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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Journal Tip-Ins Now Available

This past week I was going through some magazines and found some wonderful pictures to use as silouhettes for my journal tip-in pages.  I have decided to sell them on Etsy.  I have had such a blast creating them and I will probably be making a lot more of them. 


I am totally in love with this pose as it is "cheeky", like she is saying "Whatsa' matter with you?"




I love these two heads because when you put them together they look like a vase or heads depending on your view of things just like that well known picture of heads/vase. 





This was so much fun because the actual advertisement was of a model hugging a bottle of Chanel perfume ~ I turned her into a fairy and voila ~ awesome journal page don't you think?


I added the circles to this little lady to add more space for journaling.

All these lovely doodled journal tip-ins are available in my Etsy shop @

I hope you are all having a wonderful beginning to a brand new week ~ just think of all the possibilities this week can hold for you!

Hugs and many blessings to you all.





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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Hurting For The Lost


If anyone asked me what my GIFTINGS are I would have to say one of them is definitely COMPASSION.  I usually take peoples pain into myself and hurt deeply for them.  God sends people into my life that need comfort, compassion, encouragement and I am THERE for the task.  I do everything I can for them... but honestly... it HURTS so much!  To see them hurting, to see them making wrong choices, to see them not turning to GOD ~ WOW!    I know that God has His reasons for sending these people to me, I guess I wish that I could believe in the strength HE obviously believes that I have.  I LOVE these individuals as if they were born of my own womb, they become apart of me and when they HURT, I HURT, when they CRY, I CRY.  The most difficult thing for me is after I have done all I can do to help them through what they are going through and they no longer listen to me... then I MUST walk away and allow them to go down the path they are going to go.  Although I am praying all through this journey, it's at the end of the journey for my part that I pray to be able to let them go and leave them at the foot of the CROSS.  To TRUST in Jesus to take it from where I NEED to leave off.  When I do this it feels like I have lost a limb... I mourn for the loss of their presence in my life as I have come to love them so deeply.  However, GOD comes and fills that loss with HIS love and with HIS peace and I know that in a little while I will be okay.  I trust the Lord to take care of them now. 

For all the people God has placed in my life... each and everyone of them has an honorary place in my heart and I am forever changed from having them in my life.  I thank God for using me in some way to hopefully touch their lives so in the future when they think of me, maybe they will see Jesus.  THIS is my prayer.  I know it's not for NOTHING!  AMEN!

Be blessed my Dear Friends, be very blessed indeed.





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Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Depths Of HIS Love


This painting was done on a 16"x20" canvas with COPIC inks.  My first experiment with
using the inks instead of the pens.  The inks are very sticky and goopy when they are
drying which worked really well for this piece as the top looks like blood, which I was
actually trying to achieve.  The Depths of HIS Love, portraying the blood shed for
our sins.

I pray you are all having a very blessed Sunday.
Hugs and blessings to you all. 





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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Totally Out of My Comfort Zone


I'm taking the "Doodles Unleashed" free course from Strathmore Artist Studio, taught by Traci Batista and it started out good...


... And then I added the green... and completely lost myself falling out of my comfort zone.


After days and days of going over the painting again and again with Gesso I finally decided to put a face onto the page... even then I was just not feeling right.  I do not know what it is about the process of working with a chaotic doodle design and forming it into some masterpiece that has me so uncomfortable?  I can't get my brain around it!
I should have just left the pink and not added the green... maybe I could have worked with it?

Anyway, I simply added the layer of circles and filled in the flower pattern on the top right hand side and texturized different places on the page... I think I'm done but I still am not completely happy with it!

I think I do not work well with creative chaos!  What do you think?

Well, I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.  Many hugs and blessings to you.






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Monday, January 9, 2012

Deep Thinker Friday but Post For Monday



Friday was a most unusual day for me... I woke up and walked on my treadmill for twenty minutes while listening to my new tunes on my ipod.  Huge step for me considering I am trying to do this a couple times per week even if I am hurting.  Listening to my music was so peaceful and fun I continued to do it for the majority of my day.

After my walk I put the ipod on the charger and listened through the speakers to my new tracks "Music Inspired By The Story" and "WOW Worship 2012" as well as the new "Kelly Clarkson" track.  My son Ben taught me how to add a cd to my itunes... wow do I feel old!  (seriously!)  It is strange to have the memory of myself in my bedroom at around the same age as my son's, listening to my stereo blasting away ~ it seems like just yesterday... and now my children are at the age of listening to their own music but it is done so differently these days. 

I really listened to the words of each song and allowed the music to flow inside of me... then I went into the 'manic' zone of creating not knowing what I was really doing but had so many ideas coming into my head and swirling up with color. 

I started with a good layer of white gesso, then watercolor crayon (which mucked up a bit but not allowing this to stop me... continued).  I could not get the texture the way I was feeling until I finally set the brush aside and worked it with my fingers.  For some reason I was in a dark color mood trying to capture a storm with my hands, this is why the top of the page is so dark.

I immediately cut out hearts using the text of magazine pages and went to my Twinkling H20's for shimmery colors.  My thoughts were focused on the CROSS as I brushed the rich poppy red pigments followed by spiced pumpkin.  I still was not certain as to the direction of the page until I saw the drops of blood on the bottom.  Then I knew it was going to contain the Life and Death of Jesus (symbolically). 

The piece took on a life of its own after that.  I sat working on these pages completely content as I listened to my music ~ this was a good day, a very good day!  Yes I over did it, and YES it was worth it!!!  Some days you just have to say YES and get out of bed and DO IT! 

Have a very blessed day everyone!  Many hugs and blessings to you.




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Friday, January 6, 2012

Thinking In The New Year


Wow, I am really loving the new editing format for blogger that I just installed last week... things are so much less frustrating than they were before!

Anyway...

So far in the year of 2012... this is my first page of the New Year and I put a lot of thought into it.  I finally used my adhesive faux flock border that I purchased from Walmart a couple months ago ~ do not you just LOVE the look of it?  I discovered, however, that there is only enough border for one page so that's almost $4.00 spent on one page (not including the paint...)  but it's so darn pretty so I feel it is worth the splurge every now and then.

I do not want to do your 'typical' New Years Resolutions that everyone and their dog does every year... to be honest I started out this page in just such a fashion... eat better, be less of a perfectionist, lose weight... blah, blah, blah.  It felt very false to me.

Then Milliande (over at Milliande Art Community) began this new project called Seeds... she did this page called "Be The Seed" and it really got me thinking about being the seed of life in the world, the seed of love, joy, peace, patience, light... all those good things.  I love the concept of a new beginning, the seed bringing new life ~ doesn't that concept just burst forth a visionary feast?  On my journal page I used Milliande's idea of BE with the seed on it in two places.  Her image captured my heart and I knew that I needed to draw the same image (this lady is amazingly talented and full of beautiful ideas and has a HUGE heart, I highly recommend checking out this community for inspiration!

I was not liking this page after I wrote on it in my own handwriting... it wasn't flowing nicely, so I went crazy with letter stamps and stamped out my main message which was God (first and foremost), Love (which I want to exude) and Time (which I want to use to the utmost).  Then I added a few vines to join all the words in a fashion, making it flow together more freely.

To stay with my effervescent word of the year I added just a touch of shimmer mist, which I will be adding to every page I produce this year!!!!  "SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE HAVING FUN" right?

I hope your first week of 2012 has been a wonderful, joyous filled one.

Hugs and many blessings




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