CARDS Banner ~ Wedding

Vintage wedding themes are all the rage. 

Simple, vintage-inspired, and just the right touch...

 Vintage lace to add a special touch

 Yellow and Gray

Looks lovely draped on a vintage piece of luggage.

Perhaps you could use an old apple crate or large tin...

Email or comment for more information on my occasion banners.

Breast Cancer Survivor - Pink Ribbon Mailbox

 Celebrate being a Survivor!

This very pink mailbox would be a lovely gift to give to a

 breast cancer survivor or remember a breast cancer fighter.  

Along with the mailbox, you can also order quote cards for added inspiration.

(See listing for details)

Hand-crafted, personalized Gratitude Journals...

A GRATITUDE JOURNAL is a great place to record things for which you are grateful!

Make a family tradition of keeping a Gratitude Journal that anyone can write in.

These are some journals I made recently.  

Standard sized composition notebooks -

Each one altered to be perfect for the recipient.

Order yours by going here: ALTERED TO PERFECTION

No Fear...

I don't think I've told you about this amazing little mini journal I bought on Etsy.  

After sending out several orders and being blessed with lots of sales, I decided I'd like to purchase something fun for myself.  I had this little book tucked away in my "favorites" section for a while.  

I didn't even have to think long about what I wanted to buy.

It is genuine cow leather and measures 2.25"X3" 

It fits in the palm of my hand. 

Lots of pages - 320 counting both sides 

Hand-stitched... 

Swoon.  I was in love.

It came all the way from Thailand, but did not take long to arrive at all.

I did a few pages with water color right away.  

It was fun and interesting to work on a small space like this - smaller than an ATC card, but lager than inchies.

The pages are a bit too thin to handle wet medium like water colors, so I decided to glue a few pages and paint them first with gesso to give it some thickness.  

This is a recent spread I did.

 I have been thinking about fear a lot lately.  

I don't want to live in fear. I don't want to worry.  I don't want to doubt.

I want to have a voice.

I want to understand.

I want my heart to be safe and I want to offer safety for the hearts of others.

I don't want to fear about being perfect.

I don't want to fear about being forgotten.

 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:18

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27:1

"Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out."
Karl Augustus Menninger

"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."
Dale Carnegie

So, dear friend, do not be afraid.  Get out there and let your voice be heard.  Do you feel like you need to express yourself through painting? Then paint!  Do you want to sing?  Sing!  Do you want to believe? Then believe.  Do not live in fear.  Do not let it trap you any longer.  You can be free.  No fear.

"The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear."
Gandhi

Marco's 5th birthday... Angry Birds Theme *photo heavy, but worth scrolling through* ;)

A year ago, I couldn't even tell you what the Angry Birds were.  Now, I know more than I care to about these characters and the game that has made them so popular. haha!  

My son decided about 6 months ago that he wanted his next birthday to be Angry Birds theme.  Yes, I am one of "those" moms that likes to do themed parties.  I really do!  

Anyway, thanks to Pinterest, I was able to get a few ideas.  I didn't actually do all the ideas I pinned because we found out that the temperatures would be 110*+, so my husband suggested we get some sort of water activity for them and we rented a big jumper water slide. Got a great deal on it too!  

These games, as cute as they were, were not going to be able to compete with the jumper. lol

 I saved up some soup cans and then painted them with acrylic paint and a sponge brush.  Then I just (free-hand) painted the faces.  I added a crown using cardstock hot-glued to the top.  I bought three balls at the dollar store and BOOM - one game done.

These are centerpieces that I made using Baby Formula Cans.  Just peeled off the labels and then painted each can with acrylic paint.  Then I painted the faces on each one.  I just googled Angry Birds and went to images so that I could see what the different birds looked like.  These were my best attempt at copying them.

The second game I made was this tri-fold presentation board turned into a frisbee toss game.  I used an x-acto knife to cut the circles and then painted the faces and details with acrylic paints.

I can't take credit for any of this goodness!  My good friend Lorany of Nany Sprinkles made these amazing cupcakes for my son.  She made almost 70 of them.  Each cupcake had some kind of fondant topper on them and you can see the amazing detail that went into each one.

The amazing set up (frame) was built by Lorany's husband, Robert.  Everything was just perfect.

This is not what I made this for...but it works too!

Here are the cans, stacked and ready to go!

Frisbee toss was a little harder than I thought it would be, but it was not impossible for them.  Lots of fun.

Watch out!!

This game was a favorite! The kids kept coming back to this one.

We also had lots of water balloons, thanks to my friends, Rick and Desiree.  They even let Marco keep this cool pouch to carry his balloons.  He said he felt like David and was looking for Goliath. haha!

I can't believe he's five now and starting school at the end of the month.

My four babies. My oldest is going to be starting her senior year and my youngest is starting Kindergarten.  Any trouble I go to, to make these days special for them, is worth everything to see them happy and help make great memories for them.  My life. I love it. =)

Caged In...

 I covered up some old journaling that I had already done on this double page spread with gesso and then covered it with some striped tissue paper.  I applied the tissue paper with matte gel medium.  I left it like that for a while before I decided what would go on the pages.  I drew out bird on an old piece of map paper, cut it out and colored it with oil pastel.  Then I stuck it on the page and drew the cage  and the heart - also with oil pastels.  I journaled using a black Sharpie marker.

This page was covered with gesso and then I added some torn map paper here and there with matte gel medium.  I used water color pencils to fill in the color on the background.  I also did some light journaling just to get some "stuff" off my chest and then promptly covered it up.  My bloggy friend, Lea, sent me a sweet package a way back when and there was all kinds of ephemera and goodies tucked in it.  One thing that was in it was a piece of material that was painted.  I've had it in my drawer forever waiting for a special use.   I tore it into strips and then used Mod Podge to adhere it and I also covered it with Mod Podge.

I added some details with the oil pastels again and also some Tim Holtz Distress Stain.  I love that stuff.  They come in bottles with a little dauber at the end for application.  Title was added with a black Sharpie.

When working in my soul journal, I am more interested in what I have to write or say than I am the "art" work usually.  However, because of the personal nature of the journaling, I often end up covering my words.  That's okay.  I'm still getting the journaling out there and I'm also allowing myself to be expressive.  There are times that I write out my words like a prayer and there are other times where they are just random sentences, thoughts, rambles that just come to mind.  I was speaking to a friend about this recently and I think I will be approaching my journaling a little differently and see what happens.  I really feel like I'm playing it safe sometimes and not being fearless with my art or my words.  That has to change. It's just something I know.

When you art journal, is it serious? Light-hearted? Does it mean anything?  All of the above? =)

Altered Water Bottles

Each year, we like to give a little gift to each father that comes to church on Father's Day.  

We do this for the mothers on Mother's Day, as well.

 We bought some inexpensive water bottles in a neutral color.  

Then, using my Cricut and the Alphalicious cartridge, I cut out "You're the Best" and "DAD" from some vinyl adhesive and applied it to the bottles.

We gave one to each father in attendance that morning at church.  

You don't need a lot of money or talent to put a smile on someone's face.  

All it takes is a little thought and creativity!