Autumn Harvest!

Happy amazing Friday all my crafty friends! It is just a glorious day here! The morning sky was just absolutely beautiful. One of those morning skies that you just want to sit wrapped up in a blanket on the porch with a cup of joe and drink in God's awesome display of beauty! I continue to be so amazingly blessed for each day that I wake up with the breath of God! His love for me is something that I can't contain and I pray that as I share with you all, you are aware of His glorious love for you as well!

Today is the end of October!  I have seen this sentiment across the blog world, but I just have to express it as well...WHERE DID OCTOBER GO? LOL  Or better yet, this year?  Boy time flies!  Or maybe I am just showing my age! LOL!  I've also shared before that fall or autumn is my FAVORITE time of year!  I noted that we don't do the "Halloween, trick or treat" thing, but my girls do like to go to carnivals and fairs.  Tonight, one of our local churches has a "Carnival for Christ" and that is something I do like to take them to as opposed to other "Halloween" festivities.  They have had this event for years and it has become a really big event!  I love going, but hate trying to find that parking spot! LOL

I want to share a page today inspired by the "Carnival for Christ!"  It was meant to be a fun, fall page and I so enjoyed doing it!  Just cuteness that brings smiles to my face!  I think that is what it supposed to be all about!
Autumn to me is ALL ABOUT family and friends, traditions that each household has passed down from generation to generation and about GIVING!  Giving of your heart and time to others!  When we go day to day in our "busy" lives, we tend to forget about others!  We forget to spend that quality time with one another and just sharing of ourselves with a neighbor or loved one!  Something about the holidays always brings that to the surface, but we should be about giving of ourselves on a DAILY basis!  There is always someone in "need!"  It may or may not be a "physical" need.....maybe they just need a hug or a smile or a kind word!  And YOU just may be the one God has designed to go across their path today and share that with them!  If we neglect that or pass up the opportunity, that person misses out on a blessing, but YOU also miss out on the blessing God has designed for YOU because of your obedience!  God's plan for that person will go through with or without you, He will just use another to bless them!  But your opportunity for God to use you in a mighty way and to bless you in return will have been missed!

I had all the colors I wanted to use in mind for this page and just started randomly spreading those yummy fall acrylics down on my gesso'd page.  I used an old credit card, just swishing away! LOL  I don't buy expensive acrylics, I just use good old FolkArt

acrylics.  I love them and they have so many amazing colors to choose from!  I used a few different yellows and taupe's and oranges and just mixed all around.  I then took a yummy green and put it through Tim's Burlap stencil and yummy brown through Rebekah Meier's Harlequin Circles stencil. (Rebekah recently lost her beloved husband and friend.  Take the time to lift her up today or go to her site and bless her with a cyberhug!)  I also took a yummy purple that I thought would pop the page and put it through the hearts on that same Rebekah Meier stencil to show my love for fall!

I used some black acrylic paint with "coffee stain" stencil, not sure which one, and also used that same paint with and old plastic empty tape roll in different places.  I love using coffee filters to do things on (I got that idea from Rebekah Meier) so I stamped some leaves with my this months Layers of Life kit from Unity Stamps with Viva Inka Golds in Azure, Crimson and Pistachio.  They stamped pretty good if I misted them with water, but then I also took my Tim Holtz water brush and move the color around a bit!  Then I sprayed some Heidi Swapp Color Shine (which I love) in Chartreuse over them to give them some extra shine!  I then fussy cut some cute emphemera that I had in my stash and adhered it all down with some Aleene's!  I finished out with framing it with Distress Inks in Vintage Photo and Walnut.  So much fun!

God wants to bless His children that you give back to another.  You take the time to read Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and allow Him to minister to you in that area today!  Happy Autumn Harvest to you and have a most spectacular weekend!

Blessings!

Congrats on RCAD #300 Linda!!

Today I am "sharing this video from Linda Lapotka who many of us know over at Scrapcat Cards by Linda! Linda is a precious, precious spirit who has so many wonderful videos that I love to watch!  She shares so much creativity and inspiration with her Rolodex Card A Day projects!  As of yesterday, she has surpassed #300!  Congrats Linda!  I encourage you to go over and watch her vids on her YouTube Channel, you will enjoy each and every one!  She is giving away some of her amazing stash to two lucky winners which is just lovely!  Can't wait!

What's so amazing about this share request from her is that I had already planned on sharing a quick tag I made as an inspiration because of her!  How timely is that! The tag I am sharing I tried to just pull from stash I had lying around, bits and pieces and pull it all together famously like she does!! She does it so effortlessly and it just seems to all come together! She seems so at peace when she does her RCAD's so I tried not to think about what I was going to do, just pulled it all out and put it together with her sweet spirit in mind!! It's not a "Linda card," but I guess there can only be ONE Linda! LOL

Congrats again Linda and blessings for many MORE RCAD's, especially for all of us fans who love watching!

Blessings to you!

October Fun!

Good Tuesday all you "spooky" crafters!!  Can you believe that October is about to be over???  My goodness, where did the month go?  There are some parts of this fabulous month that I just simply want to do ALL OVER AGAIN!!  Alas, I will trudge on!! LOL  I hope you have all had a fun month and are looking forward to the holidays!

Today I will share a couple of tags with you that I did just for fun!!  We don't celebrate "Halloween" per say in my family.  My girls have gone to "parties" whereby the have dressed up and have gone to October Festivals, we've carved cute pumpkins, but they don't "trick or treat!"  Just a choice we have decided to make in our home. That being said, the tags I want to share with you today are really out of character for me but I couldn't help myself because I have really seen some fabulous Halloween "shares" in our art community!  You guys have really made some fun "tricks AND treats!"  I love to have fun and so these were really done in that light!  Plus, I found the stamps I used for $.99 in a bargain bin and I had to buy them because they were too cute!!

I really had a ball doing these and hope you enjoy!  I started them both off with gesso because at first, I wasn't sure where I was going with them, but then it turned out I went in a different direction that I initially thought (I know none of you have ever done that! LOL)  The only products I pulled out were my Distress Ink pads in Dusty Concord and Spiced Marmalade and Walnut Stain.  I also pulled out my Dylusions spray in Squeezed Orange. I like simple!

I was really glad I had opted to start with the gesso because it kind of gave the background on the purple "Happy Halloween" tag an eerie, smoky feel to it.  I then added the Distress Spiced Marmalade in areas here and there and also "flicked" the Dylusions Squeezed Orange around the tag as well for a sort of "moon glow."  I then finished with Dusty Concord on the edges and then added clear embossing powder to it and heat set.  I saw that online somewhere and thought I would give it a whirl and I like it! LOL  It added a nice effect! The moon, starts and "happy halloween" I stamped with Versamark and heat set with a black glittery embossing powder.  I then ripped some scrap paper to make the little "hills" and shaded with a black gelato that I had placed on my craft mat with some water and applied with a brush.  I then stamped the fence and cat with StazOn in black and as it wasn't dark enough for me I went over them with a Faber-Castell Big Brush Pen.  I added my ribbon that I had distressed and voila!

On the "boo," "spooky" tag I applied Spiced Marmalade first and then added the Squeezed Orange that I moved around with a baby wipe.  Then I lightly stamped for some background texture with one of my favorite backgrounds stamps from Christy Tomlinson and applied some strips of washi tape for just a tad more texture. I wanted to use the same technique that I used on the other tag and I swiped Versamark on the edges and heat embossed with that same black glittery embossing powder to give it a more eerie look!  A happy mistake that I made was that when I was pouring off the embossing powder, it kind of stuck to the tag in various places but rather than trying to "fix" it, I just left it on and when I heat set it, it looked really cool to me.  I then stamped "boo," "spooky," "the bat & stars," and the house with Versamark and used again that same black glittery embossing powder and heat set.  I added my distressed ribbon and another cute tag, voila!

So, what do you think?  How am I at spooky?? LOL  All said, it really was fun and even my girls thought they were "cool!"  Yay me! LOL  I hope your plans for Halloween will find you safe and if you do get into the festivities, I hope you have fun!!

Have a blessed rest of the day! :)

Love Bears All Things!

Good Monday my friends!  I can't believe it IS already Monday!  The weekend flew by, but not without some quality time doing some well overdue chores that needed to be done since I was out of town last weekend and spending some time with my girls and even some time in my art closet! Yippeeeee for me!! :)  That being said, one of the projects that I want to share is not through yet, so I will share a quick project that was done in one of my other journals so that I can finish the other project and share it this week as well.

This journal is what I call my "light" journal.  I say light because for the most part, it is not mixed media.  It is mostly spray inks or watercolor pencils and Zentangle.  I enjoy working in this journal from time to time because it takes all the stress and thought out of "what am I going to do" out of it. This journal finds me a little more relaxed and not so demanding.

I used Dylusions spay inks in Squeezed Orange, Pure Sunshine, Vibrant Turquoise and Postbox Red (through a stencil from Crafter's Workshop TCW281).  I then just began to Zentangle randomly with thoughts of  1 Corinthians 13:4-8 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love NEVER fails!" My friend, that scripture encompasses the heart of the Father!

Jesus came to manifest that word in the flesh!  He walked on this earth laying that very foundation exemplifying how we are to love one another based on the Father's love for Him. Jesus conveyed to us that He could do nothing by Himself, He only did what He saw the Father doing and said what the Father said because whatever the Father does, the Son does also!  We ARE sons and daughters of the Most High God and as we are created in His image, we are to also do as the Father does!

Love is a profound, all encompassing four letter word!  According to God's Word in 1 Corinthians, it covers a multitude of things.  It is hard to believe that, that one word covers seemingly ANYTHING you could be faced with. Really? Yes, really!  As Jesus, NOTHING in ourselves could make that happen, BUT God in all His glory, extends to us His abundant grace, through the Son, so that in ALL things, at ALL times, He makes His grace abound in us so that we will ABOUND in every good work!!  That is His amazing promise for the glory of Christ!

As a believer, when we receive Christ, we receive ALL that Christ is that we walk in the power of the Father's perfect love!  When we do, we extend that immeasurable grace, love and mercy to another that they too can hope in all things, believe all things, bear all things and rejoice in the truth of His Word KNOWING that love NEVER fails!

Today, won't you share a four letter word with someone? Share L-O-V-E!

Blessings to you as you go!

Fruit of the Spirit!

Good Tuesday morning to all my crafty friends!  I so wanted to post yesterday, but as I went out of town Friday, I had a lot to catch up on yesterday!  I had a glorious weekend in Tryon, North Carolina where I spent time in God's presence with some beautiful women of God!  Today, I want to share a little snippet of that with you.  I say "snippet," because it was such a powerful time in His presence that it would take more space than I have here to express it!

I went up to Tryon for a Wellness/Ministry Conference and it was well needed for my physical body and spiritual body!  While there, we visited an apple orchard and were able to pick our own apples. As I had never done that, it was a beautiful experience as well as a profound one that brought the whole weekend to a glorious completeness! 

Today, I will share a journal spread I had done a few months back, but never shared because I just didn't feel it was the right time, plus secretly, I wasn't sure how I felt about it visually.  But now I know it was all just a part of God's timing for "this moment!"  The Holy Spirit is so awesome how He works in us!

I will try to remember all I did with this page, but I am most certain that I started with applying gesso to my pages and then I used my yummy Silks acrylic glazes in Sky Blue and Pretty Peridot for the backdrop.  I applied with a brush and used a little water to thin it out just a bit.  I then went back in with gesso and move it around with a baby wipe to make a "cloud feel." I have an awesome background stamp from Lost Coast Designs that I used in the background hoping it would look like background trees, but who knows what it looks like now? LOL! Afterwards I defined the edges with Distress Ink in Broken China and Peeled Paint.

I have a great tree stencil from Crafter's Workshop that I used and just kind of repositioned to how I wanted to see it with Silks Nutmeg.  Just quickly used my Faber Castell gelatos and Big Brush Pens to mimic foliage and then I had some digital apples I cut out and a sentiment that I found in a magazine that I adhered with some Liquitex Matte Medium.  I used my favorite Tim Holtz Worn Text Stamp Set with StazOn for the sentiments and outlined with my white gel pen.

My thoughts on this page were most definitely regarding the character of Christ!  As we have received Christ, we are to walk in His character and ways.  The fruit of those ways, according to God's Word in Galatians 5 are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Those who belong to Christ are to "put off" fleshly ways and walk and live according to the Spirit.

The conference this weekend covered just those things, hence the trip to the apple orchard!  What fruit are you bearing? The fruit you could be bearing are a conscious expression or result of your subconscious root system.  Conscious fruit would be things like sadness, fear, anger, disappointment, negative behavior which would all be an expression or a result of the subconscious roots of negative values, negative attitudes and negative beliefs.  Your fruit can't look like spiritual fruit as long as your root system is not grounded in Christ!  If the fruit you manifest is contaminated you need to go to the root source!  It is there that you can begin to identify what is springing forth the fruit, take it before the Father and let Him begin to heal you from the inside out!

At the beginning of Galatians 5 God tells us "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." (v. 1)  Christ set us free on the cross.  It is done!  If we are being held a slave to negative fruit, we are not free! Through Jesus' amazing grace, ALL things are possible!  We can put off that old man and become the new man that Jesus died for and live in freedom and walk in His character and ways!

What does your fruit look like?  I pray a blessing of grace over you today that you would seek the Father and His Spiritual Fruit that you would walk in amazing and glorious freedom!

Blessings

Thankfulness!

Happy mail came to me yesterday in the form of my WINNINGS from Quietfire Designs and Walnut Hollow!  I entered a blog hop over at Quietfire Creations Blogspot and little ole me who never wins anything, was blessed, blessed, blessed with this wonderful win! Thank you wonderful friend Wanda Hentges for your creativity that lead me to their site and thank you Quietfire and Walnut Hollow for giving me the opportunity to win some fabulous products to begin playing with for holiday treats for my loved ones!  Such a blessing to me!

I want to piggyback on several people over on Google+ art community....I am so thankful to ALL the wonderful new friends I have made and have been such an encouragement to me since I have been blogging and sharing my projects!  You guys are just a wonderful group of creative and special people and I have been so, so blessed to get to know you all, glean from you all and receive such wonderful love and encouragement from you all!  A big shout out to a wonderful group of folks! :)

As I was typing this, I was so aware of God's timing!  God doesn't make mistakes.  His plans were formed at the foundation of the earth, so I am so receptive of the seasons He has for my life!  This blog and meeting such other wonderfully talented and creative people was a design for this time in my life!

I am reminded of God's "kairos moments!"  As I have studied, "kairos moments" are God's appointed time to act.  It is a moment in time when the Holy Spirit draws near to do a special work in and through a person or a group of people to do God's will.  I don't take things for granted and I certainly don't believe in coincidences.  God's appointments are swift, sure and speak of God's readiness to act. It is when we stay in a place of availability, that the Holy Spirit can deliver the power of God to bring dynamic transformations to a person or even a situation.  We just have to stay tuned into what God is doing in our lives and be willing and ready to go when He says go!

For me, for a long time, I was in a place of fear as far as sharing my creativity.  It wasn't until I chose to deepen my relationship with our Father in Heaven and allow Him to do a work in me and work some things "out of" me, that I was willing to share and even start this blog.  Was it a step of faith? You betcha!  But it isn't until we take that step of faith, or engage, that God can begin to move.  We have to be willing vessels! Make no mistake, it isn't anything I did or do that has gotten me to this point in my life, it's ALL about Jesus and what He did on the cross for me!  The further I go with Jesus, the clearer His will for me gets and the further I want to go!

I'm so, so thankful for what Jesus did for me on the cross and so thankful for ALL THE MANY BLESSINGS in my life!  This blog and the sharing of God's gift in me, are all a part of God's timing on His glorious journey in my life!  And ALL YOU CRAFTY FRIENDS are a glorious part of the journey as well!  Thank you all for your words of encouragement and friendship from a heart of gratitude!  May you be blessed back ten fold!

Blessings today on your own journey with the Lord!

Special Moments Last Forever!

Happy Wednesday to all my crafty friends!  I hope your mid-week finds you all well!  I am counting down the days (I know....I shouldn't wish days away), however, this weekend I am going to a Wellness Retreat up in North Carolina and I can hardly wait.  This retreat will also incorporate ministry, so it will be double portion!  I look forward to seeing the fall foliage, fellowship, ministry and deepen my education regarding fitness/wellness.  When you get to be 50 and you still have young children, maintaining a healthy balance is very important!  So excited!

Continuing with my thoughts regarding "time" and how special it is to capture and savor, I finally finished the journal spread that I wanted to share with you today.  I say finally finished, because often times, my journal pages are done in stages around my wife/mommy life!  That being said, a lot of the time, when it's done in stages like that, I like the end result better because I had time to think things through and not just hurry through a spread.

I began this page laying down some gesso because I knew I wanted to use my lovely gelatos in this spread.  As many of you know, they DON'T move so well on a page unless the gesso comes first!  I then just randomly scribbled down butterscotch, tangerine, lemon, mango and pistachio, in no order and then smudge a little bit with my fingers and then ended up moving the rest with water. I finished it with chocolate around the edges along with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  As always, I sprayed a fixative over top.

The internet can be a blessing for us crafters in that we can obtain a lot of free crafty items online from some dedicated and selfless people who want to share their talent and goodness with us. Praise goes up to Debbie-Anne over at Emphemera's Vintage Garden and Karen over at The Graphics Fairy whom I download wonderful graphics from on a regular basis!  Thank you lovely ladies! :)  That being said, the "Time Flies" graphic came from one of these ladies and since I can't remember whom, I thought I better mention both, then I'm covered! LOL  I love that graphic though and have had it on my desk for quite some time waiting for the perfect journal page to use it on!  Some of the other strips came from a paper pack from Teresa Collins called Vintage Finds that I love and, of course, Tim's emphemera pieces from one of his collections.

The stamping in the background came from one of my favorite background stamps that I learned about from Christy Tomlinson and it came from Unity Stamps.  I stamped using StazOn ink in Saddle Brown. And then used various other stamps from past Layers of Life kits from Unity stamps in Saddle Brown and Black.   I stamped the sentiment StazOn black with some cheapo alpha stamp set I got from Walmart on white card stock and cut out and distressed the edges with Vintage photo and lightly stamped over with that same background stamp.  I adhered everything down with Liquitex matte gel medium.  When my daughter saw the page, she said "mom, why did you do that with the hand?"  When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me my middle name was "I forgot!" LOL  So she would tell me to tie a string around my finger to remind me of something I wasn't supposed to forget!!  You don't see that too much anymore, but I know there are those of you out there that do remember that sentiment! LOL

For me the "thing" I don't EVER want to forget is "special moments last forever!"  Time definitely does fly and I want to continue to remind myself that everything matters in life especially the special moments with loved ones.  The last several weeks I have dedicated myself to those thoughts and have tried to make it a point to be more available to my girls and enjoy little moments with them!

Just as we have earthly moments we want to treasure, God treasures moments with His children as well!  He desires to spend time with you and me!  In Colossians 3, His word says "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God!" (v1-4)  Those times that you spend with the Father set you on the path for ETERNITY!  They shouldn't be fleeting moments, or something you have to "make time for," they should be conscious daily patterns of being available to Him for instruction, wisdom and knowledge, correction, and the opportunity for the Him to pour out on you ALL His grace, love and mercy!

Be blessed today as you make DAILY memories with your Father in Heaven that will last for ETERNITY!

Peace and blessings!