Creativity!

Good Thursday all my crafty friends! We have had a reprieve the last couple of nights with a mere glimpse of fall weather. We were able to open the windows for a lovely sleep and that's saying a lot with Georgia weather. One knows you DON'T open your windows at night in the summer in Georgia! LOLOL But it was a "treat" albeit a "trick" for sure with the temps returning I am sure. All that said, it got me wishing for fall, good fashion!!

Today I will share a tag I did fall and creativity in mind. The two actually do go together in my mind because is my favorite time of year and all the colors of fall send me into creative overload. I begin to get all these ideas in my mind of what I would do on canvas if I were a "real" artist or all sorts of creative table decorations if I were a "real" crafty person!! LOL So in lieu of that I will just stick to my tiny art closet and my myriad of tags and journal that only a handful of people actually see! LOL 

While doing this tag, I was really thinking about summer pushing into fall. So I wanted to have the coolness of the blues in the background while bringing forth that burlap flower symbolizing the "turn" of summer into fall if you will. You know, sort of "phasing" if you will! It worked in my mind anyway! LOL

This was actually a tag that started with remnants of another project on it and then morphed into this. I don't like wasting anything so when I have leftovers from another project, I will scrape it onto another tag or journal page so I don't feel like I am wasting and hope that I will be able to use it for something else. I had mixed Liquitex Gloss Gel with Finnabair's Glass Glitter in Gold Rush for another project and had some left over and so I just scraped it over this tag. Then I spritzed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Carpet Green. As I had used "gloss gel," I wanted to keep with the theme, so I use more gloss gel and mixed it with Jacquard Pearl-Ex Pigment in True Blue and applied through Prima's "Doily" stencil, which I love! I then simply stressed the edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.

I had gotten some wonderful elements from Sheri Whitfield in her Etsy Shop that I love and coupled them with the yummy burlap flower I had in my stash for a "rainy day," which turned out to be today! LOL I had the great "leaf" emphemera that I embossed with clear embossing powder using ColorBox Ink and then added a cute flower that I made with book page and colored with the same Pearl-Ex color and then some cute jewels. I added the "Create" thought that was a stamp from, I believe, Stampendous and voila!

As I was doing this tag and thinking on "creativity," I was reminded by a devotional I had recently read, that the Bible tells us that our creativity as human beings comes from being made in the image of the Creator of this world!! God gave us all special gifts and each one of us in the "art world" has an individual and unique gift to use as an artistic expression. For many, including myself, we choose to use our artistic expression to honor the Creator and Redeemer of this beautiful world. It is my individual worship to Him. I pray it reflects the beauty of who He is as the creator and who He is to and in me.

The scripture Exodus 31:1-11 says "The Heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork." We are the firmament that shows His handiwork. We are first, and by far, the best of His handiwork, but what we do with our gifts, how we walk our daily walk and how we treat others is an extension of that handiwork that should bring all honor and glory to Him! I pray that I honor Him in a way that other's would see and KNOW His glory! :)

I hope you have an amazing day! Be blessed! 

Love Across the Pond!

Well happy Monday all my crafty friends! Here is hoping you had a fabulous weekend and are still enjoying the dog days of summer and maybe some last summer trips before the glory of fall sets in! We have a camping trip coming up and I so look forward to it! Of course, for campers, fall is also fabulous for camping and enjoy the changing of the guard in Mother Nature's court! LOL I pray everyone's kiddos have gotten off to a wonderful new school year!!

Today, I am going to share an overdue post (like a week and half overdue!)! I feel so terrible about it, but it's a testament to how crazy my last month has been. For the month of July, my Tag Swap partner was Tracy Woodsford from Australia! Tracy always uses such beautiful colors with her art, which is one of a kind! I can always tell a piece is hers when it's posted! She's so creative!

My tag is in true Tracy form with all of those gorgeous colors and some love doodling! Tracy wrote "turn your face to the sun," and so I shall on my upcoming camping trip! This is a sweet tag Tracy, thank you so much!

Along with my tag, Tracy gifted me with some really yummy papers that she made, I believe, with her Gelli plate as well as gifted me with some fabulou book pages that are from foreign books! I love foreign papers and I will use them sparingly because I think they are so cool! I get stingy with the cool stuff because I don't want to cover it up!! LOLOL But that being said, I will find a way to use them in my project to make them stand out! Again, Tracy, thank you thank for my lovely tag and RAK items! "Tardy" should have probably been my middle name!! LOLOL Apologies my friend!:)

copied from michianahumanesociety.org

Last week our family said goodbye to a most beloved pet our Jack Russell Terrier name Blaze. She was the most precious pup around. We got Blaze when our oldest daughter was born and they grew up together. She was 15. She had been sick for some time and we knew she would soon be in "doggie heaven," but one always hopes they will pull through and be with us forever!

When our oldest daughter was a little thing she would love to go around perking her lips and wanting "smooches" from us all....it was too cute! Blaze was happy to oblige and the two shared lot's of slobber!! LOLOL That may gross many of you out, but it was the sweetest thing ever to see that sweet pup love on her! My girls will both miss their little buddy as will my husband and I, so I thought I would share this cute picture today that I nabbed from the internet of a pup that looks remarkably like ours did! Happy Dog Days of Summer my friends!

Blessings for a fabulous day! :)

Under the Sea!

Good Friday all my crafty friends! It would appear that time between posts has gotten longer and longer!!! LOL Not due to "want," but simply due to work and kiddos back in school! I would love to be able to "art play" all day and "think about" doing housework "sometimes!" LOL, LOL! But that probably won't happen for another 10+ years! It's good to have dreams and goals though isn't it! LOL

Today I a going to share my tag that I did as a part of the Tag It Tuesday Link Party over on Sheri Whitfield's Blog, Cards and More by Sheri! I always love to see what Sheri's theme will be each month. Sheri noted that it was still hot in her part of the world, but it's STILL hot in Georgia as well Sheri!! Uggggh! LOL So with that in mind she picked the nautical/ocean theme! I am not necessarily an "ocean" kind of person (I love the mountains), but I thought I could still go there! I decided to put a whimsical/Mystical/Ethereal theme on it instead....if there is a such!! LOL

I loved doing this tag because I had an idea in my mind of this "Octo Under the Sea Woman" that I wanted to pull off. My sister LOVES octopuses and they really are unique and beautiful creatures, but I wanted an "octo lady!" LOL I think it worked out alright!

This tag was one that my friend Wanda Hentges gifted me with as well as the paints that I used, which are PaperArtsy. They are a myriad of beautiful blues, greens and turquoise colors which, unfortunately are retired. I simply started the tag with a layer of gesso and heat set it and then began randomly laying down the different hues with a cosmetic sponge. I also tried to paint bubbles here and there and then at the bottom painted something "seaweed looking." I then distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Distress tool and Distress ink in Salty Ocean and Broken China and then rounded it out with Black Soot.

I found the sea creatures and that very ethereal lady's head online and then cut the dress out of a magazine. I adhered them all with Mod Podge and then shadowed with Faber Castell Big Brush Pen in Ultramarine and Cobalt Green. I had this cool octopus pendant that I got in the bargain bin at my craft store that I knew I wanted to use, but I wasn't sure how at first and then I decided to make the octo lady have an octo necklace! LOL Too fun! So I made her a necklace with some little gems  and added the pendant and gave her a pearl head dress. I tried to mimicking further bubbles by putting glass beads here and there. Then I simply added my sentiment with Tim Holtz Warn Text Stamp Set and highlighted with my white gel pen and the same Big Brush Pens.

Thanks Sheri for the theme, it was too fun!! Even though I am not necessarily a "beach person," I do love all of God's beautiful creatures "Under the Sea!" There are literally over some 230,000 creatures living under the sea and it seems like every day they find some new species or one they thought was all but gone! As a Christian I don't simply believe that creatures in this universe just "happened!" I believe our magnificent Father in Heaven created each individual creature great and small and looking at any number of them shows you the preciseness, amazing creativity and intent of our Creator to make all things unique, special and called it ALL GOOD! I am so thankful He did!

All that said and done, I celebrate my uniqueness and DEFINITELY know I am one of a kind...LOLOLOL, aren't you glad (I know my husband is)!!! LOLOLOL Celebrate YOU today! Have an AWESOME weekend! :)

Blessings

Project Share!

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends!  Well kiddos are all back to school and it's time for old mom to get back on a schedule!! Yipee!!! I'm all about order and schedules!! Don't get be wrong, I like spontaneity as well, it's fun here and there, but for the most part, everything has it's place!!! LOL Both my girls went to a new school this year, one high school and one in middle school. It was all exciting and so far so good! Happy back to school everyone!

In July I shared with you some love in my box that came from mixed media artist Tonya Gibbs. Tonya had a video series using her Gelli plate whereby she made a mini album. At the end of the series she did a give away and I WON!!! Yay me! I never win anything, so that made it so exciting!! What made it more exciting is that I won an awesome Gelli plate and Tonya blessed me with enough stash to do my own mini journal! I have been busting to get that project going!!! You can see Tonya's Mini Journal Series here.  

I have had so much fun doing this project. I am finished with the journal itself, but will now have to do the pages. Below is my little process that I went through and I will share the first spread that I did. I still feel real awkward doing the monoprinting, I don't feel like I do that plate justice. EVERYONE else's pulls look far better than what I come up with, but I am trying to live by one of Tonya's mottos...."don't over think it!" She believes there are NO mistakes, you just turn it into something else!! I LOVE her style!! So I tried to keep all that in mind and just have a good time.

Tonya gifted me with a 5x7 Gelli plate and I really like that size. I will at some point invest in the 8x10, but to start I agree with her, 5x7 is a good size. I had fun making my pulls with another gift that I got from my good friend Wanda Hentges that I shared on my blog last week. She gifted me some discontinued paints from PaperArtsy. I won't share the color names because I wouldn't want you to want them too bad and then not be able to get them!! LOL, LOL!! But let me just tell you, I LOVE THEIR PAINT!!! I can't thank you enough Wanda!! :)  Tonya also gifted me some die cuts and die cuts she did to use as stencils and I took full advantage of using those and they worked great! I also used some of my stencil stash and homemade items I came up with to also add texture. They turned out okeedokee!! LOL


I then folded and put together the 4x8 signatures that Tonya included using Mod Podge. She used gel medium, which is probably fabulous as well, but I was running low so there ya go. She did suggest to not use dry glue however. In the end I really liked the way the Mod Podge brought it together. It "toughened" the pages up, if you will so that they are very durable. I can't say if that is the same feel they would have had with gel medium, but It just made me feel like the book would really hold together with anything further I chose to I do with it by using the Mod Podge.

That sweet Tonya also included muslin, which I had specifically asked her about in one of my comments and it just tickled me pink. I have never done anything on fabric before, so I was a little nervous, but I LOVED IT!! It was so much fun! Thank you Tonya!

One of the "die cut stencils" she included was the leaf pattern you see here. I knew I wanted to use it and have a draped effect, if you will from front to back, so that is what I did here and it worked out perfectly! A little unusual for me, as I usually have to botch it up a few times before my preconceived notion works out!!! LOL I must have had a "Tonya Angel" sitting on one shoulder clicking her wand!!! LOL, LOL

I then simply adhered the fabric to the two 4x4 cover pieces Tonya included in my stash. I was really nervous about that part as well, because I was so nervous that I wouldn't glue it right for the signatures to fit in, but I watched the video again where she went through process and it worked out perfectly! After that, I then Mod Podged the signatures in for a perfect fit!

I decided to go ahead and cut all my Gelli pulls down to 4x4 sizes and decide which ones I wanted to use and then go ahead and adhere them all into the journal initially and then I could journal on them or add extra texture after the fact. I think it turned out pretty swell, better than anticipated as a matter of fact!!! I just couldn't believe that I had done it! :)))) Tonya, YOU ROCK!! Your videos were my saving grace and you helped me every step of the way! :)

I am going to try to do a spread a day until I get it done. There aren't that many pages, I assume you could have as many as you wanted to, but it may get a little bulky with too many. But I really believe this is an easy project that I would like to do as gifts for Christmas or Birthdays. It's easy and creative and I think would make a special gift for someone as you journal each page specifically for that person.

Here is my first spread, which I really like and think it turned out well. The saying is something I found online as I was doing my Tag Swap from last month, that has been resonating with me ever since.  The theme was "Royals" and I chose to do it from a Christian stand point of view in that I am "Daughter of the Most High King!" We should daily remind ourselves as "daughters," who we are in Christ and as joint heirs to a mighty Kingdom!! As royal princesses to the Most High King, we need not worry about a thing because He has great plans for our lives!! What an AWESOME promise from the Lord! We ARE worthy, we are His! :)

Tonya had put this cute little flower in my pack and I wanted to use it in the journal and this worked perfectly. I adhered it with Mod Podge and then used some Stickles in the center for a little color. I then stamped with some of my fabulous stamps from Unity Stamps and then did some dangle doodles from the hearts. A really simple spread, but I thought it was cute.

Take the time to allow your Father in Heaven to love on you and show you how precious you are to Him through the pages of His written word! There is no better love!

Blessings