Kraft-y Hearts Blog Share: Family is Forever

Hi All! Welcome to the Kraft-y Hearts' September Blog Share! This month we'll be taking a look at Close To My Heart's September Stamp Of The Month: Family Is Forever. 

Now, on with the share! 

Have you ever started a project with one idea in mind only to have it morph into something completely different? Welcome to my world. I started out with a little 6x6 canvas and stamped the tree image from the Family Is Forever on it. I had visions of a beautiful fall ombre tree that ended up...well...not so beautiful. So it was back to the drawing board. And this is what I came up with instead:

I stamped the tree image and sentiment in Black Exclusive Ink on a 6x6 piece of kraft cardstock. I also stamped the top of the tree in Ruby Pigment Ink on a scrap of kraft cardstock and fussy cut the hearts. I adhered the red hearts over the ones on the tree with liquid adhesive. I used a paint brush and Colonial White Exclusive Ink to add a little pop of highlight to each heart. I then cut 2 slits in the cardstock on either side of "forever" and threaded through some of our Cranberry Striped Twill ribbon and tied it in a bow over the tree trunk.

Here are a couple of close-ups for you:

Before adhering the cardstock to the front of the canvass (using liquid adhesive), I inked the edges of the canvass and the cardstock with Black Exlusive Ink. I then went over the ink on the canvas with my ShinHan Touch Black marker to deepen the color. I also covered the outer edge of the canvas with more of the Cranberry Striped Twill Ribbon. When the adhesive on all that was dry, I adhered the cardstock to the front of the canvass.

Here's another look:

I didn't start out with a sort of primitive art look in mind, but it's what I ended up with, and I like it! Happy accidents are the best kind!

I hope you enjoyed this little project. Don't forget to hop on over and see what the oh-so-talented Lynn Darda has in store for you at From My Bungalow.

And as always, the Stamp Of The Month can be yours for $17.95 or for $5 with a $50 purchase.

Posted with Blogsy

We All Have Wings...But Some of Us Don't Know Why....

I enjoy all things winged--except the mosquito...it's hard to draw uplifting analogies from the mosquito. However, give me birds and butterflies, bees and dragonflies and I will have the time of my life creating with those images. There's something about flight that shouts "freedom." We talk about giving our souls and our hearts wings. We use terms like "soaring" and "flying" when we do what we love or when we experience joy. 

So lately I've been contemplating what it means to fly. (More specifically, what it means for me to fly.) It's more than doing what I want or even what I love. Those are part of it, but let's be honest, if doing what I want or what I love to do was the sum total of what it means to fly, I wouldn't get a whole lot of air time. Being a part of a family, a part of a community, naturally means that there will be a lot of time spent doing mundane things (like laundry) or less than thrilling things (like cleaning up after my children when they are sick). Things I'd rather not do. But does it follow that my wings get clipped and I get grounded every time I don't get my way? Ugh. There's no freedom in that. 

St. Irenaeus was purported to have said, "The glory of God is man fully alive." And it seems to me that the meaning of flight for me is found in that same idea. I fly when I am fully alive, when I am living in wide-eyed wonder drinking in all that God has created. When I am giving Him glory by choosing to do the mundane, or the less than thrilling, for no other reason than to serve others so they can feel their value and worth. When I'm creating for no other reason than because that is what I was created to do.  

I think there's more to flight than freedom. I think we see in the flight of birds and butterflies, bees and dragonflies...and, yes, even the mosquito, if we're honest...we see in them the beauty of creation doing exactly what it was created to do. Creation, fully alive.

So today's project is the outgrowth of some of these thoughts. I used a 6x6 canvas board and covered it with Skylark paper by Close To My Heart. I then started layering all kinds of media: pearl paint, gold glimmer spray, icons cut from the Skylark paper, stamps, Skylark fabric, etc. I used Mod Podge to adhere it all. I then added a little quote--from my head? from something I read? I have no idea. But I wrote it out on vellum using Sharpie markers and glued it down using Mod Podge as well. When everything was dry, I went back over the quote with the Sharpies to make it pop a little more. And that's it. (I put a list of supplies at the end of the post.)

Here are some close ups:

And here it is again with one of my lovely long-tailed birds that had been my grandmother's:

I hope you enjoyed this little out of the ordinary project. And I hope you fly!

Supplies used in this project:

Skylark Paper Pack

Skylark Assortment

Skylark Textiles

Believe in Yourself Stamp Set

Chocolate Woodgrain Washi Tape

Gold Polka Dot Washi Tape

Lagoon Houndstooth Washi Tape

Tea Dye Distress Ink

Create-a-Shade Pearl Paint

Lagoon Re-Inker

Walnut Gold Glimmer Mist

Chevron Stencil

Dot Stencil (made from Punchinella)

Sharpie Ultra-Fine Point Markers

Mod Podge

Liquid Glass

Dimensional Adhesive