Tagging it for December!

Happy Wednesday all my crafty friends! :) I am a little late because yesterday was Tuesday to which I am showing my tag today for the Tag it Tuesday Challenge over on Sheri Whitfield's blog, Cards and More by Sheri! Nothing like being a day late!! My mother used to tell me, when I was a kid, that I would be late to my own funeral!!! LOLOL Uh oh! Of course I think that had to do with a little problem I had with ever doing ANYTHING on time when I was a kiddo, however small traits of that little problem appear from time to time in my adulthood! LOLOL Come to think of it, so does the "I forgot" problem!!! LOLOL Or maybe that's age? Oh well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! LOLOL

Christmas or Winter was the theme this month, OF COURSE, hee hee, but that didn't bother me because I LOVE Christmas!!! Christmas means different things to many people, but it means ONLY ONE THING to me, the day my personal Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was born! So I chose to do my tag this month using the wonderful scripture from Isaiah describing the amazing gift of the Prince of Peace to all nations!

This truly was a quick tag project. I have been so busy with working on Christmas gifts that I needed a quick one. That's not to say that it is any less meaningful, but the ease of it's production is a testimony to the scripture and subject. I began by applying gesso to the tag, first off because the original tag was green and I needed to cover it up, but also because I knew I would be using sprays and wanted them to run. I pulled out several of my Tattered Angels sprays in various colors of blue hue and just sprayed here and there following up with water spritzes, drying and repeating until I got the effect I wanted. I then simply downloaded some free digitals online and fussy cut them out, distressed with my Tim Holtz distressing tool and Distress Ink in Vintage photo. I applied the holly leaves with Aleene's and then popped up the angel with pop dots. Voila! Easy enough, right!

Holidays are hard for so many in the world. Maybe you are missing a loved one recently lost, maybe you have no means for providing Christmas to a loved one or maybe you are simply alone for the holiday. I encourage you today, if you are hurting and searching, seek no more! Jesus is the answer! He is the reason for the season! He carried your load to the cross with Him and wants you to be free! Free from pain and free from loneliness and wants you to replace it with hope and love! God offers that to you through His Son, Jesus Christ who came to earth in the form of a baby in a manger whose name is called wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

God fulfilled the laws through His Son, that you and I would have hope, grace and mercy and be free, not just here on earth but for eternity! Let that hope, grace and mercy fill you today and heal your heart for a joy like you have never  known! You are loved more than you could ever know! May you have a Merry Christmas and a blessed new year as you receive!

Blessings to you all today! :)

Faith in our Season!

Good Friday all my crafty friends! Guess what? It's FRIDAY!!! Yippeeeeee! Guess what I haven't done? The first bit of holiday shopping!!! YIKES! LOL  Well it's shop or bust tomorrow for sure! I have to manage ALL my Christmas shopping tomorrow and that's that! I have a family Christmas Party next weekend and the next week is Christmas! So that's pretty plain isn't it??? We live in a small town, so I have to drive about an hour to go do any sort of "good" shopping, so that's the dilemma! Nothing like procrastination or scurrying around like a chicken with your head cut off, is what I say! LOLOL  Hope you have done better than me! :)

Today I will share a quick project with you and then MORE office decorating! :)

I loved doing this tag because I got to use my new Pocket Stencil from Artistcellar that I got from Heather at The Kraaft Shaak! I have been wanting these guys for some time. I only have one of the sets, so OBVIOUSLY, I must have ALL of the sets and its in the plans! :) Hey, you got to have a plan right?  

This tag had run-off from another project because I am "cheapo" and I don't like to waste my product! I had mixed some Prima Chalkboard Paint (I think Sea Breeze) with some of my homemade paste and had some left over, so I just scraped it over this tag. I then just distressing with Distress Ink in Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade and then finished off with Vintage Photo. I also distressed the edges with Vintage Photo.

At this point I sprayed a fixative over the tag, because I NEVER know what I will do next and I didn't want my inks to move. I then pulled out an old script stamp and stamped using Archival Ink in black as well as some other back ground stamping. I then took my homemade texture paste and added some black acrylic to it and put it through the Pocket Stencil and while it was wet, added yummy Antique Silver Sugar Glitter from Finnabair for a little zing! I finished by adding a little Archival In in black on the edges and voila!

"Faith" is resounding word at Christmas time for Christians. In Luke 2:11 of God's Word it says "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord." That is the strengthening thread in the fabric of who we are as a people! Faith drives all that we are in Christ! Faith that He was born to Mary the Virgin, Faith that He is our Savior, Faith that He is the Messiah, our Lord! That same faith is the vehicle for our every day walk, for all we say and do and for our very assurance of ETERNAL LIFE! Glory!

Where is your faith placed? What drives you? If you aren't sure this holiday season, how about placing that faith in Christ. As a personal testimony, you can't go wrong and you will never look back! There is so much hope, love, mercy and grace in that One Name that there is no need to look any further! God SO loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ for us all and that includes YOU! That is the most precious Christmas gift you could ever receive!

I want to share another DIY!!! Yayyyyy! We all know that if you do too good of a job then automatically you are HIRED for all the DIY projects at the office! What was I thinking!!! So....I got volunteered to do the office Christmas Tree! Yay me! LOLOL! To be honest, I do enjoy crafting in ANY manner. Its an opportunity to be creative, so that's a win/win for me! There were a few daboggles while doing this (LIGHTS, LIGHTS, LIGHTS) but after it was all said and done, I was good! What do you think? What have you been volunteered for lately? LOL

Have a GREAT weekend! :)

Seasons Greetings!

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends! Well the season is in and things are beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! I love Christmas and celebrate the season as the birth of my Savior Jesus Christ! What an amazing gift that just keeps on giving and giving!!! You can't put a price tag on life and more than that, ETERNAL LIFE! It's a free gift! I love gifts and free one's are even better! If you would like a free gift as well, I encourage you to seek out our Heavenly Father. He is more than willing and able to extend to you His amazing love through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ!

As the holiday season tends to be, it has been very busy and I have definitely gotten caught up in the menagerie of it all. That's not to say it has been a stressful time, but just a lot going on with my home life as well as my work life and then add in trying to get ready for Christmas! Tis the season! LOLOL

I have a lot on my craft table, most of it NOT finished, LOL, but I wanted to show you some DIY projects as well as some AWESOME early Christmas gifts that I got for myself!!!

Since I am at my office more than anywhere else it seems, I thought I would share with you my Office door decorations! How do you like them? Now, let me just say that this is more decoration than I even do at home!!! How sad is that???? LOL  The truth is that I have a rascal miniature collie who LOVES to chew up anything in his path, so outside decorations are a no go at the Aaron household!!! LOL I do, however, have my tree up! Yay for me! :)

The poinsettias were so beautiful this year and I ordered many for the office spaces and of course one for me! LOL the packages are just fake. I simply wrapped some boxes I had here and there. But let me show you my DIY reindeer project! How do you like him? Isn't he just the cutest?  I made him out of PVC pipe. I work for municipal government, so I was able to acquire the pipe and the handy work of the cutting of the pipe through our Public Works Department. The perks of the job! LOLOL But I simply spray glued all the pieces together, spray painted them and then added all the nifty little elements from cotton balls to felt, to pipe cleaners and ribbon! I love how they turned out. I have a Mr. & Mrs. LOLOL  DIY's at holiday time are always a thrill for me. Mostly because I enjoy getting something handmade from a loved one or friend, so I just assume others feel the same way! It means so much to me. So these guys weren't store bought, but made with love for others to share in the holiday spirit with me as they enter my office! Do you decorate your office?

So NOW I want to share my Happy Christmas Mail with you! My husband and I don't really swap Christmas gifts, it's all about the kiddos, but this year he did give me a little money stash to do with what I please. Sooooooo, me being me, someone who is TOTALLY obsessed with art products, I decided to get some more stash for my art room! LOLOL 

I actually got this GORGEOUS stuff last Friday, but as I said, it's been amazingly busy for me, so I am just now able to share the goodness! I pre-ordered from super talented Heather over at the Kraaft Shaak these AMAZING Bible Journaling stamps! I was so stoked when Heather mentioned that she was going to be carrying these amazing stamps from Jamie Dougherty! They are gorgeous folks and will totally love them if you are thinking about getting them! I also ordered the Artistcellar Pocket Stencils to coordinate with the stamps. I know the stamps as well as those stencils will get much use!!! I also needed some new paintbrushes and had been wanting to get Dina's brushes. They were not a disappoint! I love them! And then I needed some more of Finnabair's Art Sugar goodness! That stuff is addictive! I love it!

If you are looking for some art product at great prices, you need to go over and check out Heather's stash! She has tons of product and I know she would love to have you come on over! :)

Well folks, that's it for today! I will share a picture of what's on my desk currently! Going to be doing some Christmas tags to be sure! I'm working on my Christmas Challenge tag for Tag it Tuesday over on Cards and More by Sheri!  If you haven't yet, pop on over to Sheri's blog and join in! :) I hope to share a tag with you tomorrow.....we will see how that goes...hee hee hee!

Have a blessed day my friends! 

It's December!!!!

Happy Tuesday all my crafty friends! And.......Happy December!!! Whoop, whoop! I can't believe it's here! I haven't done the first bit of Christmas ANYTHING!! It's sad, but alas, true! I hope you are ahead of me on that score! You could probably say that I am the worst procrastinator EVAH! LOLOL I'm sure it's all bound to kick in, eventually! :)

I have been so busy the last several weeks (seems to be my theme lately), but along with that, I have had the sickies and was out on holiday. So, that being said, I am behind on all my crafty projects! I am going to share a quickie with you today, that I have been meaning to post, save for the previous banter!! LOL 

As I had noted on a previous post, I have been taking part in Carolyn Dube's Permission to Play Workshop.  I'm probably one of the last ones to post the finished project. Everyone else has gone on to make SEVERAL journals, where I have yet to finish the first one! Oh boy! LOLOL I had previously shown a couple of the journal pages with you in an earlier post, so they will be "repeats!" Hey, since I'm behind, I got to get them back in there to make it look like I have been doing something! :) LOLOL

So those are all sixteen of my pages! I had so much fun doing them, although I did catch myself overthinking a time or two, which most certainly was what Carolyn was trying to get us to avoid! It was to be "permission" to play and play anyway you want to!! I do feel like I did that to a degree, after I got over myself that is!!! LOLOL  I still have to do my ribbon and finish the last lesson. I will post my finished product after that!!

I pray all of you who follow my blog and live in the States, had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I confess, I had a brilliant holiday filled with fun, relaxation, foodies and giving thanks to my Father in Heaven for ALL of His many blessings on my family! Those of you who have read my blog before know that we are a camping family. So for Thanksgiving we did our "annual" Thanksgiving camping trip and it was such beautiful weather the whole time and just lots of fun with family and friends! I'm a blessed gal to be sure! :)

Here's hoping you have a fabulous rest of the day! :)

(P.S. If anyone can tell me a MORE effective way to display my pictures I would be SOOOOOOO grateful for the heads up! I KNOW that this is so archaic!)

Blessings