A Birthday Card inspired by Wanda

I was inspired to make this card by Wanda Hentges Joy to the World project on the truly wonderful  PaperArtsy blog where we get a constant stream of amazing projects.  I loved the backround Wanda made using PaperArtsy Freso Finish chalk acrylic paints and a credit card which is one of my favourite ways of spreading paint around.  I just had to make a backround like this.  Wanda was making Christmas cards but I made mine into a birthday card for my brother:

The stars are loose and dangle on the ribbons.

This was simple and fun to make.  Check out the blog for more inspiration.

No to Glumness

There's something very special about autumn with the freshness in the air and wonderful autumn colours everywhere making it a lovely time of year to be out and about.  However, nowadays the change in the season usually means that chronic fatigue rears its ugly head.  I'm prone to bouts of CFS and there's something about autumn which sparks it off.  Fortunately I've learnt to read the signs and take steps so I'm careful not to do too much.  Even so, although its not in full blown mode I have days when I really don't feel that great.  Feeling grotty and having to rest more sometimes gets to me and if I don't watch it GLUMNESS descends.  I had to catch myself pretty sharp yesterday when before I knew it there I was.... glum :(  I had to say NO to glumness.  The only way I can do that is to start counting my blessings and be grateful to God for the wonderful family, friends, life He has blessed me with.

Playing in my art journal is a great help.  For this page, I started glum - glum tones, glum splodges, glum stamping, glum, glum, glum ...  LOL.  (Can you tell I'm not glum any more?)  Anyway, I looked at my page and thought, what on earth is this.  I thought I'd better cover the whole lot with white and start again.  So I splodged a big mass of white and quickly spread it and hey presto, it turned into the finished page.  The white splodges turned into my blessings which I wrotte white on white:

Here it is - not a work of art but a work of therapy which became a blessing in itself:

Its official, the antidote to glumness is to count one's blessings :D

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

Grow the Right Kind of Fruits

The pages in my art journal recently have all been about being and doing today what I'm hoping to be and do tomorrow.  I've been thinking about this a lot and thinking about the kind of person I want to grow into.  As a Christian I look to Jesus to show me.  He is all loving, kind, compassionate, faithful, patient, gentle... I could go on.  When we invite Him into our lives we start to become more like Him.  As we allow His Spirit to live in us these traits, or fruits of the Spirit, will grow in us.

This spread was inspired by Darcy Journaling month 8 over at the PaperArtsy blog.  Darcy has done this wonderful series of art journal pages with loads of really amazing techniques.  When I saw this month's I just had to try some of the things she did, in particular I loved the border made using a mask and I had to try the tree:

The backround is sponged distress inks, water sprinkled to remove some inks and paint added with the edge of a ruler:

I tore a mask and used to sponge a border with Freso Finish paints then stamped with the crackle stamp.  I drew and painted the tree, then added my home made texture paste which I'd coloured brown.  I didn't have any brown paint so mixed some up from a combination of the Fresco Finish paints. 

Darcy stamped on the texture paste on her tree but I added texture with a cocktail stick:

I added punched leaves in three different shades of green:

I cut out 9 different hearts from patterned paper for the fruits and journaled on the backs.  Then I added loops made from thread and hung them on the tree so they could dangle loosely.  I couldn't resist adding a couple of birds:

This was a really fun page to do.  I absolutely loved doing this!  Now I've got to get growing these fruits as big as I can!

Go For It - Courageously

If you've visited this blog before you will know I was very inspired at a recent church meeting where we were encouraged to be and do today what we are hoping to be and do tomorrow.  Its made me think a lot about things and resulted  in quite a few art journal pages.  Here is  another one which follows on from Be Today and Painterly Splotches.

 This is a very simple page where I started with Derwent Inktense Blocks and stamped and splattered a little before adding my home made texture paste through this lovely stencil:

I used letters which I'd had in my stash for years for the title and journaled all around the edge:

I've always been a cautious kind of person, liking to think things through before launching into anything.  This page is an exhortation to myself to have COURAGE and GO FOR IT!!!  I know that Jesus will give me the wisdom and strength I need.

If you too are a cautious kind of person I pray that you will find the courage to be and do today whatever it is you are aspiring to be and do tomorrow.

I'm linking up at:
Art Journal Every Day
Create With Joy Friendship Friday

A Prayer Box

My wonderful friend, Penny, recently shared at a church meeting about how she wrote prayers down and put them in a box.  She said that this helped her put the thing she was praying for firmly in the Lord's hands and leave them there.  So often we pray about a difficult situation and then continue to worry, whereas we should believe that the Lord has heard our prayer and will answer it in His own perfect time and His own perfect way.  By putting our prayer in a special prayer box we can imagine putting the difficult situation or request into God's hands and trusting in Him to answer.

This inspired me to make my own special prayer box.  I'd been wanting to try stamping on tissue paper which is the Craft Stamper Take It Make It challenge for September and this was just the project for it:

I used two 12 x 12 sheets of white card, trimming about 2 inches off  each sheet and scoring each side using my amazing Hougie Board which makes jobs like this so easy because you don't have to measure.   Here is a picture of the Hougie Board for those of you who have never come across one or something similar.  It has inches on one side and centimetres on the other. 

 
Then I stamped tissue paper all over and glued onto the cardstock with matt medium.  I sponged with distress inks and sprayed with pearl Cosmic Shimmer.  This gave a really lovely sheen.  Then I made up the box.

I love the texture the tissue paper adds:

I added encouraging scriptures on each side:

Penny said it was wonderfully encouraging to go through her prayer box from time to time and find the answered prayers.  I know I'm going to use mine a lot!

I'm linking up at:
Craft Stamper Take It Make It September challenge
Creative Every Day
Create with Joy Inspire Me Monday