What's on My Kitchen Counter

Hello friends. Sad news.  I lost my Pop the day after Christmas.  He suffered through pulmonary fibrosis which is a horrible disease.  He is at rest now. He and my Mom shared a special love. She always told me that if she had had him in her life early on, they could have taken on the world. He made her very happy, and he was such a rock to her when she faced her battle with cancer. When she got her diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer, she said she didn't want to fight it or take any treatments.  She had already fought it once and it took a lot out of her.  Pop told her that he would be there every step of the way, and he wasn't willing to give up.  She fought it and had several more very full years where she got to see both my daughters get married and the birth of quite a few great grandchildren. But more importantly, she had more time with him - something she deeply treasured.  He was true to his word, and he was there through every step like a rock.  Then when she passed away

 It is Christmas.  Such a strange Christmas with all that is going on in the world.  My daughters plan to come over later.  We are doing a bit different menu:  Italian salad, Zuppa Toscano soup, giant baked meatballs, potato lasagna, regular lasagna, and a New York style chocolate chip cheesecake.  I am going off my diet yesterday and today, then back on it Saturday.   We have some sad things going on in our family, but we are holding each other tight and trying to think positively.  Focusing on "the real meaning of" Christmas helps. Speaking of "The Meaning Of',"  I did several BAJ pages Tracey's **ART*JOURNAL*JOURNEY* theme. I focused on the meaning of Christmas - the gift of Jesus, and how God aligned many stars in His plan for our salvation through His Son.  From the prophesies, the genealogy of Christ, the escape from Herod's decree, and all the other amazing miracles from that day to today, His love for us is clear and true.    Matthew 1 - Genealog

 Hello friends, This past week the Tea Party Challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com was all about Rhode Island as the recipient of our cards is from RI.  I decided to try and paint a rooster.  Try is the key word - I need a lot of practice but I finished it and did a matching BAJ page in Hebrews. My background was from the SCS Watercolor Challenge: Emboss Resist with Watercolor Powders (I used Brushos).   I watched THIS video but my rooster looks nothing like hers! I finished it and I am calling that success.  The card recipient is battling cancer so I decided the card should be a little upbeat so I added a chicken crossing the road joke.  Inside it says, "because it was free range."   In the challenge, they mentioned that the Rhode Island motto is "Hope."  What a great motto.  I looked up the story behind it, and one theory is that it is after Hebrews 6: 18-19 so I decided to journal that page in my Bible and add a chicken.  Lovely words.   I liked my BAJ rooster les

 A bit of a spooky post today.... I started with THIS fun rain scented whipped soap as my inspiration along with the words in Lamentations 3 which are VERY SPOOKY.   Seems the writer has pretty much given up and then the hope shines through a bit at the end.  I love the poetry of the verses but this was a very sad time in our history.   I started with a layer of gesso, then a layer of gray Gouache colors.  Mixed in a bit of yellow and red for fun.  Then I put down another layer of gesso and while wet I put down the skull part of a halloween  napkin (goes with the words of the verse - I promise).  Another layer of gesso and then the words.  Needed something fun so I added in a few silver teeth.  The skull needed something so I added in a bit of the yellow and painted a few of the dark parts a little darker. You can see my first attempt at doing a video of my crafting HERE .  Linking to Tracey's theme at **ART*JOURNAL*JOURNEY* - The Meaning Of... Lamentations details out the despai

Hello friends.   I tried a few different (for me) things. I always love looking a written journaling with little illustrations - there are some people out there who are awesome at it.  I thought I would try it and now I remember why I don't do it!  You have to have good handwriting and be able to write your words at the same size throughout the page!  LOL.  Since I don't have good handwriting and I can't keep my words the right size, this looks like a hot mess, but I am going to share it! Proverbs 28-29.  I picked this page in my Bible Journaling because I love the focus on helping the poor and the words on flattering your neighbor and a net.  I obviously thought I would get to the net part before the end of the page but that didn't happen.  I learned a lot from the reading and the journaling.  I think I will try this again but plan it out a bit better.  Some guidelines might be a good idea for me too. Linking this to Tracy's THE MEANING OF theme at **ART*JOURNAL*JO

 Hello crafty friends. My 25 year old daughter, Alex, told me last night she wanted to make her own Christmas cards with my help.  She wanted to make them all right then.  Yikes!  And....   she wanted them to look like they came from the 1970s!  Double Yikes!!  I was pretty skeptical about getting them done in 3 hours - but we did! She actually helped, and she was so creative.  I was proud of her, and I had the best time!   She found all the stuff in my paper and flower stash so we used up a lot of things that probably would have ended thrown away or donated. I was thrilled.   When she showed me the picture she wanted to use, I could see why she picked 1970s.  She dressed in bell bottoms for the picture and it does look 1970-ish.  By the way, she just moved and she did her house in 1970s theme too.  Whenever I visit, I feel like I stepped back to High School. LOL! After we were done, I asked her which one was her favorite.  She picked this lace one she made. This one was my favorite be

 I am still working in Lamentations in my Bible Journaling. The MIX challenge on SCS this past week was to use some "garbage" in your creation and the **Art Journal*Journey* theme is "The Meaning Of" so how did I get here?   *Saw Lydia said use some garbage on your creation and I had a 401K disclosure on my kitchen counter that had a great gears picture with some super colors that looked kind of good for a verse on gold.   *Lydia did some textured stenciling and my words talked about tarnishing so I thought it would be good to use my Stamperia pipes stencil and use some rusty looking paste (plus I remembered Elizabeth's rust pages HERE ).   *So I used some gesso to glue down the page from the disclosure, tore off a few words from it as well and put them down.   *Then did the layer of textured paste. *After it dried, I rubbed on some gold paint since the verse is about tarnished gold. I focused on  Lamentations 4:1 which speaks about the tarnished gold from the

I finding out what the new theme is every month at *Art*Journal*Journey!   This month, Tracey has selected "The Meaning Of."  She is letting us interpret it any way we want which is very thought-provoking.  You need to pop over and see the gorgeous landscape she made and how she personally interpreted her theme. I have a goal to finish Lamentations in my BAJ so I went to Lamentations 2 which is pretty dark and tells about the destruction of Jerusalem when God was angered.  I read several commentaries on it, but they were very deep and just didn't want to stick in my head...(not much wants to these days unless it is super fun or a new recipe - lol).  So I decided to focus on the fact that we need to learn from God's lessons to us.  We may not like the act that leads to the lesson, but our goal is to survive the act and learn from the lesson.  So then I researched learning from lessons and found this awesome quote by Alan Cohen: "The apparent goal of the journey is

 In my last post I added a snowman, and now I can't seem to stop adding them!!!  I painted this one with Arteza Gouache colors and added on a layer of Snowtex.  I wish I could take credit for this fun theme and actually getting a few things right on this, but I followed the very good instructions by RK McGuire in THIS video.  After watching it, I watched another fun video by Paint and Sip At Home - see it HERE .  This one was really fun to make and I didn't even have wine! Here is another one ( HERE is the video).  It was a quick one but fun to make. I learned so much doing these, and hopefully I can start applying what I learned to some original work. I also go three more Christmas cards done. Thanks for visiting!!!  Hugz

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and I have to tell you there are lots of things I am thankful for this year. No matter what we think of C-19, it has made us more grateful for things large and small.  We were running through life before without any thought to most things like being able to by toilet paper at the last minute or eating out or spending time with family and friends.  We often took our health for granted as well. I am hoping that we (I especially), carry some of that gratefulness over into future years once things improve.  One of the things that I have really enjoyed during this pandemic is that I have totally fallen in love with journaling in my Bible and learning mixed media techniques from very talented people in virtual groups I never knew existed like **Art*Journal*Journey*and Try it on Tuesday. Also, I have grown closer to the Mixed Media addicts on Splitcoaststampers.com.  You all inspire me so much, and you have helped me stay sane during these trying times and home isola

I set out to case THIS card by Leslie Springer as she is this week's Featured Stamper on Splitcoaststampers.com, but I wanted to do a more detailed background with watercolors.  I was so lucky because I found THIS awesome video by PaintyKat showing how to create a great winter wonderland picture.  I created the background in my bible and on two panels of watercolor paper (one sheet that I had cut in half).  I then cut the watercolor paper panels in half so I had 4 pieces. I was able to create 4 cards and one BAJ page.   I used watercolors.  My versions are not anywhere near her awesome creation, but I used a cheap set of watercolors, only two types of brushes, my sponge was old, I did them super fast, and I am a beginner (hopefully that is enough excuses to get me by - lol).  I had so much fun and it was so relaxing!  I love how they came out - especially the peaceful feeling of the Bible Journal Page (Psalms 119) and the fun of the Santa card.   All my stamps are from DRS Design

I am doing the book of Lamentations in my BAJ right now.  I find it very therapeutic in these times which seem sad for us but seem much brighter when compared to the feelings of the Israelites in 586 BC!  This book is so full of deep feelings, despair, understanding of sin, and then hope.  Hope is what we all want when we are in times of trouble.  It is also masterfully written with special numbers and verse designs which are all way above my head. For example, I read that the first 4 chapters are written as acrostics.  1, 2 and 4 have 22 verses which correspond to the 22 letters of he Hebrew alphabet.  The first lines start with first letter of the alphabet and each line after starts with the next.  Chapter 3 has 66 verses and each letter of the alphabet is used in three lines which is soooo cool. Anyway, I was inspired to do this page after seeing THIS great journal layout by Kath Stewart, Wendy's **ART*JOURNAL*JOURNEY* bird theme, a dot theme on the Ways to Use IT challenge on

 I played with making some faux washi tape this weekend after a friend of mine posted a mixed media challenge about it on Splitcoaststampers.  She said masking tape was the easiest method so I set out to try it.  This is my first one.  Just painted on some acrylic paint and then stamped a Dina Wakley Scribble bird.  Linking to **Art*Journal*Journey* where Wendy has us playing with birds this month.  Did some of the strips with a ruler stamp from DRS Designs and a Darkroom Door stencil.  This worked out well to cover up a page I had previously done on Psalms 148.  This time I focused on how this Psalm tells us everyone and everything should praise the Lord - including birds.  Lovely Psalm and I am glad I could use this faux washi tape to cover up a design I did not like. I had so much fun making this faux tape that I did another set of tape and made another BAJ page plus a card.  I was inspired by some Christmas washi tape on the Cute Tape site (the inspiration site on Splitcoaststamp

We are moving fast to the BIG holidays in the U.S. - Turkey Day and Christmas.  This year the holidays will be very different!  I am interested to see what happens.  I am doing a lot of Zoom and MS Teams meetings in my craft room/at home office so I think I am going to get a tall skinny tree to go behind me so things will look more festive.  Thanksgiving is going to be very interesting as I am doing Whole30...the turkey will be a go, but I am going to have to bring two stuffing dishes:  Sweet Potato Sausage Stuffing and my Mom's old recipe for everyone else. I can see the looks on my family's faces when they come up on the sweet potato stuffing!  There are three semi-ealthy eaters that may venture out and try it, but the rest will turn up their noses and say "there she goes making some weird stuff again."  I always slip a bunch of cooked yellow squash in my normal stuffing and they never know it. Tee Hee!  I am still losing weight a little at a time - down 18.5 pounds