How to Save America

America is corrupt.

It’s not just big business or crooked politicians. People are power hungry, overwhelmed by greed. How can anything good come from people like this?

It seems America is headed for self destruction at every turn. How can anything good come from hate, finger-pointing, or violence?

Does anyone even know where to turn? How can we find any peaceful answers to save our country?

The answer is that we re-discover love. We must look for love in each other. First we must see the love that is within ourselves. People who love the God of creation will restore this country and this world. We are called to be the voice of the Savior for all.

My reading today came in part from 1 John 5:1-9. We must love God and keep his commandments. “His commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.”

The people with power in our country are destroying this country. Hate runs through them, not love for one another. How can good rise up from all this hate? It can’t.

We all need to replace the animosity that poisons our heart against our fellow human beings. Do this by realizing the love that is from the Creator. True love can only come from God. God is the origin of real love, because God is the maker of all things, that includes us humans. He and his love is present in every one of us. We each have God’s presence within us, even if we haven’t realized it yet.

Love is already in us. Love can, and must, win over all hate.

Are you ready to find love? Pray to God and believe in his love!

The Snuggle is Real

This is one of the moments in life that we wish to never forget. The moments of joy brought to us by our loved ones should never be taken for granted, but cherished in our memory. My scrapbook layout here is my way of documenting the special joys.

For this page I followed a sketch presented on Sketches in Thyme Blog.

http://sketchesinthyme.blogspot.com/2020/12/maven-joyce-anns-take-on-450.html

I chose to make the background with acrylic paint so I could try to make my page to closely resemble the plan Elizabeth Frantz, the designer of this sketch, indicated. To me this was a pretty design and I welcomed the push for me to play with this style of a background. Using a Huggies wipe and paint by Dyan Reavley I was able to easily smooth out this soft color. It’s almost dreamy-like, perfect for this tender photo of mother and child.

From a couple of scrapbook paper pads I selected my 3 patterned papers and the journaling cut-a-part. Even the strip of hearts came from a pad. The small doilies were made from a stamp and cut out. My flowers were chosen for the light peach color because the shade sweetly brings out the colors in the photo. The title was printed, and then I drew around it with a pen and fussy cut. The small white pearls were from a bottle Nuvo Drops.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you find a wee bit of inspiration for your own memory keeping endeavors. Do come check out the Sketches in Thyme Blog for lots of inspiring sketches. There is a wide range and you are sure to be inspired.

Hugs, JA

Another Birthday!

Today was a treat for a few reasons.

First of the day was that my Sketches in Thyme Blog featured my layout I did with the current sketch.

http://sketchesinthyme.blogspot.com/

Here in the US we celebrate Thanksgiving. That usually involves lots of food, family and friends. Most often a turkey cooks in a most delicious way is present. Our turkey was smoked and it was delicious. Since I can’t eat any grain, I ate a lot of the turkey! The other thing about today is that it is my birthday. For my “cake” I had a candle stuck into a grain-free cheese cake – yum!

I hope your day was filled with love, as mine was. If you are looking for some scrapbook sketch inspiration, hop on over to the blog and play along.

Sketches in Thyme Sketch from Me

At first look this sketch appealed to me. I went with open circles and did some stenciling inside.

Sketch #422, forth one for October 2020.

Instead of the single photo as per the sketch, I used 3 pics of daughter and I at supper on our little trip. The getaway was great.Years ago I purchased circle templates from Fiskars and with them the circle cutter. They often make it so much easier to get a medium circle without having to work it out on the Cricut. Once pasted down I outlined them with a Sakura Shadow Gold pen. The insides were made with a Carabelle Studios mask. The flowers were heat embossed and lightly sponged with color. The work strips are from an old Stampin’ Up! sentiment set. The title was cut with Cricut.

Hope you like it and feel inspired to go check out the Sketches in Thyme blog for more inspiration. Play along so I can see what you make!

Have a crafty day or make happy memories!

Thanks for stopping by.

Adventure Awaits Layout for Sketches in Thyme

http://sketchesinthyme.blogspot.com/

My little guy willingly posed for me. We had made the half hour drive from the housing base to the main base in Yokosuka for shopping at the commissary. When Sketches in Thyme posted this sketch I know exactly which pictures would be a joy to use.

Being a believer in sticking close to the sketch I didn’t deviate. My dot pattern base paper is by Graphic 45, the solid strips are Bazzill. I stamped images, some are heat embossed, then fussy cut.

Thanks for stopping in, hope you scrappers out there take a look at the Sketches in Thyme blog and find a sketch that inspires you.

Hugs, Joyce Ann

Who Knew – A Layout About School

I made this page with photos of my precious great-grand daughter. It follows some challenges from blogs.

I used the sketch #209 from the Sketch N Scrap blog. And for the content, I went with challenges from A Cherry on Top, which account for the title and some of the items I used. My flowers are from Prima and the papers are from a Recollection pad. The title and journaling were printed from my computer, taking a short cut with such a long title.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy my efforts. Please hop on over to Sketch N Scrap for some great sketches to try, they are always inspiring.

I’m a bit amazed that I started this layout in the late afternoon and actually finished it now. It’s rare for me to not take at least 2 days on a layout. I’m sure the inspiration I got from the mentioned sites really helped!

Have a good evening, or day, depending on when you stop in for a little visit!

Hugs, Joyce Ann

Made My First Thanksgiving Card for 2020

This design follows the sketch offered by Sketch N Scrap #177 on their blog.

Can you see the gold embossing powder? I added Versamark to the leaf and placed it on a piece of patterned paper, the scrip collage piece, and pressed it by running through the Big Shot. Then added the powder and heated it with the heat tool. I did it again with the second leaf. I think this made an awesome background. The pumpkin was stamped and fussy cut out, colored with pencils and some die cuts I made for the leaves were added. After stamping the sentiment and cutting the strip I sponged on a few different shads of ink and finished it off with Vintage Photo, added a brad and pasted everything down. Nothing popped up, bad enough it has a brad, but hoping it will still go through the mail okay.

Hope you will pop on over to the Sketch N Scrap blog and check out their sketches and play along.

Have a happy day!

Hugs, Joyce Ann

Watching it Rain

My dear granddaughter sent a picture of her two youngest sitting in their chairs watching it rain. It was the beginning of July and they would be moving soon. They were not sure what to do, other than having the desire to go outside, since that was the one thing that was out of the question.

Big sister was across the street with her friend and that played into it, as well. If she had been home they would likely have found what ever she was doing to keep them occupied also. I was so happy my DGD snapped this shot and had to make a scrapbook layout.

For the left side of the page I sponged a couple inks over a raindrop stencil, added fussy cut FSJ stamped umbrellas and some rhinestones. The three flowers are from a Unity stamp and the two little cuties are also FSJ stamps.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a happy rest of your day, doing what makes you happy.

Hugs, JoyceAnn

Poppies and John Keats for My Little Journal

Another page complete in my little handmade art journal.

The rubber stamps used here are from Crafter’s Companion, FSJ, Ranger Dylusions and Carabelle Studio. Only the bird is stamped and fussy cut, the others are stamped directly to the book. I lifted some of the color from the leaves. I tried adding some color but wasn’t sure about it, so abandoned that and just did some coloring with pencils. For the main poppy image I lifted some of the background color here too. Then painted with acrylics a bit, some white centered and red on the edges. Once dried I added black pen and pencils. The quote says “Through the dancing poppies stole a breeze most softly lulling my soul.” This is from John Keats. I find I really enjoy reading this line over and over, it does brings a comforting feeling of a light breeze washing over me.

My daughter is really into making art journal pages, and she has been for a long time. I’m only just now getting a feel for this type of creative play. For me it was always writing. But I must confess there is something deeply satisfying in playing with media in this way. Normally I just make cards and scrapbook layouts with paper and ink. Once I put this book together I have decided to just relax and let it happen. I knew I wanted to use images of birds and flowers and find a quote to add. When I first wrote out this quote it was big enough for a scrapbook page! Old habits! Once I went down in scale I printed and sponged on some ink, Archival Sepia, before cutting out the individual words. Once pasted down I outlined the words and the bird with a black Posca pen.

This is different for me and I thank you for stopping to share it with me!

Please feel free to share any ideas you will about your experiences with art journaling. May you have a pleasant rest of your day, and remember that if you hear His call, do not harden your heart!

God bless you!

JoyceAnn

My Handmade Art Journal Little Book

My daughter loves art journaling. I have watched her make many pages. She has amazed me with many books she has made from scratch. The desire to create one of my own finally overwhelmed me. Although it is really out of my comfort zone, I asked her to help me create one.

The first step was to make the pages. Kristy showed how she made her pages using spray inks and stencils. Then, we cut them to the size that will be used to make the signatures. The size I chose is approximately 8 1/4 by 5 5/8. These are folded in half and each side will become a page.

My colors are bright and quite bold, not exactly what I first thought I would make, but the colors are so pretty!

Once the pages were pasted together and the canvas was on the spine I was pretty amazed at how good this little book felt in my hand.

My decision was to use stamps and sayings. I enjoy birds, so I figured that would make happy images to play with. My first work was to fussy cut some birds and feathers. The sentiment from that set was good, too, so it went in. I pulled out a border stamp and used white embossing powder to edge the double page. The birds were lightly colored with prismacolor pencils, pasted onto the page, and stamped over with floral flourish stamps.

With so much contrast, the quote wasn’t likely to show well so I used a slightly damp cloth and blended the colors. I found another stamp to use, also.

Once I decided on a quote for the right side I penciled it in. I first wrote over it with black Micron but I didn’t feel it showed up well. Writing it in with my white Signo still wasn’t enough so I outlined parts of the letters with a darker gel pen. While I was at it I outlined everything on the left side.

I have started my next page. I stamped with a poppy stamp and stamped with some Dylusions leaves.

Hope you will feel free to tell me about your art journal adventures. I am so grateful for my talented daughter!