A New Creation

I've been wanting to try acrylic paint in my Bible journal since I first began, but I'll be honest, this medium scared me to death. If you mess up, you can't come back from that--it's a commitment. Well, let me say it was way easier than I thought it would be! Rest easy, I promise. A friend recommended that I buy the cheapest acrylic paint they make, so that's just what I did. She noted that the cheaper paints don't bleed through the pages like some of the quality, thicker paints do. I used the keycard technique, where you dab the edge of a hotel keycard (or credit card/gift card) and run it along the page. This creates a very thin layer that you can still see through.

I then added smaller sections of pink, yellow, and green for highlights on the turquoise. Before I painted, I put a layer of wax paper underneath the page to protect any leaking through but nothing even soaked through! Amazing!

You can use a heat tool to set the paint if you have any thick spots, but I didn't really need it. The paint dried super quick. I had a paper towel on hand to help also, but really only used it to clean off the key card between colors.

Lastly, I used black stickers for the lettering and stamped my butterfly stamps using StaZon ink. This stamp set is the Papillon Potpourri from Stampin' Up!.

He is Risen!

I knew I wanted to do an Easter journal entry and I went several directions before I finally landed here--focusing on the cross and the fact that Christ arose rather than the crucifixion itself. I used my pastel oil chalks for this design. I'm starting to get comfortable with them, though the blending of the sunrise took me a while before I was happy with it. It's hard to cover up mistakes (or opportunities as I call them!) using this medium, but I managed. :)

I'm so thankful for what this journal entry represents in my life! Happy Easter everyone!

Breakfast with the Bunny

One of the things that I do working at the Tulsa Zoo is organize events. Mostly private events like weddings, company picnics, proms, etc, but a few times throughout the year my team puts together a ticketed event, such as Breakfast with the Bunny. This was the second year for the event and we ended up selling out the first session three weeks early and added a second session, which also ended up selling out!

A large part of this event revolves around photos with the Easter Bunny. This year we opted for a garden theme, including life size carrots, a windmill, and a real garden. Nicolas and I worked all week to build the windmill, Karen and I created the life size carrots, and with the help of our horticulture department, we successfully created a real garden for the display. It was a lot of work, but I was very pleased with the end result. I love a good challenge, and this display certainly had its challenges to work through. :)

To facilitate seating, we pre-assign tables for the guests. I always enjoy creating something cute that correlates with the theme of the event. I opted for round table number markers pulling the green and orange from the garden theme and adding little punch art bunnies. The bunnies are made from a few retired Stampin' Up! punches, but you could certainly substitute for something comparable. For these I used a small oval, small circle, and a flower petal for the ears.

Overall, it was a great day and we had an awesome turn out. The guests seemed to enjoy it and I'm so proud of my team for putting together an awesome event for zoo guests!

Easter carrot

Easter is right around the corner, and there's nothing more that I enjoy than sharing holiday treats with friends! For my monthly stamp club this month, we focused on Easter goodies, and this Easter sour cream container was the 3D project we made. It's filled with Starburst jelly beans-YUM! These are pretty simple to make and replicate in batches, so I whipped up 12 of these little guys to give to some of my work friends at lunch this week.

Sour cream container Designer Series Paper measures 6" x 4" before being adhered. I used the fringe scissors to make the top of the carrot.

Happy Easter!!

East to the West

Pastor Steve used Psalm 103:12 in his message Sunday and when I originally heard the scripture, I thought about doing a journal entry using a compass ("As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.") My mind wandered over the past couple of days, and when I finally sat down to journal the scripture I changed my mind and decided to use a globe instead of the compass.

This was my first experience with oil pastels. It was quite fun and I really enjoyed using this medium instead of the colored pencils for this entry. I always start my entry with a pencil outline, which was no different for this one.

I then started with my lightest green oil pastel and made marks over the images and used an applicator to blend the color into the image. After the lightest green, I added a darker green and blended, and continued doing this until I was happy with the coloring. Then I moved to the blues for the water. I outlined the globe and the continents with a black colored pencil, and used my trusty Micron 08 for the lettering.

Office Makeover

Hey crafters! Did you know you can take your favorite color of card stock and take it in and have paint matched to it?? That's how I paint all of the rooms in my house now. It makes coordinating colors simple and you can create handmade projects to match, if you want.

My in-home office needed a makeover and though I had not originally intended to paint the walls, dear hubby brought it up, so I ran with it. The color that our office was before the makeover was a deep burgundy--very dark. That's the color it was when we moved in 6 years ago and we never changed it. I don't have a good before picture of the office as I didn't think about capturing one until we already had all of the furniture out in the middle of the room and the paint tarps laid on the carpet. Phooey!

I decided to freshen it up a bit, and opted for Stampin' Up!'s Soft Sky for the wall color.

Feeling ambitious, I decided I wanted to paint our filing cabinet to freshen it up a bit too. This was my first experience with oil paint and let me just say I was not a fan! It takes forever to dry, it stinks to high heavens (we had to open all sorts of doors and windows in our two story house to breathe), and it is NOT fun to clean up after. Three strikes against it in my book, but nonetheless I am happy with the filing cabinet end result.

It's definitely brighter and this room is so much happier now that it's had a makeover!

Power in the Name of Jesus

This past Sunday we sang "No Other Name" in our worship set list. This journal entry was something I created that was inspired by that song and the many names of Jesus. The "Jesus" name was created by watching Zenspirations.

Elsa Punch Art

One of my friends adopted a little girl from China a while back. I've been following their journey on their private Facebook page throughout the process and have really enjoyed getting to know Lydia through the things that they have shared. I've never met this sweet little girl, but she has touched my life greatly (and so many others scattered around the globe). She has the sweetest smile and the transformation she's made from the first day she was adopted to now is truly remarkable. She turns 4 next week, and her mom posted recently that Lydia enjoys receiving mail. So of course I wanted to send her a homemade Birthday card. Lydia loves Elsa (from Frozen-duh) so I knew immediately that I wanted to create a punch art Elsa card for her. I hope Lydia enjoys this Birthday card as much as I enjoyed making it for her and have enjoyed getting to know her over the time she's been a part of the Moore family.

Most of the punch stuff was free-handed or used retired punches, but you could find comparable current punches I'm sure.

How Deep, Wide, High, Long

Kari Jobe is one of my favorite worship artists. We sing many of her songs in our worship at church. This past Sunday we sang "Only Your Love" which is based on the scripture Ephesians 3:18-19--"...together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know his love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Every time I hear or sing this song, when we sing the bridge "How deep, how wide, how long, how high" I imagine in my mind a river flowing down from the mountains that grows and grows. So, when I pulled this scripture up in my journal bible this week, this image is what I have in my mind when I sing about Christ's love for us.

No Weapon Formed Against You

This week has been a real struggle in regards to sickness. Everyday someone close to me was asking for prayer for one type of illness or another. It was one of those "when it rains it pours" surreal moments. I created this journal entry several days ago, and because I've been redoing my home office (more on that later), my computer has been inaccessible so I'm just now getting around to posting it. However, this scripture has been one that I've been standing on for all of my loved ones battling sickness in one form or another this week. If you're in the midst of a struggle or a burdensome week, use this scripture of faith to help encourage you.

Stash of Cards

I'm always needing a birthday card, a thank you card, or even just an "I'm thinking of you" card, so I always like to create cards in bulk to always have a stash to pull from. I've been a Paper Pumpkin kit subscriber since it's inception and these quick and easy little kits are so awesome for having projects on hand. I pulled out some old Paper Pumpkin kits that I just hadn't had time yet to complete and went to work. These lovely cards were the end result. So easy. I opted not to do the threading portion of the cards for this project as the needle I had to work with was not as user friendly as I would've liked and got frustrated early on. But if I'd taken the extra time to find a needle with a larger head, the yellow yarn would've been a super cute touch on these fun filled cards. That's right folks...laziness in its purest form!

Not a Paper Pumpkin kit subscriber? It's super easy and for less than $20 a month you can get super easy, but adorable craft projects like this one that are designed for the busy person in mind--you can complete them in less than 30 minutes! Check it out here! Put in my name when asked for your Demonstrator!

Whom Shall I Fear?

Pastor Steve preached about overcoming fear and used Psalm 27 as his scripture text. We sing a worship song at our church called "The Everlasting" that was written from this chapter as well. It's always been such a powerful reminder to me that I have nothing to fear when I trust in the Lord. This journal entry was inspired from this scripture, "The Lord is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"

Engraved on His Palm

I have always loved the Scripture "I have engraved you on the palms of my hands..." because it shows me just how much I mean to God. It's an awesome reminder that He cares about me...little ole me.

Late Love

So, I'm a little late to the Valentine's party, but this was a card and treat box we created at our January club that I never shared. It would work well to give to anyone you love, regardless of the Hallmark pushed holiday. I specifically chose non-traditional Valentine colors for this project so that it was versatile all year and pretty gender neutral....Okay, so maybe it's a little gender driven. ;)

This project features the "Hello Life" stamp set and would be very easy to replicate if giving to many guests for favors. You also can't tell it from this picture, but the Bermuda Bay hearts display a beautiful "faux suede" technique making your project bump from simple to wow in a couple of easy extra steps!

Hello Life

Last month I hosted a card making class to create 20 greeting cards to help people stock up on their card stash. This class used the "Hello Life Project Kit" to make all 20 cards. The process was pretty easy, but a little tedious considering there were 20 cards and separate instructions for most. But we had a great time and ended the night with 20 handmade cards ready to send out at a moment's notice!

Have a Cuppa

For my monthly club class, we made a bright and cheery "feel better" card to go along with a little treat pouch that would hold a bag of tea--a cute little gift for your favorite friend who is feeling a bit under the weather.

This project features the "A Nice Cuppa bundle" which features the "A Nice Cuppa" photopolymer stamp set coupled nicely with the coordinating "Cups & Kettle" framelit dies.