I know it has been OVER a month since I posted on here. So today I thot I'd give you a rundown of life here in NC. It will be short and sweet as I will only hit the high spots. :D
After vacation with Tim's mom in September, we had revival here at our church. But, it was a little different than usual this time as Tim actually did a series on Defeating Evolution.
Then, it was "on the road again" as we spent a week in Talcott, WV as Tim preached revival for Bro. Stalnaker at the Rollynsburg Baptist Church. That is where we attend the Mountain Missions Bible Conference in July and spend the week in the cabin down on the Greenbrier River. Such a peaceful place!
The weather has been beautiful! A couple of weeks ago on Tim's day off, we headed west to do some leaf peeping in the mountains of NC. We headed to Mt. Mitchell, which is at an elevation of 6,684 feet and is the highest point east of the Mississippi. The drive up to it was beautiful. But, when we got up in the clouds, it was a totally different story! The wind was whipping fiercely, it was cold and the mist of the clouds made it downright nasty since the sun was totally blocked out! (It was just like our visit to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Forest in Maine, Jeanne!) So, needless to say, we got out long enough to go into the visitor's center and then left! Once down below the clouds, we enjoyed the scenery again! That was 3 hour trip one way! We had planned ahead, however! We had address to thrift stores that we could hit on the way back home! :D
Last week, on Tim's day off, we visited our beloved Pilot Mountain. However, I was not feeling great, so we did NOT do any hiking around the knob. We just took some pictures and left. We went north to Mt. Airy to do some thrifting. But, not feeling great, I was done after a couple. We ate lunch at Aunt Bea's Barbecue and headed back home. By the time we got home I had a not-so-nice headache. So I took some meds and laid down for awhile. Feeling much better in an hour or so, I asked Tim if he wanted to hit our regular thrift stores, so we did that and then came home.
That brings me to this week and the effects of Hurricane Sandy. We are blessed in living a little over 4 hours away from the coast. The effect on us has been minimal. Cooler temps, overcast skies and windy. We had a light frost this morning. It is just now reaching about 42* at 9:30. And I am praising the Lord for his watch care over our family members in other areas of the eastern portion of the U.S. Especially Michael and his family who were basically in the direct line of the hurricane.
Now, creativity-wise, I have been doing some art journaling. I know you are probably wondering what in the world art journaling is. It, quite simply, is journaling that is done with/along with art. LOTS of people do this in physical journals using paint and other things (mixed media). I tried that but didn't like it. So, I'm doing it digitally. There are no rules with art journaling. Remember the old saying, "if it feels good, do it?" Well, that's kinda the way it is in art journaling. Since there are no real hard and fast rules to follow, you are just creating something that has begun with a thought or some bit of inspiration. Let me show you what I mean. For those of you who see my facebook posts, these pages will be repeats, but you will get some of my thought processes behind the pages, too. And I'll bring out some of the "hidden" things in the pages, too. I'm only going to show you a couple because this post is getting rather long. I'll share some more tomorrow......I PROMISE!!! :D
This page is a mix between a regular layout and art journaling. You would not believe how many "pieces" actually make up this page! Lots of blending went on here (which is a process used in changing the looks of your photos, etc, like digital clip art used in these pages). These photos were taken at Pilot Mountain last week. The photo on the left had a distracting bright area that I covered up with the yellow daisy. The shadow picture of Tim and I to the right of the other photo (under the poem) was "blended" into the "paper" below it. The original photo shows a sidewalk and grass that I did not want in the final product, so I did some blending and erasing to get just the shadows showing. I also reduced the opacity so the poem would show up for ease of reading. Above these shadows and still behind the poem you can see a butterfly. This butterfly is the exact same butterfly that you see at the bottom left of the page. It has just been changed by "blending" it into the background paper that I added the shadow picture to. All of the flowers are separate "layers" that I used to give the bottom of the page more "balance" and interest as it was too plain compared to the top of the page. There are tags, borders and stitches that all make up the bits and pieces used to create this page.
Now, here is an art journaling page. As you can see, there are no photos. This page is made up entirely of clip art with some added journaling. My inspiration for this page was a pocket calendar (one of those 2-year planners in the plastic pockets) I bought at Dollar Tree last week. The cover of the planner (shown below) is a perfect example of a physical (not digital) art journaling page where someone would paint the background with the flowers and then add some little pieces of paper with the different typesets on it for the journaling. The journaling, flowers and butterflies were my inspiration! Cilenia Curtis's kit (see credits and links below) that I used for the above page, too, has those wonderful daisies and butterflies that I am just totally in love with! As you can tell, the "doll" was made out of the same kit (which is free, btw). So, using my inspiration and my digital clip art in her kit, this page consists of 1 background (paper), at least 25 daisies (6 of them blended into the background paper), 1 butterfly and the art doll. And I added the journaling using different fonts (Times New Roman and Scrap Script). You could EASILY print out the flowers, butterfly, doll and journaling, cut them out and adhere them to a painted canvas or scrapbook paper!
"Follow Your Art - Together" by Cilenia Curtis at Scrap Art Studio
Papers here: http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_128&products_id=961
Elements here: http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_128&products_id=960
FREE Doll here: http://www.scrapartstudio.com/new-fya-release-together-a-freebie-from-the-fya-designers/
Bundle (used in top page) here: http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_128&products_id=962
I got the inspiration for this page during Tim's sermon on Sunday. He preached on Jesus, the door to our salvation and, among other verses, used the one shown on the page. I asked the designers at Scrap Art Studio if any of their kits had a door in it. One of the designers, Lynne Anzelc (aka Aria) had taken several photos of doors and extracted them from the backgrounds, but has not yet put them in any kits. I told her which one I liked and she sent me the clip art file. I further extracted the door from the frame so I could show it as an open door. I found a free picture of Jesus on the web and added some rays of light of my own making, along with the elements, etc of one of Lynne's kits (see credits and links below) and this is what I came up with!
"Follow Your Art - Together Bundle" by Aria (aka Lynne Anzelc)
"Bundle" means, several packs combined together to save you money. Find it here:
http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_130&products_id=956
And, last but not least for today, a page that was inspired by the background paper you see with the tree. All of the items used are from another kit of Lynne's (credits and links below). And the prose I found on the internet. I googled the few words on the back cover of the 2-year planner above, "Where Autumn, like a faint old man" to find the whole piece. I highlighted some of the words in the poem by making them a different font.
"Color Play 3" by Aria (aka Lynne Anzelc)
Papers: http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_130&products_id=858
Elements: http://www.scrapartstudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=127_130&products_id=860
OK, dear family and friends! That's it for today! Took me an hour and a half to create this for you! Hope you enjoyed my little catch-up play and some insight to my "artistic" musings! Love you all!
