Song Birds - Mini Art Journal

Today I have sweet little journal page in the mini journal I made using my memorydex dies.

First, I did some fun but simple background texture with distress oxides, the leaf branch stencil, and Spotted and the "rain" from Puddle Jumpers and then I toned it down a bit with watered down white acrylic paint. I stamped one of the birds from Song Birds on top of this and colored it with my Polychromos colored pencils. They work great - easily coloring over other things! Finally I used Versa Clair Nocturne ink for the sentiment/verse.

I hope you like it and are inspired. Sometime a little canvas is just what you need to keep creative!

Thanks for stopping by!!
Lyn

The World is Yours

Psalm 89:11

"The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours.

The world and everything in it --- you founded them."

When you stop and think, it really is just so amazing that God created everything in our world. Everything from the mountains and the valleys, down to things as small as the insects and flowers! God created everything and everything has a purpose. Some things gross us out like mosquitos and bats, BUT, everything has its purpose! My kids will often ask things like, "Did God make our house? Did he make our car?" While it makes me smile, I always tell them that the people God created made those things, and God gifted us the knowledge and talent to make all the other things in life that we use everyday! 

The world and everything in it, He founded them!

I wanted to share a fun little "happy accident" I discovered on my page. I happen to breath hard on my page and noticed the wings moved on my dragonfly! How fun right?!?! So I thought I'd share how I created it. :) 

I first stamped the dragonfly wings separately on regular old tissue paper. Just the thin stuff you find to wrap your presents.

Then I cut the wings out VERY carefully! The paper is so thin that you really need to cut slowly and hold the paper lightly. I decided to separate the wings so you wouldn't see the white tissue paper between them.

I stamped the solid body stamp for the dragonfly in a green/blue color, then stamped the outline body image in black. I carefully cut out the body and used a small dab of glue on each wing to attach them to the body.

Lastly, I got some small squares of double sided foam tape, cut them in half, and placed them on the underside of the dragonfly body only. This leaves the tissue wings free to move around! :)

I hope you enjoyed this page! If you have any questions or need help creating your own, let me know! I'm happy to help!! :) You'll find all the stamps I used for this page linked below!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

@faith.and.creativity

Dragonfly Dreams

Loop da Loop Alpha 

Typewriter Block Alpha 

Mini Grunge Type Alpha 

Singing His Praises

Psalm 91:4

"He will cover you with his feathers;

you will take refuge under his wings.

His faithfulness will be a protective shield."

Have you ever read a daily devotion that really stuck with you? That made you set it down and cry? I read one like that a couple years ago. It spoke to me and gave me a message I didn't even know I was looking for. It told a story about a strong storm that make the ocean waves crash heavily on a rocky shore. Nestled amongst the rocks was a mother bird. She tucked herself away from the crashing waves, trying to weather the storm. And under her wings she shielded her young babies, protecting them from the harsh wind and waves. She sits fearlessly on the rocks shielding her babies. Sometimes God calms the storm, and other times he will calm the sailor. I love that! Times won't always be easy, and when they aren't, God is still there for us, protecting us and keeping us safe until the storm passes. 

I used a variety of materials to create this vintage page. For the turquoise background, I brushed acrylic paint on a piece of burlap and smooshed it onto my page. Then I ripped up some paper pieces including a couple hymnal pieces, added them to my page and brushed them with a little dried white acrylic paint to soften the edges. For the bird, I used my Singing Praises stamp and stamped it in a Wheat color so it left a light outline. Then I went back in with my Prismacolor pencils to add color and detail. Then I finished off the image by adding some sketchy shading with a ballpoint pen. 

I used various ephemera pieces on this page to add different levels of texture. After staining this card with distress inks, I stamped the verse and again lightly brushed some dry white acrylic paint on top to lighten it up. I finished up my page by adding a tab, a few fabric pieces and a little bit of washi tape!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

@faith.and.creativity 

Singing Praises

Our Tears Land in Heaven

Psalm 56:8

"You have kept count of my tossings; 

put them in your bottle. Are they not in your book?"

Have you ever cried so much that you felt you were out of tears?? That's been me lately. If you read my last post you learned that my dad passed away unexpectedly last month and I've been trying to cope with the loss. I recently went a few days were I hadn't cried any and I started to wonder what was wrong with me. I thought, my Dad just died, am I not as upset as I should be?? Of course I'm completely grief stricken by all of it. I really think I had just run out of tears for a little while. Then the next two days I cried. I haven't had to deal with grief in my life like this before so I am quickly learning the stages and how to deal. It's true when they say it comes in waves and you never really know when one may hit you and you fall apart. 

On top of that being 8 months pregnant, I try to keep myself calm and remind myself that my Dad wouldn't want me to be so upset and exhaust myself right now. So I try to keep that in mind when I can. Along with the comforting words of my earthly father, I have been finding comfort in the words and promises of our Heavenly Father! There are so many comforting verses throughout the bible when it comes to grief and a friend recently shared this one with me. 

Psalm 56:8 the NLT version says:

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book."

I found so much comfort in this verse! It reminded me that our pain is not in vain. It is not ignored or disregarded by God. He sees each tear we shed and collects and carries each one! And honestly I have felt a little ashamed that I haven't prayed as much as I feel I should. This verse also reminded me that each tear is a small prayer that goes to heaven when we aren't able to find the words. That's it! That's why I haven't prayed as often as I should. Putting my feelings and the actions of what has happened into words was just too hard for me! I've walked to talk to my dad so many times through all of this and I know I could pray and talk to his spirit, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do that either! Doing that was like finally admitting that all of this is real and that is the only way I can talk to him anymore. It's absolutely heartbreaking. But whether I accept this as my new reality or not, sadly it won't change the outcome, no matter how much I wish it would. 

We all grieve in our own way. There is no wrong or right way to do it because we are all unique and so are our experiences with grief. My Dad knows it's not that I haven't talked to him because I don't miss him, he knows its because it's just too hard right now.... but I will get there. And no matter what type of grief you may be going through, you will get to the place you need to be too. It will just take time. The hole that person left will never fully disappear, but each day will start to get a little less painful. God will carry our pain and our tears and help us through it! We need to continue to lean on him and He will see us through it all! 

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

@faith.and.creativity 

Healer of My Heart

Classy Script Alpha 

Texture Tiles 1

Typewriter Text Background 

Deliver

You know how those familiar things can evoke such calm and peace? My memories of growing up in a precious family are so sweet. Yes, I realize now more than ever how fortunate I was to grow up in a great family. Items from my childhood bring back certain pleasant memories.  

Daddy was in the Air Force, so he traveled all over and we had many keepsakes from different countries. We had woven ponchos from Panama, ceramic elephants from Thailand, and a big stuffed llama from Peru. When I see these things from my childhood, they bring such sweet peace and comfort to my heart.

Unfortunately for us, too, was the fact that Daddy’s travel also subjected his body to some horrible things as well. My dad served in Korea and Vietnam. And, as many of you know, Daddy suffered in his last days from lung cancer.

On one very dark night, I was called up to come sit with Daddy because his mind was out of control and he was hallucinating. No medicine or interventions they tried were working. When I got there, I found my dad sitting in a wheelchair...dressed in only a diaper and a T-shirt...and he was screaming out uncontrollably.

My heart was broken. My daddy...the strongest man I had ever known...was sitting there in a most pitiful state. My dad never raised his voice, was filled with a quiet reserve, and was very private. I. Was. Broken.

As I approached Daddy he called out “Gayle, we have to get out of here. The Viet Cong is attacking. Don’t you hear the air raid sirens?”
What was actually happening was that people’s IV’s were beeping and the nursing home staff were talking to each other over the loud speaker.  

But Daddy’s mind was so attacked by the side effects of cancer, that he was flashing back to all the air raids from his days in Vietnam. I had been praying on my my drive all the way over that God would give me directions on how to help my Daddy. 

I pulled Daddy over beside me and held his hand and began to talk to him. Me being there helped, but he was still so upset and saying we had to take cover...they were going to kill us.

In my purse, I had my Bible. I grabbed it out and began to read to Daddy. We started in Psalm 91 because that was his favorite.

“Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭91:1-3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“He will protect you from every deadly disease!” Yes! As I was reading, I was praying “God protect my Daddy from the ravages of this disease. Deliver him from the grips of this terror.”

“He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭91:4-6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God was the protection for my Daddy. Daddy did not have to fear the terrors of the night. We didn’t have to fear this dreadful disease.

As I was reading, a calm began to come over Daddy. He body began to limber and the tension began to ease.

“If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.”
‭‭Psalm 91:9-11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I’m sure it was God’s angels that were protecting Daddy’s mind at that point.

“The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭91:14-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There is no doubt in my mind that God rescued Daddy that night. As I continued reading from the Word, it wasn’t long until Daddy was fast asleep and we were able to get him back in bed. I slept peacefully the rest of the night in the recliner beside him. We both woke up refreshed...and protected...and rescued in the Lord.

My friends...God’s Word is always the answer to it all.  Just like the sun will always rise in the morning, His mercies will always be new.  Lean in to Him.  

_________________
Art behind the story:

When I saw the Llama Love set, they brought such sweet memories of the stuffed llama we had from my childhood. I knew they had to go in my Bible with the story of deliverance from the Lord.

I stamped the mountains several times, and then watercolored and fussy cut them. The same is true for the llamas, the blankets and the cactus. I watercolored the background and then stamped the words using the Chunky Lowercase Alpha. I used Derwent Inktense pencils to shadow the letters. After gluing the fussy cut pieces on the page, I added more watercolor for highlights and then completed the page with the mountain clip.

There are several great new releases for August on the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps website. If you use of them on social media, please tag me. I’d love to see what you do with them.

Until next time,
GayleIG: patioponderings

Share the Good News ♥

Hello Friends! As we prepare for Thanksgiving I wanted to share a page with you that I created from my sermon notes from this past weekend. Our passage was 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

And our pastor asked us, are we living a life that we are identified as sharing our faith, sharing our joy, sharing our hope we have in Christ? That's what sets us apart from others, and God will send people your way specifically for the reason of you being able to share the good news with them. So friends what are we focused on today? Are we focused on the one negative thing that happened today, because the devil is trying to throw us off? Or are we rejoicing with thanksgiving in our hearts the hope we have in our Lord Jesus Christ?

For this page I journaled Psalm 96:1-4

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth!

 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

he is to be feared above all gods. 

I decided to keep this page super simple I used 3 colors of pigmented inks I had from past Illustrated faith kits. and I used coordinating Faber-Castell big brush pens to highlight the verses. I used the Choose Faith stamp set for the entire page. I stamped everything in black archival ink first. Then went back and stamped with colored ink to fill in "Faith" "Hope" and "Joy" 

I then added some Illustrated Faith Washi with some cute little acorns on it, wordfetti, and a super cute page marker and I was done! My goal has been lately to keep my pages under 30 minutes, which sometimes can be a huge challenge to me, but this was proof that you can throw a simple page together in under 30 minutes! 

Hope y'all enjoyed my page and have an amazing holiday! Let us remember as we go out this season to live with Thanksgiving in our hearts!

For more inspiration, you can follow me on Instagram @my.creative.worship and Sweet N Sassy @sweetnsassystamps 

Make sure to hashtag us #sweetnsassystamps on FB and IG so we can see how you 've been inspired & inspire us! 

Until next time! God Bless!♥Maria

Under His Wings

For my Bible journal page today, I am still in the book of Psalms - 91:4.

"He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge..."

I love the image this brings to my mind. I think about a movie or a book when danger occurs and the protector throws themselves over the innocent to keep them safe. 

While life doesn't often bring explosions and such, we do have upsets and disappointments and knowing that when we are in need of protection, God will tuck us under His wings and keep us safe, is so comforting to me. It is such a blessing going into each day with this picture in my mind.

For this page, I used Sweet N Sassy Stamp Set - Creative Worship: His Wings. I also used a few Alphabet Sets Chunky Alpha, Skinny Caps Alpha, and Skinny Lowercase Sets.

I stamped the feathers onto the page with Versamark ink and heat embossed with clear powder. I then used distress inks (Rusty Hinge, Antique Linen, and Vintage Photo) for a water color wash. I Inked up the words with Archival Jet Black Ink.

I hope you are inspired and that your day is a blessed one! Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn

Joy to the World

Hello everyone!

I used one of the Christmas stamp sets for the page I made today, but I didn’t use one of the more well known Christmas passages in the bible. When I read the message ‘Joy to the World’ I had to think of the song. I think most of us immediately sing this phrase in our minds ;) But that made me wonder if this song was based on a special bible text or where it came from. So when I did a little research I ended up with Psalm 98. And even though I’m not sure if it’s true that this song is based on this Psalm, it works really well with these stamps.

'The Lord hath made known His salvation; His righteousness hath He openly shown in the sight of the heathen.  He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.' (Psalm 98:2-3)

I prepared my page with clear gesso but it’s so simple you wouldn’t even have to do that (my bible has very thin pages so I prepare every page, if yours has thicker pages you won’t have to prepare them). Most of the time I want to color my entire background and give a little bit more color to my pages but I thought that the simplicity of this page made the message stand out even more so I decided to go for a white background. I stamped the images and I made a couple of extra stars around it to fill the page a bit more. I colored everything with colored pencils. For this page I used the set 'Peace on Earth'.

I hope you’re inspired to make your own page!

Blessings,

Lucinde

Sing Loud with Praise

 "Oh Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!" Psalm 95:1-2

The message is simple here. Worship and praise your God, and LOUD for all to hear! (or just in the shower or car...whatever suits you best) The lord hears you everywhere. 

This verse and 2 Samuel 6:22 go kind of hand and hand for me...;) 

For this page I used only 2 stamp sets...and mainly just one! 

  Skinny Uppercase Alpha & Sing Loud. For the background I used the music note and stamped on a piece of paper and then on my bible to create the watermark look so I could stamp over it, and the words still be easily seen! 

Oh, by the way did you see are GORGEOUS new logo along with a BRAND NEW website?! 

Korin has been working so hard to make our 10th birthday so incredibly special. Go check out what she's done. Click the Logo below! 

www.journalingthroughmotherhood.wordpress.com

Be still...and think awesome thoughts

Hello!

It's Tifany here from Ink Blots by TRD and I've got three Bible pages to share with you today (once again playing with some paint and stamps).

For the first page (Psalm 46), I used the Classy Script Alpha and Seek Him stamp sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps:

For this one I did a "plaid" look similar to a page I did previously, but this time I used paint instead of ink. After my plaid background was ready, I added my stamping and a few accents with a white paint pen.

While I had the Classy Script Alpha stamp set out, I stamped the words "burning bush" on this page:

The rest of the page is hand drawing layered with paint.

For my last page, I used the Awesome Thoughts stamp set. As soon as I saw it, the words "think awesome thoughts" just jumped out at me - so I knew I had to stamp them in my Bible. I added in some tone-on-tone stamping in the background with some stamps from the Fill Me Up set.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

{Philippians 4:8, NIV}

Have a great day!

As always, you can find a full supply list and all my posts pertaining to Bible art or journaling here.