Lighthouse!

 

Here is canvas number 3!  I have been reading a fiction book called, Torchlight, and it is about a lighthouse.  So my creative juices got flowing yesterday and I thought, I should paint a lighthouse!  So here it is.  I wanted the main beam of light to be the bible, so that is why it is so solid in color.

 

For the background, I Mod Podged dark blue tissue paper.  The rocks are made using, different brown scrapbook papers and the lighthouse is the Word.  I painted some of the words and some are sizzix die cut letters, Mod Podged on.  When I was done I Mod Podged the whole canvas.

 



The Lord is my Shephard

 

Well I had fun this morning!  Here is my second attempt at Mixed Media art.  This was an interesting experience.  I have never before ripped up a bible, it almost felt sinful and fun at the same time.  I bought a bible and Hymn book at the thrift shop and in the picture below, you can see the song and scripture peeking through.

 

The first thing I did was, mod podge the scriptures and the hymn straight onto the canvas.  Next, I painted a watered down layer of white, then yellow, and lastly the terracotta orange.  To get the sunset look, I took a cloth and rubbed off the painted.  I wanted some of the scripture of Ps. 23 to show through so I rubbed a bit more paint off there.

 

I am very happy with the results.  Let me know what you think!



A bright happy card!

 

There is just something about a bright card to lift your spirits.  Here is my daily dose of Happy!  This card is very similar to an earlier post, so I won't bother with giving the supply list. 

Have a happy day!

A Typical Day!

I can't say my life is typical right now.  Everything that could be shaken was shaken, 8 months ago.  My family, job, where we lived and even my very life.  The only thing that wasn't shaken was my faith, if anything my faith grew deeper and stronger.  Before my life was so FULL, that there was no time for anything extra, I could barely do what needed to be done!  Now I have all day to do what I want and for the first few months, that wasn't much.
 I feel like I am starting to awaken to my purpose and how God can use me in the middle of my messy life.  The last few months I have started to craft again.  I would make one card a day and I told my husband, how healing that one card a day was.  It's kind of funny but I would make a card set it out and everytime I looked at it I felt happy.  This would sometimes be the only "happy", moment in my day.  I am now starting to venture into more elaborate crafts.

Here is a canvas that I just finished.  I just shared this in the previous post but I will share it again.  When I was creating this Mixed Media piece, in the middle of the process, it was UGLY!  I told my husband that I was going to throw it out but he said, no it is awesome, but honestly it was just ugly!  I kept going and bit by bit, it started to come together but in the ugly stage I felt lost I didn't know what to do.  I looked on the web for inspiration but nothing stood out so I prayed and tried to draw it out of me.  As I was sharing this in my post, I saw a correlation to my life.  I used to paint folk art.  I would follow the pattern, there was never any doubt that it would turn out.  In life, I am the same way, if I follow the pattern that God has set out in His word everything will go right and be good, maybe not a finished work but not ugly either.  When everything fell apart in my life, I asked God why, I did everything, Right!  I prayed, corrected and raised my kids according to the word and yet the very worst thing had happened.  It was so ugly that I even thought of giving up, my grief was over whelming.  Eight months later, I can start to see some beauty come out of the ashes.  Everyone is changing in our family and I see a lot of beautiful things coming to the surface, (fire has a way of doing that).  In my life, there are things that I didn't even know were there.  On the first day of school I warned my 15 year old, about one of the boys in her homeroom; he had a reputation.  She just looked at me and said, "Really"!  I said," I guess I am in no places to judge" and she said "nope".  Since then God has really put His finger on this area in my life.  He is teaching me how to love and see people the way he does.  To draw out the beauty, instead of focusing on the sin.  Since then I have been giving Lots of opportunity, trust me.  God has opened my eyes to a lost and dying generation, without hope.  Every chance I get, to love, encourage and speak life into these kids I do. 
God is starting to awaken me.  He is breathing purpose into me.  Just this morning I was thinking, I could paint and sell the paintings, to fund, saving children from child trafficking.  This really got me excited because I can do something with all my spare time to make a difference.  My life is far from typical but there is still God's glory in it.  In the middle of ugly times in our lives if we let God in, he will turn the, ugly into something beautiful.
Click the link below to read about other beautiful women's, typical or not so typical days.

Mixed Media!

Here is my first attempt at Mixed Media!  Half way through I just about threw it out! I had no idea how hard it would be for me to get out of my "Box"!  My family surprised me and kept coming back to see what it looked like and encouraged me to keep going; I was like, Really!  It just looked like a big mess to me, Which it was!  I used to paint folk art, so I had my pattern and had my steps and in none of the steps did it ever look ugly!  I guess I am like that in life!  My life is ordered and if I do everything right, it looks nice every step of the way, right!   Not right, my world was rocked 8 months ago, by choices that one of my kids made.  I railed at God and said but I did everything right!  I have never been so shaken in my life and trust me, it was ugly!  I was even very close to giving up and I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would consider suicide.  My child made a choice and it was horrible but now as we are walking through it, with help, things are starting to take shape, bit by bit.  I can see some beauty awakening, coming out of the ashes, it is far from a completed work but my heart has been forever transformed!  When you go through an intense fire (trial) and you trust God, or in my case, cling to Him, you can't help but be changed! 
Back to the Mixed Media, my 15 year old daughter took a picture of it before I was even finished and put it on Instagram and facebook and she doesn't usually take an interest in what I am doing, so that spoke volumes to me!  This is an 11 X 14 canvas, I don't know if I can explain everything I did, maybe when I have a few more under my belt I will do a video.
Let me know what you think of this!

It's a Snow Day, again!!!

The Highways are closed and the buses didn't run, so it is a crafting day for sure!  So this is my first craft of the day! 

First of all, I cut out the dress using Dress Up Framelits #130101.  I then cut a piece of Designer Paper (From Sale-a-bration, Only 2 days left to get your free products with every $60.00 order)

The paper is 7 1/2 by 3 1/4, although next time I think I will make the skirt shorter, like 2 1/2.  You need to spray the paper, both sides, with water, this makes it flexible.



Start gather in the paper together to form pleats, starting in the middle, to form the center pleat.

Supplies used:
Stamp sets: Bliss (old Sale-a-bration set) Happiest Birthday
Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White Card Stock, Sycamore Street Designer paper, Sale-a-bration, seriously my favorite paper ever!
Accessories: Dress Up Framelits #130101 (spring mini), Pearls #125577, Buttons, Paper Doilies #129399 (Spring Mini), Scallop Circle 1 3/4 #119854, 1 3/8 Circle, 1 circle punches.

The Hanger I made using a paper clip

A bit of This and That!

 

I have been soooo sick with a head cold and fever; so that is why I haven't posted the last couple of days! 

Lately I have been fascinated with Mixed Media art; which you do on canvas.  I am not quite brave enough to do the canvas yet, so I thought I would do the same sort of idea on a card.

 

The first thing I did was distress the edges with the distressing tool in the picture; I did this to all the pieces.









I then sponged the edges with Soft Suede, to give it a aged look.

I used the background stamp, French Script and Soft Suede ink, before I stamped the paper I removed some of the ink using a Kleenex.

Instead of pulling out my sewing machine, and I was going to do that, I used a white gel pen and did some faux stitching!  Also you may have noticed the lace doily is more oval then normal.  I actually cut the doily in half.
A few other things to note:
- I made the pattern with the pearls because they come individually or in a straight line.
-The flowers are sprayed with water before I formed them, when the are dry they keep the shape.

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, summer Starfruit, Rich Razzelberry, old olive Card Stock and the designer paper from Sale-a-bration (2 more days to take advantage of the free products).
Ink: Rich Razzelberry and Soft Suede classic ink
Accessories: Labels Collection Framelits, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Elegant Butterfly Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Bird Builder Punch (for the leaves)
Stamp Set: Hope Happens
Supplies used: