A Woman's perspective on Women

Hi everyone!
Today I am going to show you my latest painting.  There was a call for 100 female artists at one of our local universities that is doing an exhibition on a woman's perspective on women.  I was fortunate to be asked to participate.  100 women were given a 6 x 6 canvas to create a work of art that represented how they see women.  The timing for this could not have been better.  My life was chaos at the time of the invitation with driving kids from one event to another, rehearsals for the singing group I'm in, choir practice at church, a big installation of art at my job, my boss got fired, my daughter was having trouble with her violin, I mean, you name it and it was happening.  Thus, the inspiration for She Wears Many Hats, mixed media on canvas.

Proverbs 31:10 sets the stage - A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.  Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.  She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.  She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.  She is like the merchant ships, bringing food from afar.  

 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.  She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.  She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.  In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.  When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.  She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.  She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.  She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.  She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.  Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

We wear many hats - we love, cherish, heal, care, comfort, cook, create, nourish, guide and correct but above all we wear the crown as the princess of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Blessings,

Jana

Simply Sunday Challenge at Getting Cricky

Hello everyone!
It's been a crazy week at the Bailey house.  Work has been crazy, my boss (which I liked) was fired, my daughter is out of town and I miss her, my other daughter just lost two heart breaking basketball games in a row and I spent the week installing over 800 pieces of art for our Youth Art Month exhibition at the museum where I work.  It's my favorite show all year.  Young artists from K-12th grade show their best art work and it is AMAZING! what these kids can do!  So inspiring!
I hope all is well with everyone in blog land.
Today is our Simply Sunday Challenge at Getting Cricky with K. Andrew.  I hope you will create a project and play along.  There will be prize for a lucky person randomly chosen that links up their project on the Getting Cricky blog.
Today's challenge is "Argh Matey" - anything with a pirate or fishy theme.  Here is my project.

 I used paper from my stash, mostly old and wonderful Basic Grey, some of my all time favorites. The flower is cut on my Cricut using the Flower Shoppe cartridge and the mermaid is a darling stamp from the K. Andrew set called Pirate Party, it is an art/image set that also includes a few sentiments, but there is an entire sentiment set that goes with this set called Pirate Tales and Fish Scales: Sentiments.  They are really cute and good for many occasions.

I stamped the mermaid on several pattern papers and then again on flesh colored cardstock, then I cut out the parts and pieced them together on the flesh cardstock.  I used the Liquid Pearls by Ranger, obviously appropriate! :) for the pearl earrings and necklace and a little bit of antique brass Stickles by Tim Holt in her hair but it did not photograph well.  I also used a Peachy Keen face for her.  The mermaid stamp doesn't have a face on it, that way you can either choose the stamped face that comes in the set or use or draw another. I adore PK stamps and was so excited they work with Kristals stamps.  What a team!!!

Here are the K. Andrew Stamps that I used.  You can click on the preview image and head right to her store to purchase your very own.  Every purchase benefits a charity.

I hope you have enjoyed the challenge project and that you will choose to create one of your own to link up.  Go HERE to do so!

Blessings,

Jana 

Getting Cricky With It! Surprise Blog Hop!

Welcome the “Getting Cricky With It” Surprise Blog Hop for Kristal!!!

Today the Design Team is bringing you some very special projects created for our wonderful and amazing leader Kristal! Our term is almost over and we wanted to show her just how much we appreciate ALL that she has done for us this term. The projects that we will be sharing with you will also be sent to Kristal. We encourage ALL of her fans to join in on the fun as well! Be sure to add your card/project to the link below and then be sure to mail it off to her!

If you've hopped along from Cristel then you are in the right place!! If you are just joining me from your dashboard, or reading this via email, please be sure to CLICK HERE to start at the beginning with Kristal's blog (you'll want to catch up on all the FUN!!)...

Each of Kristal's stamp sets benefit charity. At least $1 per stamp set goes to benefit the charity noted on the stamp set package. So you can feel good that each time you purchase a K Andrew Designs art stamp set, someone around the country is receiving some good help!

K Andrew's stamps are all made and assembled here in the USA, which is very important to Kristal. This ensures all product materials are safe and that jobs are being provided and maintained here in America.  You can learn even more about Kristal's stamps (and pick some up for yourself) by visiting her online store: K Andrew Designs:
Today I created a banner to send to Kristal that she can hang in her craft room if she wants.  I wanted it to remind her that she makes a difference in many peoples lives with the work she does as a designer, blogger, teacher and mom.  I used the Amazing You stamp set because it is so fitting for this project.

I cut the banners from the Lovely Floral Lite cartridge and the letters from the Storybook cartridge, one of my favorites!  The rosettes were just made from strips of paper and the toppers in white were also just strips that I used a border punch on and the scored them and folded them over the top of the banner kind of like a matchbook cover. I chose to use the word JOY on the banner because that is what designing for her brings me...JOY. 

Kristal has been extremely inspiring to me.  She creates stamps that are easy to use and easy to incorporate into my projects.  Not just cards but I have used them on home decor, scrapbook layouts and even in my mixed media art.  She is a full time teacher and single mom and still makes time to make us feel wanted and needed.

 Kristal has been a blessing in my life.  I have had a really hard year at work and I virtual quite papercrafting but making it on the design team has forced me to create/carve out time for myself to be creative which has been a great outlet during stressful times.  She is generous and genuine.

Kristal is AWESOME!  how can anyone deny it~~~Kristal Andrew...YOU ROCK!  LOVE YA GIRL!


I hope you enjoyed the project and that you will support Kristal in her personal business by purchasing a set or two of her stamps.  you help her, help a charity and make yourself happy with a new treat just for you!  Win~Win!  :)

Now you can dance on over to your next stop: Patti

Here is the line up in case you get lost along the way:

1.      Kristal

2.      RhoLynda

3.      Charlotte

4.      Cheri

5.      Linda

6.      Amanda

7.      Debbie

8.      Vero

9.      Lisa

10.  Jennie

11.  Kristan

12.  Jamie

13.  Christel

14.  Jana

15.  Patti

16.  Heather

17.  Miranda

18.  Ildi

19.  Jessie

20.  JoAnn

21.  Letillia

22.  Larelyn

23.  Anita

24.  Laura

25. Sherry

26.  Shawn

27.  Faith

28.  Amy

Cabin Fever Blog Hop!

Welcome to the "Cabin Fever" Getting Cricky Blog Hop!!

We're so happy you could join us for this month's Getting Cricky Design Team Blog Hop!!  We have an EXTRA SPECIAL hop for you this month -- All week long, the Design Team has been featuring many of Kristal's stamp sets as well as an array of Cricut Cartridges, SVG cuts, and more in anticipation of the hop...  If you've missed out on any of the week, be sure to check out our previous posts for MORE THAN 100 CREATIVE IDEAS and PROJECTS as well as giveaways, promotions, tips, and tutorials!!

If you've hopped along from Larelyn then you are in the right place!! If you are just joining me from your dashboard, or reading this via email, please be sure to CLICK HERE to start at the beginning with Kristal's blog (you'll want to catch up on all the FUN!!)...

Each of Kristal's stamp sets benefit charity. At least $1 per stamp set goes to benefit the charity noted on the stamp set package. Kristal is donating to the following charities: Cancer Angels, Storefront Shelter for Homeless Children, Intrepid & Fallen Heroes, E. Glaser Pediatric AIDS  Foundation, Doorways Shelter for Women & Children (Domestic Violence), Wayside House for Women, Camp Good Days & Special Times, Adopt a Classroom, and Autism Research Institute. Kristal will donate $1 for every stamp set sold, retail or wholesale to the charity noted; and over time believes this will add up to some wonderful miracles for these special people. So you can feel good that each time you purchase a K Andrew Designs art stamp set, someone around the country is receiving some good help!

K Andrew's stamps are all made and assembled here in the USA, which is very important to Kristal. This ensures all product materials are safe and that jobs are being provided and maintained here in America.  You can learn even more about Kristal's stamps (and pick some up for yourself) by visiting her online store: K Andrew Designs:



Kristal's stamp sets are perfect for cards, layouts, and so much more...
For my project, I'm featuring the Hoot Owl Image Set.  For more details or to make this set YOURS, please click on the preview:

Hoot Owl Image Set

Owly Hoo Sentiments

Now, on to my project.  The theme is "Cabin Fever" so I created a memory game using the cute owls in the stamp set.  It is called "You Whoo!"  :)  It makes me smile. 

 The cards were printed and cut on my Imagine machine using the Blast Off! cartridge.  I printed 20 of the 8:10 rectangles built into the Imagine sized to 2" and filled each one with a different pattern.  Then I turned them over and stamped 2 cards to match, using 10 different owls.

The "You Whoo!" was stamped using the Owly Hoo Sentiments set.  So fun!Thanks so much for stopping by, blessings,Jana

Now you can hop on over to your next stop: Jennie

Cricut Cartridge Challenge Day Five!

Hello everyone!
Welcome to the last day of the Cricut Cartridge Challenge week.  I have had a blast making projects this week with one of my many seldom used cartridges along with the great stamps from K. Andrew Designs.  I hope you have been able to click on the link ups below and visit some of the other bloggers and designers participating this week.  Leave em' some bloggy love, it will make their day!
Today I decided to create a layout I have been thinking about for a long time.  Who says Kristal's stamps are just for cards, right???  The cartridge usage was minimal but I got so excited about the fabric strip flowers that I didn't have much room left for cuts.  I think it adds just the right touch though.

This is a terrible photography job, I apologize.  I usually end up taking my pics at night and the lighting is really hard to deal with.  The glare makes it look like I used a flash but I didn't.  Oh well, I wanted you to get to see the entire layout.  I printed the paper and filled all the cuts with the Blossom Imagine pattern cartridge.  It's a really pretty cartridge.  I embossed the blue swirls in the bottom corner using a fun stamp that I have no recollection of where I got it :)

 This is my sweet daughter at her first dance ever.  She was in 6th grade and the boy she was with, yes that is a boy, was a nice kid but a real goober.  They had fun, but the pre-dance primping that occurred was somethin' else.  It was sad and fun watching her be so excited.  This was the picture that they had taken at the dance.  Notice the fold lines.  She pulled it out of her pocket when she came home from school one day!  She had no idea the plans I had for it.

 She had her first pair of heels that she was determined to wear even though it made her taller than her "date".  She is 14 and still doesn't date.  She met him at the dance.  This is the perfect sentiment stamp for this picture.  It is from K. Andrew's set called Fashionable Friends.  I have used it in all my projects this week and LOVE it!

 These fabric strip and ribbon flowers are so fun to make, I might have to teach you some day if you don't already know how to make them.  They are SUPER easy!

Here is the pretty girl from the Forever Young cartridge.  I just love these silhouette girls on this cartridge.  Thanks a ton to those of you that have stopped by each day this week.  I hope you have been inspired to be creative in some way or another.  Please stop in at K. Andrew Designs and check out the wonderful stamps.  With each purchase Kristal donates money to various charities.  Also, don't forget to visit some of the awesome blogs that are linked up below!
Thanks for stopping in,
Blessings,
Jana

Cricut Cartridge Challenge Day Four!

Hello Again!
I hope you all have been following along with the Cricut one cartridge challenge this week.  I decided that today, since I have been devoting WAY too much time to Pinterest, that I would actually create one of the projects that I pinned!  Novel idea, I know!  Anyway, this card was great with colors I really liked, especially the black as the accent.  I found it at nikiestes.typepad.com, where she has a lot of great designs and a style I really like.  So there is credit due..now on to my version of her cute card.

 I used the Forever Friends cartridge, as I have been all week on the challenge along with the Fashionable Friends stamp set from K. Andrew Designs.  They go super together.  I used regular black cardstock but then I printed the strips using the Hopscotch Imagine cartridge.  One of my FAVS!  It is full of the sweetest patterns.  I cut rectangles that I had to trim in half for the long strips then I used a round punch to make the scallops at the bottom.

The round tag is cut with my Nestabilities and embossed with them too.  It was fun to take the sentiment stamp and stick it to my block in a curve so that it matched the curve of the scalloped circle I cut out.  I am telling you people, these are GREAT quality stamps.  It's not hard to get a perfect stamped image every time. The finishing touches were put on using my trusty Bernina.  It's a bit sad I have not sewn or quilted in such a long time so I didn't want it to feel neglected.  I love sewing on paper, I just usually don't take the time.  I am glad I did with this card.  Now, to just decide who to send it to :)
Now if you want to play along, you can just pick a cartridge, use a K. Andrew stamp on the project and link it up!

Cricut Cartridge Challenge Day Three!

Oh my goodness, have we been having fun at Getting Cricky with the one Cricut cartridge challenge.  If you are just now tuning in you MUST click on the links at the bottom of this post to see all the fun projects the Getting Cricky design team and other followers have come up with using one cartridge paired with K. Andrew Designs stamps for the whole week.  I have chosen to use the cartridge Forever Young and this will be my 3rd project using it and I LOVE this card.  I have never made a step card before so I decided to try it out.  Since I had no idea how to get started I did a search and found a TERRIFIC lady that not only has a video on how to do it but she has the pattern!  Her pattern and video make it the easiest card to make, try it out by visiting her blog at www.mycreativeexposure.com. It was the easiest to follow that I found and the pattern is printable.  So here is my 3rd project for the challenge...

So as I mentioned before, I used the Forever Young cartridge and it pairs very nicely with the sentiment stamps that are both from the Fashionable Friends set from K. Andrew.  I used the Imagine cartridge Elise to fill the shapes and the background papers.  I love that cartridge, the patterns are all so sweet and I really like how the Imagine changes the scale of the pattern to the appropriate size for the cut.

I like the way it turned out, although I wish I had put maybe one more thing alongside the front hat.  That spot is a little bare.  A button maybe???  I hope you will try out a step card and pick a cartridge and join in on the fun.

Cricut Cartridge Challenge Day Two!

Ok, I am so sorry my post is so late tonight.  I just finished helping the 5th grader in my house make her valentine box, it is a large blue guitar???  What ever happened to pink and red hearts????  Then the 8th grader had to have paper mustaches for the lollipops she is giving to her friends.  Of course that meant an hour in the Cricut Craftroom figuring out how t o purchase a digital cartridge.  Which I ended up buying twice?  Some where in there we had tryouts for little dribbler basketball which I ended up getting volunteered to coach again this year.  Cookies baked, laundry only half done, kitchen cleaned, what else....oh yea!  Cricut projects!!!!
I have had so much fun with this weeks challenge of using a Cricut cartridge I have had for a while but not used much to make a project each day.  I have chosen to use Forever Young, it is the perfect match to the K. Andrew stamp set Fashionable Friends.  It has been a lot of fun and thanks to YouTube for great inspiration. This card idea came from StampTV on YouTube.  I hadn't made a "gate card" before so I thought I would give it a try and given the kind of day I've had, it looked simple enough :)

This card is 5 x 7 finished so I cut the cardstock 10 x 7 and scored it 2 1/2 inches from each side so that it folded and met in the middle.  I used blue paper from my stash and then colored the cuts from Forever Young with colors built into my imagine.  I love the sentiment from Fashionable Friends.  Kristal Andrew is such a great stamp designer.  Go HERE to check out her great stamps.  The best thing is that you get a great set of stamps but even better is she donates to a charity for every purchase made from her.  She is so generous!

 So the lady on Stamp TV said it was a gate card "with a twist" and at first I couldn't figure that out but then as she put the two panels on the front I saw what she meant.  She attached the top one on the right and the bottom one on the left so that they kind of interlock when you open and close it.  Cute and simple!

I just love these shoe cuts.  These are cut at like 1 1/2 inches and the Imagine makes a perfect cut.  Love it!!!!  Here is the stamp set that I used.  Feel free to hop over to K. Andrew Designs and pick one up for yourself!

Also don't forget you can link up your Cricut and K. Andrew design below.  Share your talent, get more hits on your blog, have fun and play with us!  :)

Cricut Cartridge Challenge Week!

Wow!  I can't believe I have gone this long without posting.  I have missed you all.  I have been swamped at work and my girl's basketball schedules have taken over our lives.  If we are not at the gym, we are at church so I have had very little time to create.  But I am back and ready to go!
This week at Getting Cricky with K. Andrew we are challenging our followers to choose ONE Cricut cartridge (or SVG set if you don't own a Cricut) that you have not used in a long time and create a project with it each day this week.  We also ask that you use K. Andrew stamps on your project if you want to link it up at Getting Cricky.  So one Cricut cartridge and ANY K. Andrew stamps that you want to use.
So this week I am going to use the cartridge Forever Young.  I remember when this cartridge came out in 2009 that I HAD to have it!!!!!!  And I got it!!!!!  But I haven't USED IT!!!!!!  So now is the time.  I thought it would be a fun one.  It reminds me so much of my sweet 14 year old daughter.  She is SO about fashion (like every other 14 year old girl).  I am also going to use the K. Andrew stamp set called Fashionable Friends. This cartridge and stamp set were made for each other!  If you will come back each day this week, you will see me use a different cut form Forever Young along with a different stamp.  So, on to my first project...

I made a purse.  Forever Young is full of these darling little handbags that you can make and put a small little treat in.  I used the fit to page feature on my Imagine and it turned out a pretty nice size.  It is 5 inches wide and 3 inches tall.   

I flood filled the purse cut with a pattern from the Ancestry Imagine cartridge.  I love the sweet little birds on this pattern and the colors are nice too, kind of muted but still pretty.  As I mentioned before I used a stamp from K. Andrew's called Fashionable Friends. This one cracked me up, one you would want to use only with one of your besties :)  I think I will be able to use that stamp set this whole week with this cartridge.  This was a super simple, fast and very easy project.  I hope you will link your project up with us.
Don't for get it is also the Simply Sunday Challenge at Getting Cricky.  Click here to see that challenge and join in.  It has a wedding theme and will be going on all week.
Here are the projects linked up for the cartridge challenge week already...come on.....join us!