Adalina Grace

Tim and I made the trip to WV to see our 8th grandchild, Adalina Grace Day.  Our youngest son, Nathanael and his lovely wife, Cheryl are the proud parents of this beautiful baby girl!  Enjoy the photos!  She was 3 weeks old on Wednesday, August 28th.  She was born on August 7th and weighed 8 lb. 13 oz. and was 20 inches long!

Passport to Art Day 2

Today's page had a journaling prompt:
How adventurous are you?  Would you turn up at an airport and buy a ticket to anywhere?  Or do you like every part of your trip to be booked in advance?

I love a new adventure, but I am totally HORRIBLE at making decisions!  I could personally turn up at an airport and buy a ticket to anywhere.........where to would be the hard part!  There are so many places I want to go that I don't know where I would want to go first.....or second, or third............you get my drift!  Tim is the one who plans out just about every minute of every hour of every day of our vacation trips.  We usually go and do what he wants to in the mornings and what I want in the afternoons.  But, I'm usually tired and totally satisfied to just go back to the hotel!  That is the best plan of action for us.  How about you?  How would you respond to the journaling prompt?

Here's the page I ended up with:

 My process:
1.  Gesso'd the page (used 2 pieces of painter's tape to make a "crossroads" for the map below the gesso and paint to show through)
2.  Using acrylic paints, painted the green layer and then used bubble wrap and the blue paint.
3.  Lifted the painter's tape.
4.  Printed the verse, quote and journaling on 4x6" scrapbook paper.
5.  Stamped a flourish on both verse and quote and then cut them in strips.
6.  Stamped a tag around the journaling.
7.  Found a crossroads post from clker dot com, added the text, printed and colored it in.
8.  Added everything to the page then stamped the doodle arrows.

I also worked on putting more photos in albums.  I need more albums or refill pages before I can do any more, however!  Just in time for us to visit the thrift stores tomorrow and hopefully find what I need!  We are going to the Greensboro area for a change of scenery!

Passport to Art

Passport to Art is an art project that began July 1st and went through the whole month of July.  It is a travel theme with quotes and scripture verses to use as prompts for each page.  We could use one or the other and I have chosen to use both the quote and the scripture.  This project is an altered book project, an atlas, preferably, but not absolutely necessary.  Even though this was a July project, it can be done at any time.  That is why I am just now beginning to work on mine since this summer has been crazy busy.

The first thing I had to do was find an atlas.  The atlas/book needed to be the kind with stitched "signatures" not glued.  So, the search began in June for an atlas.  I've seen TONS of atlases.........until I needed one, of course!  But, alas!  I finally found one.  I had to pay $3.99 for it at Mega Thrift, which is more than I wanted to pay, but it was very nice and big and fit the requirements.  The size of the book is 9 1/4 x 12 1/2 inches.

Today, I had to reduce the number of pages in the atlas to allow for the "junk" that will be added to the pages.  That was no small feat since this particular atlas had well over 300 pages!

So, here is my first page which is an introductory type of page.  Below the picture is the process I went through to create it.  I got the inspiration from the woman who began the "challenge," Bernice Hopper.

My process:

1. Mask a strip across the page with painter's tape so some of the atlas would show through.
2. Gesso'd the entire page very lightly so some of the atlas would show through.
3. Sprayed Pumpkin Spice glimmer mist on the page and brushed it out to cover the page evenly.
4. Removed the painter's tape.
5. Printed out the quote and verse on 4x6 index card, cut into strips and inked the edges with my black Ranger archival ink pad.
6. Found the compass graphic from clker.com and printed it on some scrapbooking cardstock stash (which is what the green paper is, too).
7. Used a fancy ornament hanger by straightening out one of the ends to feed the "JOURNEY" letter beads onto.
8. Used a Studio g arrows stamp at the top and bottom with my Ranger black ink.
9. Arranged and stuck everything down with my Elmer's Dot Runner.
10. Decided to spice up the border with the dots (TheCraftersWorkshop.com, TCW317S is the product #).

 The next thing I got done today was another Faithbooking challenge.  To give you an idea of how I came up with the page, here is the "prompt" for the challenge that is given to us:

God’s Attribute: Dictionary.com describes create as "to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes." He created the universe out of nothing. He created everything by speaking it into existence and breathed life into each creation.  He is the only one worthy of the name Creator. He is Elohim!

How does this affect my daily life? As Creator, God has the right to do whatever He wants. God is not hidden; He is visibly displayed throughout creation! (Isaiah 40:21-24) Notice in Genesis 1-25, He creates the heavens and the earth, day and night, sky, land, seas, plants, trees, sun, moon, stars, creatures of the sea, birds, livestock, wild animals, etc. But then in Genesis 1:26, He creates man and woman. He created us last so that the earth was completely perfect and ready for us. He created us to have a relationship with Him and to bring Him glory. Even in the smallest of details, He created us. We are created for eternal fellowship with Him. We are created to worship Him. In Him, we are a new creation in Christ.

“. . . in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). 

Revelation 4:11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."

I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw this challenge. The second photo is one I found on the internet when I searched for galaxies. I used it as my inspiration. Here is my process:
1. Gesso'd the paper.
2. Thinned small amounts of acrylic paints to spray on in layers, allowing drying time in between each layer.
3. Sprayed gold glimmer mist on top of the acrylics, hoping to give the page a brighter, shiny look. That didn't really happen, unless you hold the book at an angle.
4. Typed and printed out the journaling. The song is from the 60's that I thought of that I used to sing in the choir.

 

Time for some more reading!

Faithbooking

I joined a group on facebook, Faithbooking, about the time the crazy summer activities began, so I hadn't had a chance to do any of the challenges there.  Well, the last several days I have taken the time to catch up on the last 4 weeks worth of challenges.

Faithbooking is art journaling about your faith.  So, what the challenges have been center around is the attributes of God using one word.  So, we were to do a page regarding the following:
1.  Holy
2.  Sovereign
3.  Protector
4.  Righteousness

Mine are very simple as I was trying to get caught up.

 Close up of the crown.  I really like how it turned out.  I used red and gold glitter glue and silver sequins.

Other than these pages, I've been working in getting all of my photos into books.  I don't believe how many pictures I have before going digital!  Plus, I want to get all of our vacation photos and paraphanalia (tickets, maps, etc) put together.  I've been buying photo albums at the thrift stores for this project.

Once I get the photos into albums, I want to put the photos in order by year.  So, it is a huge task!
I'm enjoying looking at the photos, however!  :D  Memories galore!

Busy Week

We were given some veggies from a couple at church right before we left last week, so I had to take care of canning or freezing them before they ruined.

Monday, I snapped and cooked these green beans with a ham bone I had saved and added some red potatoes to eat for dinner.  YUM!

 I prepared the 2 small cucumbers by cutting them in slices along with some onion slices and placed the veggies in a quart jar.  Then I poured a cup of cider vinegar in, 3/4 cup of sugar and filled the jar with water and shook it til the sugar was dissolved.  Tim loves this!  Mom used to fix cucumbers and onions like this all the time!

The only thing in this photo that wasn't given to us are the long, dark green bell peppers.  I'm glad none of them ruined while we were gone.

 This is all the banana and green peppers cut up for the freezer.  I use LOTS of green peppers AND onions when I cook!  This made a sandwich bag full!

 I boiled water and put all the tomatoes in it so the skin would peel off.  After I let the tomatoes cool and got the skins off, I blended all of them together and had about a quart.  But when I cooked them to prepare them for canning I ended up with about 3 cups.  I'll use it for soup, probably.

Tuesday - After we received the second batch of green beans, I decided to can the remainder of the first batch.  I got 2 quarts.  Then I used the same ham bone for the next batch.

 Here's the second batch of veggies given to us, after I had snapped the beans.  Tim helped me with this batch of beans.  He wasn't quite as picky about the bug bites on the beans as I had been!  :D

 When Tim went to pick up the veggies, he gathered all of the banana peppers shown in the picture above from one pepper plant.  I got 2 sandwich bags full for the freezer.

 This time for the tomatoes, after peeling the skins off I cut them up and got a quart-sized freezer bag full.

Here's the ham bone and ham that I used to flavor the 1st and 2nd batch of beans with.

 The second batch made 3 3/4 quarts of beans.  So, we will enjoy these goodies and are so thankful for Lorien and Carolyn Wooten sharing with us!

 Wednesday I needed to get a few grocery items, so while at Walmart I checked out their fall flowers because the pansies that were hanging in the pots all summer were just about shot.  I found these mums for $1.97 each, so I got 8 yellow ones and 8 purple ones.  I ripped out the pansies in the hanging pots around the carport and replaced them with the mums.  That took care of 8 of the 16 plants I bought.  It was time to get ready for church so I set the other 8 aside til Thursday.

 Thursday - Heavy dew this morning!  Cooler, and wonderfully comfortable temperature, too!  Tim and I did our regular 3 thrift stores before lunch at Pizza Hut and then 3 others after lunch.

 I saw this ceramic plaque at one of the thrifts and took a picture so I could reproduce it digitally.  Why buy it if you can make it yourself!  :D

Found this chair.  If it is not new, is sure looks like it is!

Found this storage container at Mega Thrift with no price on it.  We took it to someone who priced it for $2.99!  CHA-CHING!  SOLD!

So, the story on these books is that the "Mitford" series by Jan Karon was recommended to us while we were at the retreat last week.  The 6-book set in paperback sells for like $20 at Amazon.  We figured we could probably find them at the thrift store MUCH cheaper than that!  We found the 3 on the right that are stand up at Salvation Army for $0.25 each (according to the sign).  When we paid for them, however, they were 50% off!  Grand total for the 3 books.......$0.39!  CHA-CHING!!!  The others that are laying down we found at Goodwill.  They are not as cheap on their books, but still lots better than buying them new!  Paperbacks are $1.00 and Hardbacks are $1.50 or $1.75.

After thrifting and before going to dinner at "13 Bones" ribs, steaks and seafood restaurant, I planted the rest of the mums.  I put 2 more in pots and planted the other 6 in the front of the house. I need to find out what zone we are in cuz the might be perennials for us since we are further south, according to the plant tag.

 

 So, here's a look at the front of the house with all the plants, including 2 bushes Tim and I found at Lowe's that were marked down to $4.00.

 Here's a closer-up view of each side.

Here's an even closer view of the mums and the hostas

 And here's a closer view of the bushes we got!  If we can just keep them going!  They are evergreens according to the plant tag.  Our problem with growing things along the front of the house is that there is an overhang that keeps the plants right up next to the house from benefitting from the rain.  Everything has to be watered to survive and we have proven over and over again that we are not good at doing this.  These evergreens "say" they don't need much water.......after they have "settled" into their new homes.

 So, there you have it.  Another busy week!  Tomorrow, I think I need to take some "play" time in my craft room!  :D