Art by Debbie Saenz

Birthday Party Crafts & Lois Jackson

Girls Birthday parties are so much fun especially when a craft is involved! Paint, glitter, rhinestones, oh yea!

Darby is one of my little friends from my church family and I couldn't resist the opportunity to help make her 8th birthday party 'creatively' special...especially knowing how much Darby loves arts and crafts. 

 

 Here's Darby, the happy birthday girl.

There were 7 little girls, a perfect number for this kind of party.

 First we made scrabble tile pendants (you can find my tutorial here). The scrabble tiles were fairly quick to make, but needed at least 3 hours to dry.

Next the girls got creative with paint and painted little wood boxes. It's always VERY interesting to see how their personalities shine through. Some mixed colors...

some used Lots of colors...

and others used glitter and rhinestones too! Some chose to Mod Podge a paper butterfly to the tops of their boxes.  Here are just a few, but they all turned out so pretty! 

 ...and some of the girls' finished scrabble tile necklaces. Pretty Pretty!

 

Happy Birthday Darby!  XO

 

I want you to meet Lois Jackson, Darby's great-grandma. Isn't she cute? She recently celebrated her 90th birthday. Lois is an incredibly talented artist! HMMM must be where Darby gets her talent! Lois has spent many years as a freelance artist for Hallmark. I've only seen glimpses of her paintings and WOW! The Lord has blessed her with an incredible gift!  

 

I was honored when Lois gave me this set of note cards. They are absolutely beautiful...and this is a photograph of prints of paintings she had done! Imagine the originals! 

Printed on the back of each card, is says: 

"God has given us so much beauty all around us-

the azure skies, the evening sunset that bursts with color to tint the mountains;

Fields splashed with color and the birds singing praises to their Maker!

I try to reflect some of this beauty in my paintings, with thanks and

praise to the Great Creator of "all things beautiful"!       Ecl. 3:11 

 Lois Jackson"

Lois told me that she was writing down the story of her life. She said, "Do you know what I'm calling it? My First 90 Years".

I love it! It puts everything into perspective and reminds me of heaven with our Heavenly Father where we will be basking in the beauty of our Lord for all eternity!...a Perfect Picture!

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. Ecclesiastes 4:11

BlessingsXo,

Debbie

~  ~  ~  GRAND OPENING OFFER  ~  ~  ~

 
 I'm proud to announce...

 My Etsy Shop is now open

 I'm offering a free gift to the first 5 customers! 

I Won 1st Place & My Etsy Store is Now Open!

Yea! I was so excited when they called my name as the first place winner of the 2010 Creativity Contest at the Scrapbook Expo. The Expo was in Duluth, Georgia at the Gwinnett Convention Center. 

They were looking for any and all types of creative projects using scrapbooking supplies. So that's what I gave them. I entered something I know they have never seen before. One of my Perfummies. I began creating them last year. I made the first one for my mom. Since she loves beautiful things, I wanted to surprise her and make something extra special for her birthday. 

The process began with a 2 x 4 that  was laying around in my garage.  Since I've used so much Mod Podge on wood, I got to thinking....Hmmm what can I do with this? And then, Voila!, my creation, a three dimensional mixed-media perfume bottle! And of course, I had to give it a name. I called it a Perfummie. 

This is the one I entered in the contest:

 

This Perfummie is  51/2 inches tall. I added a glass knob for the top, crystal feet for the bottom. A tag for personalizing and fun fibers hang from the knob.

 

 I collect vintage jewelry to embellish my Perfummies.

 

I make beaded danglers to add with the tags.  

This is the back. There are lots of layers along with about 16 different pieces of scrapbook paper and many other elements.

 Here I am with my Perfummie after they called my name. 

 This is Carol Spruill, she won second place. She entered a beautiful card. 

 This is Peggy Thompson, she was the 3rd place winner. She made a darling collage.

So many beautiful projects were entered; really, we were ALL winners! 

They told me they would mail my prize. I'll be sure to let you know what I won when my package arrives! 

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And now for more exciting news.....

I'm so thrilled to tell you that I FINALLY set up my Etsy shop and actually have several things listed, including the winning Perfummie pictured above. You probably already saw the cute little gadget displaying my Etsy shop items for sale (On my sidebar at the top of this page). Incase you've never heard of Etsy before, its a social commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft supplies. 

It was A LOT of work, but it feels so good because I've been wanting to do this for some time now. Please! If you have any feedback for me I would LOVE to hear it.  And especially if it's constructive criticism! I might have been "blind" to some things while in the dizzy fog of staring at the computer for so long. 

But now I'm doing the Yippee dance!... I have my own shop! YEA! 

Blessings Xo,

Debbie

A Win Win Summer

I'm so excited because this summer I won twice: a Blogger award and also first place in the 2010 Creativity Contest at the Georgia Scrapbook Expo! I'll tell you all about what I entered at the Scrapbook Expo in my next post, but for now...

Earlier this summer, my new friend Sarah from Stepping Thru Crazy awarded me with the Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you so much Sarah! 

You have to go check out Sarah's blog. She comes up with so many wonderfully creative ideas and projects. And she shares step by step how to make them. It's very cool!

 

There are several things I must do to officially make this award mine...

* Give thanks to your award-giver

* Tell people seven things about yourself

* Pass on the award to 15 bloggers that you think are fantastic 

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Ok, here goes...seven things about me:

1. When I was in 3rd grade I got a Hobby Lobby sewing machine for my birthday...one of those toy battery operated machines that doesn't hold the stitches (I learned the hard way!) I made myself a matching shirt and skirt. I still remember the fabric, it was blue with little pink and yellow flowers. I was so proud of my new outfit, I begged my mom to allow me to wear it to school....well it wasn't a good outcome. Halfway through the day I was sent to the office because my clothes were literally falling off of me. The stitches were coming apart. I sat in the office, totally embarrassed, while waiting for my mom to bring me a change of clothes. 

2. I have a love hate relationship with my naturally curly hair! And humidity makes me REALLY hate it! The frizz is a BIG problem.  And here's a little hairy history...When I was 13 years old I got my hair straightened. I was delighted with my pin straight hair (that looked like straw!) When it grew out some, I got it straightened again, but that time the chemicals were left on too long or something and my hair started breaking from the root! After several days, all of the hair that was on the top part of my head was about a 1/2 inch long. I was terribly embarrassed to go to school so I parted my hair down half my head (like a bald guy) and "tried" to cover my new "do" with some of my hair that was still intact. Yikes, it looked HORRIBLE! I wore hats and was devastated to say the least...so I started skipping school. Now a days, I'm liking it more, but still fight with it. One thing is for sure...I would never even think twice about straightening it again!

3. I don't know if it started with the trauma with my hair or what, but I was terribly rebellious as a teenager. A real wild one! Until Jesus did a work in my heart at the age of 26. I saw my sin and my need of a Savior and He changed all of my hearts desires. My eyes were opened and my whole life was transformed. The neat thing is is that my husband also prayed to receive Christ that same night. Over time, he changed his career, got his Masters in Divinity and we are now planting our second church. So that means I'm a pastors wife... and so very blessed!

4. When my kids were younger, before homeschooling, I used to have a cake decorating business. At one time I was making about three wedding cakes a week and I've literally made hundreds of birthday cakes. I never had a casualty when delivering a cake, but there is one thing I still get knots in my stomach about every time I think about it.... Early one morning, there was a knock on my door, I sleepily, robe in all, went to answer the door. It was someone who was coming to pick up the cake they had ordered for a very important meeting. I could have died, dug a hole and dove into the deepest part! I totally forgot about that order! I will never forget that day and after that I became totally obsessed about making sure I didn't forget another order. And thankfully, I didn't. That one time was enough to cure me especially since the lady was not very nice about it...well, I guess I wouldn't have been either. 

5. I don't drink milk, never have (even as a newborn infant) and never will. But I do use it in cooking...and funny thing, milk based desserts like puddings and custards are some of my favorite. Yea, weird I know. Oh yea, and while my mind is in the kitchen...Coffee, yes! I'm addicted!

6. My tendency is to be a  perfectionist and I drive myself crazy!...and this is the 120th time I've worked on this post while it sat in draft all summer!

7. I have a weakness for scrapbook paper. I never think I have enough! I like to save papers I really love...for what, I don't know (maybe for that "perfect" project!), but when I need a paper or papers for something I'm working on, it takes me forever to look through my ever growing pile. 

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15 Blogs I think are fantastic (just 15 of the many!):

1. The Charm House

2. Simple Things

3. Creative Chaos

4. The Feathered Nest

5. Creations From My Heart

6. Pam Garrison 

7. Pink Roses and Other Passions

8. Vintage Bliss

9. So Lovely Creations

10. My Art Journal

11. In His Grip

12. Hand To Paper  

13. Art of Mine

14. Bits and Pieces

And last, but CERTAINLY not least!...

15. Studio JRU

Blessed and Refreshed and there's so much more

AHH! We are back from a wonderful vacation. We were able to see our family in South Florida then my hubby and I escaped to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. It was full of surprises, good food and art, and lots of leisure time. 

 Cheers to 20 wonderful years of being married to my best friend!  I love that man!

I have so much to tell you all, but I'll do it little by little in the upcoming posts. Stay tuned!

Blessings XO,

Debbie