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! :)

Grace and Glory!

Good Friday all my crafty friends! Are you ready for the weekend? I am!!! It's been a crazy week for me at my job, plus trying to get back into the swing of things in my art closet! I think I am back on the "art wagon!" You know how it is, you fall off and it takes a bit to get back up! But I've had some projects to work on that pushed the issue and made me not only get back into the swing, but took me out of my comfort zone! Woot woot!!! LOL It was all good though!!! LOLOL

Today, I am going to share my journal spread that I did for the "Pick a Stick Challenge" that I was invited to over on Facebook!! Nothing like skidding in at the ninth hour!!! LOLOL  It was a fun challenge, but definitely took me out of my comfort zone!!! the gist of the challenge is the administrator for the month pulls ten sticks out of a bucket that have instructions on them and we are to follow them accordingly!! Boy that was hard!! Now, let me just go ahead and fess up that I followed as close (close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, LOLOL) as I could, but I AM SURE that I broke the rules on more than one occasion!!! LOL I just couldn't see how to do some of the steps otherwise, but, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!! LOLOL

I will try to explain my process going with the draw of the sticks. First off, since I already had acrylic colors on my desk from a previous challenge, I decided to stick with that color theme, which was yellow. I was to create a title using my on font, which I did and chose Grace. I love to doodle/Zentangle, so I doodled the "G" and just finished the rest with a Pit Pen on card stock. That was first on the list BEFORE we did anything else!!! Well that is usually the LAST thing I do, so this is where the "fudging" came in!!! It said do it in "order" but not "how or when" you lay it down!! LOLOLOL I realize that was probably not the intent, but again, that's my story and I'm sticking it!!!

We were then to use some gears, add a verse from a song and then build texture with a palette knife. Check, check, check, except........I did the build a texture with a palette knife first with some heavy gesso through several different stencils here and there. We were then supposed to create borders/elements with scrapbook paper. I had some free scrapbook paper that I had downloaded at some point and time and I simply cut it into bits and mod podged to create a border around the pages. We were then supposed to use sparkles and then add paint with a knife or card. So, fudge again, I laid down acrylic paint in various shades of yellow with an old hotel room key card and then while it was still wet sprinkled some Ranger Rocky Candy Dry Glitter all over and then dried with a heat tool.

We were next supposed to journal so nobody can read it and add a picture. So I journaled and put the picture over top of it and then pulled out some more acrylic paint close to the purple in the picture and an orange and dredged my card through them and scraped them on the pages here and there and on the picture so the picture blended in better. I then added more sparkle from Finnabair's glitter sets onto the wing of the butterfly.

I pulled the pages together by distressing the edges with Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade (not on the list, but I couldn't help myself) and then hot glued the gears on and a Prima flower I had spritzed with a lavender color from Tattered Angels. I then added some more sparkle with Finnabair's glass beads and a little heart. I then adhered the verse from one of my favorite songs by Planet Shakers, "You are Holy," and added the last item on the list, which was write on masking tape and add to page.  I love my Pitt Big Brush Pens, so I couldn't help myself again and shaded here and there with various colors. I know, I know, I'm probably disqualified somehow!!!! LOLOL Once a rebel, always a rebel! Hahahahaha! I had so much fun doing this spread and look forward to next months challenge!

On another note, I want to share what a blessed, blessed person I am!!! I am not a bragger, but I just wanted to share God's love to me through another! Yesterday evening I was in my art closet and my girls came in and said mom the UPS guy just brought you a package!! Me? Why? It's not my birthday or anything????? I saw it was from my sister and so immediately I ripped into it, like a kid at Christmas, and lookeeeeee, what I got!!!!!! I was STOKED!!!! Is she not the BEST SISTER on the planet????? She is currently moving to another home and was cleaning things out and thought I might enjoy these!!! Some have never been used! What a blessing indeed! I can't wait use these amazing stamps and create, create, create! The Chinese stamps are just phenomenal. Each character has a meaning and I just love that! I'm a blessed sister! Thank you my Lolly from the bottom of my heart!

Going back to my journal spread, the lyrics that I snipped come from one of my favorite songs, You are Holy, by the Planet Shakers and can be listened to on YouTube at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbcvLtkBvJE. You can probably cut and paste it into your address line. It expresses my own heart to my King and Savior who sure enough offers me more grace that I deserve! He is the King of Grace and Glory and if you need some grace in your life, I encourage to seek the Father's face! Through His Son, Jesus Christ, grace flows down abundantly and not only that, it's FREE! God loves you today and wants to bring you under the shadow of His wing! Won't you enter in?

I pray you all have a blessed and glorious weekend!

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

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