An A - Z of Friendship

I love this A - Z of friendship which I found on Pinterest while I was doing a scrapbook for my daughter's 25th birthday.  I made a few changes and used it on the pages I did about her friends.  I've also used it on a birthday card and I think its so fun I'm finally using it for myself on my pages for a circle journal I'm taking part in next year.  The theme of my journal is Friends and Friendship and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone who's taking part in it will come up with.

Friends are such an important part of our lives, essential to our well-being bringing us love, fun and wisdom when we need it!

The backround was inspired by Leandra Franich on the PaperArtsy blog.  It's made by brayering different PaperArsty Fresco Finish chalk acrylic paints.  I guess I should have practised on another page first but I plunged straight in by doing these pages in my Friendship journal:

Then I added some stenciling and stamped a friendship definition stamp all over:

I had to include some hearts and these are stenciled with my home-made texture paste:

And a close up of the pages:

I love the effect the brayered backround gives and I suspect I shall be using it a lot.

Friends are vital to us, but even more important, it is vital for us to be a friend to others.  As Jesus said,

This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. 

This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. 

Jn 15: 13 The Message

Snowflakes again

The Take It Make It Challenge for December at Craft Stamper is white stamping.  This is a great challenge for me because I love stamping in white.  Snowflakes are perfect for this so here are a couple more cards using the wonderful bargain Hero Arts snowflake backround which I found on holiday in May:

I used Paper Artsy Fresco Finish chalk acrylics for the backround scraped with a credit card and white embossed the snowflakes.

I love this stamp and every single one of my Christmas cards is different.  I won't show them all because that would be too boring! ..... but here is another one :)

Snowflakes are fun!

I'm linking up at:
Craft Stamper
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge
Creative Every Day

Up Down

Up down; better worse; rough well - this has been me this autumn as I've struggled to get over this bout of chronic fatigue syndrome.  As I look back in my art journal here and here and here I can see I've been like a yoyo! or a seesaw! one minute thinking I'm over it, the next struggling again.

The biggest challenge is to stay positive and the only way I can do this is to look to the Lord Jesus.  He gives us strength to get through the bad days.  I have a list of scriptures which I read and pray at times like these (see some of them on this journal page ).   They are a big help.

Here is my latest journal page, apologies for the quality of the photos, the light was very poor:

The page has layers of acrylic paint covered over with black with simple stenciling and bottlecap stamping added.  The letters are stamped in acrylic paint.  The large letters are Junkitz foam stamps which I won years ago.  I love the texture acrylic stamping gives:

I had to stamp yoyo and seesaw of course, but those I stamped with Stazon, I couldn't get a clear enough print in acrylic with the small letters:

The apostle Paul wrote:
But we have this treasure [the light of God in our hearts] in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.... struck down, but not destroyed....but we do not lose heart.  Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. 2 Cor 4:7-9, 16-17

I pray that those of you who struggle with your health will know the peace and joy of our Lord in your hearts.  I pray that He heals you - the promise is sure, 

"I am the Lord, your Healer" Ex 15:26 

sometimes we just have to wait on Him a bit longer.

I'm linking up at:
Art Journal Every Day 
Craft Stamper White Stamping challenge 
Create with Joy Inspire Me Monday 

Guest Designer on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog

I'm so thrilled and excited today to be a guest designer on Balzer Designs, that's the amazing Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog.  Julie is an awesome artist, teacher and designer of fabulous stencils and she hosts Art Journal Every Day where we all get to share our art journal pages.  Julie has had a whole series of guest design posts by some truly wonderful artists showing the many and varied ways they use stencils.  Today it's my turn and my guest design post is all about home-made texture paste.  Pop on over to Julie's and see what I did.

Here is a sneak peek:

I showed the basic white home-made texture paste:

 
 Here's a close up of the tags:

Tinted texture paste: 

 
and another close up of the bookmark:

Texture on texture:

Heat embossing the texture paste:

 Adding more texture to the texture paste:

This was the special project I was working on which I mentioned a few weeks back.  There's so much you can do with texture paste.  I got carried away and had to stop myself doing more things or I would never have finished!  When you make your own it costs pennies and you can use it to your heart's content without worrying its going to cost you a fortune or run out.  If you do run out it's incredibly quick to make so even mid-project its simple to whip some more.

Here's an art journal page using some of the techniques:

To see how to make the texture paste and all the projects in full, hop on over to Julie's blog.

P.U.S.H.

I'm reading a great book on prayer at the moment.  Not another one, I hear you say!  I can't help it, I love to pray and I love to hear about or read people's stories about how they've prayed and how God has answered their prayers. 

One of the things about praying is the need for perseverance.  Of course, God can and does answer prayer in an instant, but often it takes a lot longer.  Its at times like these that we must not lose heart but continue to have faith and keep on praying.  We need to Pray Until Something Happens - something always does happen.  God always anwers, maybe not in the way we thought or hoped for but in the way that is best for us.

Here is an art journal page where I was just messing around with lots of layers and ended up with  .... a messy page!

I started off with acrylic paint blobbed and scraped all over, but I didn't like the result so covered it with white then added music paper and other bits of collage plus more white paint.  I still didn't like how it was going and had the dubious inspiration of sprinkling with blue and a little yellow Brusho then spraying with water to activate.  I used my fingers to sprinkle the Brusho and I wish I'd taken a photo of my hands - they were completely blue!!  Its taken ages to clean off - LOL.  Anyway then I started adding white texture paste through a doily stencil:

The page hadn't dried completely so the texture paste took on the colour of the brusho colour:

 

I added more layers of texture paste but each time where the brusho was the paste took on the colour even when the page felt completely dry.  I guess the paste is moist and draws up the colour:

 

We learn in our art journals.  I know now that if I want the texture paste to be white I mustn't use Brusho underneath!

I'm linking up at:
Create with Joy Friendship Friday
Creative Every Day

Friendship is a Sharing of Hearts

Some of you may remember that I found some wonderful books in a second hand Christian bookshop while on holiday in Scotland earlier this year.  One of them is called At the Name of Jesus by Sarah Hornsby and its a devotional focusing every day on a particular name of Jesus.  Its a truly inspirational book.  This week I had Jesus as the Friend of Sinners and it blew me away! Here is a little excerpt:

"Do not deny my friendship by hiding things in yourself that are wrong.  

My Word cleanses you so we can share our hearts openly together....."

What struck me was that Jesus doesn't only wash away our sins.  He encourages us to pour out our hearts to Him and He wants us to get to know Him.  He wants to be our friend and that means that He wants to share His heart with us too.  Isn't that what friends do - share their hearts with each another.

Here is my art journal page:

This was a quick page where I had fun swooshing paint around and then playing with stencils:

 

 The white damask and the black tiles are both texture paste:

 

I pray that when you next stop and be still with Jesus you will listen to Him - He is your friend and wants to share His heart with you.

I'm linking up at:
Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day
Create with Joy Friendship Friday
Art Journal Every Day

Laughing at 60

Well its been a couple of weeks since I posted anything but that's not because I haven't been doing anything creative.  I've been working on a special project  which has taken all my spare time and no, I can't say what it is .... yet!

My sister-in-law has been a bit freaked out at the idea of being 60 so I thought I'd better make a really nice birthday card.  I was inspired to do this by the amazing Darcy on the PaperArtsy blog.  Darcy blobbed paint all over a sheet of printer paper and scraped it all over.  Then she stamped and stenciled all over to make a gorgeous backround which she cut into strips and made into a bow.

Here is my backround which was so much fun to do:

And here is the card:

There was plenty of card left over so I made my sister-in-law a bookmark.  I thought these verses from Proverbs about a good wife would be perfect:

I love the idea of laughing at the time to come.  When we know the Lord and trust Him that is what we do.

From Whizzing and Freezing to Bookmarks

Last week I had a moment when I froze.  I had (still do!)  several projects on the go, lots of ideas whizzing around my head and a house gathering dust.  I literally thought.... What shall I do??? I don't know what to do!!!

In the end I did the logical thing and started something new :)  I let one of those ideas whizz out.  These bookmarks are a Christmas present for my brother and I've been meaning to make them for ages. 

 

Actually I did them over three days thinking it would be good to post them on Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day.  But I didn't get around to posting them each day so here they all are.

Its fun taking part in Art Every Day Month - just make something, anything at all and link it up.  I don't quite manage it every day although I will create something most days.  It doesn't matter, this is just an encouragement to us to be creative.  So come on over and join in. 

Whenever I've had fun creating something I'm just so grateful that our Creator God made us in His image, to be creative too.  

Blessings and creative joy to you - let your ideas whizz out :)

Exuberant Art!

I had a really good day yesterday - busy, busy at work which I love followed by a bit of shopping.  Then I thought I'd better have a rest and not overdo it.  Dominic, my husband, always tells me to bank my energy and not use it all up the minute I have some.  That's always difficult because when I have energy I love to DO..... but I'm learning to stop and pace myself.  Still it was great because I didn't feel at all wiped out and I'm believing that I'm ok again :)  (that's sticking my neck out there a bit to say that).

I felt great, and grateful to my God who always pulls me through those times.  So when I had an hour to while away before cooking the evening meal I thought I would get my art journal out (actually its always out!) and play.  I decided I wasn't going to think about it but just splash paint and stencils and stamps and this is the result:

I started off with 3 lots of blobs of red, orange and yellow acyrlics and swooshed them around with a credit card.  The surplus paint (I blobbed way too much on the page) I spread over an A4 size white card which I'm going to make into a masterboard - more in another post.  I love the way the yellow bits bring flashes of light to the page:

Next I embossed a large firework in gold - it had to be a happy, sparky page!  I also embossed butterflies in one of my own mixed embossing powder, black and other colours with a bit of sparkle:

Then came stamping: fleur de lys circles, the Musical Melody from Inkylicious which creates a lovely movement and the little dots which is actually card used as a stencil:

Finally a title and just a very little journaling:

When I sat down to start I thought the journaling would be about an answered prayer, but as I played and went with the flow this is the page that developed.  I could only call it Exuberant Art :)

I'm linking up at:
Country View Challenges - Bugs, Bees and Butterflies
Art Journal Every Day
Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day
Create With Joy Friendship Friday

Drawing my first face

I've seen so many wonderful drawn and painted faces in art journals and longed to be able to do them myself but not even had the confidence to try.  Then I watched a video by Diane Wakely (sorry I can't find it anywhere any more, have spent ages looking) and gave it a go and I was pleased with my effort:  she did look like a girl!!!  Amazing!  However, I didn't have the confidence or courage to share my little effort because, hey, it wasn't good like everyone else's. 

Today I read a great post by Tracy - Why Compare?  She says as women and artists we often compare ourselves to others and its often unfavourable.  She said something that really spoke to me.  Tracy said there are people who say they can't draw when really what they mean is they don't like the way they draw as compared to someone else.  BUT we can all draw, we just need to learn to love our style and it can take years.

So that's made me be brave and decide to share my first ever face which I drew in my art journal on a green backround I had done.  I figured if its green and the results are awful, she can always be an alien!  Here she is:

So thank you, Tracy.  I'll go on drawing faces, because practice improves our art - note, I didn't say practice makes perfect!

God made us all different, with different abilities and gifts and we need to celebrate our uniqueness and rejoice in who we are and how we do our art!

I'm linking this at Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day even though I did this a few weeks back.  The art I've done today isn't ready for sharing!

Snowflakes again

Time to show some more snowflake cards:

Here is a landscape one:

 

And back to portrait size:

 

Its easy to change the look by using different colour or ribbon:

I'm linking up at:
Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day
Create with Joy Inspire Me Monday

Just Look Up

I didn't have a very good day yesterday.    I felt pretty rough again and I let it get to me.  Most of the time I manage to cope and make the most of things but yesterday I succumbed.  I guess its because I was disappointed - I thought I was over this current bout of CFS.  However, I've learnt what to do in these circumstances - when things are tough and all seems down I just look UP.  When I look up I look to Jesus and I can be grateful for everything He has done for me, for His life, His love, His forgiveness.  I might still not physically feel that great but I feel a whole lot better as His grace and His love wash over me.

Art journaling is a great help on days like this.  I had started this page the previous day and left the texture paste to dry so yesterday I was able to finish it with some stamping and then journal all over it which is a big help:

The torn blue and orange is a gelli print:

What do you do when things are tough?  Do you find art journaling helps?

I'm linking up at:
Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day
That's Crafty Hot and Spicy Challenge

Slaying the Giant of Fear

My current devotional (Every Day With Jesus) is called Bringing Down Giants, specifically the things in our lives that get in the way of our being free and living the lives we are called to.  The first giant discussed is FEAR - fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of old age, fear of heights, etc.  Selwyn Hughes (the author) says that to deal with fear we need to separate the real from the imaginary - so often our fears spring from overactive imaginations!  We need to avoid unhealthy coping mechanisms like denial, overeating, drinking, etc.  We need to look fear straight in the face and we need to learn the art of prayer, because when we pray fears will dissolve in the presence of God.

Here is my art journal page.  This is a page over a page, meaning I really didn't like what I did and painted over the whole lot in a really thick coat of pink.  When it was dry I brayered black roughly all over:

I must say that every time I do this, paint over a page I don't like, I get a really interesting effect - maybe I should do a dummy run on every page :)  Because of the texture underneath all I added was some stencilling:

I added a tag with journaling on the back and attached with repositional glue dots.  This was a tag from my big pile of half finished tags and things.  On this one I had been playing with a crackle effect out of glue and white  paint, not that successful but just right for this page.  I finished it in the same way as the page.

Did you notice the string on the tag?  Quite by accident when I laid it down the string was in the form of a P - p is for prayer!   

I pray that if you are facing a giant of fear you can take up your weapon of prayer, come into the Lord's presence and see that fear dissolve.

Blessings and peace.

I'm linking up at:

Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day

Art Journal Every Day

Create with Joy Friendship Friday