Designer Gift Wrap!!!

I'm sorry I've been gone! I went on a ladies mountain retreat with 3 dear friends last weekend and it was wonderful!! However, I've been wanting to share this story with you since last week....This student of mine is up for adoption and has been through many foster homes and it was her birthday..she loves the art I do with them and so I got her paints and markers and a hello kitty coloring book!! She was thrilled but I forgot the wrapping paper, so you must know that I could NOT just give her an unwrapped gift! So I just painted some typing paper with some grocery store watercolors and wrapped it somehow with that!! She was so thrilled with her own original designer gift wrap... She said "you even painted my gift wrap to make it special!!!!!"She didnt want to tear the paper as she so gingerly opened the gift. A teacher walked in and said..."Oh how wonderful, so you paint your own gift wrap to add that special touch!!" I just cracked up! Sometimes our lack of planning is a blessing. Here is the picture of the painted gift wrap paper!!

Back to Watercolor

I've just been itching to get my watercolors out and paint roses...this is an ACEO that I will list on ETSY....

I feel so Loved!!

I turned 45 yesterday!! My husband got me these beautiful 2 dozen roses and my friends at the Language Learning Center got me this beautiful cake!! Everyone has been so sweet and loving..we had a great dinner last night at Stonewood Grill in JAX...this is the BEST food in JAX!!

More pages for Dad's Altered Album

I finished the altered photo album yesterday and sent it express mail to my friend in Austin who is going to share it with her book club tommorrow. They are reading a book about a missionary from Cuba and she wanted to share about my dad as well.
Here is one more page. I did not get a chance to scan all the pages of the book but when I get it back in April and will scan it and share the whole thing here as a slide show. On my last post, be sure to double click the page so that you can read my dad's testimony, it is very inspiring.

More pages to my Dad's Altered Album

If you click on the image you can see it up close and read the passages.
These were printed from the computer and glued over the lines on the album page.



I added some more pages. The pictures are all scans of the originals. I painted some of the pages with black paint and then modgepodged the pictures on. In a couple of cases I used gesso or a light yellow over that layer with a dry brush and then modgpodged again. The 4x6 sections have little plastic covers so I prepared 4x6 backgrounds and pasted pictures and captions on those. Some were digitally collaged.

This Weekend's Creativity

And last, I worked on an altered photo album of my dad's life. I changed the cover from a flower pattern to the distressed background with script, added my dad's photo and title with modgepodge....I painted and decoupaged the next page with the copy of dad's life verse, then I added lots of pictures and other stuff that I am still working on. A friend I grew up with who knew my dad is reading a book with her book club written by another missionary who knew my dad and worked in the same areas. She wanted some pics to show her club of my dad's life and this gave me an excuse to finish something I had started to do years ago.....it's been very rewarding so far.
I also decoupaged and painted a box for my husband's desk with a frog on it. This frog reminds him of a sermon by Dr. Mac Brunson at FBC Jacksonville a few sundays ago. He told a story(this is my paraphrase) of a little boy crying by the side of the road, holding a pet frog and refusing to go to school that day. When asked why, by a man passing by, the boy said "I can't leave my frog all alone while I go to school...I don't know what would happen to him!!!!"....The man offered to take care of the frog that day so that he could continue his education and become an asset to England, which desperately needs him and his contribution to society ....about half way during the day at school, suddenly a herald entered the classroom called his name and announced....."the Earl would like to inform you that your frog is doing quite nicely"....the moral of the story is that whatever we are holding on to that keeps us moving forward and achieving our destiny will be quite safe in the hands of someone stronger and more powerful than us, Our Heavenly Father...and just like the boy if we let go and trust....God will take care of our every worry while we fulfill His will for us...


Hello! This weekend I have been doing some different artsy things. I did a drawing of my dog, Cookie on a gesso board just to try pencil on a different surface. It was okay, I think I'll stick with paper though.