Surprise Yourself!

Happy Monday to you!  Had a not so fun weekend as I was in the bed for most of the weekend.  Been having some dental trouble at which I was taking antibiotics, which didn't settle well with me at ALL!!  The two coupled together put me down for a few days!  Hope to have it all cleared up soon!

I can stay in bed for a little bit, but then I just get so frustrated from being there that I simply have to do something regardless of how I feel!  After running the gambut of movies in my DVD drawer, reading a release of the first chapter of a book by Deborah Harkness that I am waiting to come out with baited breath and playing Mario Brothers on the Wii with my daughter, I finally decided on Sunday that I felt well enough to go to my closet and do a quick mixed media tag because I needed a "fix!"

It didn't really take long and I really didn't have anything in mind but to use some things I had maybe put to the side and not used in awhile, you know, in the name of "newer & craftier" art supplies!! LOL!!  Nothing AT ALL wrong with the art products I used mind you, it's just we become such art supply "hounds" that things get put on the back burner for the latest product!!!  I enjoyed it and it was just the "fix" I needed on an otherwise downer weekend!

I played with some gesso through one of my first stencils ever, a plain old circles stencil that had varied sizes of circles.  I'd forgotten all about that guy and it was at the bottom of the heep of other "so called, fabulous" stencils!  LOL!!  Poor little guy felt so lonely and abused!! LOL!!  Anywhoooo.....I continued with my fabulous Tim Holtz distress stain ink pads (how did we ever live without those?), some fabulous Unity Stamps and wonderful Dylusions.  Nothing real earth shattering, but I really liked how it turned out in spite of myself!! LOL!!

Hey, next time you are feeling kind of yucky and need to get out of a slump, encourage yourself just to get in there and get your hands dirty.  You never know what you might come up with?  You may be surprised!!

Have a fabulous week!
Blessings!

True Fun!!

Happy Thursday!!

In my journal spread today, I just wanted to express just plain happiness and what art journaling is for me...just TRUE FUN!!  It is a simple page, but with all of my favorite colors and I just had fun doing it!  One of things I always try to keep in mind in doing my art journals is just that...to have fun!  I'm not an professional artist and don't aspire to be one.  I started art journaling out of a need to express myself and because I just love playing with color and texture.  I've come to realize not to take it too seriously and just enjoy!  I usually incorporate my faith which is usually my inspiration, so that keeps me relatively grounded!

Today though, I just wanted to express fun!  What is your fun?  How do you express it? Is it therapeutic?  Do you want to reach someone else through it or is it just self gratifying?  In God's Word, He expresses that "Whatever you do, work at it with ALL your heart, as for the Lord and not for men." (Col 3:23)  What does that mean?  It means do your service as unto the Lord and it WILL be gratifying to yourself as well as to others!  Don't go at it to satisfy "men," or "others!"  We will NEVER truly satisfy another!  So don't try!  The only One you really need to be worried about is our Father in Heaven!  If you do it as "unto Him," you CAN'T go wrong!!!  You will in turn be self gratified, lifted up and encouraged through the process!

In His Word, God notes that He wants us to have the desires of our heart (Ps. 37:4) even the smallest things like fun art journaling!!  But if we desire to delight in Him first, it makes it all the more fun and all the more blessed!  He's interested even in the small things of our lives!  He is such a loving Father!!

Have true fun today and in no matter what it is that you do, do it as unto the Lord delighting in His Holy Name!

Blessings!  

The Little Things!

Happy Monday to you!  I had a great weekend of craftiness.  Sometimes with my house chores duties, I don't always get to do as much art on the weekend as I like!  Of course, if I had my way, I would do art 24/7 and everything around me could fall down!! LOL!!  Well.....not really...my OCD would eventually kick in!! LOL!!  But I was able to play in my closet this weekend and it made for a happy me!

Today's page was inspired by my oldest daughter who is 14!  She is at that age where everything is much bigger than it really is, in her mind, while selling herself short with the small things.  Of course, I share my wisdom, mostly from experience, but also from the heart of our Father in Heaven.  And, of course, I get a lot of the eye rolling and the "Oh mom.....you just don't understands!"  I have to remind myself I was there once too, but by gosh, I just want to spare her some of the same mistakes I made!  Isn't it funny how it all seems so clear as an adult?

I had a Tim Holtz sentiment stamp that I really liked and I thought I would use that to convey the thought.  I also used some scraps from my other daughter's art stash that I thought went well, and of course, she was quite pleased I did!  I started with some gesso through a Crafter's Workshop stencil and used some Dylusions Ink Sprays over top.  I continued with some Silks acrylic glaze and Liquitex black ink for drippage.  I finished with some good old Washi, Distress Ink and Faber Castell Big Brush pens for shading. Turned out to be another fun piece!

As I was doing the page, again thoughts of my daughter were going around my mind and Biblical wisdom I had given her that I thought I should "note to self," as well.  From time to time, I dare say we have all sold ourselves short!  Fact is, God sees ALL the little things!  Everything has to start from somewhere, but sometimes in our eyes, the small things seem so insignificant.  But to God and the purpose and will He has for your life, big results come from small beginnings!  It's all about your relationship with Him through Jesus Christ and our growth therein!!  We are to be about changing from glory to glory!

In Matthew 13:31-32 God's Word says "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches!"  Everything we do has significance in the Kingdom of God!  Nothing is too small because it's a means to something BIG!!  We make an impact and change the course of our own life, not to mention the course of someone else's life just by sticking it out with the small things until they manifest to big ones!  Small seeds turn into BIG BLESSINGS!!!

Next time you want to sell yourself short, just remember that God said in His Word "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future!" (Jer 29:11)  The things you do may seem tiny in your mind, but small beginnings can have big results!

Blessings!

  

Summertime!

Well, it really hasn't hit full summer here yet in good ole Georgia, but we already have balmy, humid 90+ days here!  This in fact is typical Georgia weather and you would think one would get used to it, but it still makes me crazy after all these years! LOL!!  It's times like these that that dream cabin in the mountains screams to become a reality!!

This is a typical picture of my free spirited daughter and my hubby!  

They are like two peas in a pod!  She's such a sweet girl and just happens to be my "art buddy!"  When I started doing art journals, she was so inquisitive!  She got me to buy her a journal and she would sit with me on the couch and play.  As my hobby progressed so did her inquisitions!!!  As we ALL know....our hobby can get real expensive, so I just sat back to see how far she wanted to go with it before I sowed a lot into it for her! Kids often quit things right in the middle of "I just have to do this!" LOL!!  But, she has been steady and earnest with her interest.  So this past Christmas she got art supplies galore!!  We also bought her a drafters desk, and my husband being a talented cabinet builder, is going to build her some shelving to go over top for all her crafty goodness!

This page out of one of my journals today is inspired by her!  I did this to show her how easy it all could be starting with just a simple stencil!  I took a few of her stencils that I bought her, with a little free hand, and came up with a real summery little page.  I Zentangled in the patterns and then finished off with my Derwent Water Color pencils.  I had fun and she gave me a lot of ideas for my patterns!  She's quite crafty herself and I will put one of her pieces on here in the near future!

Creativity can start with the smallest of things!  Just start, and things can go from there!  Hope your summer is starting off well and maybe not as hot as ours here in Georgia! 

Blessings!

Everything is Beautiful in its Own Way!

Do you remember that old song from Ray Stevens?  I still like that song even though, until recently, I hadn't heard it in years!  But the sentiment behind it is a message, that as a people, we have all but forgotten!  In a world where "a cause," or "people's rights" are at the forefront, we've lost that EVERYTHING IS beautiful in it's own way!  God created and said "It is good!"  We have evolved into something far from what God intended when He created us, but as I try to remind my children, we are ALL special and beautiful in God's eyes!  I also try to remind them that beauty on the outside is skin deep.  The real beauty of a person comes from the inside!  We were created in the image of God!  God sent His Son to cover the sins of our evolution, but when Jesus died, he left the One in the Holy Spirit to live on the inside of us to guide and direct us and to teach us how to reflect the very character of that Spirit living on the inside of us, the character of Christ!

I made this journal page out of my desire to reflect Him in all I say and do.  I do try to find beauty in ALL things, but most importantly I want to be found reflecting "true beauty," the hidden beauty and person in the pocket of my heart, Jesus Christ!  I did this page with mostly acrylic paints directly onto a gesso'd page with a brayer as well as through some stencils along with some wonderful Tim Holtz and Unity stamps, some of my fabulous emphemera stash and finished it off with Washi tape and one of my favorite products Inca Gold!  I loved my result and felt like it reflected what I wanted to say!

1 Peter 3:3-4 says, "Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."  It's clear that God is concerned with the heart and that what is at the very heart of a believer, Jesus, is very precious to Him!  Because He gave us the beautiful gift of Jesus Christ to live on the inside of us, that makes us very precious in His site as well!

Blessings!

Laughter is the Best Medicine!

The old adage comes to mind today...."When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!"  In the world today when everything seems to run amock, to me, laughter is the best medicine!!  Life is too short to allow circumstances to get you down!  Whilst those circumstances can cause hiccups in your every day life, we all have opportunities to make lemonade out of those lemons!!  It's what you do with those circumstances that matter most!!

For me as a believer, the victory on the cross at the hands of Jesus is what pulls me through the valley!  His victory was SURE over death and the grave and that victory covered ALL things opposing our Father in Heaven!  That means sin, sickness, debt and ANY circumstance that opposes God's work here on earth and in Heaven!  That victory was sealed with the blood of Jesus, that when He died and sent the One in the Holy Spirit to live on the inside of us, we were endued with that same power He possessed from on high!  That means we have the SAME victory He does and we have the SAME power over ANY circumstance that Jesus does! Isn't that AWESOME news!!!

Laughter is such a colorful word and can pull you up out of any pit!  If you don't believe me try it!  Smile at someone and more times than not, they will smile back at you!  They say that laughing extends your life!  That's encouraging!!  I'd much rather be found smiling and laughing than pursing as if eating sour lemons!!!  This page was just out of my happiness in the moment!  Nothing really in mind except laughter!  I collaged many wonderful papers that I have in my stash along with yummy acrylics and of course my Crafter's Workshop stencils from wonderful Julie Fe-Fan Balzer designs!! Just super fun!

So if life has handed you lemons today, pull out your journal and make happy lemonade with all your fun stash!  By then end, maybe you will be laughing....if at nothing else....yourself!! LOL!!!  Here is a little phrase entitled "The Optimist," which appeared in a 1940 rendition of the Rotarian:

"Life handed him a lemon,

As Life sometimes will do.

His friends looked on in pity,

Assuming he was through.

Them came upon him later,

Reclining in the shade

In calm contentment, drinking

A glass of lemonade."

I love it!  Cheers to you today!

Blessings!

Growth

Today's tag was so much fun!  I love doing tags, but I always use the manila tags.  So to break from the "norm," when I did my Hobby Lobby trip this time, I decided to buy the darker tags.  I had mixed some Silks acrylic glaze with some Faber Castell Glass Bead Gel for another project and because I don't like to waste anything, I took the excess and put it through some stencils on several tags for future projects.  I continued with some Broken China Distress Ink through another stencil to finish the background.

I'm a huge Unity Stamp fan and am a Layers of Life member, so I wait with baited breath each month for my new stamps!  I call it my little gift to myself!!  The flowers are from this past months kit, which I love.  As I haven't gotten on the Copic bandwagon, quite simply because I can't afford it, I colored them with my Bic Markers, which color and blend just fine for me. I then added some of my beloved emphemera stash!  I have a whole drawer dedicated to that stuff!  Probably won't use it all in my life time, but it's like a sickness...can't stop buying it!!  And who can live without Washi tape?? LOL!!

My heart was geared towards the summer scenery!  Georgia has been blessed with lots of rain this year, which I am happy about, we are usually brown by now because of the lack of it.  But this year has brought out the beautiful flowers.  Makes for a nice afternoon drive!  I was reminded of how as believers, if we aren't properly "watered," we won't grow either! How does that happen?  Well, it's all about relationship!  God's Word calls us to "grow" in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).  But in order to do that you have to have a relationship with the Father!  God's word is "living water" to our body and spirit!  It requires us to get into that Word, read it and let it be life to our bodies and grace and knowledge to our heart, mind and spirit!

I want to grow and be ALL I can be in Christ.  I am so thankful that I am FULL of life, the life of Christ.  And just like a flower that God formed as a bud to bloom, when properly watered, it can turn to the Sun of Righteousness that His bright beams can aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry!!  I pray that Heaven's light may shine upon YOU today that you too can grow and be all YOU can be in Christ! 

Blessings!!