Trust in Him

The final letter is "T", so of course, I have been working on the word "ART" for my wall of art. And I picked the word "trust" for this letter.



Trust unto Jehovah with all thy heart, And unto thine own understanding lean not. In all thy ways know thou Him, And He doth make straight thy paths.

You know, it's been the times that I failed to acknowledge Him that my path went a bit haywire!

And in the center of the T, I used the flourishes to make a Shin (well, sort of!)...remember that?


I love what you can do by adding brown and blue ink....along with the white pen.  The options are just endless!

So here you have it - my 3 letters for my wall of art are ART.  

And with great personal meaning.  Adonia, Rejoice, Trust.  Rejoice daily in what He has given me.  Trust in him every second of the way.  

With these 3 letters, I have created ART.

Rejoice in something every single day!

I picked the word "rejoice" for my letter "R". The word appears 192 times in 183 verses in the King James Version of the Bible. Most of the verses are action verbs - as in a "commandment" to us to rejoice.



I liked Psalms 90:14 because It reads, "O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." In Young's concordance, it is translated: Satisfy us at morn [with] Thy kindness, And we sing and rejoice all our days.

I really do try to find something that makes me happy every single day, something that I can rejoice in. I believe with all my heart that a positive outlook on life will keep us healthy. That humor heals all. And I also believe that laughter is infectious!



How often do you wake up grumpy and start complaining and then turn everyone around you into a total frump? I know I can do it when I want - trust me....it really works. On the other hand, there are days when it is a huge effort to turn myself into a happy person and try to infect those around me. Now that I'm retired....I'm doing a much better job! LOL!



For this letter, I used some wood flourishes and on half of them, I added Art Glitter over paint and on the other half I just put glossy accents over paint. I like the difference. It's a most simplistic letter......but it can be the simplest things in life that bring us the most to rejoice about!

What's your name?

I was born Jennifer. But have used the nicknames Jenny, Jen and JLo. But that's really the only names I answer to. OK, when I was a kid, my classmates also took my last name "Moore" and would call me "Lawnmoore" or "Moorehead" - oh! weren't we just horrible kids??? LOL!!! I know that in Spanish, my name is Juanita. But if someone yelled out "Hi Juanita!" - I'd ignore them as I don't "hear" that as my name.

I'm sure you are the same! If you are Susan, you would answer to Sue, Susie, Suzanne.....but would you answer to Sally? or Sherry? Or Cindy? Probably not.

One of my earliest childhood questions was, "How did Jesus get his name?" I think at a very young age, I knew that English was a different language from what the Bible was originally written in. I remember being told that the New Testament was written in Greek and that Christ came from Christos which was the Greek translation of His name. But no one ever said what His name was in the original text.

Which leads me back to my first paragraph. If I don't recognize my own name in a foreign language.....why would we expect Him to recognize His name in English??? When I pray....am I calling upon the "wrong" name?

And here's another thought. If Budda is Budda in Hindu, English, Spanish....why did His name change when language changed?

Muhammed's name in Arabic, English, and every other language remains Muhammed. In fact, every single "god", "Prophet" or "holy man" from every religion retains their name in every language EXCEPT for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Is it because someone is attmpting to hide his name? Acts 2:21 "whoever calls on the name of Adonai will be saved."




Yes, Adonai is the name of Yeshua.....the "real" name for the son of God. Why did these names get changed with the Greek and then the English translations?



Jesus is supposedly the English translation of the Greek word Ieosus which is a translation of the Hebrew Yeshua. Iesous is pronounced "E-A-Zoos". Hmmm....isn't that a little too close to the term "Zeus"? Would this have been a means of keeping the Greeks from coming to know the true Messiah?



And if you google language, you will see that the letter "J" was not even introduced into the English language until the 1400s. OK, I think this is all the proof that I need that many translators are actually working to take those who read the Bible away from the truth....not closer to it!



I pray to Yeshua. But I write the letters God and Jesus.....because that's what we have come to recognize traditionally as the names applying to Jehovah and the Messiah. Just give it some thought....if you call me Juanita....I won't answer. If you call Him Jesus...will He answer?

I love these 12" letters - perfect for ART on the wall!!!

A call for tubes

or "will I ever learn?" LOLOL! Oh me! Why on earth do I throw anything away? Because it's always the day after they pick up the trash that I get my "brilliant" idea!!! I get my metal from Amaco and it comes in clear plastic tubes. Michaels carries it around here:



and yesterday, I threw out 15 of these tubes! I have always stored my twinkling H2o pots in them....and today, I thought, oh! why not store my perfect pearls in them?



and once that cell in my brain kicked in....it was like...oh! I could store my glitter in them, too!!!




But alas, I have used up all my tubes storing my twinkling H2o pots. See how wonderful? They just fit perfectly down into my storage drawers, I pull them out and I can easily see what I have!



Dare I email my good friends Dawn and Elaine at Amaco and ask them for empty tubes? Hmmm.....what else can we put in them? A really good way to market a product...maybe they could just start selling empty tubes? With the tops on these, you can also hang them on pegs on a pegboard wall. I used to do that....until I decided it was just something else to dust!

Got tubes? I need them! LOL!!!

Diecut glitter

I'm going to be doing guest blogs for Scrapbook Your Life! in San Diego....and they will be tutorials.

Today, you get a teaser! This is what I made for their blog



Just keep checking at Scrapbook Your Life as I'm sure the blog will be up tonight or tomorrow and then you will have yet another JLo tutorial!

How on earth am I going to keep up my blog here and guest blog there? LOLOL!

I know...more chocolate!!!

My neighbors have invited me over for a cookout and since Kerry is still in Florida..I'm going! Gotta wash all this glitter off of me first! LOL!!!

Card-making with quilt scraps!

In the back of the store, there are huge boxes filled with quilt scraps that are for sale. $3.00 for 50 pieces. They are the remnants from a company that makes medical scrubs and bundled in matching "pieces". I went through some of the boxes just to see what was there and pulled out a few pieces and decided that we could make "bling" cards. Mind you that "bling" just does not show up in the camera's eye....but they still look pertty good!



I used white staz-on ink for the flourish stamps. Nestabilities to cut the windows.



Took a fine tipped glue pen and drew over the lines in the fabric, dropped glitter down, dusted off the excess. I think you can see the detail here:



For this one, I cut the flower out, then laid it on top of the card and "sealed" the edges with glossy accents. Used Ranger's white pen to alter the flourish stamps.



Getting a ton of comments on these this week! Maybe we can make some on Friday! But is this not gorgeous fabric? I've yet to meet the nurse wearing these as scrubs! There are hundreds more patterns in the boxes, so if you quilt and live in San Diego, come on down and just come to the back of the store!

Lucy McGoo's Little Store

Well, I've gone and done it. Started a little store in the corner of my studio. Mostly adhesives, inks, things you might run out of when you come to take a class. OK, mostly things I tend to run out of on a day-to-day basis!



But that's not what this blog is about....this is about collaging on wood! Yep, I've moved way beyond paper...I'm on to wood now! I had to do something fun for the little store's sign! I think it's just balsa wood....something I picked up at Hobby Lobby.



I really had fun playing with so many different products on these chipboard swirls. For this one, I started out with a base of Opals embossing enamels from After Midnight Stamps. I stamped some glue ink onto the chipboard, then put the powder on that. Using both my heat-it tool and my milwaukee gun, I melted the opals onto the chipboard. Next, I laid on some pearl opals. Heated them. Then I tapped on some more glue and sprinkled on Art Institute glitter. Covered the whole thing with Glossy Accents. It is like a wonderland of layered dimensions!



This end is a little different. I started with a base of Deep Image Crystals. They come from Once Upon A Stamp in the UK. They are amazing, textured embossing crystals....and just fun! On top I layered rainbow opals and glitterl



Beyond dimensional...and between the glitter and the opals....they truly sparkle!



The wood is painted with a mix of blue and green acrylic paints mixd with Medium mat gel. And then covered with a layer of metallic gold acrylic mixed with the mat gel. The edges are inked with Rust alcohol ink.



So, since it's Lucy's store, I had to use Lucy's stamps. But I also played around with Rangers new white pen. Not bad on wood at all! The "O"s are painted with a thick past made of water and perfect pearls.



The M & G are painted with Stickles. I used lots of brush markers to bring out color. Outlined some of the sentiments with the white pen. Bits and pieces of patterned paper collaged into the wood.



The turquoise swirl is one that I diecut using a sizzix die in the Wizard. I really love making my own chipboard elements. This one is covered with the Deep Image crystals. The longer you heat them the more they melt from crystal (textured) to smooth-as-glass.



Here's an example of the embossing crystals just lightly heated. Really textured. Looks like rusted metal almost.



Loads of art glitter on "Lucy"



I do think this is my first collage on wood. But what a great way to just play with products and mix them up!



I'm thinking a wood journal cover might be in the near future. If I could find a pair of wooden dutch shoes....wouldn't it be great fun to collage them? OK...I know....a very light shade of wood cigar box! Now...I should have one of those somewhere in my stash!

I think this sign is about 4' long. Yep, it took a couple of days....just to get it all to dry! And I keep thinking I could add more and more layers...but I think this is just fine! Wonder what I will find to collage next? The concerete walls in my studio? LOL!

Finding Jerome

My creative pal, Jody, and I went off to find Jerome, Arizona, last week. Tucked high up in the mountains, it was well worth the trip! But to get to this first stop, we had to drive a very winding, narrow mountain road with very steep drop-offs...and we were high above the snow.



Breathtaking views as you look out though the pass

One of the first shops we were in was featuring the work of artist Jon Anderson This turtle is made of polymer clay that has been caned....microscopic designs running throughout the clay. The moment I saw this, I thought "I'm in the right place!"



The colors on this felted ball necklace just jumped out and grabbed me. Sorry, I took the photo through the window.




Stained glass peacock purse shaped window with beaded frings. I've never seen anything like this....incorporating beads and glass...it was beyond wonderful! Now I know why artists go to this little village to seek out inspiration for their designs.



It's a tiny little place, sitting high up on the side of the mountain. Most houses are 3-4 stories high perched on a cliff of some type. NOT for me!!! I want solid ground under my feet!



Lots of shops and places to eat. I could spend 3 or 4 days just looking at it all!



The Mine Museum was quite fun. And the underground Christmas store was too cute!



Driving out on the east side was ever so much easier than coming in from the west. But you can see...perched up on the hills.



This trip, we drove hubby's truck. It's a 4x4 that he has "elevated". Jody just had knee surgery...but what a trooper! She used the ladder to climb up into the truck and then slid out. What a true friend to go exploring Arizona with me!



We made a stop in Cottonwood at Art Institute Glitter. Perhaps my new favorite place in all of Arizona!!! And we stopped at S.A.G.E in Sedona....a totally cool scrapbook store.

At that point, we were still 2 1/2 hours from Kingman....so off we went, chatting the entire trip back across the desert. With it's lovely evening shadows...I might fall in love with the place in another 10 years or so! But exploring places I haven't been...one of my very favorite things to do!

When I emailed mom that we had been to Jerome, she sent back this painting. It's of the scyamore trees at the Montezuma castle just south of Jerome. Guess I will have to go there on my next trip!



On second thought...maybe I'll just stay home and look at all of mom's paintings. Glorious art...right here!

Recycling those old stickers

If you are like me, you have boxes and bins filled with old stickers, partially used sheets of stickers....things from your recent past that area already so far out of style you may never use them! I blogged a couple of cigar boxes that I covered with altered/distressed stickers (you can search "cigar boxes" on this blog to find them) and now, I'm going to show my next way of reviving old stickers.

What can I say? Yuck to these stickers!



All I did was add some Art Institute glitter and I think I'll keep these now!



My whole kitchen is decorated in chili peppers. I have no idea why....because I'd like to be a "red hot mama"????? NOT! But I do have a thing for chili peppers. But not getting much out of this sheet of stickers:



Until I covered them in Art Institute glitter.



I attached that front sticker to black card stock, cut it out, then used a pop dot to give it some depth.



A bit too cutesy for me:



But I stuck a row of flowers on some cardstock



Added some glitter and a bottom row of flowers. Well, still a bit cutesy, but a little better. Maybe I'll take off that bottom row...must be the faces that I don't like!



Are you starting to get a trend here? 2008 is the year to recycle and reuse. Time to drag out all those old stickers and see what you can do with them. After all....Grandma and Aunt Mae would just love to get a card from you and how are they going to know how old your stickers are? And playing with glitter? I went into Kentucky Fried Chicken after my play day in glitter. The girl behind the counter absolutely cracked up laughing at me. I guess I didn't realize just how much I had gotten all over my face and my clothes!

But I figure life can't get any better than when you can give someone else a reason to laugh!