This Is What I Do: Create

Our May mini inspiration mission was the following song lyrics: "Heaven opened its portals to me."  When I read them, I knew immediately that the song was "With a song in my Heart" That got me thinking and I remember going to my Grandma F's and she let me stay up and watch the "late show" which was a movie that didn't even start until after the 11:00 PM news. That was when I saw the movie, "With A Song in my Heart" for the first time. I can remember it like it was yesterday and it has to have been at least 65 years ago. (Grandma had a TV and we didn't!!) The movie starred Susan Hayward (pant, pant!!)  It was the story of Jane Froman, an entertainer during WWII. What a love story! She was hurt in an accident, spent lots of time in the hospital, was giving up on life as she knew it, but Therma Ritter and Rory Calhoun came to her rescue! Wow!! She sang to the service men overseas, brought down the house with the title song.  Needless...

Yep! The calendar says that I am another year older! A cousin asked me if I was 29 again. I said, "yes for the 45th year in a row!!" After I did the math, on paper!! How do I feel about being 74 today? Who cares! I don't feel any older than I did yesterday. I don't feel much older than I did 10 years ago. Oh, yeah, it takes me a little longer to get going in the mornings, but after my coffee and morning routine,  I ready for the day.  The worst part about being older is the way other people perceive you when they find out how old you are. When you reach a "certain" age, I have found that you become almost invisible to most people. Not saying that about my close family and friends, but to the general public, clerks in stores, etc. older adults are mostly ignored! That's okay in most things. If I need help, I'm not too shy to ask. There are perks, too, but right now I can't think of a one. Certainly not healthcare. The price rises yearly, and...

Friends of mine are expecting a new granddaughter in the future. I am a firm believer that grandparents are EXTRA special people and should have special things for when the baby comes to visit. (Baby showers never include stuff for Grandma and Grandpa. So I made something special for them. I made a PINK burrito blanket. That is simply a round blanket that I made from fleece, then edged on my sewing machine.  Easy to use, lay babe in the middle, fold up the foot part and then the sides. It's a good swaddler and there are no droopy corners to get caught on stuff or be dragging. BUT, the icing on the cake is the round Mandala afghan  to go with the blanket. It turned out even better than I anticipated. I used a little heavier weight yarn than it called for, and a size bigger hook. I did that because my eyes just aren't good enough to use that fine fingering weight yarn and a small hook. I cut the size of the blanket down so it was only 36" in diameter. If I had gone on to...

No, it wasn't. It called for coral, mint green and kraft brown. It also wanted us to draw a face or part of a face. It didn't specify that it had to be a human face, however. I considered a lion or a tiger, but settled for a human face. The prompt also had 5 words to choose from. I chose "root(s)."  I scraped the coral paint on the paper with a scraper. My mint green didn't turn out very well, but, hey, who really cares? It's the creativity that counts, right? I made several attempts with the face, finally coming up with one that I sorta cheated on and traced on with graphite paper!  I stamped on the tree in black and added kraft leaves. IN the grand scheme of life, do any of us today really know where our roots come from? As a man of faith, I know mine came from the house of David, but that's really stretching it a long way. So, I used the tree to represent roots, and family. All in all, it was not my best work, but as it turned out, I like it better e...

My good friend, Curley has a birthday today. I won't tell you how she is, but she repeating 39 again! Of course, I had to make her a card and since she already has opened it earlier when we went out for lunch (Mexican food, yay!) and then went to our knit and crochet group at the local senior center, I can reveal it now. I used two sets of Thinlet dies from Tim Holtz for the background and butterflies. The background and the orange on the butterflies is from some "watercolor" cardstock from Walmart. The black on the butterflies is a metallic bronze heavy cardstock. I mounted it on a black cardstock then attached the whole thing to a white card base. Happy Birthday, Curley. I hope your day was wonderful. Blessed to call you my friend!!  Happy 39...again!  (( Hugs)) Until next time, Go! Create Something! JF

This morning the phone rang and I almost let it go to voice mail. I was "making art."  I answered it not remembering whose number it was that didn't show up in my contact list. A lady from church. She had just gotten back from a winter in Florida and wanted to convey her sympathy about the loss of my brother. And she wanted to sign me up for an obligation at church. The first question she asked me was what I was doing. I told her I was "making art." I don't think she got it!!  15 minutes later, a cuppa later, I was off the phone and back to my work table. I hadn't art journaled for a while, so I finished up this journal page,which I made into a greeting card. Then I worked on this card front for a good friend's birthday. I stamped the music on the card base with water resistant ink and a 6"x6" music stamp from Gina K designs. The birds were all from a set of stamps from a foreign company that I cannot remember. I stamped them on hand...

Yes, I have been busy creating. And reading, and doing all the other stuff it takes to run a household alone. As usual, I am behind on laundry(my least favorite household chore.) But to heck with that stuff if the creative juices are flowing. I made my two granddaughters, ages 10 and 2 these hats for Easter. Yes, I crocheted them, and made all the flowers, too. I hope they like them. Those of you who read my blog know that I watch and admire artist Mike Deakin of Mike Deakin Art. I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from him. I even sometimes ( probably more than I realize) try to incorporate his ideas into my own art work. I watched him create ATCs the other day and tried his idea using the supplies I had. I made the following ATCs and a card. I didn't have a honeycomb stencil, but I had a die from a Tim Holtz collection, so I made my own stencil using my Big Kick die cut machine and a piece of acetate. It worked! Here's what I came up with. I needed another birth...