leftover Silks on my mat and just put it here or there on it.  I found some cute little flowers in one of my drawers that I had forgotten about and thought it would be nice with it all.  I hot glued it all down and tada!! Turned out cute!

The "joy" tag I just ripped apart some cardboard I had saved and tried to distress it with sandpaper and some Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  I found a piece of cross chipboard in one of my drawers, again that I had forgotten about, and white washed it with gesso and then smeared some of the Pretty Peridot Silks on it and then tried to distress it as well with the sandpaper and Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  I then sprayed it with the Goosebumps sparkle texture spray.  I had a piece of "joy" emphemera that I distressed with the sandpaper and Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  I added some cute little flowers with a gem embelishments and hot glued them all down and added a little piece of Washi tape I had laying on my craft mat!  Whatcha think?

There is such a freedom and joy when I do my artsy things.  It may never make it out of my art closet and that's ok, but when it FILLS me with so much joy and peace, I want to try to give it to others, because I want to bless another with a piece of the joy, freedom and love that God blesses me with!

If you are FILLED UP today, why don't you OOZE on out and bless another!!

Blessings and have a GREAT weekend!

DIY With Love!

Happy Wednesday friends!  I haven't been able to get in my "art closet," per say, any this week due to many DIY projects for other things!  One project I want to share with you is a project filled with lots of love!  I have a young friend at work who is getting married and I found myself over decorations for the wedding shower we are giving her and so after much internet searching, I came up with some real cutsie things that I want to share!

My young friend's wedding theme is books!  I love that idea as I am an avid reader myself.  If fact, that is one of the many things she and I have in common.  She's young enough to be my daughter, but somehow we just connected on so many levels.  Isn't that funny?  So I wanted to do something really sweet for her decorations.  Most of the following are things I saw on Pinterest or the internet somewhere, so I really can't take credit for any of it except that I made it!  So if you see this and it was originally your idea, THANK YOU! LOL!!

Book Centerpiece

One thing I knew I wanted to do was a cute centerpiece and so when I saw this idea, I thought it was perfect.  In the south, not sure of anywhere else, we love our flea markets and antique markets. So I hit one of flea markets that I knew had an old books booth and stocked up!  I lucked up and found two books right off the bat and one was simply called "Love Stories," and the other was called "Husband Habits!"  How cool is that?  So I snatched them both up, knowing I was going to rip the books apart, so the content didn't really matter much except that it had those titles on the spine and the top of the pages!  The "Love Stories" is the book you see here that I made this really cute centerpiece out of.  I simply took three or four pages and folded them over and used Aleene's to glue them down.  I then went on the internet and downloaded book covers (hope I'm not breaking the law..LOL) for some of her favorite books and printed them out and glued them on lilac (the color in her wedding) construction paper and glued them in the book at various spots.  I finished it off with glueing down some lilac glitter here and there.  Turned out really cute! 

Table Runner

I then took the other book "Husband Habits" and made a runner for the food table and sign in book table.  I ripped out enough pages that I could tape two side by side and then used one of my Fiskars punches and punched the sides all the way down.  I made sure to measure the centerpiece because I ended up having two title pages in this book and I made sure one was on one side of the center piece and the other was on the other side of the center piece.   I thought that was a cute idea...it made me giggle knowing she will soon find out ALL his habits.....more than she may want to know!! LOL!!  I was happy at how that turned out!

Gift Book

Gift Book

The next thing I wanted to work on was the sign in table.  As a past bride, I know when you are opening gifts things get fun and everyone's talking and oohing and ahhing, so often who brought what get's misplaced.  So I found this idea of a gift book that I thought was great.  She's a big Harry Potter fan and we found this old photo album that kind of reminded me of the Monster Book on Harry Potter and I found these cute library card sleeves that were decorative and glued them into the album.  As I couldn't find any old library cards, I went to Office Depot and got some shipping tags and white washed them and them printed on them with one of my fabulous Inkadinkado script stamps. The tags will go in the sleeves and as guests come in, they will sign on the back of the tag their name and what they brought and then the bride or someone else doesn't have to keep up with who brought what and everyone can just enjoy a good time!  How cute is that, right?

Little things!

Then as just some fluff here and there I bought extra books to stack up and put these cute candles on top that I made out of small mason jars.  I just took the book page and drew a heart on it and cut it to a strip sized for the jar and just tied a burlap bow around it.  I had an old frame lying around and decided just to take another book page and white wash it and stamped her name and date of the wedding on it using Tim Holtz's Worn Text Alphabet Stamp Set.  I also used a Unity Stamp sentiment "Love, Cherish and Embrace."  I also made another book page runner for that table as well. Simple things but effective!

One thing I have found as a Christian is that it is so wonderful to bless others!  I am such a blessed person in ALL that God chooses to bless me with, that I want to make sure that I use my blessings to bless others!  God's Word says "I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you...and you will be a blessing to others." (Gen. 12:2)  When we bless others, we can be sure that God will take care of our needs!  I don't bless to "get," I bless because He blesses me!!  It's a matter of the heart!  Our blessing to others will come back to us because God's heart is that He will continue give to us so that we can continue to give to others!

Look, we can't out give God!  His blessings are eternal!  But He wants us to keep a humble heart before Him.  One that is pliable and something He can work with!  If we have that kind of heart before Him, He can do mighty things!!  I want to know that I made myself available to bless another. I want to be a mighty instrument of His love and blessings!  What about you?

No matter the blessing, no matter how great or small, just "give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you!" (Luke 6:38)

Be blessed as you DYI with LOVE! :)

Gratitude!

Good Thursday!!  We had a slight little breeze this morning here in the south!  I would get excited, but the south being the south, I don't get excited too much because it's usually a trick!!! LOL!!  It's funny to watch because people start breaking out the fall clothing and getting all excited and then Mother Nature throws another month of gruelling weather on us and then you sit and look at those yummy sweaters with longing!! LOL!!

As I have been longing for my favorite time of year, I finished a tag last night that beckons for fall to come!  I had fun dreaming of all the things we will do as a family (fall is SUPER camping time) and we are trying to plan our "mountain" camping trip as a result!  I'm super giddy to get away with my family in my wonderful camper that God has blessed us with in my most favorite setting!

I stamped my Inkssentials tag with one of my favorite stamps from a stamp set from Inkadinkado called Autumn Foliage with Versamark and then embossed with clear embossing powder.  I then began laying down Distress Ink in Antique Linen, Spun Sugar and Spiced Marmalade and then edging with Vintage Photo.  As I really liked how it looked and didn't want it to move, I sprayed a fixative over it.

I think we are ALL guilty of buying up crafty elements, especially in the "clearance" section, I know I am (it's a sickness!), so I went through my drawers and just started pulling out all types of things that I thought may go that I have had sitting around for awhile.  First off I put some really pretty vellum tape from Little Yellow Bicycle down one edge and dusted it with Vintage Photo and then took a scrap of burlap and laid it down with some Aleene's Tacky glue - that stuff sticks ANYTHING and dries super quick!  Then I found a cute little tag from a 7 Gypsies pack that I have ripped apart, so not sure which one.  I edge it with Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo and along with some burnt orange twine, glued it over top of the burlap.

I love Unity Stamps, they are some of my fave and I had a stamp set from September 2013 that has some wonderful leaves in it as well as some leaves from the Inkadinkado stamp set mentioned previously.  I stamped them on regular card stock with Staz On Saddle Brown and then used my Tim Holtz Water Brush and colored the leaves with his Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Firebrick Red, Spiced Marmalade and Peeled Paint. I then edged them all in Vintage Photo and then put Liquitex Gloss Gel over top of them all.  I also stamped the word "gratitude," which is also from the Unity Stamp set, on some craft paper, edged it with Vintage photo and then sprayed some Tsukineko Goosebumps Sparkle Texture Spray over top.

I assemble the leaves and glued them down with my good old glue gun and embellished them with a cute little button, a gem from Studio G, some more of the burnt orange twine and a Mistakables from Studio Calico that I sprayed with Dylusions Squeezed Orange and then edged with Vintage Photo. After that, I put the sentiment on with some pop dots and dredged some cute ribbon I found in the bargain bin with Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain and tied it to the top!  I finished by edging the whole thing with Walnut Stain.

Expressing gratitude is something I try to make a part of my daily living!  As a Christian, it is something that is a part of my daily honoring and worshipping of my Savior, Jesus and my Father in Heaven!  In His Word, God reminds us "Through Jesus, therefore, let us CONTINUALLY, offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that openly profess His name!" (Hebrews 13:15)  If you are about your Father in Heaven's business, the fruit of your lips WILL BE continual sacrifices of praise for ALL He did for YOU on the cross and continues to do through His shed blood that covered ALL things!!  Glory!  It doesn't get any better than that!  Even so, it's not because of who I am or anything I have done, but what Jesus did and WHO HE IS!! He deserves ALL the glory, ALL the honor, and ALL the Praise!! 

Today, if you are downtrodden, open up your mouth and offer up sacrifices of praise, worship and thankfulness to the Lord and I GUARANTEE you, you will be blessed for it!  Praise always casts down the enemy, he can't stand in the face of praise to Jesus!

Be blessed today as you let willing praises of gratitude come forth!

Swept Away!

Good Tuesday to you!  I have been a busy bee lately due to some unforeseen issues at work which have kept me away from my art closet.  I send up praises today to my Father in Heaven for so many answered prayers and things will begin to heal in our office!  Thank you Lord!

Since it has been crazy for me, I will share a past page that I did with some help from my daughter!  I always get tickled when I see videos from fellow crafters and you see the little hands of their children go in and out of frame as they attempt to help mom with her art!  My sweetpea is not so little anymore, but she loves to help me and direct my crafting! LOL!!

I don't always let her put her two cents worth in (my OCD rears it's ugly head), but will occasionally let her pick out the stencils I could use or my paint colors.  On this journal she helped me rip pages out of magazines that we thought had cool colors or texture and she picked out the butterfly and I picked out the bird.

I gesso'd my page first and added some teal and sea foam paint with a brayer and then added torn pages from magazines, craft paper and book text to the page with Mod Podge.  I usually put the pages first and then lightly gesso over top, but decided I wanted to see the elements more prominently for a mish mashed, hodge podged kind of look.  Then we just added more paint color over top through several different stencils in my old stash that she liked.  She picked out a colorful butterfly and I just loved this little bird that we wanted to add because we both thought it had a nature feel to it.  I added some washi tape and then with an old toilet paper roll I keep on my craft desk, I added some circles with Liquitex black ink.  We both love nature so we added the "swept away" sentiment and "wish" description on the page because we love the outdoors and constantly wish to be there as nature sweeps us away with lovely thoughts of peace and gratitude!  I love charcoal and I use it a lot in my journals, so I rounded it out by adding shading here and there with charcoal and around the edges to finish.  It was a quick, easy and fun "together" page!

Nature represents so much about the Father and His love for us to me.  We are a camping family and take every opportunity to be out in God's beautiful creation to convene with Him and each other. Nature brings me a comfort and a peace that makes me feel as though I am swept away in my Father in Heaven's arms.  It is my greatest "wish," or "the deepest desire of my heart" to be with Him in that way.  When I am out on a good hiking trail, I feel Him all around me and no matter what circumstances of life or the day the enemy tries to lay before me, they are all put under my feet as I walk with an assurance and a peace with my Father on the earthly trail.  His Word assures me that "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemies before you, saying, destroy them!" (Deut. 33:27) That's how our Father in Heaven is, if you allow Him to dwell in you, then you are afforded ALL the benefits of dwelling in Him!

I share with my daughters all the time that the enemy is on a leash and he can do nothing that God doesn't know about it!  He gives us all power and authority through Jesus Christ to trample on the enemies head!  He's under our feet!  The enemy knows that, but he wants to know if you know that! Put him in his rightful place today and allow the God of all peace and comfort sweep you away in His loving arms assuring you that He is girding you up with the strength of His protection as He casts out the enemy before you!  You are MORE than a conqueror!

You be blessed today as you allow the deepest desire of your heart be to dwell with the Father!

Every Little Thing!

Good Thursday afternoon!  I am running behind today.  It feels like my whole day got away from me!  Or maybe because it is a short week this week and things are a little out of whack from my normal five day work week!  The up side to that is...it IS a short week!  Yard work, here I come! LOL!!

Here in the south it has be so hot and muggy and I am so ready for a break from that all!  That being said, fall is heavy on my mind!  It is my favorite time of year for many reasons.  As much as I love spring and summer vibrancy and colors, my heart is truly a fall color person!  The colors of fall bring about a change in our demeanor, a quickening in our spirits of new seasons to come!  It slows our pace and invites us to drink in the colors that warm our hearts!  I love the changing of the seasons in the natural as well as spiritually speaking.  I love to see what magnificence God will do next!

Today I want to shares a spread from one of my journals that just brought me such peace.  Since my heart is ready for fall, I wanted to show that through this simple page.  I was thinking of the leaves and how they start falling.  It's small, little bits at first almost to the point that you don't notice it, and then all of a sudden there is this vast array of hauntingly, beautiful color everywhere!  It takes your breath away!

I wanted the spread to be soft because that is where my mind was when I envisioned the spread.  So I started with some gesso and then pulled one of my favorite acrylic paints from Folk Art to use.  It's a blue pearl and I love it because of the effect it has when you lay it down.  All the pearls may be the same, but I am partial to the blue.  So just randomly put some down with my fingers and then took a baby wipe and moved it around the page until I got the effect that I wanted.  I then took some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade and added it to the page and again used the baby wipe to move it around until it looked right.  And then added Vintage photo around the edges.  I really liked how it looked so I wanted to make sure it didn't move, so I sprayed a Krylon fixative over it to make sure it stayed.

I had this piece of emphemera that I had gotten from the internet that I liked and printed two pieces so that I could cut the butterflies out of one and then use them on top of the other.  I colored the butterflies with my wonderful Faber-Castell Gelatos and topped them off with Glossy Accents. I then used Tim Holtz Distress Ink on the banner in Spiced Marmalade and Broken China and then Vintage photo on the edges.  I finished it with Walnut Stain.

I then took my fave script stamp from Inkadinkado and stamped the background with StazOn Saddle Brown - love that stamp.  I then took this fabulous Unity stamp that I have called Tree of Gratitude and stamped across the bottom in StazOn Saddle Brown and then took these loose leaf stamps from a stamp set from Inkadinkado called Autumn Foliage and stamped them randomly around to make it look like leaves flying around.  I then took two other foliage stamps from that same set and stamped up in the corner as if it were a closer tree.  The first one I stamped behind in Tim Holtz Distress Peeled Paint, like ghosting and then did the other in the foreground in StazOn Saddle Brown.

I Modge Podged my banner down and outlined with Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen in Nougat and then adhered the butterflies with Aleene's Tacky Glue.  I stamped my sentiment with Tim Holtz's Worn Text stamp set in StazOn Black and then added some little highlights with my Sakura Gel Pen in orange. I finished off dusting the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain.

The Creator of our universe does nothing short and always with purpose!  There are no small things in God's Kingdom!  Every little thing, if within His will, turns into something BIG for His Kingdom!  So.....every little thing counts!  In Mark where Jesus speaks of the parable of sowing the seeds, Jesus is saying "this is the ways God does things.  God is like a sower who scatters seeds. The seeds may be tiny and invisible to the naked eye. Yet when the seed is planted, it grows into a shrub that provides shelter for the creatures of this world. The Kingdom of God is like this. The initial evidence may be infinitesimal, but the ultimate results are great!"

Be blessed today as you realize that God's beginnings may be small, but the results are BIG!  Every little thing counts!

Such a Time as This!

Good Monday.......I mean Tuesday!!  Boy, that's going to take all day to get used to!! LOL  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend!  For some, the last trip of the summer with the kiddos before school starting.  Here, where I live, school had already started, so we couldn't take days off to go anywhere in particular, but we did have a nice weekend with Monday off from our labors to enjoy.

Today I want to share a journal page spread with you that had been on my mind.  As we get older, time seems to march on and on.  Especially when I look at my girls. I know they will be gone before I know it and I want to savor the moments all I can.  Sometimes I get too busy being busy that I forget to spend those moments with them that I should.  My youngest, being so in tune to everything around her, will remind me from time to time, "mom, do that later, lets have mommy/daughter time!"  Boy, if that's not a wake up call! So, my page today is to remind me of how precious life's moments are and how we should collect and cherish them and hold them dear to our hearts!

I started this page with Dylusions sprays in Squeezed Orange and Lemon Zest.  I added some Distress Stain in Vintage Photo on the outside.  I then put some Liquitex Gloss Gel through Jaime Echt's Numerals (TCW200) stencil and because I am impatient, hit it with my heat gun!  I then took some Distress paint in Peeled Paint through Dyan Reaveley's stencil Dotted Flowers. I also took Dyan's stencil with a baby wipe and lifted some spray through the dots, just to add a little something else to it.  I then took some more Dylusions in Post Box Red and watered it down and dripped it down the page along with some splatters here and there. 

I had a stamp in my stash that I knew I wanted to use from Lost Cost Designs (if you've never checked out Lost Cost Designs, I encourage you to. They have great stamps!) so I stamped it on regular 110# card stock with Staz-On.  The more I looked at it, the more I wanted to do more with it, so I beheaded the poor gal and placed her head on a clock face from one of Tim Holtz's emphemera packs. I colored her head and body using my Staedtler colored pencils and stamped a Unity Stamp "moments" on some card stock and sprayed it with the Dylusions Squeezed Orange and finished all those pieces with Distress Ink in Vintage photo.  I also added some Tim Holtz tissue tape and then adhered them all to the page with mod podge.

On the opposite page, I took a one of Tim's tags and covered it with his tissue paper and then sprayed it lightly with Dylusions Post Box Red.  I wanted to make sure the word "memory" stood out so I went back over it with my black pen and then still wanted more texture on the tag, so I put the same Distress Paint in Peeled Paint through my Tim Holtz Burlap Layering Stencil. I then took a another sentiment stamp from Unity Stamps and stamped on card stock, cut it down and added the same Dylusions Squeezed Orange spray to it.  Finally I used some more emphemera and distressed them all with Vintage Photo and adhered to the page with mod podge.  I shadowed all with one of my fave's, Faber-Castell's Big Brush Pen in Nougat. At this point I still felt like it needed a little more so I added touches of color here and there with Inka Gold Greenyellow through Rebekah Meier's Mini Specimens stencil (TCW 454) and put a final spritz of Heidi Swapp's Chartreuse on top! Tada!

Time is so precious and I think I did this page more for me to remind myself that's it's ok to let that laundry go for a bit or it's ok that that dish is in the sink.  My OCD cries "NO!" but my spirit says you have been purposed "for such a time as this!" (Esther 4:14)  Esther was definitely purposed for that time in history and made such an impact for the Kingdom!  Just think if she had not obeyed the Holy Spirit and His call on her life.  Laundry and dishes aren't so impactful, but my children are!  I was purposed for this time and so were they!  I want to be just as obedient to the Holy Spirit for this time on earth and collect ALL those moments and keep them precious and near to my heart.  I want to make sure my children look upon them in the same way and in the future will look back upon them with the same fondness!  These moments are "fixed or definite" periods in time, they are kairos moments!  We need to always be available and ready in kairos moments to hear the Holy Spirit and obey His nudges!  Those moments are making an impact in the kingdom!  I'm getting better at it, but I want to be even better!  What about you?

Be blessed as you grab a hold of supreme moments of lasting importance in your life!  Have a great day!