World Watercolor Month 2018

July 1st marked the beginning of World Watercolor Month 2018 hosted by Doodlewash. I follow Sandy Allnock and she created prompts for those who do Bible Journaling and cardmaking to be able to interpret in many ways. I didn't set out to join this challenge, but because I Bible Journal and was seeing some of what other on her Facebook page where creating, I decided to try my hand at it. What I love best about this challenge is not so much following the prompt, but how God directs me to the scriptures to use and how I interpret them, plus the added bonus of practicing a medium that I am not familiar with.

Here are the prompts I have completed so far.

Day 1 - Star

Day 3 - Red

Day 5 - Circle

Day 6 - Young; the stamps is from Unity Stamps

Day 7: Pink

Day 8: Sweet

As you can see, I'm not following the daily prompts. I wait for God to speak to me and inspire me to interpret the prompts.

Here also are some cards I made over the past weeks. I hope to really try posting some of my work more often for you to enjoy.

Have a wonderful day!

D'Bee

This was a special request for a birthday guy. 

I love these stamps from Rubbernecker Stamps!

Here's another one!

and another!

Living Life on Purpose - Part 1

What is purpose? As a noun, purpose means "the reason for which something is done, is created or for which it exists." As a verb, it signifies 'what one has as an intention or objective' (i.e., aim, plan, design, etc.)

Most Christians ask or are seeking to find out why God created them, to what aim and for what purpose. Some believe that being saved means having a place in eternity. This is not the case, however. We have been saved to be living witnesses to Jesus Christ! We are on this earth for a reason. God created us on purpose (verb) for a purpose (noun). He deliberately made us and planned for us. Jeremiah 29:11 states, "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." His intentions for us were clear from the beginning (Genesis 1:26:28).

As stated earlier, we tend to ask what is our purpose, why God made us. The reality is that we should be asking what God's purpose is for us. God has blessed each and every one of us with gifts and talents to be used to accomplish His will for our lives: to be witnesses for Him. The gifts and talents we have are to be used as platforms to give glory to His name. For example, I love to create visual graphics with inspirational, motivational, or scriptural messages. I do this during my devotional time because as a visual person, I feel I can use these images to draw others to the work of God. Other types of gifts include leadership skills, giving, hospitality, administration, and so forth. All of these are natural born gifts to be used for God's glory.

There is so much to share about living life on purpose. I will continue with this topic in my next post. In the meantime, here is my latest inspired piece. It is a mixed media art on canvas, "When motivated women get together amazing things can happen." Enjoy!

Some Cards

This week I was in a creative mood, which got me working and produced a few cards (though I'm only posting three right now; I'll blog about the others in another post).

This first card was inspired from a tutorial here. I had this digital image pre-printed and stored in a binder I have for work I want to do, but haven't got around to. I thought it would fit perfectly inside the frame of the card. I colored the flowers and vase using Copic markers and added Stickles to give the appearance of water. 

The second card was inspired by some coasters I purchased last December. These coasters have all types of quotes and I thought they would make nice gifts, however, because I went out of state for the holidays, I didn't get around to giving them to anyone.  Here are some of them. Aren't they cute?

I took the coaster and attached it to the back of a frame I die cut with my Cuttlebug. I then attached that to a cardstock from my stash of patterned stocks and papers. Here is a front and side view of the card.

The last card was truly an inspiration.
I was checking out the SVG files on the Pazzles Craftroom and found this file.
I downloaded and printed it in layers using MTC and my Silhouette Cameo. The afrocentric pattern of the dress was paper pierced. I had to cut a neckline so the dress didn't go up to her neck, lol! I created the backgroud using Mixed Media technique combining watercolors, stamps (chevron pattern), and stenciling.  I found the frame here (along with some other ethnic themed SVGs).  

What I enjoyed most about this card was coming up with the right sentiment. I took inspiration from Matthew 11:28-30: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (KJV)