Artful New Year!

Happy Monday and Happy New Year to all my crafty friends! I have been on an art and blogger hiatus for what seems like FOREVER!!!  The holidays were so crazy with traveling and trying to get all my homemade gifts finished and in the mail on time and then just the general bliss of it all!! There was really no time for arting and blogging! I pray you all had wonderful Christmas's and have had a great beginning to a new and fresh artful year!!

Well, I will be playing catch up this week with a couple of challenges. One challenge, the one I will be sharing today and a new one over on Facebook that I put in to follow this year! Today's share is from my Tag It Tuesday Link Party over on Sheri Whitfields blog, Cards and More by Sheri! I love doing this challenge because Sheri comes up with some great ideas and I love January's idea of using that yummy yellow! It is really bringing me "out of the box" so to speak because although I like yellow, I don't necessarily use it a lot! I know, it doesn't make sense, but there you have it! LOLOL Mine isn't necessarily "pantone buttercup," but can we say it's close? And kicking off the year with a bright, happy color is awesome! :)

I wanted to also start my year off with a bright and happy word as well....HOPE! For this lost and dying world, the ONE thing we do have is a Hope and that Hope is the Lord Jesus Christ! Now more than ever in this world that we live in, people need something to hole on to for a future void of the mayhem we seem to be surrounded with. In God's word in Colossians 1:26-27 He says "The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." The mysteries of the Old Testament were fulfilled and revealed through the Son of Jesus Christ. It has been made known to all and made available to all who would receive - ETERNAL LIFE! Life eternal, hope eternal, love eternal, glory eternal! What more could you want? That security is waiting for you today as well dear friend should you reach out knock on that heavenly door and receive!

It felt so good to get back in the saddle with all of my artsy stuff! I loved doing this tag. I began with some gesso as this tag was a green color and, as always, I am never really sure where I am going with these creations, so its a good start. I did in fact use about three different acrylic yellow paints and started with the light and worked my way out with the dark and just smooshed around with my fingers. I then distressed the edges with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.

I then took one of my favorite script stamps with some Wendy Vecchi Dandelion Archival Ink and stamped for some back ground texture and I then used some Silks Acrylic Glaze in Sunflower through my favorite Bubbles stencil from Donna Downey here and there for further texture. I took this great flower stamp from my Unity Layers of Life kit from November 2015 and stamped with StazOn in Saddle Brown as a shadow flower in the background. It was perfect.

As a Christmas gift to myself back at the end of November or early December I ordered some wonderful things from Heather over at the Kraaft Shaak that I love, love and have been enjoying. One of the things that I knew I wanted were some of the Mini Virtues Pocket Stencils that I have been in love with for a bit, so I finally got them. I use the Hope stencil on this tag with some of Finnabair's Copper Crackle Texture Paste.  I love that stuff. I had to let it dry, so while I was doing that I got my tag fixings together.

I found this really great old stamp that was given to me in a RAK from one of my Google+ buddies that had a yellow back ground on it. The stamp, coincidentally, is of Helen Hayes. I think finding the stamp was timely because Helen Hayes was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award, which is America's highest civilian honor, for individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interest of the United States and world peace. How fitting. In addition, I also added one of my homemade flowers, lace, Prima flowers sprayed with Heidi Swap and blinged up, some metal from Sheri Whitfield's Etsy Shop, and some emphemera, twine and ribbon. Voila! I think it all pulled nicely together! :) 

I'm on a roll and it feels good! I actually cleaned out my art closet this past weekend and reorganized! It was a mess!! But it looks great now and I have so much more room! I will share my Facebook Pick a Stick challenge this week as well! I'm back in the saddle! :))))) Yay me!

I hope you have a fantabulous day my friends! :)

Be blessed