Out of the Clay!

Good Monday all my crafty friends!! I trust you all had a wonderful weekend!! It was balmy weekend in the great state of Georgia!! Not shocking, of course, but it's barely summer!!! Uggghhh! LOL We have had some storms here as of late, but it has brought some great rains that will be well needed to get through the hot summer's here!!! It just goes to show what God can bring OUT OF the dark places!! Ever the Victor and we in turn made victorious through Him!!! God's perfect love NOT TO BE OVERCOME!!!!! Jesus calms EVERY storm! :)

So today, I want to show you a canvas that came out of that thought process!! I am skidding in the end, and hope I am not too late, of the June Kraafter's Challenge (#KSJune 15) at the Kraaft Shaak!!! If it is too late, well then I still did a canvas the I enjoyed doing and had fun!! I don't usually get in on most challenges because they are product specific, but sweet Heather made her challenge where all could be involved no matter the product! Thanks Heather!!

This canvas is a little out of character for me, but I love to stretch myself from time to time!! I don't usually do vibrant colors, although some would say that this is really not that "vibrant," but for me it is! LOL But I had a GREAT time doing it!! It's a bit of a bow to the wonderful artists like Carolyn Dube and Betty Franks known as Mystic Tulip both of whom I love and follow over on the Google+ Community. The both love and use vibrant colors and I just love what they can do with it, so I wanted to give it a go!!

This canvas is a combination of so many yummy things and may not qualify for the challenge, but it is all incorporated with paint, so I thought, well we shall see! LOL I started this canvas by collaging with all kinds of yummy jelly print papers that were done with cheap acrylic paints! I love to jelly print, although I am not really fantastic at it!! But I have a drawer dedicated to jelly print papers that I toss around with!! It was really neat looking when I got done. After that I put down some dry wall tape here and there for some more texture.

I then went over the canvas with a gesso white wash. I then pulled out some of those same acrylics and hit or miss here and there and then I pulled out my FAVE Silks acrylic paints and applied with a dry brush just haphazardly all over. On a separate sheet (some really great architectural paper that I acquired from work) I stenciled several flowers using Julie Fei Fan Balzer's awesome Lotus Blossom (TCW281) stencil using black acrylic paint and then painted them in with some of the same acrylic paint that I used to do the canvas. I then fussy cut them out and applied to my canvas with Liquitex gel medium. The stems were also applied using some of the gelli print papers that I had done.

I finished the canvas by stamping my sentiment on that same architectural paper that I have and applying with gel medium. I outlined with a Sharpie fine point pen and did some shadowing around the flowers with my Faber Castell Big Brush Pen in Nougat. I wanted one more little texture touch so I used some heavy gesso through this cute little tiny circle stencil that I have here and there on the canvas. Voila!! I had fun and hope it qualifies as painting Heather!! LOL

I love the lotus flower is is so beautiful to me and I knew I wanted to use it on this canvas. I also knew I wanted to use this scripture that immediately came to my mind when I thought of doing this piece! In Egyptian times, the lotus flower was very important to their religion meaning creation and rebirth. It emerges as a pure white flower from the depths of the muddy swamp to grow above the water. For me, I see it in direct comparison to my own Christian religion!

Jesus came to wash us and cleanse us from ALL sin, ALL unrighteousness! So in and through Him we are brought out of darkness and up from the miry, muddy clay and into the marvelous light where we are reborn, a new creature in Christ Jesus who is the ROCK that we set our feet upon in TOTAL VICTORY!!  It doesn't matter what your past looks like, how dark or muddy it was, JESUS CLEANSES ALL!! Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice!!!!

Today, if you don't know Him, He wants to know you! Come as you are, it matters not!! He loves you and wants you to find total freedom, know total, unconditional love, have peace that surpasses ALL and live VICTORIOUS!! Christ your ETERNAL HOPE!!!

Be blessed today as you seek Him! :)

Friendship!

Good Thursday all my crafty friends! Here lately, it has been all or nothing!! I have been extremely busy at work and it's been challenging on the home front!! We have had many storms here in the Southeast and we have certainly felt the backlash from that at our home! We were without water for a day and a half. By far, not as bad as many of the people around here, but it certainly shows you how much you use something when you don't have it!! We aren't out of the woods yet, but at least a temporary fix allowed us some water!! If you are a praying person, pray we don't have to absorb a huge cost associated with the outage! My God is BIGGER than ALL of this, but it doesn't hurt to have prayer warriors on my side!! :)

I've been "piddling" with my art projects lately and need to get on the ball! But I will share a quick tag I did for a sweet online friend across the miles! She has been out of commission lately due to a lifestyle change, but I wanted her to know that I missed seeing her and think of her from time to time!!

I began this tag by adhering down a piece of a beautiful knapkin that I got from my good friend Becky! She ALWAYS sends me extra love in my packages and this last month she sent me some gorgeous knapkins and when I saw this one with that sweet bird, I KNEW right away I wanted to get it in a project. Once getting that down, I went over it with a gesso wash and then pulled out my trusty Faber Castell Gelatos! I went in with my Butter Cream for a base and then Pistachio around the edges. I did smudge with my fingers but ended up adding a little water to move it better. I then distressed the edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo and then Walnut Stain. 

I wanted to make that sweet little bird stand out, so I painted the bird with gelatos in Guava, Cotton Candy, Butterscotch and Chocolate. I decided to accent that little guy with Finnabair's awesome glitters and then I outlined him with my Micron Pen and and Shadowed with my Faber Castell Big Brush Pen in Nougat as well as the tree.I did do a little stamping with a couple of old Prima Stamps that I had in my stash, but ended up in the end placing things over them, so you really can't see them. 

I keep old calendars, especially if they have beautiful drawings or pictures in them for just this purpose! I had one that had some really pretty flowers on it, so I cut a piece of a Stargazer Lily, which just happens to be my favorite flower in the world and adhered it to the bottom of the tag and then further colored with my gelatos in Guava and Butterscotch and then shadowed with the Nougat Big Brush Pen. I also outlined it with my Micron Pen. I finished the flower by adding some micro beads in berry to accent.

I have this beautiful sentiment stamp that I am not sure at this moment where I got it from!! LOL I thought that I got it from Quietfire Designs, but a friend of mine (THANK YOU) corrected me on that score!! Sorry for the Blunder Quietfire!!  I stamped using my Archival Ink in black on some scrapbook paper and then I ripped the edges and distressed with Distress Ink in Peeled Paint. I then simply popped it up using pop dots on the tag. I added some ribbon and a cute little clip I had in my stash and accented with Fin's glitter.

I really enjoyed doing this tag especially knowing I was going to send it to my sweet friend! I have met so many wonderful people online in our various art communities that I would have never met otherwise! I am so thankful and grateful that they took the time to befriend me as well! It's a joy to know so many lovely folks from all over the world! "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you!" Philippians 1:3

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods and Mother Nature is treating you kindly!!

Be blessed today! :)

On the Wings of Summer!

Another post today my crafty friends!! I have been so busy trying to play catch up with all of my projects! But today I wanted to post my tag for the Tag It Tuesday Link Party over on Sheri Whitfield's blog!! I love participating in tag parties and swaps because tags are probably my very favorite thing to do! You know, not too small, not too big, very manageable!!  Just lots of fun!

This month, Sheri set the theme as On The Wings of Summer! I immediately loved that theme! Who doesn't love ALL things with wings!! God had an awesome plan when he gave many of His creatures wings! We missed the boat in that department however, but I guess we can't all fly (dagnabit!)!!! LOL

Let me just preface by saying that I LOVED doing this tag from start to finish! I totally had in mind what I wanted to do when I saw the digital image online! I got the image from one of the freebie sites and fell in love with it. I just knew I wanted to incorporate it into my tag for this month to put a twist on the traditional that folks may do with the theme.

You know, there are just some pieces that you create that you just can't part with and I think this tag is one of them! This is one that I will be putting on the wall with all the other creative tags that I have gotten from ALL my crafty friends!

I started this tag with some of my fave colors from Tattered Angels and Lindys! I began with spritzing some water and then applying Tattered Angels in Sunflower and Tiger Lily and then I distressed with Distress ink in Antique Linen and then sprayed Lindy's Stamp Gang in Red Hot Poker Orange and then distressed further with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain. When I finally had the look I was going for I finished with a spray fixative.

I then watered down some Liquitex black ink and stamped with my toilet paper roll and some bottle caps. I add a few little splatters and then stamped with a cool postage stamp that I found in a bargain bin one time with StazOn in Saddle Brown.

I then fussy cut out my digital baby cuteness with wings and also a free digital art bee stamp, distressed the edges with Tim Holtz's distress tool and then inked them with Vintage Photo. I had a few little odds and end pieces on my desk that I incorporated with my digital art to finished the feel of it. I then took one of my newest favorite things to work with, Finnabair's glass beads in Butter, and mixed them with Liquitex Gloss Medium and put in various places on my tag. I then added my sentiment and finished off the tag by distressing with my Faber Castell Big Brush Pen in Black. Voila!

It was an quick and easy tag to do because I was so stoked while doing it that it didn't take me any time! Lots of fun my friends! Check out Sheri's blog and link up to the party for monthly fun! :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer thus far and have lots of plans with friends and family! We are planning on a big camping trip over the 4th of July, so I can't wait! We need to get away for a few days!! 

Have a crafty good weekend!
Blessings :)

Catching Up and Happy Mail!

Good Friday all my crafty friends!! Well it has been "just a bit" since I have posted! It's not because I don't have things to post, it's been because I have been extremely busy! It is wide open at my full time job right now with various transitions taking place and summer life at our home has been a little crazy as well! And here I thought I was going to have more time!!! LOL Things are starting to pan out here and there, so I am hopeful that, that will give me the art time I have been looking for for months! LOL

I have quite a few things I need to share, for example, ALLLL my tags that I have done for our monthly tag swaps, but I can't share them until my pals get them! That being said, DON'T WORRY PALS, the tags are going in the mail today!!! I am so sorry for my lateness! So I will share all that craftiness when they receive them!!

But I will share my AWESOME "happy mail" I received last weekend from my wonderful, wonderful friend Becky Wentworth! Becky and I connected over on the Google+ Community and have just hit it off and swap tags on a regular bases whether we are partners or not! It has been great fun to share with her, glean from her awesome talent and grow a wonderful friendship! Who says you can't have a relationship across the miles????? LOL

Becky and I both love Vintage and she ROCKED this Vintage tag for sure!! The pictures I take of Becky's tags NEVER do them justice! In person, you can see all the yummy textures and goodies up close that she incorporates into each one! This one is NO exception! The texture on this tag is off the chain! It looks like she used some crackle paint on this tag, which I LOVE! She also used some yummy mica flakes, lace and cute metal element and that gorgeous flower! I loved the Vintage lady she put on there it went SO well with all the other elements and then when she added the "Stop and smell the roses" sentiment, it all tied in! Becky also put a copy of this really neat poem on the back that I loved. I remember in school literature I used to hate when we had to decipher poems! As an adult now, I love poems! Isn't that funny how time changes a person!  Just TOTALLY loved this tag Becky!!

Becky is such a sweetheart in that she ALWAYS sends me some precious goodies in with my tag! I loved the homemade card that looked like she used some gelli print paper on, which was lovely!  This time she also sent some gorgeous knapkins that I can't wait to use in some of my projects!!! She also added some cute "little tags," some die cuts that are SO timely that I want to use on an upcoming project that I am working on and one of the neatest things is a piece from one of her recent projects on her blog that I loved whereby she used alcohol inks on translucent Yupo paper that I absolutely LOVED!!! I don't even want to use it in anything because it is so gorgeous all on it's own!! LOL I'm a very blessed friend and am so thankful for you Becky!! 
I hope you enjoyed my lovely goodies! Make sure to go check out Becky's blog where you can see more of her lovely creations! THANKS AGAIN my lovely friend! :)

Blessings to you today! :)

Faith Sight!

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends! It's mid-week and here in the south, we have a gloomy day to go along with it!! We need some rain to be sure. My grass is screaming for nourishment! With all the rain Houston has had, I dearly wish I could take from them and spare them the discomfort! To everything there is a season, so I know that even in both situations, God has His timing and His plan.

Today, I want to share a journal spread with you. I am usually more on the "serious side" of journaling, for a lack of better terminology. I use most of my journaling for ministry tools, so my pages befit the scripture theme. I have seen some really "fun/whimsical" journaling that is just too cute and I wanted incorporate some of that into my journal spread this time! Just exploring different mechanisms to deliver His message is fun in itself, but I really had fun exploring ideas while doing this spread.

I incorporated ideas that I had gleaned from art buddies over on Google+ who usually do whimsical kinds of journaling. You guys know who you are!! I love, love that type of journaling. I also love steampunk and vintage so I tried to pull them all together somehow. I enjoyed doing this! Thanks to all of you who inspire me daily on Google+.

I pulled out my all time favorite Silks Acrylic Glaze in Sky Blue, Pink Azalea, Pretty Peridot and Sunburst and just randomly laid it down here and there. I then sprayed over top with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold Lame and then distressed the edges with Vintage Photo. I finished with spraying a fixative over the top so I didn't have to worry about what other media I would be using.

The fun then began! LOL I pulled out all manner of background stamps and just "went to town" as they say down here in the south! I find all kinds of stuff in my drawers when I do that! LOL I wanted to go into this project just pulling from here and there. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but that was it. It always seems more fun when you just let your hair down! LOL I had acquired a few pieces of digital art on a "free digital art" site that I loved that I used as kind of my springboard for the rest of the project. I also had downloaded some art bits from Roben-Marie, whose art style I really love! She is the epitome of "let your hair down" when it comes to journaling!

I colored my bits and bobbles with Faber-Castell Gelatos and Big Brush Pens, my lovely Derwent Inktense Pencils and outlined with my fabulous gifted Stabilo Pencil and also Big Brush Pens. I finished the pages by adding my sentiment and edging with black Archival Ink and voila!! What do you think?

The scripture that came to mind while doing this page was out of John 20:29 "Then Jesus told him, You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me." In this scripture Jesus is speaking to Thomas (doubting Thomas), who needed "proof" that the disciples had seen Jesus. He noted that unless he actually saw  the wounds in Jesus's hands and side, he would not believe! What sort of faith is that, especially since Jesus had already told them ALL about His death and that He would be resurrected. Even at the words of his fellow believers, he still didn't believe because he needed proof! Yet, that is how many are today, even fellow believers.

Jesus chided Thomas and told him, after Thomas saw and touched His wounds and professed his belief, that he only believed because he "saw!" Christianity is "faith based!" Not on ANY works so that no man could boast! That's what faith is all about! Faith is an engaging word! It means to have confidence or trust in a person or thing, or belief that is not based on proof!! When you engage your faith that something is or will be, you are saying I believe it will happen or is! For believers, we base that faith on Jesus Christ! His death on the cross and His shed blood sealed for believers that IN JESUS, we are provided for, healed, delivered, redeemed, made holy and righteous, can go before the Father with petitions and praise, loose angels, bind the enemy, have increase, can move mountains, etc.....I could go on and on because IN CHRIST we can do ALL things! I don't have to see ANY of that come to fruition to know, I just am confident in Christ that it will!!

I'm so thankful that as a believer, I have that promise from my Father in Heaven!! How is your faith today? Do you have to see it to believe it? I encourage you today to carry that before the Father and allow Him to do a new work in you that you may enjoy the FULLNESS of what Jesus did on the cross! He has already taken care of anything you could think of on the cross! It may not happen the way you think it should or when you think it should, but I would rather operate on God's timing. How about you?

Be blessed today! :)

Love Shines!

Good Tuesday all my crafty friends! I hope you all have BIG plans for the month of June! Boy, just saying that is odd isn't it! I just can't believe that it is in fact June already! It's BEEN hot already in the south, so we have already been in "summer" mode, but hope the rest of you folks are "easing" into summer! LOL

I have sooooo much on my crafty table that I am working on!! I have goosebumps thinking about it!! LOL Isn't that just the silliest? But it's true! When I sit here at my desk, presumably working (LOL), my mind wanders to my "art closet" from time to time thinking about what I have sitting there waiting on me when I go home!! I'd live in my closet if I could, just so you know, but I'd probably look like one of those recluses that you see on a Discovery Channel documentary, you know the one!! LOL Oh, I'd come out for the occasional meal, mind you, but as long as I had my crafty goodies and my coffee pot, I think I could make it!!! LOL All that nonsense being said, I have plenty I'm working on, but I either haven't finished them yet or can't show them to you until the recipients have gotten them. I don't like ruining the surprise!

So today, I am going to show you a little bit of LOVE that came in my post box over the weekend! I meant to post this yesterday, it's been busy around my "real" job!!! I love getting mail, it's true, but it's ten times even better when someone sends you something "just because!" That's what I got this weekend! Now let me prefacit this all by saying that I don't believe in happen chance! I believe that God orchestrates EVERYTHING and most particularly concerning His children's welfare! I was having a particularly bad day before I went to the post, but when I got there and received my mail, that all changed!!!

This glorious package had come just ON TIME!!! Precious, precious Pam Wildeboer, my friend from Google+ art community, sent me a care package! That lovely lady sent me a beautiful card wrapped in a lovely piece of paper stamped with an encouraging note and all packaged in this cute, cute envelope!! I was so surprised, but so, so lifted up!! HUGE smiles came to my face when I saw this gorgeous card and read the lovely, lovely note on the back!!! Pam, I solute you today!! You are just a precious lady and YOU MADE MY DAY AND WEEKEND!! Whatever bad groove I was in when I went to the post, I QUICKLY came out of after opening your little package! I can't THANK YOU enough for thinking of me and letting your love shine through to me through your awesome
creativity!! Many, many blessings to you my friend! :)

You know, as believers, we are to ALWAYS let God's love shine through us! God desires that ALL men be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth and His LOVE!! How does that happen? When we honor Him and are obedient to His call on our lives, then others are shown who He is in ALL His glory! For in truth, it is NOTHING that we do in and of ourselves that shows forth His great love, it is the AMAZING Holy Spirit working effectually in and through us to do His good will!! We are the vehicle that carries out that plan for another! I LOVE being a vessel for the Father!! It pleases me to please Him! And it pleases me to see another touched by His love!

Today, the Holy Spirit wants to awaken YOUR heart, mind, and soul to the personal need of salvation! Won't you allow the amazing grace of our Father in Heaven to touch your heart today that you may touch in turn touch another!!

Thank you again sweet Pam for allowing love to shine through to me across the miles!! 

Blessings