Blame it on the Puppy

Dear friends,

I am sorry to report that I have no new image for you this week. We got a new family member on Wednesday and I have not been doing much other than potty training (the pup not me), feeding, potty training, playing, cleaning up mistakes from potty training, teaching what not to chew, potty training, feeding, napping to catch up on missed sleep, playing, snuggling, crate and pen training, potty training.... and around and around we go. But look at that face!

My New Puppy!

Hello Friends,

Since Kaeli passed May 2nd 2015, I didn’t know if I could ever bear to have another dog again. She was so perfect; a very hard act to follow. She will always be my special girl.

Over the last month or so, I came to the conclusion that I would need to have another dog again some day, but I really wanted a puppy. While I have loved each of our wonderful rescue dogs, I’ve been hankering for the distinct smell of puppy breath for years. Yeah, I know – weird – but I can’t help it, I love the smell of puppies. I have other reasons for wanting a young pup. Training would be physically easier for me; better probability of it acclimating to my three cats, rabbit and birds; and being able to train it as a possible therapy dog in the future. The top of the list is that I have not had the pleasure of raising a dog from a pup in 28 years. I really wanted that experience.

Trouble is, puppies are not that easy to come by these days around here and even mixed breed dogs can be prohibitively expensive. There are at least as many "Wanted:" ads of people looking for puppies as there are any ads offering pups. The available ones get scooped up very quickly. I was prepared for a long wait.

Yesterday (Monday) I started praying about a puppy. I trust my Heavenly Father to help me make good decisions. He doesn't always answer my requests right away, and sometimes not in the way I expect, but his answers are always the best, even when I can't see it at first. I asked Him if getting a puppy was a good decision for us at this time. If so, I asked Him to lead me to just the right dog that would be the perfect fit for our family.

This morning my son asked what kind of dog I wanted. I was pretty wide open, except I didn't want a small dog. My dream was a large to extra large dog (another reason I wanted to start with a pup). I had no preference as to gender. As to colour, my favourite would be white, cream, or white and tan. 

So... I started praying about a puppy yesterday and my son 'interviewed' me this morning as to my preferences. Then, about 3 o'clock this afternoon, a friend called and told me that a puppy (a litter mate of a pup she just got) was available. He had been spoken for, but the person changed his mind just a half-hour before she called. 

Samson is a mixed breed: Grand Pyrenees/Newfoundlander/Border Collie and is one of the biggest in his litter. He is all white with tan patches over his face and ears. His pregnant mother was a rescue dog so he could be considered a rescue as well. The family who took her in (they are keeping mom and one pup) are personal friends and Christians. They were also praying for just the right homes for all of their pups. They are thrilled that we are taking Samson.

Samson at 6.5 weeks

My God is a tender-hearted Daddy who loves to give good gifts to his children.

Blessing hugs,

Teresa

Sunday's Little Blessing - Crowned Dove

Hello Friends,

This week's little blessing is a crowned dove. I really enjoyed drawing her and I hope she will find a nice home in one of your handmade creations.

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Thank you so much to visiting my blog today.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

I am His Workmanship

Hello Friends,

Did you know that you are God's workmanship - his masterpiece - and that he has designed good things for you to do in this life? Ever wonder why you love colour, or fabric, or paper or animals? Do you enjoy writing, encouraging people, cooking good meals or taking photographs? All of those good works that enrich your life and the lives of those you touch were designed by God for your pleasure and his. You are beautiful, amazing, smart and talented. He made you just the way you are. He loves you completely and has very good plans for your life.

The scripture for this week's study at His Kingdom Come, the Take Me Deeper group, is Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

I started by sponging on deep purple acrylic paint. Once that was dry I stenciled on fern leaves with Gesso. Next I added drips of gold mica powder mixed with pouring medium. I smudged on some pink metallic acrylic paint with my finger just before gluing down acetate butterflies that I cut from a sheet.

I thought this K&Company die cut butterfly made a nice focal point as it stands out from the rest.

My lettering was done with a black Sharpie and a white gel pen. I smudged acrylic paints around my words to make them stand out.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. I appreciate you stopping by and I hope you were encouraged or inspired in some way.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Link-ups:
Paint Party Friday - art/painting

Made in his image

Hello Friends,

Every other week in the Take Me Deeper group at His Kingdom Come we get a creative prompt technique video based on an "I am" statement. These statements are all about learning what God says about us as his children. The truth is, God really likes you. Yes, of course he loves you. God is love. But he likes you too. He made you in his image and he is always delighted to see you.

This week's statement is "I am made in his image". I have been making a tag journal for my "I am" statements. The creative prompt was to use a liquid form of Gelatos and Tonya showed us how to melt a chunk to do that. This is a very handy technique for me since quite a few of my Gelatos are down too far in the tube to be usable. Now I can dig out the remainder and use that up too.

I wrote the scripture from Week 6 on the back of my tag.

Thanks for dropping by.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Link-ups:
Word Art Wednesday - ATG (anything goes)
Words 2 Craft By - My Heart's Devotion
Addicted to Stamps & More - ATG
Creative Moments - ATG/embossing

Like a Bride

Hello Friends,

I have an art journal page for you today, based on a line in the Chris Tomlin song, "Even so Come". It says, "Like a bride waiting for her groom, we'll be a church ready for you."

This is truly a mixed media page, with collage (a doily), acrylic paints, inks, a stenciled flower, a black marker for the writing and a white gel pen for the dots in her eyes and highlights on her lips.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Link-ups:
Art Journal Journey - "If Music be the food of love"
Paint Party Friday - art
Word Art Wednesday - ATG (anything goes)
Creative Artiste - anything mixed media

Sunday's Little Blessing - Reading Lady

Hello Friends,

Happy Valentine's Day! I have been busy all week making a gift for my special guy, but I will show that to you in another post. In the meantime, look what my DH did for me. :) Love Hearts candies and mini vanilla cupcakes, all arranged in a heart shape. Love it! Love him more!

Now here is my gift to you. I hope you like her.

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Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you have a wonderful day and know that you are loved by God.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Teresa

LOVE - the Real Power

Hello Friends,

The bible journaling challenge at His Kingdom Come for February is based on 1 John 4:10:

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

Tonya teaches us how to melt down our Gelatos and use them as a spray in her instructional video. I didn't spray mine on, but it was great to find a way to use up that last bit of a stub stuck in the tube. I simply painted my yellow Gelato liquid onto my prepped pages. I highlighted the scripture with a metallic pink Gelato.

The page to the right of the scripture had a devotional article. I don't like to cover the scripture text, but I don't mind covering the inserted stories. I did want to keep the title of the article - "Real Power".

I made a heart with the same pink Gelato and blended it into the yellow with a wet paint brush. I went around the heart with white Gesso and a black permanent marker. I also add dabs and streaks of white around the page.

I wrote the word Love and did some doodling in the letters. Once all of that was done, the page still seemed rather bland and empty. I got out a couple of stencils and added flourishes (red Gelato) and butterflies. I coloured the butterflies with markers.

Thanks for visiting my blog today. I appreciate you dropping by and look forward to reading your comments.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Challenges:
Art Journal Journey - If Music be the food of love
Word Art Wednesday - ATG (anything goes)
Creative Artiste - ATG with mixed media
Creative Fingers - ATG

Sunday's Little Blessing - Rose

Hello Friends,

This week I made a rose for you. I hope you like and can use it on some of your projects, now or in the future.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

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Wonderfully Made

Hi Friends,

What touched me the most about the Take Me Deeper devotion today at His Kingdom Come was the beautiful song, "Wonderfully Made". I had never heard it before and now I can't get enough of it. It is based on Psalm 139:14. Have a listen.

Think about it. You are God's masterpiece - the crowning achievement of his creation. You were not a mistake and you have a divine destiny - a reason for being on this earth. You are beautiful and you are loved. He loves to see your face; he longs to hear your voice.

I used Dylusions spray inks on my background and my "God's Girls - Creativity" stamp set from the Faith Art Shoppe at HKC. I stamped onto two different kinds of wrapping paper, which I cut out. I also mounted my girl onto dark green card stock.

I painted my girl and easels mainly with acrylics. I also doodled around some of the hearts with marker pens.

I wrote words in some of the hearts and "wonderfully made" at the bottom, which is the title of the song.

One really nice thing about the FaithArt stamps is they are very flexible and very sticky. I was able to bend the straight "His Masterpiece" stamp into an arch. I added my thumb print with Versa Mark ink and heat-embossed it with ultra-fine black powder.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I do hope with all of my heart that you have at least at inkling of how very precious you are to God.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Challenges:
Art Journal Journey - Music is the food of love
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Have a heart
Paint Party Friday - paint
Creative Moments - ATG/Love
Path of Positivity - Desire
Crafting by Designs - ATG
Word Art Wednesday - ATG

Oil in My Lamp

Dear Friends,

Isn't it lovely how we get to inspire each other in so many ways through social media these days? I gleaned inspiration for this art journal page from several sources. A number of online friends (many at His Kingdom Come) have shown how they prep their pages for taking sermon notes. Another source (I can't remember it) suggested painting random shapes and doodling frames around them; later, notes can be written in the shapes. (I added my notes later.)

The Time Warp Wife has a You Tube video where she shows how to easily create beautiful roses and banners. I adore drawing the roses. I finally stopped myself from drawing more.

The real star of the page is my lamp. It started with a random doodle that I really liked, though it took me a while figure out what it was. Once I envisioned it as a lamp shade, I went to work cutting out a base for it out of black card stock. I dry and heat embossed it and then glued my lamp onto my page, adding the only scripture that came to my mind about a lamp.

During our family worship time last night the Lord brought to my mind Jesus' parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25. Five brought extra oil for their lamps and five did not.

Family worship is not something we have been doing for very long. In fact, we started just this past summer and sometimes we miss. Sometimes we don't feel like doing it and our resolve is weak. Last night I sensed the Lord wanted to affirm us in this, even though we don't do it perfectly or even consistently.

This DESIRE puts me in mind of an old song:
Give me oil in my lamp; keep me burnin'.
Give me oil in my lamp today.
Give me oil in my lamp; keep me burnin, burnin, burnin.
Keep me burnin 'til the light of day.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I appreciate your visit and look forward to reading your comments.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Challenges:
Word Art Wednesday - ATG (anything goes)
The Outlawz Color Challenge - Colour inspiration plus add a heart
We Love to Create - anything creative/mixed media
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart
Path of Positivity - Desire
Art Journal Journey - If Music be the food of love