Behind the Art with Jen

 Hello friends!  Here's another one of my pages this month with the "Thrive" kit!  This one is a fun, high-contrast layout.  I recently went to the New York State Fair and visited the butterfly exhibit.  It was amazing!  They were everywhere and landed on me immediately.  It was so cool!  I could have stayed in there for the whole day.  In the middle of this crazy crowded fair, these little beauties were thriving and a little piece of calm.

 

This paper with all the words on a black background was screaming for me to use it but it was very bold and so I used a bit of gesso and some of the Distress Paint to tone it down a bit where the journaling and photos were to go.

 

 Lots of words and fun phrase stickers made this just so perfect for all my thoughts about this day. It was magical and oh so amazing!

 You can see the fun little sewn details I added with my machine.  I also love those stars, faces, and epoxy gems.  They add the perfect celebratory touch!

Throughout my visit to the butterfly exhibit I couldn't help but feel bad that they were enclosed in the space for our amusement and delight.  There was one butterfly that had a broken wing and was on the floor.  I thought it was dead but it moved.  I gently picked it up with the q-tip they gave us with nectar on it to attract the butterflies.  I place the butterfly on a plant and hoped it would get better but  I'm sure it had a limited time left.  Those beautiful creatures only stay with us for a short time. It was an honor to be landed on and enjoy their beauty for that short time.  They are meant to be free but it was so awesome to interact with them that day.

Behind the Art with Felecia

The moment I heard the word "Thrive" I couldn't get the song Made to Thrive by Casting Crowns out of my head. It was one of those things where a song gets stuck rattling around in your brain and you find yourself singing it all the time, not being able to escape it.

Honestly, I didn't know all the lyrics to it, though I could easily come up with the chorus.

When I looked it up, I kept thinking, "yes! This is what I was made to do!" To be honest, the rest of my layouts poured out from this one...because I couldn't let go of the idea that I was "made to thrive." But he lyrics seemed like something I want to OWN, to adopt as my own theme. 

The amazing little happy faces in the kit were BEGGING to be used...and this line  - Shine like the sun, make darkness run and hide - I really want to live my life like this! Like a sun shining, like light, like warmth, life-giving. 

This amazing paper is DIRECTIONAL...it says "Go THIS way" I wanted the zig zags to travel across the page, to point forward and show the way.

As I was elevating and placing the strips of paper, it seemed like the layout needed a little sparkle, a little shiney. I broke out some jewels to give me my sparkle...

In retrospect, they are a perfect symbolism for the shining like a sun, for the projecting light into darkness...(though I'll admit it was not so purposeful in the outset).

This is a somewhat serendipitous example, though, of how we can get our creative process into a grove, wholly focused on making the project LOOK like what we FEEL and it really just happens when we are in that place of working out the theme. It ENDS right, fully expressing what we mean and how we feel.

Ready for a new month? It's time to look forward. 

September means back to school, and before life gets even more hectic with holiday madness, we thought you might need a reminder to take care of YOU.

So here it is:

The THRIVE Kit!

Check out a few sneaks of our DT's amazing inspirational work!

We've got everything you need to remember to live your best life and grab each moment.

And then grab yours here: READ MORE & BUY NOW

Patterned Paper:

Basic Grey Highline          Be yourself         

Basic Grey Highline          Happy days        

Basic Grey Highline          Beautiful             

Basic Grey Highline          Good times        

Basic Grey Highline          Awesome           

Heidi Swapp Favorite Things         Wordy  

Heidi Swapp Favorite Things         In bloom             

Heidi Swapp Favorite Things         Seeing stripes    

Heidi Swapp Favorite Things         Rainbow rounds

Heidi Swapp Favorite Things         Lovely lattice  

Embellishments:

American Crafts Amy Tangerine Plus One Match - Aqua Thickers   

Studio Calico Essentials Tiny Alpha Stickers - Yellow/Orange

Basic Grey Highline Title Stickers

Basic Grey Highline Snippets, ¼ package

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Clips, ½ package

Chic Tags Cloud 9 Mini Icons, ¼ package

Maya Road Transparencies framed sayings – white, ¼ package

Freckled Fawn Paper Clips, Wow, 1

Freckled Fawn Wood Chips Emoticons, ¼ package

Jillibean Wood Sprinkles Life ¼ package

Studio Calico Essentials   Chipboard Stars Yellow/Orange, ¼ package

Websters Pages Sprinkled with Love Paperclip Ampersand, 1

We R Memory Keepers Enamel Shapes Warm, ½ sheet

Cardstock:   

American Crafts white   

American Crafts white   

American Crafts black    

American Crafts black    

Technique:

The Crafter's Workshop  Balzer Bits Julie Balzer Doodle Leaf Bits   

Color:

Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Paints Peacock Feathers