Painted paintbrush

Good morning, 

  Today I am sharing with you a project that I've wanted to create for quite a few years.

About 6 years ago I was visiting my parents in North Carolina and I got the chance to stop by 

the Donna Downey studio. 

She had all these painted paintbrushes up on the wall, and I thought I'd love to try that. 

Fast forward to this week, I have had a bit of free time off work this week, 

and I thought why not try it!

 I also have been using a lot of my Lindy's Stamp Gang magical and sprays,

and I thought why don't I use the inspiration to create my paintbrush. 

So here is the inspiration piece:

I would have loved to do all the butterflies too, but they didn't appear as I was working!

Here is my paintbrush

And because it's amazing, a close up of the quote plaque

I will be entering this in the Lindy's stamp gang challenge on facebook, you can find it here. 

Thanks for taking a few minutes to check me out, 

I haven't been super active on this blog, but I have been in my crafting life! 

 Perhaps more to come soon!

Products used:

Lindys magical: 

Time Travel Teal

Afternoon Delight Denim

California poppy Gold

Starburst Sprays:

Shabby Turbine Teal

yellow Rose of Texas

Rudolphs Nose Red

Art Journal Challenge: Gelly plate

Good morning!

It's a beautiful morning here... a start to a HOT week coming up!

I'll be happy to be out of the extreme heat of next weekend!

Enough about the weather.

Today the challenge was Gel Plate.

I am very new to using the gel plate, but I'm doing my best to be fearless.

What did I take from this challenge?

Less is more when it comes to the gel plate.

You see what I mean?

Holy paint and stencils and craziness batman!

But I went with it anyways.

Here is how the page started.

I've been slapping excess pain onto the next page each day.

And it looks like the paint didn't dry enough before I shut the book

so the ripping in the middle. 

But that never really bothers me!

I just got to it! 

I had some Lindy's stamp Gang sprays out on my table, 

So I slapped some gesso on the gel plate, and covered that with a stencil, and then the sprays.

The result is pretty cool. 

Obviously some of these got used, and some will be other things I guess!

But yummy! I mean the possibilities!

I got down to arranging, 

And the verse is hand stamped again.

I am embracing my stamping imperfections! 

The bird is from Dina Wakley's like of stamps, and I need to find a few that seem to have flown away!

She is a cute little bird!

The verse is just a part of Isaiah 41:13

The final addition was the wash tape along the edge and the top.

I think possibly I need more black, but for now I'm gonna say its done. 

I was working on a youtube video of my bullet journal last night 

(YES I'm one of those!)

But I ran out of memory on my phone, so there may be a camcorder or camera purchase in the near future.

God has been pushing me into this youtube world for a while, and I have been resisting.

What am I scared of? 

God promises he will help me! 

Have a blessed day!

Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win a set of Dina Wakley scribble sticks!

Art Journal Challenge: Stars

Good morning,
The art journal challenge is coming closer to it's end!
What a great experience this has been so far.
Don't get me wrong, there are still at least 4 prompts in the bowl,
But it's hard to believe its flown by so fast!

Today the prompt was Stars:

I absolutely adore stars,

and have probably been looking for the right project for those glittery ones for a while!

You can see that I'm working through my journal day by day,

soon it will be too fat on one side, and nothing on the other.

Oh well!

so here are the process pictures

First I just stamped these stars with permanent ink

Then I used my two star stencils to add more starts with acrylic paint.

This blob of paint started out as a sort of pink color, and it was just wrong!

So I covered it with orange, and then white, it's still not quite what I pictured, but there it is

none the less. 

Next I started adding the stars, they are glittery, and have literally been on my desk for years! 

Then I looked for a bible verse, I thought something with stars, 

and then I opened my youversion bible app, and this was today's verse

On a side note, about three or four years ago I painted this same verse onto two pieces of scrap wood,

They have been in my kitchen ever since. 

I'm pretty happy with my stars prompt.

I'm going to miss this little challenge when it ends next week, 

Maybe I'll just start over again!  

Hope you are having a blessed day, and remember to leave a comment for a chance to win some Dina Wakley scribble sticks! 

Art Journal Challenge: Paint

Paint!

I want to say that this is a challenge, but paint isn't really for me!

I LOVE paint! 

The colors, the thickness, the versatility!

But...

I did get a gel plate about a month ago, and that has been a challenge,

So I decided to try to not make too much of a mess with gel plate 

directly onto the journal page.

It gets a little busy, but lets be honest, my pages are almost always "busy!"

This was after just the first three layers.

The tag itself was just one layer of the gel plate. and then the stamps and some doodling.

Finally I added the verse in a big almost unreadable hand on the other side. 

I'm not hiding it, I just think that the lettering adds something to the page as well and the 

wonderful words of our Father.

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, 

and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Have a blessed day, and remember to leave a comment for a chance to win a set of Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks. 

Art Journal Challenge: Stencils and Clippings

Good morning, 

You haven't heard from me for a couple of days, 

that's not because I haven't been journaling, 

it's because I ended up combining two days of challenges.

Stencils and Clippings

James 1:3 Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

James is one of my husbands favorite books. 

He gets all excited whenever he reads it.

And this is such an amazing reminder of how important Faith is in our walk with God.

So for the first part of the challenge I used paint and an assortment of stencils.

If you've followed me any amount of time you know that this is a pretty standard for me!

I have started using a better quality acrylic paint, and I'm noticing a big difference,

Not as much muddling of the colors! 

So for the second part of the challenge I started by walking down to my mailbox

After I'd picked out the verse and written it down on my desk paper I started to cut out letters, and some words. 

I knew I wouldn't find perseverance, nor apparently did I spell it correctly the first time!

The good thing about clippings is that they are easy to cover the mistakes! 

So there! 

I don't usually mind mistakes, but I know spelling mistakes can be corrected.

So there you have it, a 2 in 1 art journal challenge, 

and knowing that we aren't ever perfect, but we can often fix the mistakes! 

Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win a set of Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks.

Art Journal Challenge: Gelato's (kind of!)

Yes, I am posting two times today.  

Like many of you I work a full time job 

(Sometimes more than full time since I own my own business!)

And while I make the time to get creative,

I often run out of the time to get the blog live!

So since it's Saturday (yeah!) and that is a slower work day,

I get to blog while I sit and enjoy a cup of espresso at a local coffee shop! 

So today's prompt was Gelato's.

And I KNOW that I have some in my studio...

But alas I could not find them! 

So I pulled the closest thing I could think of, and that was Distress Crayons. 

Not quite the same, but in the same family! 

It's pretty bright and kind of busy but I'm liking it! 

Besides, it's about pushing myself right??

So first I put down the crayons

spritz with water and rub with my finger and there you go!

Not exactly what I was picturing, but I went with it anyways!

So I added a bit of white paint through stencils.

That seemed to be a bit more me! 

Then I saw the houses,

two of which I had already stamped, colored and cut out the other day, 

but never used them.  So there they sat on the desk.

I just stamped a couple more, and then colored them with the crayons.

cut them out, and they had to have something to sit on,

so I used the black crayon to make the "hills"

After gluing them down I realized that I wanted to write on the black. 

No bueno though, my uni-ball would write about two letters. 

So I used the white distress crayon. 

It's not quite the look I wanted, but that was a learning lesson! 

Next time stick to the paint!

Hope you are having a blessed weekend, and that you're enjoying my days of challenges! 

Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win your own set of scribble sticks! 

Art Journal Challenge: Paper Scraps

Today I will have two posts for you.

The update is that I'm right where I should be with doing a challenge every day,

However I don't always have time to blog what I've created each day.

Soooo this challenge (paper scraps) was actually created yesterday.

I used only scraps of paper for this. 

And yes that included the girls!

Here is one of my dirty secrets...

Probably not the best picture, but that is my stash of paper pieces.

And in that stash I found the girls.

I'm almost positive that I got them at one of the two Dina Wakley classes that I attended a few years ago.

So this was a pretty simple and straight forward.

I glued down scraps of paper onto the journal.

Some overlapped, some didn't.

Then I did a white wash of watered down acrylic paint to sort of bring the boldness down.

From there it was time to work on the girls.

They are by the way just printed on copy paper. 

I colored them with the scribble sticks, and then a little bit of water brought them to the state they're in.

I didn't even really have to fussy cut them. 

I mounted them onto some old scraps of dictionary paper.

A secret: I liked the lines on the dictionary paper, but only had enough to do one of the girls.

So I added the lines to the other piece of paper that I used! 

Finishing touches were some nonsensical writing with the uni-ball white pen, 

and the addition of the Bible verse.

All hand written! 

I'm starting to like my writing a little bit more.  

So that was yesterday, and I hope you are a bit inspired!

Remember to leave a comment for a chance to win your own pack of scribble sticks! 

Have a blessed day! 

Art Journal Challenge: Scribble Sticks

Ok, so today is Scribble Sticks. 

Remember if you want to win a set of your own, leave a comment here or on any of the Art Journal Challenge posts!

So today I decided to do a little more drawing, 

I figured a cactus would be a good place to start, 

and then I could color them in with the scribble sticks. 

I'm not always good at leaving white space, so this was a bit of a challenge for me. 

But I got to work with a pencil first,

and you can see where I started coloring in the drawing,

At this point I could have just colored them in with the sticks and not gone in with water.

It looks sort of like crayon.

But you all know that wouldn't be me! 

This was fully colored with water, and then I went over the drawing with my pen. 

I'm pretty happy with how they came out! 

I mean not bad for my first try!

Then of course I had to add a verse to the other side. 

This was in my "the Book of Mysteries" devotional today, and it really is what prompted the cactus.

I know when I'm in a dry area of my life I can always find comfort in God, and in His many promises!

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you are inspired in some way!  

Art Journal Challenge: Only one Color

Ok, so only using one color can be a bit daunting right?

I mean most of us love the ooooey gooey lovely colors of our backgrounds.

However, there is something freeing about not having to make all those choices too!

I opted for blue of course, because it's currently my obsession!

I can't think of anything more refreshing than water.

The Living Water of Jesus Christ, and the giving life of water.

I am beyond blessed by my Lord to get to create these pages, and to live in a life of wonder.

Thinking about all the tiny details that go into each of our lives and how 

He took the time to create all of it!

Some process pictures?

Ok

I started with distress inks and covered the whole background

Then I splattered some water.  To do this I spray water on my hand until it starts to pool, 

and then I throw it gently at the page. 

I liked how most of it was towards the bottom of the page.

After this I guess I forgot to take any pictured until it was done.

I used scribble sticks to get the section darker, 

and I drew circles for the air bubbles, and then painted them with white acrylic paint.

Finally I did a little outlining with scribble sticks and my fude ball pen.

Lastly I added the verse.  

Like a lot of you I'm not too keen on my own handwriting, but I'm continuing to work on it! 

Hope you are having a blessed day! 

I may get to play some more later as I'm off from work today! 

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win some Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks! 

Art Journal Challenge: Only things not on the desk

So todays prompt is "only things not on the desk"

I'm sure there are some of you out there that have messy desks like me! 

Sometimes I wonder how I get anything done!

The ironic part about this prompt today is that just last night I cleaned the desk off!!! Well not completely, but I did put a lot of stuff away! 

Mostly because I needed space for a sewing project. 

So today's page is one that I'm really proud of! 

I wasn't really sure where I was going with this when it started. 

Well first I had to pull some stencils and paint,

And I was lucky that my makeup sponges got "put away" last night so I didn't have to use my fingers!

I forgot how much I love these mandala looking circles! 

However I got a little paint happy, and there is a big blob of paint under the spotted piece of paper.

This is the best part of Art Journaling isn't it?

I get to cover up my "mistakes" with stuff that's laying around! 

I know that the last two years have been a test for me in KNOWING the love of Christ, 

and following where he leads, and not where I "think" I need to be. 

His blessings are amazing, and I know he knows my future.

This has been the verse for us this week, 

And this was a lesson in patience as each of those letters is hand stamped! 

But I just love how they turned out!  

Hope you have a blessed day, and remember to leave a comment for a chance to win some Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks (not used on this project because I left them on my desk!!)

Ok, ok, and here is a picture of my wonderful "helper" today