Gifts for Grands

Gift making was afoot 

around here in December!

I made wall decor for our

two teenage grandsons, 
Preston & Triston.

It started with wooden letters and
 metal embellishments from the
Tim Holitz Idea-ology line.
 More specifically, the  
Gadget Gears,
Sprocket Gears
Arrows
and
Metal corners.

The gears were auditioned on the letters.

"P" for Preston. 

"T" for Triston.

Paint is a must so a color chart was

created showing the metallic craft 

paints that I had on hand. 

On Thanksgiving, I asked Preston & Triston 
to pick a color for me to use on a project
that I was making for them which they did.

Triston picked the DecoArt Festive Red.

Preston picked the DecoArt ICE Blue.

Master's Touch Wood Painting Panels
were used for the substrate and all of the 
metal embellishments were auditioned here.

The letters were painted with a coordinating color (silver for Preston & black for Triston) and adhered to the paint panels with matte Mod Podge. The metal embellishments were adhered with the same. 

An element that represents an activity they each enjoy was attached as well. For Preston, it was a circuit board because he's into gaming. 

Triston loves basketball so a basketball was collaged onto a small painted canvas which was then adhered to the paint panel. 

To finish, metal corners were attached and the entire piece was sealed with Mod Podge Clear Acrylic Sealer Spray in Matte. 

THE FINISHED PIECES

Preston's Gift

The silver color on the "P" doesn't

show up very well in this pic though.

Triston's Gift

Preston's silver "P" shows up much better in the photo below but the metal embellishments don't show up very well here. Some of it is the photo but some is not.

I wondered if I should paint them 

silver and decided against it. 

Oh well, I learned something! 

That's always a good thing, isn't it?

Preston is reading my message on the

back while Triston admires the basketball!

Hubby Geo assisted me with some of this project like measuring the placement of certain metal embellishments and some of the Mod Podge application especially the finishing.

Making these gifts seemed to be a 
slam dunk which warmed my heart!

Up next, gifts for girlfriends.

Happy New Year Y'all!

D~~~

2018~~Going, Going, Gone...

Happy 2019 Y'all!

I was surprised to see that I hadn't posted here since November 1st! I didn't realize that it'd been that long. Time can so easily sneak by especially at the end of the year. In any event, it's time to get back to creating but to start the new year, I'll be sharing some tidbits from 2018 in these first few posts. 

A couple more pages from

November in my journaling Bible.

This leaf was found in the

Red Lobster parking lot, Denton, Texas.

Pages created with acrylic paints, washi tape

Malatow acrylic Marker, Pitt Pens

The above leaf reminded me of the 

"Memories of Daisy State Park" 

art quilt (below). I picked up  

the leaf for it in 2013 during  

our maiden RV voyage to 
Daisy State Park in Kirby, Arkansas.

For Christmas, I received  

The Beautiful Word Journaling Devotional 

from my son and his girlfriend. 

I love it!

All the pages are set up the same with

an artful scripture on the left border, 

and journaling lines on the right border. 

I love the thickness of the paper's pages! 

I believe they will work nicely for 

watercolor and mixed media. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Much to my delight, the Christmas  

cactus on the right started blooming like 

crazy in November. Her name is Faye 

because my friend Faye gave her to me.

Faye was a lonely Christmas cactus 

but right after she started blooming, 

I spotted another beauty with abundant 

buds at Walmart so I grabbed her  

up and brought her home! (left) 

Faye has a friend now! 

Let's call her LulaBelle.

Within a week, LulaBelle's 

buds were bloomin' pretty! 

After putting on a good show, both of these 

gals ceased blooming in mid-December.  

But was it over?

Oh no, no, no!

About a week later, Faye started 

blooming once again, and she's still 
blooming as I write this post!

They will both be transplanted in the spring. 
In fact, I wondered if LulaBelle would have 
bloomed again if she were released 
from the confines of her original pot.
(I stuck her pot into another pot for now). 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

This is another painted rock from when 

Linda and I painted rocks in Colorado.

That post can be found here.

I'll stop here for now.

Next up, handmade gifts.

See you soon.

Tootle Loo,

D~~~~

First Time Bible Journaling

Almost two years ago, my friend Faye gave me this journaling Bible. For those of you who have never heard of Bible Journaling, it's a thing! A mighty cool thing too!

I love it!
Thank you Faye.

The Bible comes with some
fancy schamancy, already spruced-up, 
journal-like pages on both sides.

Other pages are prettied up on one side.

While full-page illustrations can 
be found here and there as well.

Of course, pages with space
for journaling are abundant!

Would you believe that, after almost two years, I'm just now journaling in it?

Like 
TODAY 
was my first day!

It's true.

Yeah, I know.
Shame on me!

I wanted to accomplish a few things this morning before I started journaling. 

First, I ordered several sets of Bible Journaling stamps from the Joy Clair website. 

Next, I hopped on over to Pinterest to pin some Bible Journal inspiration. I pinned a few things as well as a video on The Thinking Closet website where blogger Lauren Lanker listed her 20 favorite Bible Journaling supplies. Her enthusiasm was a joy to watch! 

If you're interested, Lauren's vid is here. 

My Pinterest Bible Journaling board is here.

My Pinterest time led me to seek out a few Bible journaling bloggers so that I could add them to my blog reading list. Done.

At last, I was ready to journal.

It seemed fit to journal the first scripture I EVER learned which was taught to me as a child by my grandma, Mee-Maw Richter.

The scripture is

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his 

only begotten son that whoever believes in 
him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Here's the page.
It's simple.

Far from perfect.

BUT

it was fun, fun, fun!

Supplies used:

MozArt Watercolor Brush Pens,

Pitt pen and brads.

See you soon!

May Your Day Be 
Extra Merry & Beautifully Bright,

D~~~~

Colorado Chain Saw Art

In Bayfield, Colorado, not far from the RV park where we camped, chainsaw art carvings are spread throughout the area. Some are along the main roads and others can be found off the beaten path. I thought I'd share some of them with you. I took a separate close-up pic of the number, title and sponsor but, as you'll see, some have missing info.

2 Black Bear & Cubs

4 Sheriff with Radio

9 Slurry Plane and Fire Fighter

This one rests in the playground 

next to our RV park entrance.

10 Racoon and Fire Fighter

11 Mule Deer and Fawn

12 Bald Eagle and Lynx

The information plate is missing 

from this one. If I remember correctly, 

it was outside a firehouse.

Let's call it:

0 Fire Fighter with Missing Info

I can't remember exactly where this cool

piece is located but I wanted to include it.

I think it's near the RV park.

Quite impressive, aren't they?

According to an online article titled, "Only in Colorado: Lake Vallecito's Tour of Carvings" on 5280.com, these chainsaw carvings were born out of the Missionary Ridge fire in 2002, and created by a Pagosa Springs artist named Chad Haspels. The article mentions the Raccoon and Fire Fighter piece at the RV park, and tells the story behind it. The writer, Terri Cook, also states that there are a total of 14 pieces. We drove around looking for them but only found these seven. 

It appears that we must go hunting next year!

Tootles Y'all,

D~~~~  

Painting Rocks in Colorado

In September, hubby George and I met up with our friends Joe & Linda at a really neat RV park in Colorado! It was so nice to escape the Texas heat and we had a grand time while we were there!

Joe & George went jeeping a few times during our trip. One of those days, Linda and I painted rocks while they were gone. 

Okay, maybe not rockS.

It was more like A rock.

We painted A rock.

Each.

First, we gathered our supplies.

Here's some of them.

(You know you need a LOT of 

supplies to paint A rock?)

Okay, maybe you don't 

but we do!

Hee-hee.

And since watching us paint makes life 

sooo grueling for our dogs, we try to make 

them extra comfy & cozy by tucking 

them into their individual chairs.

Here's Tootie & Harley chillin'...

... and Elmer and Chewy 

relaxing next to them.

It takes awhile for us to finish A rock
but we really enjoy the process!

Here's Linda's cute rock! 

And my shiny rock!

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone. 

I had to go berserk with glitter once again!

It was all super fun though!

Linda and I both look forward

to more rock painting in the future!

While the guys were jeeping, they came across this area of painted rocks in Priest Gulch. After we left, Linda and Joe RV'd over to Priest Gulch for a bit. Linda told me that these rocks are pretty big. 

Neat, huh?

See ya soon.

Tootles & Doodles,

D~~~~

Day 29~The Coffee Poem

If you've been following my journey with the Creative Jumpstart class, you know that it was a 31-day online class with a different instructor each day. I had only completed 12 days by the time the month was over. I'm slow but that's okay! The vids stay up until November so I'm doing some of the remaining ones (my favs) at random in between other projects. 

This post is the Day 29 workshop led by Jane Lafazio. Her video was named, Dinner with Georgia O'Keefe. I loved her tri-fold book with it's zigzagged binding so I had to hop on over to do it next. I'm a sucker for sewing on paper!

My tri-fold book is named The Coffee Poem.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

The entire book.

Like Jane's book, it's bound 
together with a zigzag stitch.

Here's a close-up of the poem.

Materials: 9"x12" watercolor paper, watercolors,  

fabric (for the countertops), copy paper, tissue paper,

Pitt Pens, Misty Fuse, sewing machine & thread.

All this coffee stuff has me craving  

a cup so I think I'll go make one!  

I'll be back soon with my next project.
I'm not exactly sure what it will be though.
I have a lot of choices.
Hmm, decisions, decisions. 

Thanks for stopping by y'all!

Tootle Loo,

D~~~~

P.S. The white background on the photos seems to have a yellow tint. I edited them a couple of times and tried to get it out but to no avail. Sorry!