What's on My Kitchen Counter

Hello friends, Last week felt like a stormy sea of its own with my husband recovering from recent hip replacement surgery and several friends and family members facing life battles - my heart was caught in the waves. Computer issues and lack of sleep didn't help. Mark 4:39-41 reminded me: even when the winds rage, Jesus is in the boat. He speaks peace over the chaos. “Peace, be still.” I needed that reminder. Several lovely Creative Worship Stamps sets were used in the making of this watercolored and inked BAJ page: The Sea (the boat and verse), Scene Silhouettes: Tall Grasses, and Have Courage . This page was stamped, then watercolored with Daniel Smith Watercolors. I finished it off with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo, Mustard Seed, and Ground Expresso), plus a little bit of Silver Stickles. We have a lot of things going on in life and you time is precious, thank you for spending a little bit with me.  Hugz, Nancy

 My first post as a Guest Designer for Creative Worship Stamps. This watercolor and ink card features one of my favorite CWS sentiments - Big God . I am so grateful He is there in storms and this stamp beautifully underscores His power. The main panel of this card is watercolor paper and was painted with Daniel Smith Watercolors and Liquid Ink (the white highlights in the rain drops). The words were stamped with black ink from Close to My Heart. Hugz, Nancy

Hello Crafty Friends! I love Halle's theme at **Art*Journal*Journey* this month: Botanicals. So many possibilities... I combined the botanical theme with some of the colors in ARTNUDGE#725A and came up with this Bible Art Journal page focusing on 1 Timothy 2:1-2. I also made a patriotic prayer card too. In these verses, Paul tells Timothy (and all of us) to pray for everyone but he especially calls out prayer for kings and leaders. He indicates that this type of prayer could lead us to a tranquil and quite life in all godliness and dignity. I think we can all agree that the world needs much prayer right now and it is an easy step we can take.   I experimented on this journal page. I usually cover any bible journal pages with gesso before painting on them, but I have issues with the gesso gumming up my Micron pens or unevenly taking color. This time I used Daniel Smith Ground Medium in Titanium White (I mixed it with 10 parts water). I loved it and will be using it in the fut...

 Hello Crafty Friends, Popping in to join in the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge #443 .  The theme is Anything Goes with the option of water.  I used this image because over at Splitcoaststampers.com the WT challenge for today is toys. I needed a tag for present I am giving this week and this worked perfectly. The image is from a coloring book I won several years ago in the HMFMC.  I love the larger images.  I cut out a piece of corrugated cardboard, peeled off the backing paper, painted it with liquid acrylic (white) and then sprayed with TH Distress Spray (tumbled glass).  Next, I fussy cut the image and painted it with TH Distress Inks which I also used to sponge around the edges (rusty hinge and mermaid lagoon).  The sentiment is from an old SU! set and the tag is an old SU! punch; after punching it, I tied on some silver cord. This came out soooooo cute. Come play in the HMFMC with me. Hugz, Nancy

 Hello friends. Happy late T-day to my T-day buddies over at Elizabeth's blog where we celebrate anything related to drinks (anyone can join, your post has to have something related to drinks). This week, Elizabeth is showing us some really fun mugs she ran across at one of her favorite stores. I went treasure hunting last week and found a really fun mug. My grandson and I call visiting flea markets, garage sales and thrift stores Treasure Hunting. The mug was so cute I had to bring it home.  The inside actually sold me: I also have a few cards related to drinks: This was my first pop-up box, and it was done for last week's WT challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com.  This one was made using Stamperia Alice paper and was done for a patterned paper challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com.  I left out a word in the sentiment that I will fix before sending it off.  Hope you have a great rest of the week. Hugz, Nancy

Happy T-day! I can't believe I actually am doing my T-day post on T-day this week. T-day is a big deal over at Elizabeth's Blog - Altered Book Lover where we share something having to do with a drink. It can be a drink or something representing a drink like a movie, artwork, book, etc.  Today I have several drink related items.   First, I have my card from yesterday's CAS challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com which was actually about drinks (alcoholic or nonalcoholic). I decided to focus on wine since I have been wanting to use this Rubbernecker phrase stamp.  I added in some scoring, and embossed wine bottle (Rubbernecker wine bottle die), some Tim Holtz paper dolls, and some Stickles.  Last week's F4A challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com was all about shadows. I stamped this coffee cup stamp from Stamping Up!, drew in some foliage and flowers, then water-colored everything with Daniel Smith Watercolors. The sentiment is from Close to My Heart.  Lastly, I got...