Layers of Color Challenge- Farm Animals

Of course I had to do chickens! Here is my entry for this weeks Layers of Color challenge! Be sure to check out my gallery too for inspirations.

Apples of Gold

Speaking of apples... Layers of Color challenge this week was just that, Apples!

I am reminded of the bible verse from Psalms 25:11 that says: A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

I use the Fleur Heart stamp as accents and the garden boarders stamp in gold. The apple is an original oil pastel that I did. I used gold ink to distress and highlight the stamps and I also embellished with a bit of glitter and a piece of old tape measure, a treasure for a swapping friend.

A is for Apples~Girl Time Tidbit #5

It has been a bumper crop for apples this year...for everyone around me! This year we were busy making apple everything, quite exciting! I know I have written it before but I just love the feeling of seeing something from planting, to harvesting, to producing it into something for my family, there is an organic element to it that is spiritual and very fullfilling to me!

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

Ecclesiastes 3:1

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.
Ecclesiastes 3:10-12

The kids and I have made chunky cinnamon applesauce, carmel apple butter, and lots of dried apples for snacking on. This year we bought 2 dehydrators at Goodwill for $10.00 and have enjoyed this new part of our harvesting routine. In past years I have just canned everything. But this had been a wonderful change. Never forget you are the apple of His eye!

On-Line Designer Gallery Opening!

The Layers of Color Gallery is open and I would like to cordially invite you to visit the on-line gallery click here. What a privilege to be part of this wonderful group of designers, I am inspired by each of them. Each of us has a distinct style and the great thing is, we all use the same Layers of Color stamps as part of our artwork! I hope you will stop by and be inspired!

One of my Favorite Treasures-Books!

Books are one of my favorite things, aren't you thankful that you were given the gift of literacy? Another treasured kind of book is an altered book, they fascinate me! I have always had within me the spirit of exploration. As a girl I loved to wander the forests of my girlhood home and find special places just for me. Altered books fill this requirement for my soul. I love all the pockets and tags and flaps. They just beckon to me to explore and find the treasure within it's cover. I think I would have been a great pirate!

If you don't know by now, one of my dearest friends is our LOC challenge hostess Laura. Our first artistic project together was an altered book for each other. We used the letters of our names to guide our pages. This is an example of what Laura gave me.

Incidentally, she made this for me and gave it to me for my 40th birthday. What a gift, it still makes me tear up to think about opening this package I got in the mail. No one had ever made something so special for me, ever! A true treasure, just like our friendship! I know this isn't my art work but Laura's(I got permission to post this way) however, I thought it only fair to show her book since she used mine for the challenge inspiration!

So I guess in a round about way you eventually see my work and hers, just not in the conventional way-which is just how we like it!

It is School Time

Goodbye lazy summer days! It is time for the new year to begin. Yes, any mother in her right mind knows that the new year starts Sept. 1st! Whoever thinks the new year starts in January is completely off her rocker!

I'm sure many of you are like me in some ways, eager to get back to the "normal" schedule of life. Get out all the new shiny crayons and put clean pads of notebook paper into brand new 3-ring binders. Organize drawers, closets, and backpacks. Get schedules and calendars organized. Oh, the beginning of the school year it is still my favorite. I hear many a mother claim,"Oh, I can't wait for school to start!" This has many conotations as you can imagine.

However, the new school year looks a bit different for our family than it did for me as a grade school girl off to catch the bus in my new plaid skirt my mother made for me. The Lord in all His gracious wisdom has lead our family down the homeschooling path, which is a bit different, but,very exciting none the less! I thought it would be fun to share what it looks like for us come September :o)! This is what "Oh I can't wait for school to start" means to me:

• New paper and crayons, notebooks and pencils.


• New clothes and new shoes-we have to capitalize on all those sales of course!


• Organizing schedules and calenders and organize all our meals. No, I am not a Martha Stewart wannabe, it is completely for survival purposes. My family likes to eat. However, I like to do other things with "my time" other than cook (like write, blog, craft, do art, read, make gifts etc.) SO... I do this so they won't starve and I survive mentally- get it?! It also helps me keep our groceries within budget and keep us eating well balanced home cooked meals which I really want for my family too.


• I am also busy, busy, in August preparing lesson plans, curriculum, field trips,co-op, lessons, sports registrations, ballet lessons, music lessons, gym activities and other fun opportunities for our learning, as well.


• I clean out our school room with the help of three little schoolroom elves(my kids-who by the way are benefiting from this home school thing!) We have a great time looking through all that was accomplished last year and organizing it and making room for the new things of this year. Cleaning and organizing their desks and work areas with all that is needed for the school year.


• This year we decorated a half finished schoolroom. I am pleased with the results. This summer I sewed the cushion for the window seat, my chair, and the lace curtain on the bay window. I painted the post on the stairs, my husband finished the carpet on the stairs-nice job honey! I refurbished an old frame in the attic into a bulletin board and we networked the room with a printer and laptop. I also added some decorative elements to the room for my enjoyment and my mom, bless her heart, gave me all the decorative pillows on the window seat. They are from her own home and fit perfect with what I have going on!

This might be different than what you are thinking the beginning of school to look like. While this may sound overwhelming it really isn't! How can that be you ask? Because it is a desire of my heart placed there by the Lord. When the Lord calls you to do something for Him, he also places the desire in your heart and fuels that desire through the prompting of the Holy Spirit!

Thankfully, I don't do all this in my own strength! Not only is the Lord with me, so is my family and we work together towards the common goal of life long learning. This is a large part of what homeschooling looks like for us. It is not all about me exhausting myself and being in control, I gave that up a long time ago...it is just not worth it and besides it wasn't a very good example to the very ones I was trying to influence, our children.

I hope that as you get ready for school, whatever that may look like for you and your family, I pray that the Lord will bless you, inspire you but most of all continue to teach you, may you always be a student ready to learn from the greatest teacher of all!

Layers of Color Challenge- Metal

Here is this weeks entry for the Layers of Color challenge-Metal. Awesome challenge! I enjoyed this one, especially since I wanted to make a Baptism gift for V. I am really excited to give this gift because I hope that it will be a true Ebenezer in this gals life, that's why I made it. I used upholstery tacks for the metal requirement. On the pink fiber is a LOC Cross charm I made from shrink plastic. I added a bible verse around the

edge of the piece along with gold metallic picot trim to add just a bit of shine. I also used LOC Fleur Heart stamp with glimmer paints to add texture to one side.

To remind her to live transformed. I love the imagery of the butterfly. I like to use it to represent the life of the believer and our journey with Christ.

As it says in:

Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what

God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It has been a delight to see the Lord transform this wandering soul into a child of God. I have watched her shed her old wings of life to become a new creation in Christ Jesus. What a joy it is to welcome another child of God into the Kingdom of Heaven...can you hear the angels rejoicing?