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

More Snowflake Cards

Snowflake cards .... they just keep coming!

This one has a distress ink sponged backround.   I used no ink on the stamp but spritzed it with water and stamped holding it down for a while.  I just love the faded effect as the water has reacted with the distress ink.  The greeting is stamped and the JOY has a little glitter added.  The snowflakes and stars were die cut.

I went with bright for the next one - needed a change from plain blues!

The last one is a sponged backround again, white embossed snowflakes with Joy stamped randomly around.  The bauble is a die cut from a magazine freebie and gems for a little sparkle.

Its fun making each card different!  There will be more :)

I'm linking up at
Art Every Day Month at Creative Every Day
Word Art Wednesday

Snowflake cards

Here are some more snowflake cards using the gorgeous  Hero Arts backround stamp I found on holiday.  I'm loving it, not just because it was such a bargain - I can't resist saying, it cost £1, ... yes £1, thats $1.60!!!  Isn't that amazing?   Its a beautiful stamp and perfect for Christmas cards. 

For the first one I sponged distress inks (Faded Jeans, Broken China, Tumbled Glass) and sprinkled with water then stamped the snowflakes with Faded Jeans which I'd spritzed very lightly with water.  I stamped again and embossed in white and I love the shadow effect of the first stamp, plus the water droplets in the backround I like to think of as melting snow :)

This next backround is PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk acrylic paints and stamped and embossed with Tinsel Snowflake embossing powder which gives a lovely sparkle:

My last card for today was again white embossed on a sponged distress ink backround, also sprinkled with water.  I stamped in Versamark before it was completely dry so that some non stamped areas also picked up the embossing powder and it gives a lovely snowy feel to the card.  I'd love to say this was intended but it was one of those happy accidents :)  I really like the sort of stormy snowy feel of this card:

I'm linking up today at Creative Every Day where November is Art Every Day Month.  Come and join in.  I'm not sure I'll manage every single day - I've already missed the first two! - but will try and post as much as I can.  Leah, who hosts the challenge, likes to encourage everyone into more creativity and is an awesome artist.

Slaying Giants

My new devotional for the next couple of months is all about overcoming the giants in our lives and is based on David and Goliath.  David was a simple shepherd boy who overcame a ferocious giant of a man called Goliath with just a sling, five stones and faith in the Lord God.  We too can overcome the giants in our lives - meaning not big people!!  but things like fear, resentment, ill health, difficult situations.  We do it with the sling of faith, the stone of truth and the strength of the power of the name of Jesus.

This page is made up of torn gelli prints.  I watched a video by Carolyn Dube on using free stuff on a gelli plate (see it here) so I thought I'd have a go on my home made gelli plate.  I still haven't got the hang of gelli printing, so these were what I'd call gelli prints gone wrong! 

 I quite like them all torn up and collaged :)

At the moment trying to pull a decent gelli print feels like a giant!!!

Have you got any giants you want to overcome?

I'm linking up at:
Creative Every Day - Art Every Day Month day 3
Create with Joy Inspire Me Monday