Here’s another page I made in June for my felt Bird Book.

I’ve used several layers: burlap, an old book page, green graph paper with Elegant Touch Art Stencil and Tsukineko Walnut Ink, stitched on glass beads, striped paper punched with Martha Stewart’s Fence Edge Punch, and a bird image from an bird book accented with “x” stitches.

All these layers are mounted on thick felt, which will make up another page of my felt Bird Book. To see the other page of this book, visit the blog post Migration Page.

May you be blessed with a creative and colorful day!,

Announcing the

Art Gallery Grand Opening

for

Janice Whiting!

This delicious taste sneak peek shows the background designer paper made with Botanical Swirls art stencil. Highlights are Nature Walk and Backyard Birds art stamp sets. What yummie colors and images!

Grab a cup of tea and come stroll through her creative and inspiring world of eye candy! Enjoy Janice’s marvelous Art Gallery Grand Opening today, and return often to renew your mojo with new ideas added weekly! Be sure to hop on over to “Made to Create” blog to discover the many talents of Janice Whiting!

May God richly bless your day with beautiful layers of color,

Today’s Faith Art Friday is hosted by Layers of Color designer, Linda Lucas…

‘You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex!

our workmanship is marvelous – how well I know’

Psalm 139:13…

God tells us in His Word that ‘we are fearfully and wonderfully made’  What a concept – our God, the God Most High made us, every fiber of our being is formed by Him – we weren’t an accident, just brought together through careless moments or earthly passions, but the God Most High, our God and Heavenly Father created us with intention, and did it wonderfully!

The scripture also tells us He is a God of excellence – therefore I can know that I am complete in Him – He made me how I am meant to be, any imperfections we have are not due to any over site on His part, they may be because of mankind interfering, but we cannot blame God – He does all things well!  This also shows me, that God, who created me so ‘fearfully’ must therefore have a plan for my life – I am not here by chance, but for a purpose – my challenge is to fulfill that purpose to reach my destiny!!  We are a deliberate act of our Creator God.

Thank you, Linda! WOW! This scripture tells us not only how wonderful we are, but how wonderful God is! Contemplating it gives us a true sense of awe and wonder!

I’m especially pondering these things in my heart as my eldest daughter, Jessica has announced that she is pregnant! She and Chris have just moved to Washington to be near us and God’s timing is perfect! I’m going to be a Nana! Oh, how overjoyed we are to be grandparents!

Thank you for sharing my excitement today! And it’s amazing timing for this post about the beautiful beginning of how God made us…it wasn’t even planned (by us anyway)! LOL! I LOVE how God does that!

Doing the Grandma dance!,

Here’s a Layers of Color card that really shows off the layers of color! The first layer is a page from a book, then solid card stock, book page again, printed paper with Royal Birds art stamp, and last layer is stenciled paper. The stenciled paper  looks like an expensive designer paper, but it’s just white card stock! And the best part is that you can customize the colors! Here’s how I made it:

Lay Botanical Swirls art stencil on top of the white card stock, spray with your choice of blue or green spray mist, remove stencil and dry. Then lay Touch of Elegance art stencil down and spray with your choice of purple spray mist, and dry. That’s it, so easy, so pretty!

The stitching (fancy stitch w/o thread in some areas), distressing, tearing, ribbon and embellies add the final touches. Isn’t that flower embellishment  lovely? Here’s how I made it:

Punch 2 scalloped circles from an old book page, fold them in half several times and snip with scissors towards the center. Unfold and distress the edges with colorful ink. Add a rosette of ribbon in the center, if you wish. Another easy idea!

NEWS FLASH!! The Layers of Color drawing winner did not claim the prize and so I’ve randomly drawn a new winner…

Gina Cagle you are the winner of all 7 new art stencils! Please claim your prize within 48 hours by leaving a message here or emailing me. Congratulations Gina!

May your day be filled with layers of color,

This Piece of Cake Tutorial has several steps, but is a easy as pie!

You can use it as a box to fill with goodies, or seal it shut and put it on a shelf as delicious eye candy.

MATERIALS

• White card stock
• Cake Box Template by Mirkwood Designs
• Scissors
• Bone Folder
• Ruler
• Ink pads; Versa Magic “Spring Pansy”, “Mango Madness”, “Thatched Straw” and  VersaFine “Imperial Purple”
• Clear acrylic block
• Makeup sponge or Finger Dauber
• Layers of Color Belle Brocade art stencil
• Layers of Color Flutterescent art stamp set
• Masking tape
• Glue
• Embellishments of choice (rhinestones, fancy yarn)
• Additional Materials for OPTIONAL Paper Doily:
• Scallop Edge decorative scissors
• Layers of Color Vintage Medallion art stencil

Print Cake Box Template from Mirkwood Designs on white card stock. Cut out along solid lines. Score along dash lines with a bone folder.

My favorite tools to use with LOC art stencils are make up sponges and Tsukineko’s Finger Daubers. I use Tsukineko ink exclusively as I find them to be the highest quality archival inks in a marvelous range of desirable colors.
Add ink in a graded shade to the sides of the cake pattern. I started with Thatched Straw then added Mango Madness along one edge.

Using Layers of Color Belle Brocade art stencil, masking tape off the section of the stencil that you don’t want to use. Here I’m using only the decorative border edge. Place it over the center of the inked sides and sponge Spring Pansy over the stencil. Before removing it, also sponge Imperial Purple just along the top edge, as shown in the photo.

This will give the design graduated color.

Repeat on all three sides. Make sure that the designs all face the center triangle so that they will be facing the same direction when you fold it into a box.

Ink the triangle sections with  a light touch of Mango Madness and then stencil over it with another coat of Mango Madness and Spring Pansy in the center.

Completed decorated cake box template.

Fold and glue the box together. You may choose to leave the top open to fill with goodies. In this case, you may wish to ink the inside as well before folding and adding glue.

To create the butterfly, use Flutterescent butterfly stamped and cut out twice. Notice that the paper is inked first with both yellow and orange. As shown in photograph, use both purples when inking the butterfly stamp. After cutting the butterfly out,  ink the back with the lighter purple, Spring Pansy.

Decorate your piece of cake with bling and fancy yarn.

To make the paper doily, sponge both purple inks over Vintage Medallion art stencil on white card stock. Then cut it out using scallop edge decorative scissors.

Enjoy your piece of cake!