PAJWLH- Super fun technique using stuff you already have

So this week, I wanted to share a fun technique with you to create this fun textured bloom. Looking at this you might think that it is acrylic paint or tar medium, but this is actually just regular old crayons with a hot glue gun. I had this epiphany one day when I saw all of the fun stuff you could do with crayons and thought, well why not take it a step further?

So here is a video that I made to share with you how I got this effect as well as some trouble shooting tips on how to approach this. (MAKE SURE TO TURN MY BLOG MUSIC OFF BEFORE YOU LINK THROUGH)



For this weeks prompt, we are going to use this technique, or you can just use crayons and create your cover. Now your cover should reflect who you are... My cover here is from a class that I taught at Seaside Soire (please check this out, you will love what Charity Wings has in store for this next year!!!). During the class I shared a little bit about myself and my creative journey. My creative journey has not always been a pretty one, I have had a lot of ups and downs working in the craft industry, as shocking as it may seek, not every day starts with glitter and ends with sequin :) But through the ups and downs I have learned to rely on what matters most to me and that is who I think I am and who God thinks I am. So this journal became an anthem to the positive things that happened to me, that in which I could be reminded of the blessings even in the storms. Kinda the theme we have been running on, right?

Now I don't talk much about what has happened to me with my experiences because I do believe those to be private and in no way wish to bring harm anyone, that is the beautiful think about forgiveness... eventually it frees you to live the abundant life you were meant to be. But hurt can torture, tear at you especially when it has been at the hand of someone you hold dear.

What I can say about my journey is that it is a little different than that of my friends as my whole family has been involved, my husband has worked in this industry for the last 3 years as well. So this makes our journey a family one, which also brings pains and trials on us all. The reason why I mention this is that through the ups and the downs in life, we have a choice to decide who it is that we rely on for our words of encouragement, as well as the words that label us. I will say it again (because I can not stress just how amazing Brave Girls Camp is!!!) but one of the lessons that I learned at Brave Girls Camp was to find my source of truth, and maintain it at all cost. My source of truth is God because God's opinion of me will never change, through my ups and downs God is the one constant in my life, cheering me on towards my purpose in life.. it is so easy for us to give up on our selves when we think we are the only ones involved. So besides recommending attending brave girl camp or signing up for soul restoration (the online version) what I can offer to you is to trust who your truth teller is, know that no matter what the truth that they share will never EVER change of you, no matter what. I highly recommend someone who is not a constant in your life as man will always change and not always in a good way... that's what we do we are human.

Through my journey in finding my way back to who I was and realizing who I  wasn't... my soul filled with music (that is usually what moves me) and I would hear the same songs over and over again. This is one song that reminded me that no matter what anyone else had to say about me, that I was still me... deep down inside, I was still the original girl God had planned all those years ago. As well it helped me to realized just how many masks, walls, shields I had put up because of the words that others had said about me and that I had let penetrate my heart.

So here is the song, if you have a chance... I highly recommend listening to it, I am sure we all can relate to it even just a little.




This week will be a series of prompts, choose which ones work for you, but I think they will all work well together, and have some fun techniques too :)

Prompt:

• Use the technique video to inspire you to create the cover of your art journal
• Find your inspiration to create your title for your journal, a title that reflects who you are, and what you have to offer this world :)
• Use last weeks prompt to take the words you wrote down and decide who really knows you and what you feel your purpose is. 

I hope that this prompt makes sense, I know that this has been a fun one for me, as well as a good one for me to really think about. Let me know what you think, also let me know what you think of the video, I tried a new upload technique that took a while, but I think the quality came out fairly nice.

Thanks for joining me today!

~Liz ♥

The Real Me... PAJWLH

 So here we are in March, already half way through. This month, this year just creeps up on me. Not sure if you all feel the same way, but it is flying by, almost a third of quarter of the way done. SHEESH!

We missed last weeks prompt due to my mid terms and our family getting sick, but I wanted to go ahead and get the ball rolling for next week. For this weeks prompt we are going to work on the cover of our journal (remember in January I had mentioned, we would be doing a project on this?). So for this weeks prompt we are going to take a simple step towards this.

Next week we are going to work on the cover and I am going to share some techniques and products that I used to create this journal cover. This journal was a class I created at Seaside Soire in California for  

Charity Wings. This event I have taught at for the last two years, yet this year, the teachers we came together for a beautiful set of classes that just were cohesive and inspirational (love ya Jen and Cheryl!).

In this class I shared a bit about me, who I am in art, life as a mother, wife, child... just a little deeper than I normally would. Normally this would seem a bit unconventional, but this was the moment to do so. This next week we will be digging in a little deeper, last month we talked about relationships, this month is going to be about us. 

Here is a close up of one of my FAVORITE techniques... you will love it!

 Here is a fun adhesive technique....

An eclectic title using the stamps I designed for Unity Stamp Co.

And COLOR who doesn't love COLOR?

So I hope you will join me next week as I take a the FULL week (to catch up with the month) but also to share a full page of techniques to get you started.

So here is the prompt (homework) to get us started for next week:

• create a list of words you would use to describe yourself, take a day and write this down and then put it away, don't add anything else to it.
• take a different day and ask those closest (friends and family members) to you a few words that they would use to describe you.
• Take a different day and ask acquaintances for a few words that they would use to describe you. These could be people that you see but don't work with on a regular basis, or casual people you see once in a while.
• After you have collected your lists, make a new list of how you see yourself, after you have talked to people, make this list at the end of the day.
• Keep these lists separate. 

Sound a little strange? Well hopefully it will all make sense... next week. Regardless, we will have some fun and I am excited to share some fun videos and such with you.

So this weeks prompt, aka homework is pretty simple... we will use this for next weeks project :)

Until then,  we are taking the kids to Estes Park today for a little hiking and exploring, our first day out since our week of sickness. I hope this is the first day of full health for us :)

See you all Monday :)

~Liz ♥

Fancy Pants fun with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Today is my day to share on the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog.

We are partnering with Fancy Pants Designs this month and having a fun giveaway and blog hop. I decided to make a fun little mini album with a Fancy Pants album I had in my stash, I cut it in half so that it could be a true mini album, plus give me a little extra to make another album later if I want. I share a few fun ways of using Keepsake Pockets on the blog so you will want to make sure to check it out :)

Make sure to check out the fun giveaway we are doing on the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog. It has so great Fancy Pants and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L products.

Thanks for peeking :)

~Liz ♥

PAJWLH- Discernment Part 2 and a little fun with Courtney Walsh

So this last month we have talked about relationships for our art journal project. With our last prompt on discernment and understanding how we can better help friendships, with this post I really wanted to talk about friendships...true friendships. 

This is a page that I made to record a special moment that I shared with a friend. Along this same theme, I was asked by my dear friend Courtney Walsh to help her out with the promotion of her new book 

A Sweethaven Summer. Courtney has written two craft books and this is her debut fiction novel. I was fortunate to have met Courtney while she was writing this book so to see it come to fruition is not only exciting for her, it is also exciting for me to see all of her hard work pay off.

When I met Courtney, I was surprised how much we had in common. My family had just moved to Fort Collins in 2009 and she and her family had moved to Fort Collins exactly one year later. Our lives have paralleled to where, Courtney jokingly says that she is living my life, just one year later.  I am a firm believer in things happening for a reason, and since the beginning of our friendship, I felt that pull in my heart knowing that both Courtney and I were brought together for a reason. These reasons have revealed themselves as we have taken turns encouraging each other and cheering each other on in our lives. With our experiences being so similar, it wasn't totally surprising that we had both had our hardships in relationships/friendships as well. These hardships prepared us to see in each other the qualities that we valued in true friendships. I am very fortunate to have a friend like her and I hope you will take a moment to check out her promotion that she is running on her blog.

It is hard to have friends. Sometimes friends take more out of us, than we have to give. Sometimes friends are in a different place in their lives than we are. Friends are not always the blessing on our lives that they are meant to be. I have gotten to a point in my life where I now value the few true soul friends that I have rather than the massive amount of friends that I might have held close in the past. I have realized that good friends are so hard to come by, yet NOT hard to maintain. Good friends don't fault you for time apart, yet they pick right back up where you left off. These friends should be held close and treasured. In my heart of hearts, I want to be the type of friend that loves, gives cherishes my heart and soul friends even if the list of these friends is short. I have learned the hard way that quality is what I need in a friend... not quantity.

So with this page, I wanted to have a little something to remind me of a special moment that I shared with a friend. A time that I was blessed to have this person in my life. This page acts as a reminder in my journal that there are people in my life that make me happy. This page (I will refer to these pages as Little Victories) is just one of the many blessings I want to record in my art journal. There have been to many pages in  art journals that are therapeutic or maybe dark, I really want to be able to look back (or have my children look back) at an art journal that is true to who I am and part of this is recording the good along with the not so good.

So for this prompt, I am going to make it pretty easy :) Here ya go!

Prompt:

• make a page for a friend, or to record a way a friend has blessed your life.

• Use NO PAINT (No acrylic or water based paints, inks are fine)
• Use scraps in a creative way (as a border, basket weaved, as a stitch, to create your background)

If you are joining us today for the first time and are wondering about our art journal project, feel free to check out the link here to our year long free art journal workshop. This will link you to the getting started page and you can follow the link from here to the first posts page.

Thanks again, for joining me :) This was the first page I had ever made without paint, I guess I never tried to do it any other way, lol. I hope this encourages you to enjoy a different medium to create with, even if it is just paper :)

~Liz ♥

Guest Blogger: Jennafer Martin PAJWLH

Some of you may know Jennafer Martin as the Senior Editor of Creating Keepsakes Magazine. That is how I originally met her at a lunch meeting for a company that I use to work for. I am so glad that I was able to really get to know Jennafer through the years and to find out what a beautiful heart she has and her gift of helping others. . Besides working for Creating Keepsakes, Jennafer is also a business owner at zoesoulspa.com.  She does some amazing things with her gifts. From what I have noticed about her,  she has a very special way of understanding a persons heart and that is why I asked her to join us this month as a guest blogger. She enjoys many different types of crafting. I love how she incorporated the theme into her project. 

From Jennafer: 

Relationships Are Important to the Heart & Spirit  

Amanda and me, 2011

My younger sister, Amanda, is one of the most important people in my life. She always has been, although I didn’t always know it. We’re very different from one another, so different that people who knew us growing up seldom believed we were related. Those differences as well as just being sisters paved the way for many arguments and rivalries. And even though, in an attempt to patch up fights and help us understand the importance of this relationship in our lives, our mother would often tell us “Friends come and go, but you’ll always be sisters”, I still sometimes found myself wishing to be an only child. 

That’s the way it is with sisters, right?

These days, my sister’s importance in my life is a given, and one I’m grateful for. Amanda and I are still very different people, and we lead different lives. She’s an environmental biology major and I was an English major. She’s a wife and fabulous mom to my niece and nephew, and I’m an unattached mom to feathered kids. We think differently and have different talents and gifts. But we also are great friends and learn a lot from one another. I’m incredibly proud of her and proud to be her sister. Our mother was right: friends have come and gone, but we’ve remained and always will be sisters. And I’m so thankful for that.


What are some of the most important relationships in your life? Whether they are romantic or platonic, familial or business, relationships are a big part of what makes up the fabric of our lives. They offer us support, challenge us, and help us grow and enjoy life. They also help our spiritual wellbeing. Because the essence of spirituality is connection—to people, to purpose, to ourselves, and more—connecting with others through relationships helps to ground and center us, reminding us that we’re not alone and that we’re loved, that our lives have meaning and purpose. Relationships lift us, get us in touch with our truths, and give us perspective to get beyond the day-to-day stresses and move forward. That they add joy to our lives is a plus.

In honor of relationships being such a large part of our hearts and spirits, I created this necklace to accentuate the importance of that heart connection with rose quartz and rhodochrosite beads. Both of these gemstones exude love, connection & healing, strengthening the heart chakra---things relationships give us as well.

  

It was simple to create by stringing the beads first and then cutting and threading tubing to finish. It makes a great gift to give to someone you love or a gift to yourself to remember those you love.

This week, I encourage you to make time to connect with someone important in your life. Whether you enjoy a good conversation or a fun activity together, be present and enjoy that connection. Let it relax and rejuvenate you and add meaning to your life.

Oops.

So looking at our last prompt for PAJWLH, I never thought about how intimidating the "Sketch" part would be. I am so sorry. I guess being a student has me excited about what it is that I am learning and eager to share it with you all. Looking back at the post though, lol... I guess I really didn't do the best job of explaining it. I hope that you see this prompt as a light hearted attempt to further our skills together. I do hope that you can attempt sketching to some degree, and if not... no worries :) That is the purpose of this journaling workshop is that it act as small prompts and lessons that anyone can attempt, ala carte.

On another note, I haven't had a chance to do my last two pages... I have been overwhelmed with school work since I returned home from CHA. On my few spare moments I have been trying to catch up with my kids and husband. It has been a whirlwind of a time and jam packed with deadlines all crammed into a small period of time. Now I know, don't take a week off of school when you are taking 15 units. Period. I have been swimming in assignments this last three weeks and finally this week I feel like I am coming up for air. It is crazy busy but exciting. I am in love with being a student, especially an art student.

The funny thing about having my head stuck in books this last few weeks is that now that I have some time to notice what is going on around me, I have noticed that my housework has fallen by the wayside. I told a friend yesterday that it looks like I am hoarding clean laundry (because my husband actually washed it all for me!) and dust bunnies. I would be the first to admit, housework is not my forte. Balancing this new life of mine is going to be a learning curve. Finding a new normal is never easy, especially when it involves housework :)

So tonight I am hoping to wrap up my last two pages as well as finish up a project that I am working on for my friend, Courtney Walsh's new book (A Sweethaven Summer) release. I will go ahead and post it tomorrow, hopefully along with Part 2 of the last prompt and my pages (fingers crossed).

So I hope you will forgive me for the scary prompt :) and join me tomorrow as I share a new prompt and art work.


~Liz ♥

PAJWLH- Discernment Part 1

 Discernment. What is this word exactly? I honestly can say that this word was not an active part of my vocabulary till about 15 years ago. I guess as a kid growing up, you never really have to think to much about discerning..or making the right choice a lot of grace is given when you are younger because well... when you are young you are still learning. To me, the word discernment has become pivotal these last few years. These last few years have been tough on me, but the one thing that I can say it that my definition and sense of discernment has been heightened. I know that the optimist will argue that in every trial there is still a lesson to learn, or at least there is hope of a brighter outcome, but going through the trials and the muck... the optimist in us generally is a little  quiet. Even in the toughest of times, the tightest of deadlines the one thing that I have learned to appreciate is TIME. I have learned that TIME is MINE to control. In any situation, I have the ability to take control of MY TIME. It might be tough in some situations, especially when you are dealing with others, but in reality we all have the ability to work towards making time our own again. This is the one thing that I am so grateful for when dealing with transition or painful times. Taking the time to heal, to think, to process... it is so tough when we are right smack dab in the middle of our situation. Sometimes clarity comes when we can walk away and clear our heads. This is the time that I find that my discernment is strengthened. I treasure this time to process things and to figure out how it is that I could better myself from the situation and as well decide just how much weight I am going to allow for this to take effect on to my life and what I have to offer. During times of discernment, I can process my emotions, my thoughts re-evaluate my actions and decide how I can learn from the situation to better myself and my decision making. I have seen so many relationships deteriorate because this time of discernment (cooling off period) was not allowed. This is something I have had to learn the hard way. I am not always the most level headed. I am a tender person and have sometimes jumped to the wrong conclusions because I have let my emotions make decisions for me. Being able to process my thoughts and emotions has helped me so much in evaluating my judgement on situations and how I handle them. Another thing to consider in your discernment is the value and weight of opinion that you allow some one to hold over you.  In the past, I have often blamed myself in some situations because of the trust that I put into those who were around me. This is something that has thoroughly helped me when I consider the situation that I may be in, as well as the value of the opinion of those that I may be in a misunderstanding with. It is so easy for someone to define what they think of you, the hard part is trusting yourself to discern the worth of their opinion. Most of the time these nay sayers have a 0 value of opinion, but because someone...ANYONE would quantify your value verbally... we take 100% offense to their opinion. Remember, their opinion... is THEIR OPINION. It is not truth, sometimes there might be a bit of truth that we can learn from, but that does not mean that 100% of their opinion needs to rest on your shoulders. Discern the true weight and value that YOU see their opinion as, take a truthful look at yourself and decide just how much is their opinion truly worth to you.

This idea of discernment has helped me tremendously. So much that I have a second part of this segment that I will share on Monday along with my page using today's prompts.

For today's art journal prompt I want to share a series of elements that we can use together to create a page.SO I guess this will work more as a challenge as opposed to an actual step by step. So here it goes!

PROMPT:

For your page- USE A CLEAR ITEM. You can layer the clear item on top of other elements or use it by itself.

Some ideas for your base surface:

• plastic wrap
• sandwich bag
• acrylic page
• acetate
• page protector

Because this is a non porous surface, you will want to use elements that work well with this. So a few ideas are:

• acrylic paint
• alcohol inks
• markers (permanent, solvent based)
• ink pads (Staz-On- Solvent)

Some techniques to consider:

• crumble your plastic
• add a little heat to contort your plastic
• twist your plastic
• punch shapes or holes in it with die cuts or crop-a-dile 

 Now that you have your surface and elements. Here is a twist.... Now this is mostly because I just had the most amazing time in my sketch class... but for this page, let's give a try at sketching/drawing. There are tons of tutorials on You tube so I won't bore you with my beginners knowledge but I will give you a tip that helped me IMMENSELY with my recent sketch I did for class. When I was having a tough time attempting my sketch (see below image of my daughter), My teacher suggested that I do some larger strokes to outline my direction, he also had me identify my mid point of my subjects face as well as draw a semi-circle defining the view point of my subject as well as the position of the eyes. From there you continue to do loose sketching adding cheeks, ears, and other features until you get a basic face form that you can then start to work some detail in. I used a 2B graphite pencil for my sketch as it is a light pencil and easy to erase. Here is my beginning sketch as well as my final attempt for your reference. Oh I almost forgot... another great suggestion that my drawing teacher gave to me was to PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! He told me to try my sketch at least 10 times so that I felt comfortable with it. This totally helped me, as it really helped my brain to process and memorize the image I was attempting so that when I went in to finalize the one I liked best, I now knew my image really well so I could catch mistakes as I made them.

This might be a tough idea to process but it is a FUN FUN FUN technique to know. I would never have thought that my illustrations would go anything beyond what I learned in 1st grade, but allowing myself to try and not doubting myself really helped me to bridge the gap in my confidence. You can do it too. remember, no one ever needs to see this if you don't choose to let them. Even so, we are usually our toughest critic, so if we can get over doubting ourselves... chances are other will be blessed by your work.

 Here is my final sketch, I used only the 2B pencil, so I might go in with some darker valued pencils later. Overall I am really in love with it :)

 Here is the original, you can see that my daughters perspective is a bit different in the sketch than it is in the original. Eh... it's a little thing, but I notice in hopes that it will train me and refine my skills.

 Here is how I started my sketch, this is the loose drawing AKA gesture drawing that my teacher suggested. This totally made my work a ton easier, I highly recommend using this idea when attempting a face.

  And here are my practice girls. This is a full page of attempts. I highly highly highly recommend practicing as it honestly helps so much in refining your skills as well as allowing you to better understand your figure in which you wish to illustrate.

Since our surface is clear, I would suggest placing your sketch behind your surface and working onto of the clear surface as not to effect your sketch, but this is totally up to you... I am excited to see where you take this :) As always, if you have any questions about the prompt or sketching (again, I am beginning so please don't take my advice as what you would a professional, lol) just email me. I truly look forward to chatting with you and working along side you on this project.

Thanks for being a part of this fun project... I hope this message blesses you and that it encourages you to create something beautiful this weekend. I will go ahead and post my page on Monday with the second part of this prompt.

Thanks again, See you Monday!

~Liz