WOYWW #441

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends! It's the day of the week that we play along with Julia over on Stamping Ground and share what is on our desk! We'd love for you to travel all over the world with us as you gaze upon others's desk basking in their creativity! And, of course, share your goodies!!

Today, I am going to share a very special craft that I have made for my sister for her birthday! I've shared in the past how I craft just for fun and to gift others. So, of course, I like to share with my sister, whom I am very close with, to get her sweet encouragement and thumbs up. Well, she has seen my cross crafts (that I LOVE to make and bless others with) going out and so one day she says, "hey, where's my cross (with a little sad face, lol)?" She would always tell me how much she loved them, but it never dawned on me that she may want one?? I know....some folks it takes a brick!! LOLOL

So here is my cross that I made her!

So much love went into this gift because, as I said, we are very close, but this sweet spirit has been there for me like no other. When I was lost in this world we live in, she prayed for me like no other! And she NEVER let up! God puts those warriors in your life to stand in the gap when you don't have the strength to stand yourself! That's God's great love for us! I'm so thankful to Him and her! So, OF COURSE, I had to make her a cross for her birthday! :)

I started this cross by collaging scraps from my bin, which is one of my fave things to do! I get COMPLETELY messy when I collage, but that's what crafting is about for me and then the end result is TOTALLY worth it! As I was doing so, my eldest daughter came in my craft closet and wanted to know what I was doing....flying a kite, I said...ha ha ha....but I was stoked that she wanted to know because she doesn't usually want to know about my crafts. So upon hearing my story, she said, hey, why don't you use this stencil in some way! Well, as she doesn't usually participate, I said OF COURSE I WILL!! So I used some heavy gesso and put through that stencil right down the front, dried it and then gave the whole thing a coat of light gesso.

Afterwards, I pulled out some Lindy's sprays in various colors and the sprayed a fixative over it because I wanted to do other layers of acrylics, caran d'ache and rubs and didn't want things to move. When I was satisfied, I pulled out my other bin with assorted embellishments to find my center pieces. She is such an amazing woman of God, so with that thought, one of the wonderful words I would use to describe her is JOY!! She is so full of the joy of the Lord inside that it oozes right on out to the outside! I love being around that and grab every bit that I can! :) She's someone I admire and aspire to be like! I found a few more yummy embellishments  to create the center piece and voila!

It's finally feeling like "fall" here, although the verdict is still out! Mother Natures loves to play her tricks on us here and tomorrow could be back to 80! LOL But we will keep our fingers crossed. Fall, beckons me to pull out my beautiful Dulcimer and strum away. I don't pull it out as often as I should, but I bought it during a fall trip, so I guess that's why I put fall and dulcimer together! Along with turkey and dressing!!! LOL We leave Sunday to go on our annual Thanksgiving camping trip, so I know I will not be playing along next week due to no service and just general camping laziness! LOL But here's a strum out to everyone that you will have a most wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving as you reflect with friends and family! I for one am VERY THANKFUL for all of my online crafty friends! 

Blessings to you ALL!

It's Friday Somewhere!!!!!

Happy Friday all my crafty friends!! Friday is a glorious day......sad that we all seem to push as fast as we can to this glorious day, there's no telling how much we miss during the week because we are so focused on getting to Friday!!! LOL I know my brain and I'm sure I've missed a boat load! LOL

Today I am going to share an ATC (#PASCATC1117) as part of the Pick A Stick Challenge over on the Facebook Group by the same name.  Yesterday, I shared the journal challenge. If you do both the journal challenge and the ATC challenge, you are entered into a pool for a crafty surprise! Here's hoping I have some Irish smiling eyes this month! LOLOL

So the challenge for the ATC is pulled from the sticks pulled for the Journal Challenge. The good part about pulling from the sticks you have already pulled is that you don't have to tax your brain further with 3 more items to come up with! LOLOL Yea, that's the lazy mans mind! LOL So based on the three sticks pulled above, here is my ATC!

Ok, so as with the journal page......I take a few liberties about "how" I add things...hee hee! Don't come and get me Pick A Stick Crew! LOLOL  The first stick pulled was add a key....well, I added a key, but added it to a chipboard butterfly that I had glued some of Finnabair's glitter to that I knew I was going to put on the card. I used the same stamp set that I used in the journal for the "random stamp set" and stamp on my ATC for background texture along with some Lindy's spray through Tim's Harlequin stencil again. I also used some Distress inks around the edges.

I then adhered the Butterfly and then, I know I already had diamonds on the background, but it was out of order, so as the third stick called for add diamonds, I did so on the butterfly too! I had to at least "act" like I was complying! LOL  I then cut out and added the "Fall" from a great paper pad I got one time with all kinds of Fall goodies on it! Voila!

ATC's are easy peasy lemon squeezy! I love them because you can be creative, but it's not so intimidating as a journal spread or page can be. I often get the "deer in the headlights" look when I look at journal spreads, ha ha, but ATC's are a snap! Come play along and find your own ATC creativity!

I thought I would also share these quick ATC bacgrounds that I made from a failed card project I started and shared last week. I probably shouldn't say "failed," it just didn't go as planned. So when all else fails, back up and punt! LOLOL Either way it was fun and who knows what other projects will come out of them in the future!

Well I hope you have an AWESOME weekend. It's finally got a little "snap" in the air here in good old Georgia.....its been in the 80's...so I am enjoying it. But, Mother Nature has a way of teasing us and playing a trick on all of us Georgians.....here's hoping that she's relented and will allow us to wear a coat for a little while longer! LOL

Blessings to you!

WOYWW #440

Happy Wednesday all my crafty friends! It's time for another WOYWW over with Julia on Stamping Ground! Join in with us artsy folks if you'd like...the more the merrier, I'd say! 

I'm late in the game today my friends. I was out yesterday with my youngest with strep throat! Aren't our babies pitiful when they are sick? As a toddler, she had many a trouble with sinus infection and chest congestion until about three or four. It was mom's nightmare with every month in the doctor's office and antibiotics constantly. And then is just like that, she grew out of it! It was a blessing for us both! Every now and again, and she's thirteen now, she'll get a little something, but I'm happier with that all day long as opposed to what it used to be!! So I was out with her yesterday, so today, I'm playing catch up! Hope I will get around to see everyone's goodies!

So this was my desk yesterday afternoon and into the evening as I was home with my gal and was able to play in my art room for hours! I felt like a kid in a candy store and didn't know what to do with myself......at my child's expense to be sure, but I was still in hog heaven! LOLOL

So really what you are seeing here is a big mess! LOL But it's all in good faith that in the end, it will be my entry for the November Pick A Stick Challenge with the great gals over on the Facebook Group with the same name! If you want to join in on this challenge, check it out this months video and play along! 

The challenge is to create your art journal page going through the steps in complete order. You can do things in between, but the steps (or sticks pulled) for you to create, are to be in order. To be honest, I usually have fudge in at least one of the creative steps due to either not having supply or not knowing how to do?? LOL I realize, of course, that I am not in compliance! LOLOL This month was no exception!!! Right of the bat with #2, we had to add sewing or embroidery??????? I DON'T SEW...AT ALL!!! LOL So I pulled fibers from a burlap ribbon that I had and "glued" them down!! They look sewn, don't they??? LOL Yea, right!!!

So based on the "stick pulls" above, I had cut out circles from a magazine and circles from a newspaper to use. I had gesso'd my page first and then glued the fibers down. I had a chipboard key in my stash that I heat embossed with Wendy Vecchi's Watering Can. I put it on the page and then put heavy gesso through Tim Holtz's harlequin stencil to give the texture and it doubled for the diamonds in #7. I then picked the key back up (didn't say I couldn't pick it back up...hee hee) and added the newspaper circles over top

of the magazine cut out circles.

I loved #6 because the stamp set that I used I absolutely love! I got that stamp set on Ebay, which I searched for for some time before I could find it! I also got it for next to nothing! I had seen one of my fave's Rachel use them back in 2015 on a Christmas Card series she had done and I fell in love. At that time, they were discontinued, so initially I was sad, but then went on a mad hunt to find them!! And I did....woop, woop! I love them and use them often! Its a score for me because I never find anything! LOL 

I used some Lindy's Stamp Gang spray through the Tim Holtz stencil again to add some color and more diamonds. I also had some Grunge Board Letters from Tim Holtz and I painted an "A" to fulfill #9 and then I opted for the wild card stick to use the pipette to apply color to the fibers instead of doing #10. I added a pocket with some more diamonds and bling and voila!

It was fun and hopefully a kickoff to get me started back into the swing of doing my monthly challenges! I probably won't get to visit all of your pages until tomorrow, but I'll get there none the less!! Happy Wednesday to you guys! :)

Blessings

WOYWW #439

Good Wednesday all my crafty friends!! Wednesdays seem to come around quicker than you think these days! LOL This year, Wednesdays have brought a sad face for me because I haven't been able to post as much as I have wanted, but yay to me....I get to post AGAIN this week! Back to back Wednesdays is a HUGE feat for me! LOL I hope to check out all my crafty pals Wednesday goodies over at Julia's blog on Stamping Ground! Come join in with us!

This week, I am going to share an "actual" picture from my work desk! LOL I might share a project too! LOL I have had a little time on my hands and have been just messing around with some scraps and things on my desk to see the outcome. I see ideas online and think to try them every now and then. MOST of the time, it's a bust, but the fact that I like getting messy and playing is enough to pull me on through! LOL

A few things on my desk today. The card in the middle is from a pad that was gifted me as part of a RAK from a dear friend. I was so happy to get it because I haven't ever really worked on black card stock before and have always wanted to mess around with it. I also STILL want to get Dyan Reaveley's square black creative journal that has been on my "wish list" for some time. Maybe a Christmas gift to myself...who knows? hee hee Anywho....I had versamark stamped a butterfly and some background stamps on there to see how it would turn out. The butterfly didn't turn out so well, but the background stamps did ok. I always forget to use my white embossing power and love the affect it has, so not sure why I don't use it more often?

So the plan, since I didn't get such a good impression with the butterfly, is to use my Koi watercolors, in that stinking cute travel box and my Caran d'Ache Neocolors along with my Jacquard Pearl Ex Mica Powder Pigments to bring it all out for a crafty little background for something? Maybe a card? who knows! Such is the art of "playing!" LOL


Since I wanted to share a project as well, don't shoot me Julia, I thought I would share this quick tag I did as a part of my 'au revoir' to summer! I wasn't necessarily feeling blue, but was feeling like showing the vibrant yellow's falling into the warm pink of fall.....and then one last yellow at the end! Corny, I know, but, it's what I was feeling! LOL

This really was a quick and fun tag whereby I started with Tim Holtz tissue paper in the background followed by a layer of gesso and then as I had pulled out my Caran d'Ache, used them to apply color to the background. I round off the corners with Distress ink, set with a fixative and then used some flower stamps from Unity Stamps with Archival Ink in black and then painted them using my Caran d'Ache crayons. I then highlighted the flowers using some really fabulous pearlescent paints that  I have in my stash and then finished them off by embellishing with glass beads from Finnabair! Voila!

Well, that's it for me guys! I hope you all have an AWESOME Wednesday, and don't forget to go visit all the other talented folks over on Julia's blog!

Blessings