Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Wednesday my crafty friends!  Tomorrow we here in the states will celebrate Thanksgiving! We all look forward to the holidays for many different reasons and I certainly look forward to this wonderful day for a myriad of reasons!

Fall is my favorite time of year and love all that it encompasses! The colors in general speak to me because they embody warm and coziness, which I love! I would be remiss if I didn't say that I love this holiday for ALL the wonderful comfort food!!  Yes, Thanksgiving is comfort food to me!!  It kind of goes back to that warm and cozy feeling because after you get a belly FULL the couch by a cozy fire is the ONLY place one could go! LOL We identify things such as turkey
and pumpkin pie as the consummate Thanksgiving dishes and who could do without the sweet potato souffle with the ooey, gooey marshmallows on top!!  Yes, only in the good old USA would one top a delicate vegetable with marshmallows!!! LOL Tragic as it would seem, I DO LOVE that dish!! My waistline, however, doesn't like ANY of it!! LOL

Another reason I love the Thanksgiving holiday is to be with my FAMILY!!  Growing up I always identified with the wonderful Norman Rockwell painting of "Thanksgiving!"  That was LITERALLY how it was in my family growing up!  I had a VERY BLESSED life growing up with awesome brothers and sisters.  I was part of a family of twelve!  We had five boys, five girls and my parents!  Then often times our grandparents were there as well!  Typical was the atmosphere of laughter, table games and/or the traditional football game in the yard (remember Eight is Enough....yep, that was us!)  I can't say ENOUGH how God blessed me to be a part of such a wonderful family!  We are all scattered to the wind now and we no longer have a family home to gather at, but we do still try to get together at one of the siblings' homes on the holidays!  I do miss those wonderful childhood days!

But for me, the most important part about Thanksgiving is being THANKFUL!!  Thankful for ALL of the above things mentioned, but also for the amazing love of my Father in Heaven!  I have ALWAYS been blessed and God has ALWAYS kept me in the palm of His hand!  I could NEVER be thankful enough to a Father in Heaven who gave it ALL on the cross for me!  It's indescribable the love I feel being a part of His family!  Just as the Norman Rockwell picture depicts the earthly family gathering warmth and love, I can identify, as a Christian, with being a part of a Heavenly family whereby there is a banquet table I am allowed to be seated at with all of my spiritual brothers and sisters in even more warmth and love! My prayer for you today is that if you don't know this kind of love that you would seek it out!  It is available to you FREE!! God tells us in His Word, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matt 7:7) No questions asked, the Father is waiting to embrace you at that same banquet table!!  Come hungry for He want to fill you to the brim!!


Today, I want to share a VERY QUICK tag I did just to say Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I literally got up this morning at 5am because I couldn't sleep for thinking of doing this tag.  So I threw it together before I did my Bible study time.

As I didn't want to wake everyone with all my knocking around I just opted to do all Distress Stains so I wouldn't have to dry, etc...  I simply used Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Vintage Photo and rounded it out with Walnut Stain.  I had the awesome stamp from Unity that I love, love of the Tree of Gratitude and the "gratitude" sentiment that came in my September of 2013 Layers of Life Kit. I also used another stamp that I love, which is the bird from a Fiskars Stamp set and then the other words came from a Yellow Bicycle Stamp Set. I added some Tim Holtz tissue tape and some faux stitching around the edges and voila! Quick, no?

I pray all my crafty friends have the Happiest of Thanksgivings!  I know my friends from across the pond don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but it doesn't have to be Thanksgiving to be so very grateful in your heart for all of your many blessings!  

God bless you!

Tag Swap!

Hi my crafty friends!  Today I want to share a tag that I made as a part of the Tag Swap over on Creating and Sharing Mixed Media Art on Google+!  For the month of November it was artists choice for the tag and as it is autumn/fall and coming up on the Thanksgiving holiday, I wanted to make a tag in keeping with that them.  My swap buddy for this month is Donna Hanrahan and you can visit her here on Google+.  I have been so excited to be a part of the swap and I look forward to ALL the fabulous talented creativity that will be going around!!

For Donna's tag, I used the darker tag (not sure what you call it) because I was again, thinking "warmth" and fall.  A lot went on with the base of the tag that you really can't see due to all that I placed on top, but I will try to give you a run down based on my memory (very scary!) I used one of Tim Holtz's stamps that that was kind of vintage looking with Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade. Then I took some Distress Paint in Antique Linen through a stencil doing both just to give some background.  I loved that I downloaded and knew I wanted to use it and as it had these birds in it I took a bird stamp from Fiskars that I had in my stash and stamped several on the background.  Again, they are hard to see with all the fuss!  I then distressed the edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.

As I always do I sprayed a fixative on the tag because I knew I would be putting things on the top and wanting to do some shading.  I then applied the digital down with Mod Podge and added a piece of burlap and some twine down at the bottom.  I had some emphemera that I picked up at the Dollar Store, of all places, that I loved and thought it would go cute with it, so I applied it down with the burlap and twine. I did quite a bit of shading with the emphemera and photo with Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen and then added some faux stitching around the photo.

I had this cute "little" tag that I wanted to use  that I simply distressed with Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo and added the little sentiment and a little maroon rhinestone that you really can't see. I also added the little pin embellishment from Tim Holt's stash that says "keepsake" on it, that you also can't see! LOL  So much for my lovely photography with my cellphone! LOL  The flower emphemera that I added had some faint blue on it so I took a gel pen and added more blue specks and some on the foliage in the digital for a little more color. I then just added some ribbon and yarn that I had in my stash and voila!

I had so much fun doing this tag because I was so excited about the swap, so I hope that Donna enjoys it and knows that it comes with lots of warm Georgia hugs this wonderful Thanksgiving season!

I hope those others of you who are involved with the swap are having fun and enjoying the creativity your are receiving as well as enjoying giving back out! That's what it's all about!

Blessings for a great day! :)

Happy Mail!

Well, as promised, I wanted to share a few things today to catch up!  I have quite a few things on my table, ALL a part of challenges and swaps going on, coming up and starting the new year!  I am so excited because I love sharing with others and it's all a new experience for me.  It's also exciting because I am meeting new people, WHICH I LOVE TO DO and it is also forcing me to challenge myself concerning my art and who I am.  The two, after all, go together for me, so sharing a part of me has been a challenge.  That being said, I have been blessed with so many people full of nothing but wonderful things to say and encouragement!  You guys are some of the best people I know! :)

All that said, one of my wonderfully talented friends that I met online, Becky Wentworth, and I are exchanging fun tags and Friday I was blessed with "happy mail!"  It was so exciting because I have been waiting with baited breath for her package! Becky loves color and so I knew it would be a yummy project to be sure!  Well she blessed me with not just one, but THREE tags!!  I know, right!?  Plus some awesome paper she wrapped them in that looks as if they were gelli printed. SCORE!!!  I opened to this sweet tag that said Merry Christmas on it with that cute little tree and flower! Love it!

Then I opened the first little package that was this wonderful tag with a Christmas Tree on it and the word Noel!  I loved this tag!  The base color was fabulous, but then all the texture pieces she adhered in the background were great too!  Then the lovely tree she drew on the music script was so cute and I absolutely loved the hints of purple she outlined the tree with and then splattered everywhere! Yummo!  She finished with the gold cord! Done good Becky!!

The next tag was just simply brilliant!  This was just a beautiful vintage angel tag that just touched my heart!  Honestly the colors are just gorgeous! Becky is just a precious soul and this came out in this tag! The sentiment says"Keep true to the dreams of thy youth!" Love it!!  It's so hard to say what I love best about this tag because I loved it all, but I really loved the button at the top and I told her I was stealing that idea! LOL  The precious lace and patina like embelishments at the bottom just added so beautifully to the tag, right along with that sweet little butterfly!  Brilliant tag Becky, truly!

Again, topping it off were those lovely gelli print pages that I confess, I have already started using on other projects!  Just too lovely not to use and share with others!

I really wanted to share the goodness that was blessed to me and I hope you like my goodies!  Go over and take at look at Becky's Google+ page, she has lots of talented craftiness on there!!  Thank you so much Becky my friend! :)


Off the subject, I wanted to share another picture with you.....of my nails!!! LOL, LOL  I'm giggling because.....I DON'T DO NAILS!  I've always had what I call "man hands!"  But my daughter begged me last night "mommy can I do your nails.....pleeeezzzz!" LOL  Well, who could say no to that? Besides, I own nail polish remover right!? LOL You can't really tell from this picture but there are like three or four coats of what I call "glop" on there!  It's like a mauvey color with a coat of some sparkly stuff on the top!  She loves her sparkles!! LOL Go mom! One point for me!! LOL What made this ALL worthwhile was seeing her face light up as she dolled me up and just in general spending time with her as we watched "The Golden Compass!"  We love watching movies together and this was a good one to watch!!  She's a jewel and I'm blessed!

Have a great day my friends!

Give Thanks!

Good morning ALL my crafty friends!!  I feel like it has been ions since I was able to post!  Last week was a whirlwind of sick children and running around.  As I had posted, my one daughter had dental surgery and to ALL the precious people who sent their regards or channeled their thoughts or prayers our way for my sweet girl, I can't thank you enough!!  She did marvelous and is healing brilliantly!!  I am a firm believer that prayers hold MUCH power!!  Coincidentally the evening of the day she had her surgery, my other daughter hollered out for me and as I went to her, I noticed her mouth was bleeding!  What in the world?? Her filling had fallen out and her tooth had cracked right down the middle!!  Oh my Lord!  So the next day I had to go take her to have her tooth extracted!!  Nothing like trying to be like your big sister, huh?  LOL  She did famously as well and both girls are on the mend! Thank you again, my wonderful online friends!

Today I have many things to share with you to play catch up!!  In spite of my hectic week, I did get some things accomplished and one was being able to play in my art closet.  I was able to do a journal page and then as a part of several swaps I am involved in, I was able to get ahead of the game on my tags for December!  I know that looks like I capitalized on my daughters' sicknesses, LOL, but one could also call it time management!!! LOL  I was thankful for the time to play as my daughters healed!

I really loved doing this journal page because everything around me was screaming autumn/fall!  It is my very favorite time of year and if time stuck during the fall, it would be lovely!!!  I had in my mind already what I wanted to do, so surprisingly this page came together so fast.

I began with gesso on my page as always and then proceeded to pull out quite a few stencils to just start laying color down with.  I think most were Crafter's Workshop stencils along with Tim Holtz's Burlap Layering Stencil (one of my faves!) and some bubble wrap.  I knew I wanted to use the teal, but when I got through laying the teal and some purple (all cheap acrylics, by the way) I wanted to tone it down some, so I went back over smudging some gesso on with my fingers.

I pulled out my Faber-Castell Gelatos and just began to accent here and there with just random colors.  I then further accented with my charcoal pencil and a little more gesso here and there.  I had downloaded the "acorn" digital from the internet (not sure where) and loved it and knew I wanted to use it.  The acorns on the digital really appealed to me so I took some great cardstock that I had and drew some more acorns and colored the acorns with Distress Ink in Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo.  I then took some old book page and fussy cut some leaves and drew some veins with Distress Stickles in Vintage Photo.  And then Distressed the leaves and the digital in Vintage Photo.

I had the idea of the coffee mug in my mind because nothing says fall or autumn to me than sitting around a fire with a good cup of joe.  So I fussy cut a cup on some wonderful scrapbook paper I had that was teal  and then added some accents with other scrap paper and a cute little stamp I had and then filled it with some neat little items that just said "homey" to me!  I, of course, distressed all of the pieces with vintage photo and then applied everything to the page with mod podge.  I had seen the quote from John Donne online "No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face."  I love, loved that!  it just went with my thoughts on my favorite time of year.  I shadowed everything with my favorite Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen in Nougat!

This is the week that everyone recognizes being "thankful!"  I try to remain in a place of thankfulness on a DAILY basis. God's Word in Ephesians says "Giving thanks ALWAYS and for EVERYTHING to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!" (5:20) That says, always and for everything! No matter the circumstance, no matter the time of year!  I have so many things to be thankful for, but above ALL, I am most thankful for a Father in Heaven who would offer up His only Son on the cross for ME that I might be saved and be reconciled back to Him!!  Thanks speaks of eternity!  Who wouldn't be thankful for ETERNITY?

This week my prayer is that you ALL would bask in the goodness of our Father in Heaven,  He loves you and I and wants nothing in return, but your thankfulness, your honor and your praise!  Be thankful and praise Him today!

I am also SO very thankful for ALL of my online friends that I have met and who have taken the time to encourage me and whom have visited and commented on my blog! Bless you ALL and may you have a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Blessings!

Small Things, Good Things!

Good Tuesday all my crafty friends! Wow, I have been so busy for the past several days!  I have so many things on my table that I am SO EXCITED about!! This next year will be a new year of wonderful art adventures.  These will be new journey's for me because I will be participating in things that I have never participated in before such as swaps and challenges, etc... I know a lot of my crafty friends participate on that level weekly or even daily, but as a busy working mom, I haven't had the opportunity to do that.  So this will all be a part of stretching my self in a new creative way!  I am truly very excited to see where God takes me on this road!

Today I will share a real "quick" project with you that I did on last night because I have other projects that have taken the front burner for me, but I did want to share something that I had been working on.

I did these quick and fun ATC's as an expression of my excitement for an ATC swap that I will be involved in next year.  I'm getting my juices flowing!! LOL  As I said these were quick, but lots of fun.  I simply gesso'd them all and quickly smeared Silks Acrylic glazes in  Pink Azalea, Pretty Peridot and Sky Blue in different areas over each ATC.  I then took my Faber-Castell Gelato in Chocolate and pressed it through several different stencils from Crafters Workshop.  I stamped with my favorite script stamp in StazOn Black over each one and then finished off with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain on the edges. Simple, yet a good thing!!  I really liked them.

Not all "good things" come in BIG packages or in our case, BIG projects.  Sometimes the little projects make just as much a statement.  It think that is why I like ATC's.  They are small, but not so intimidating, yet you can still have fun and have an impressive project when you are done!!  If you haven't tried them, give them a whirl!

Tomorrow my daughter will be having dental surgery, to which she and I (for her) are very nervous about!  I would ask that if you can, in your own way, lift her up before the Lord for a good surgery and full recovery!  When all is said and done, she will have a million dollar smile!  LOL!!

Speaking of smiles, won't you take the time to give someone a million dollar smile today!?  You never know what a difference you may make in someone's life!  

You be blessed today! :)

God's Love!

Well, good Friday to ALL my wonderful crafty friends!  It's a brisk day here in Georgia and I am in love with it!  Cold weather is my kind of weather!  I love big fluffy sweaters, scarfs, mittens and boots!  It's just my thing!  If I had my druthers I would live in Alaska!!  All that said, oddly enough, the snippy air made me have "warm thoughts" of ALL my wonderful online friends!  I know I have said it before, but I have met SOOOO many wonderfully talented and precious people since I have been involved in online art communities!  And I continue to be thankful for ALL of their encouragement and friendship!  God CONTINUES to bless me placing such amazing people in my path!  Thank you Lord!

Speaking of God's love, it is INFINITE!  It is SURE and covers ALL THINGS!  His Word tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."  Even in correcting and rebuking God does it in His matchless love! His Word tell us that the Lord disciplines those He loves just like our earthly father or mother corrects us, so does our Father in Heaven!  It's all in effort to stay you on the path He has called you to for His Kingdom. Abba Father wants what is best for His children!!  Our Heavenly Father is always there to guide you and mold you in righteousness or "right conduct!"  I don't know about you, but that comforts me and gives me a sense of security KNOWING my Father in Heaven is going to keep me on track, in spite of myself!! LOL

Today I want to share two tags with you that I made for the beautiful instructors of the Wellness Retreat that I participated in a few weeks ago.  God's instruction can come in many ways, but for those of us fortunate enough to go to the retreat, it was through these beautiful vessels that delivered God's Word to us with love!  These ladies are just precious women of God who selflessly shared what God did in and through them to us for a deeper relationship and walk with the Lord!  It was just an amazing weekend and as I was freely given to, I felt to need to freely give back to them with a THANK YOU from my heart for the Word they sowed into me for Kingdom building!

I'm so overwhelmed with the love my Father in Heaven chooses to bestow on me DAILY!  I freely receive that love in whatever form He brings that to me, for I know that He has my best interest at heart, wants to give me His best and wants to see me be ALL I can be through Jesus Christ, His Son! Thank you Lord and thank you sweet women of God for your obedience and willingness to sow into my life!

Blessings to you ALL today! :)

Rememberers!

Good Wednesday to all my crafty friends!  I pray your mid week is well and you are being blessed! So many things going on right now with all my blog/Google+ friends that I am getting so excited about from swaps to shares to meeting new friends!  I love all the buzz and I can't wait to see what is in store these next few months!  It's a good time to be alive!  So many gifts and talents being brought forth and shared without reservation!  It's a good time to be thankful!

Today I want to share a card with you that I made for a friend of mine.  I am not a good enough artist to get paid for my work or for people to seek me out for my work (LOL, LOL!), but on occasion, friends that know I dabble in art will ask me to make them something.  This sweet colleague of mine has a friend who had a loved one pass and she wanted me to make her a card that she could give to her.  Of course I jumped at the chance because I love to play in my art closet, but also because I love to help another.

I don't "do cards" well.  I love to try and enjoy it for the most part, but it's not my first "love" like tags or my journals.  There are SO many wonderfully talented card makers that I love to follow either on their blog or on Google+ that I glean from, but let's just say we all have our areas where we excel more than another!! LOL  So, all that being said, I will share how I made this one today.

I have a stash of lovely card stock that I had cut down at our local print shop into 5x7 card size, for the occasional card and 3.5 x 3.5 "tile" size pieces for my Zentangle.  So I took a piece of the 5x7 and spritzed with water and then added Dylusions Bubblegum Pink and Cut Grass and then finished with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Chartreuse.  I then took my favorite script stamp from Inkadinkado and stamped with Distress Peeled Paint on the background. I then took a wonderful stamp that I love from my Unity Stamp Layers of Life January kit and stamped on the background using Distress Peeled Paint as well.  I then distressed the sides with Peeled Paint and then followed up with Vintage Photo. I wasn't sure exactly where I was going from there, so I always use a spray fixative on my spray ink pieces so I am covered.  In the end, I didn't really do anything else to the base piece, but I was covered anyway! :)  I did adhere another piece of cardstock to the back because quite simply it was a mess, but also so she could write her own remarks on the back of the card.

I took a corrugated cardboard piece and painted it with my fave Silks Acrylic in Peridot (I could use that color on EVERYTHING..LOL).  I then took a page from an old dictionary with the words "remember or rememberer" on it and distressed the sides as well with Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo.  I put some plain black acrylic paint through one of my favorite stencils from Rebekah Meier called Specimen(TCW 454) from Crafters Workshop and then sprayed it as well.  I applied the book page to the cardboard with Aleene's and afterwards I tied some twine to the card and the put the cardboard on the card using pop dots.  I had a little embellishment form a Tim Holtz stash that had a butterfly on it that I simply added to the knot of twine.  I then just added the sentiment and shadowed with Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen in green.

When a loved one passes on it is always hard.  I believe that is why making memories is so important.  The memories you make are what sustains you, from an earthly point of view, when the loved one has gone on.  You can reflect and smile about the good times and remain thankful for the opportunity to have had that one in your life and thankful for the time you got to spend with them making those precious memories.

From a spiritual standpoint, God's Word tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that being absent from this earthly body is to be present with the Lord!  We can rejoice at knowing that our loved one, although not here with us, is in God's presence!  What a far exceeding comfort to those left behind! Listen, Heaven is for eternity!  As Matthew Henry put it: "Death will strip us of the clothing of flesh, and all the comforts of life, as well as end all our troubles here below. But believing souls shall be clothed with garments of praise, with robes of righteousness and glory!" I don't know about you, BUT WHAT A GLORIOUS COMFORT that is to me!   It's a comfort knowing death has NO hold on me but that I will be made whole and in His presence for eternity! Glory!

You be comforted and blessed today as a rememberer, when you contemplate ETERNITY with a King!

Warm Fuzzies!!

Good Monday, all my crafty friends!  I pray you ALL had a glorious weekend!  I sure did in my neck of the woods!  Had a lovely time with my "girlies," which consisted of my niece and my daughters, just having a shopping party!  We didn't actually buy anything, mind you, but we sure did a heck of a lot of window shopping!! LOL  It was just all about being together in girlie family time!  I love it!

All that being said, today's journal spread that I want to share with you is all a part of the "Warmth" monthly journal challenge over on the Google+ Creating and Sharing Mixed Media Art Community! I new right away, that I wanted to do that journal challenge because I am ALL ABOUT fall/autumn and the "warmth" that it brings to my heart!

I began prepping my journal with gesso because I knew I wanted to apply some acrylics and I then took some left over pieces from my daughter's school project that I shared from last week and put them down with matte medium.  It was all a part of going with the "family" theme that I had in my mind, so adding a bit of her, was perfect! I then added a watered down basic almond acrylic to the background because I wanted my daughter's pieces to peep through. I then just pulled several "warm colors" and just circled on here and there and then outlined them with a charcoal pencil. After I did so, I distressed the edges with Distress Vintage Photo.  I then took one of my favorite script stamps from Inkadinkado and another favorite background stamp from Christy Tomlinson and added some texture in StazOn.

I keep everything, and at work when packages come in, I keep the packing paper and bring it home to craft on!  I love that stuff!!  So I stamped using a fun "dots" background stamp that I got from a bargain bin in Distress Ink Dusty Concord.  Afterwards I stamped using a stamp from my Unity Stamp Layers of Life September Kit that I just love with both Dusty Concord and Archival Ink in Library Green.

I knew right away when Becky Wentworth put up the challenge, that I wanted it to involve FAMILY!!!  Warmth and family simply just go together for me!!  I went to my wonderful old dictionary and pulled out the page that had "family" on it and also pulled a piece of calendar emphemera from one of Tim Holtz's packs that signified "times of the year" to get together with family. I also had a heart stamp and a cup of tea stamp from Unity that I wanted to use again thinking of sitting around a snug with my cup of tea and a blanket and my family all together, warm and cozy enjoying one another!  I also stamped using a "family" stamp from unity and applied glossy accents to it as well as the heart (although you really can't tell from this picture).

I applied all the pieces with Aleene's and pulled them together with a couple of pieces of twine and a cute heart chipboard piece.  I popped up the tea cup and the heart with foam dots.  Lastly I added my sentiment that was distressed with Vintage photo and shaded with my favorite Nougat Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen.

My sentiment is from 2 Corinthians 6:18 which reads, "And I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."  First and foremost, "warmth and family" to me are so much more a part of a BIGGER family to me, the Family of God!  I am privileged and honored to be called a "daugher" of the Most High God and to be a part of His ETERNAL family! I am very thankful for my "earthly" family who are so very dear to me, but God has called me to be a part of His Heavenly Family!!

As a Christian, I am a daughter that recognizes her true Father in Heaven!  God sealed that by sending the spirit of His son into my heart that cries out, Abba (daddy), Father!!! I have been adopted into His family, purchased by the very blood of His Son Jesus Christ! When that glorious event took place, we were reborn into a new creation in Christ, transformed, NO LONGER slaves to sin but are NOW citizens of heaven and part of the royal family of God!! That makes me an heir and joint heir with my brother Jesus Christ to a Heavenly Kingdom! Glory!  

I'm so, so thankful this wonderful time of year to be a part of God's Kingdom and so very thankful God gave me my earthly family that I could have "warm fuzzy" moments together with enjoying all that God called us to be together as a family!

You be blessed today in your own "warm fuzzy" moment!

DIY Friday!

Happy Friday, my crafty friends!!  It's just been a lovely, crazy week for me and I have enjoyed every moment!  My kids had many tests we had to study for this week and so.....mom's craft time kind of went to the back burner!!  And to top it all off, my youngest had a project due TODAY that I just found about YESTERDAY!!  Anybody else been there?????  Grace, grace, God's grace!!! LOL  Well thank goodness, for being able to "whip something up!!" LOL

All that said I will just share our little "whip it up project" we did together!  I have shared about my youngest before, she's my craft mate!  So we dug in our craft stash and did it up "Aaron Style!"  LOL!  She is currently learning about the parts of speech in her Language Arts class.  The teacher gave them a list of projects to choose from and so we picked two....better more than not enough, I say!  We picked to do a poster and a "teaching" project, which we decided would be flash cards!  I am a BIG FAN of flash cards!  I make them just about every week for any test they have to study for. I feel like it is just a great way for them to learn.

We cut apart a "teachers guide" that I found at a local store that carries all sorts of visual aides and elements for teachers in their classroom that was geared towards parts of the speech.  Then I picked up a pack of old math flashcards that were in the dollar bin that I thought we could paint over and add our own elements to.

We went through magazines and cut out pictures that would be a visual aid on the front of the flashcard for the children in the classroom to see and then she (as the mock teacher) would have the part of speech that it was on the back of the card.  We took some basic white paint and painted over the back of the card and wrote the part of speech and then adhered the picture to the front, which was already glossy, so I thought it went well.

She wanted to do the poster "all by herself" because I tend to want to get my hands in there any chance I can! LOL!!  So I had to "back off" and let her go with it.  She did a great job and even added some "doodles!"  She's so cute!  I did make one suggestion whereby we added some book page around the sides because I thought, those are all "words," which are parts of speech!  Voila!  I thought we did pretty good "in a pinch!"  Mind you, in the future, I hope to have A LOT MORE NOTICE!!!  But, as always, it was so fun crafting with her!

God's grace is sufficient for ANYTHING we may try to tackle!  I'm so thankful for the blood covenant that we have through Jesus Christ that enables us to endure ANYTHING until the end! God's grace transforms us that we can live abundantly as we grow from glory to glory!  That means that we can be faced with any trial or situation and because of the finished work on the cross, we don't have to struggle, fret or worry, we can walk in the grace of Jesus, which will carry us through! Not only that, but God's Word reminds us in Lamentations 3:22-23 that His love NEVER ceases and His mercies NEVER end and they are new EVERY morning!!! That's good news for you and I because each new day we can face with a new, fresh vigor and confidence of the Lord!

You be encouraged today KNOWING that NO MATTER what you are facing, His grace and mercy are fresh and new EVERY day!

Blessings for a wonderful weekend!

Waiting!

Good Wednesday afternoon crafty friends! I pray your mid week is going well and you are already setting out BIG plans for the weekend!  Today, I'm getting a late start, but I wanted to share a quick, and I mean quick tag that I did with you all.

I have a pile of tags on my desktop that are mop up, clean off the paint brush, use up the modeling paste or stamp off compilations because "we crafters" don't like to waste anything!  Some of the tags in that stash may be ones that I started and didn't like where I was going, so I would get frustrated and just throw them in the pile.  And.....there they sit!  I go through them every other day or so and hope one of them screams "use me for a project!," except I look at them with this deer in the headlights look as if to say, "what am I going to do with it?"  So I contemplate for a moment and throw them all back in the pile again!! LOL  Please tell me that some of you are like that!! I hate it, to a degree, because I feel like I have in fact in the end been wasteful anyway because then I don't use the tag, they just sit there! I don't like how my mind operates because I sit and think about things TOO much sometimes...LOL!!! 

The tag here today is from that pile of "cast off''s" that I tried to embellish and make into "something!" LOL  Alas, I did it, with furrowed eyebrows, but still was not satisfied when I got done!  I think I was so frustrated with the pile, that I "force crafted" this poor old tag into something that it was not ready to be!! LOL Hence, I should have just waited until the time was exactly right!  Have you guys ever done anything like?

Well, the whole ordeal made me think about how sometimes we try to "force craft" situations in our lives only to get an unhappy result!  When all along, if we had just waited on the Lord and His timing, not only would have the timing been EXACTLY right, but there would have been a blessed outcome!

In Lamentations of God's Word it says "The Lord is my portion, says my soul, Therefore I have hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord." (V. 24-26)  The Lord is my portion....I love that!  The dictionary says that a "portion" is a part of any whole; the part of an estate that goes to an heir or a next of kin; something that is allotted to a person by God." Wow! Go back and read that again!  If that is not comfort and encouragement, I don't know what is! As heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, we are privy to the benefits of the Kingdom. In addition, because of Jesus' sacrifice of the cross, we have also been made God's portion (a fragment of the whole) of the WHOLE body of Christ!  So I believe, he reserves "the best" for His best...His chosen people, if we would but WAIT ON HIM! 

If we can understand the magnitude of being God's best, it strengthens us to wait patiently and silently on Him because we know He only has the best interest at heart for those He has chosen and called for the Kingdom.  It is in that, that we can rest and have a peace and a hope, no matter the circumstances or what anything may look like to the natural eye!  What is for certain is that His timing is sure and best and the outcome will always be blessed!

What about you?  What's in your "cast off" pile?  Wait on Him whose love is abundant for YOU and you will be blessed!

Blessings

Rest in Hope!

Good Monday morning my crafty friends!  It's FINALLY cold in Georgia!!  Yipee!!  To some of you, that may seem odd, but to Georgians, it is most welcome!!  If for nothing else, to get rid of the mosquitos!!  Here is hoping you had a wonderful weekend!

Today, I want to share a journal spread that has been going around in my spirit since my awesome retreat weekend a few weekends ago.  It is a truth, that as a Christian, I have known, but it was revealed to me in a bigger light at the retreat!  There was so much awesome "break through" for me as a believer, that I'm looking forward to seeing how God is going to work that spoken word in and through me!  It will definitely be "cutting away" of things not needed and will definitely take me out of my "comfort zone," but I want to walk in TOTAL freedom as a believer!  I am a work in progress!

 When I started this page, I wasn't sure where I was going with it.  I had a general idea, but what I opted to do was to just start laying stuff down randomly without much thought and see what was revealed.  I think sometimes we all need to do that, to get us out of that OCD mentality! LOL  I started with gesso on my page and then proceeded to lay down some yummy Faber Castell Gelatos. I always start off trying to move them around with my fingers and I end up using a little water to get a better result.  Everyone else seems to have better luck at that than I do? LOL  I then put little pieces of drywall tape around and some pieces of corrugated cardboard for some texture.

I then used a 7gypsies script stamp with StazOn on the background and distressed with Vintage photo around the edges.  I had a "cheapo" stencil that I got from Walmart that I put some hunter green acrylic paint through and then took some almond acrylic paint and put it through an old "circles" stencil that I had.  Then I laid down some brown acrylic paint through one of my favorite Crafter's Workshop stencils called Well Rounded. I wanted a little white so I put some gesso through a Rebekah Meier's "Specimen" stencil and I think it gave it just the little pop I was looking for.  I then took my charcoal pencil and outlined some of the almond circles I had done to give it some more depth.  I love the "bargain bin" and I found some little alpha stamps in the bargain bin for $.99 that I just love using!  I think I have gotten more use out of them than some of my expensive stamps! LOL I stamped my scripture sentiment on some scrapbook paper that I had lightly stamped with the same 7gypsies stamp that I used on the journal background.  I also had this cute heart stamp from Tim Holtz that I stamped on the same paper.  I laid them all down with mod podge and then outlined with a pitt pen.  I also stamped the "trust, love and hope" stamps in StazOn on the pages and finished out with the same charcoal pencil around the edges. I really like how it turned out.

God's word tells us that the lust of the flesh comes NOT from the Father, but from the world.  I think sometimes people look at that word "lust" and their mind immediately goes to certain things. However, the lust of the flesh is ANYTHING that you allow your "human" nature to dictate and drive your life as opposed to what our Father in Heaven has set out for you! That very mindset is carnal and gratifies our "flesh" and as Christians, we are supposed to be living by the Spirit and lead by the Spirit in our daily walk.  The flesh will ALWAYS be contrary to the Spirit and as such keep you from the things and the ways that the Father has called you to.

The enemy of this world would have you believe that doing what "you want to do" gives you power and strength, but for the Christian that spirit comes from a spirit of pride!  When we walk according to the flesh we are living a life that desires to please man instead of the Father, whereby your motives are purely to honor Him! Living according to the Spirit requires a crucifying of the flesh and it's way of thinking and submitting those thoughts to the Lord.  It's through grace and mercy that Christ offered us on the cross, through His shed blood, that allows us to operate in this manner.  Your flesh will be uncomfortable, but when you offer that up to the Father, the battle becomes HIS!  Because of Jesus, in ALL THINGS you ARE MORE THAN A CONQUEROR!  You don't have to struggle! It is through His strength when He overcame the world that you can do ALL THINGS!

I'm so thankful for ALL that Jesus did on the cross for ME! I want to be about my Father's business and bringing forth fruit that honors Him!  When those things are produced, you can surely know that you're are being led by the Spirit!  I've made a commitment lay those things down that have kept me from furthering and deepening my relationship with the Father.  Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice that I could have a grace, peace and joy as I go through!!

Bless you today as you allow Jesus, your advocate in Heaven, carry you through!