Magical Love!

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends! Long time no post!!! LOL It has been a minute since I posted last and trust me when I say that my heart has little pains when I can't get on and post some artful goodness! It has been a whirlwind for me for several months now! I hope to get some semblance of order before long! I been extremely blessed by receiving a promotion at work, but of course, along with that promo comes more responsibility, so it has made it a little tight to get things on my blog when I want to. In addition, I have had some sickies lately and just haven't had the time or felt like too much arting! I know right? That's almost blasphemous!  LOLOL Luckily I had started two of my monthly challenges some weeks ago, so I had a little lead way, but now I am crunched for time to get it on before February is all but a memory!

So today, I am going to share my February Challenge for the Tag It Tuesday Linky Party over on Sheri Whitfield's Blog Cards and More by Sheri! This months challenge was to use the Rose Quartz Pantone color, which is a pretty pink. As I don't have exact Pantone colors, I just got as close to the swatch as I could. Also Sheri picked Valentines Day theme as well. I know Valentines is over, but I went right with it anyway! LOL

I really did have fun making this tag even though I'd say that pink is not my thing. But I knew I would incorporate it with other colors, so it turned out alright with me! I always start my tag out with some gesso because I never know where I am going with it and then I pulled out my stray paper stash. Most of that paper is gelli prints, book page, hymnal pages and the like. So I just laid down pieces here and there with Mod Podge. I then pulled out the Caran d'ache Neocolors and went to town. At this point I can't remember which colors I used, but coordinating colors to the gelli print pieces that I used. I love the heck out of those crayons they are so yummy to work with!

I used my go to background stamp here and there for more texture and then watered down some gesso and spritzed here and there. I found this cute free graphic online of this angel and knew I wanted to use her. I took a paper doily that I had and painted with the closest pink to the Pantone I could find and then covered with Mod Podge and sprinkled with Ranger Rock Candy Glitter. I then simply glued my little angel to the doily and then both on the tag.

I have a cute little Sizzlit die that is little hearts, so I cut some out with scrapbook paper and then placed them on my tag and then I shaded them along with my angel with my favorite Faber Castell Big Brush Pens. I then stamped with the "love" stamp that I have from my December 2014 Layers of Life Kit from  Unity Stamps, added my sentiment and a couple of heart elements. Voila! Nothing fancy, but it reminded me of the old Valentines we used to get in our handmade "milk box, Valentine box" in school......those were the days! LOL

Thinking on the sentiment that I placed on my tag, I thought about how magical love is! Do you remember your first crush, your first kiss or your first true love? Thinking back on all that, it was so very magical to me, but God's love is "real!" There is no magic to it nor is it a fleeting fancy. It's real and it's passionate! God loves us with such a passion that He offered up His only Son for us that we may have life with Him for all eternity! That's a BIG LOVE! The immeasurable love that He offers can be experienced by ALL! It's "real" and it's unconditional and never ending! In every day life, loves come and go, but not so with my God! You can count on Him to be your FOREVER Valentine! :) You are the apple of His eye!

Open your heart today to a passionate God who loves you more than you can know!!

Blessings!

WOYWW#348.....A Big Mess, That's What!!!

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends!!! Can anybody say.....hump day????? LOLOL My girls love to say that!! Are you making plans for your upcoming weekend? I have to stay on top of my game with two teenagers!!! Just last night one of mine said, "mom, what are we doing this weekend?" Really? It's just Tuesday!!!! But with this "always got to have something to do" generation, I have to plan Monday to Monday!! Phew!!! I stay in a constant state of exhaustion!! LOLOLOL Just kidding, but I do miss the carefree days of "come what may!" I like being "loosy goosy" and whatever happens, happens! Life is too short. They don't know that now, but they will!! LOLOL

So today, for the first time EVER, I am going to share for WOYWW#348!!! Yay meeee! Or poor you, cause it's a straight up mess!! LOLOL I have a lot going on on my desk. Mostly unfinished projects that are screaming to be finished! Some since last year!!! What the what??? Yea, I tend to let my mind wander and it's not hard to sidetrack me into doing another "cool" project if the opportunity lends itself!! Not cool since my full time job is all about organization and finishing tasks on a timely basis!! Maybe that's my unconsciousness being rebellious and saying "nope, I'll do what I want to do when I want to do it and finish when I want to!!!!" LOLOL Can you picture that? A grown woman pitching a rebellious fit??? LOLOL Not a pretty sight!!

Wow, can you even tell what is going on there??? LOLOL I really do intend on actually "starting" to finish some of this mess this week or possibly this weekend!! I have that small canvas that I really need to finish and share. I did some real experimenting with that guy and have had fun with it, but it wants to be finished.

I have a brand new journal that needed to have projects begun in it that I got on a bargain table at Barnes & Nobles last fall. I took it to a class last week that I had signed up for in faith journaling. I really enjoyed the class and got some great ideas to incorporate into my own art journaling. It was actually a Bible Journaling Class, which I do, only I do them in journals and not a Bible. I may decide to buy a "journaling" Bible one day, but for now I enjoy doing my Bible journaling in an actual journal. Illustrated Faith is a great place to start if you are interested in Bible journaling. Stephanie Ackerman and the rest of her Design Team are a talented bunch of ladies who give loads of inspiration. Their site is under construction right now, but you can find them on their Facebook page.

On the back side of my table is a big stack of unfinished tags! One of them however (that you can see a corner of) is the start of my February Challenge for the Tag It Tuesday Link Party over on Cards and More by Sheri Blogspot. This months challenge is using Rose Quartz pink, which is soooooooo out of my comfort zone!! But I'm up for the challenge and look forward to sharing!

Well, it doesn't get any messier than that folks! Well......it probably could, but let's just leave it at that! Since I am new to WOYWW, I look forward to clicking on all the links on Julia's blog and seeing what everyone else in the world is doing!

Here's hoping that you have a FABULOUS day and a good rest of the week!

Blessings to you! :)

I will not be shaken!

Good Tuesday all my crafty friends! Here's hoping you had a wonderful weekend! It has been "unusually" warm here in Georgia. Although, ANYTHING can happen here, truth be known! Today is a whopping 78 degrees! Yea, we just left January and already it's 78! I guess Punxsutawney Phil knows what he's talking about! LOLOL

Today, I am going to share a quick tag with you. I do tag backgrounds here and there and sometimes I continue the process and finish the tag and sometimes I'm just not feeling it and it goes into my "tag bin" for another day. My sweet sister knows of my famous tag bin and came over Saturday to raid it! She was looking for a gift for her boss and wanted me to do her a tag.  She found the base of this tag in the bin and then gave me liberties to finish it based on a scripture that she gave me that she wanted to express to her boss/friend to encourage and lift her up!

All that said, I don't remember the background process that I went through to make it because it's been so long ago. But I believe stamped a flower stamp from Unity in the middle with VersaMark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder and then I did the whole background with Distress Inks for some resist effect on the flower and then I splattered some Liquitex black ink here and there.

I had some old Tim Holtz letters in my stash, I think they are called grunge board letters or something like that, but I thought I should use some. So I painted them with acrylic paint in an almond color and then distressed with Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Vintage Photo. I stamped on the top of them with StazOn in Saddle brown for a little more texture.

I have this great "stash bag" that was a RAK from a wonderful online friend that has all kinds of goodies in it and every time I go in it, I find something different! I love it! But I found this little die cut frame that I colored with the same Distress Ink colors as the letters. I then took these little Prima flowers and sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mist in Mint and then I added some great little brads and a metal piece that I bought from Sheri Whitfields Etsy shop. 

I finished the tag by adding some pretty scapbook paper to the back (since it was for a gift and you can imagine what the back looked like after using inks) and then distressed the edges again with

Vintage Photo. I also brought out my water color paints and shaded around the letters . I stamped my sentiment from Psalms 16:08 "I shall Not Be Moved!" and voila!  I hope my sister's friend likes it.

In Psalm 16, versus 5-8, God's Word says "Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken." Lord, Lord, that is my heart! I fall short sometimes when life's circumstances are thrown my way, but if we allow the Holy Spirit to minister God's Word back to us, it will encourage us, give us hope, strengthen us in the weak places and bless us all the way around!

As believers, God's Word is our Anchor in our every day walk. The anchor is let down to ground a boat so that it will not move! Likewise, when we let God's Word live, breath, move and work in us, we can be SURE that He is at our right hand allowing our thoughts and spirit to take the stand of "I shall not be moved," in ALL things! :) Praise Him today for His abundant grace! :)

Blessings to you today! :)