A Big Thanks To Deb Jennings!

 

Deb Jennings, a sweet lady I met on Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover forum, sent me a box of crayons yesterday morning.  Eva and I wasted no time in sorting, busting, and melting those babies into the beautiful shapes you see here.  Thank you so much, Deb! :)  As soon as my Etsy shop opens, you'll receive 20% off any purchase up to $50. :)  

Now, using a Hershey's kiss to give perspective in size is really silly...

...how long do you think it will last?

Week 10: I've got this thing about sunflowers (part 2)

 The sunflowers are cut from soda cans, and nailed on a 3-foot-high piece of scrap wood. The leaves and vines are made from credit card junk-mail advertisements that I smeared with green acrylic paint, let dry, and die-cut into shapes. (My way of letting the credit-card companies finance my work: they give me free paper.) The vase, arch, and red background are hand painted. I found the beautiful vintage children's illustrations at various websites, which I will credit as soon as I get the right computer. (I work on 3 different computers, and I really need to remedy that!)

 Some detail...

Boys will be boys...

Yes, that little climbing boy has a *knife* in his belt!  My mom warning system went off like crazy.

"Those butterflies were speaking to me!"

The centers are recycled tealight holders.  

 

 

 

I'm going to call it done for now.  This is the first time I've ever worked on a surface this large, so I finally understand how visual artists can work on a project for so long, and never consider it done.  I've spent two weeks on this project, and loved *almost* every minute of it. ;) 

Week 10: I've got this thing about sunflowers (part 1)

I've always had this thing about sunflowers....

"Oh, I'm as happy as a big sunflower that nods and bends in the breezes..."

That's Pa Ingall's "Trouble Song" from the "Little House on the Prairie" series of books. It stuck in my mind for the last 2 1/2 decades, and I'm sure that sunflowers became the flower to lighten any mood as a result. So, when I found a bunch of silk sunflowers that had been damaged, I just couldn't leave them to be landfill fodder.  Those flowers were made to lighten people's day. 

I cut away the damaged parts, and made them into flower pens.  

Now, I don't know if anyone reading this is ever uncertain about the value of their artistic endeavors, but I constantly am.  While I was making these, I kept thinking, "Good gracious, what's the point of making these? A million people have made them before me--am I wasting my time?" 

Then my oldest daughter saw what I was doing, and put everything in perspective...

"I love flower pens!"

"This one is MINE!"

"I want to keep it FOREVER!"

And she's written me three "I lov mi Momy" notes with it since.  

Yeah, I love making stuff.  Making stuff with THEM is the best part.

A Provision Story.

God cares about THIS??!?!?!?

My friend Kate Connel has the best story of God's provision I'd ever heard.  She'd always lived with roomates, and once found herself not only without a roomate, but without several key things that roomates usually provided--like an apple peeler/corer. There were actually about a dozen things that she needed, but this one cooking utensil is what she'd missed.

 You may not think that an apple peeler/corer is essential to life, but you would if you'd tasted Kate's apple dumplings.

 At first, she thought, "Well, I'll just go get a Target credit card, and get the things I need."  God stopped her in her tracks, and said to her heart, "You could ask me.  I love you more than Target does."

So, for the first time in her life, she prayed about a huge list of specific things that she needed for her kitchen and household, and put the list on her fridge. 

God started moving.  Without knowing anything about her prayer, friends would start calling her, "Hey, Kate, I don't need this blender anymore, would you like it?  Hey Kate, do you need a food processor?  I have a ton of extra coffee cups, come over and take a whole box!"  Stuff started showing up, getting "thrown out," randomly gifted to her, and God was showing her in a practical way that He loved her more than Target ever could. 

But something was still missing.

A couple of weeks after she'd started this prayer journey, we were having dinner with a friend and her parents, and Kate started telling us about all this stuff God had just given her in response to prayer.  The friend's mother asked, "What else do you need?"  Well, an apple peeler/corer is the last thing on my list."

The mother went into her closet, and pulled out the monstrous contraption pictured above.  Not only a peeler/corer, but a peeler/corer/slicer, which was actually better than Kate had even wanted, and said, "We never use it.  You can have it." 

I got to watch her happy explosion into laughter and tears, as she knew that God cared about all the little things in her life.  The LITTLE things!  She later said, "If God cares this much about my desserts, how much do you think he cares about my heart?" 

I got another little taste of this over the past couple of weeks. 

I tend to forget that God has miraculously provided amazing things exactly when I need them (like, oh, a CAR!) and start working on my own strength when I need something.  I'd recently made a list of all the things I needed for crafting, and boy, it was expensive.  A die-cutting machine.  A bunch of dies. Sewing machine parts.  A binding machine.  Better storage.  A ton of better-quality paper for making journals.  Wow....when I added all those things up together, it came to well over $1000.

Now, I'd recently noticed a sad trend in my own heart---I tend to be a better consumer than I am a producer.  I can spend all my money on craft supplies, and let them sit for months before I use them.  I didn't know how I could justify sinking any more money into this.  Plus, we're putting every spare cent into paying off a big fat credit card and huge student loans.  I didn't know how I could justify a THOUSAND dollars our of our family budget for crafting.  I mean, what does God care about crafting?

(Are you chuckling?  I hope you're chuckling.)

I had put a link at the top of my browser for Kickstarter, because I'd heard that it's a good source for funding any type of creative enterprise.  I thought, "Maybe I could get some start-up cash from there!" 

Then God reminded me of the apple peeler/corer/slicer , and how Kate never asked for the "slicer" part.  He reminded me that He loved me, and that I hadn't even asked Him for what I needed.  I COULD ask Him.  I could even ask Him to bless the work of my hands.  He loves me.  It's okay.

The first thing that happened is a mother-load of high-quality paper started showing up in thrift stores.  Yeah, I bought all of it for under ten bucks.  It came out of my blow money. 

Then, my sweet husband found a paper-sorter which normally retails for about $340.  For ten bucks at OSU surplus.  He bought it for me out of his blow money, which got him love-points and kisses that his blow money couldn't get him.  Hahahahah. :)

Yes, my studio was really this messy.  I hope you're inspired, Geetha!

Die cutter machines, which retail for about a hundred dollars, started showing up all over Craigslist for $15.  Apparently a newer model had come out, so people were getting rid of their old ones.  And the old dies, which were normally $20 bucks apiece, started going for under $5.  This was a HUGE blessing, because using the little scrapbooking punches over and over and over again had hurt my hands so badly that the pain actually kept me up one night. 

Again, blow-money-funded, no burden on my family's budget, throwing money at the debt snowball, and doing a Happy Snoopy Dance. 

It turned out the sewing machine part was only $15 bucks retail.  What was I worried about?

The thing I kept worrying about was the binding machine.  It took so long to bind a journal by hand, and the paper waste was really bothering me.  I put more paper in scrap piles on the floor than I put into the journal.  If I could just punch and bind that sucker, it would be faster and cheaper---but I couldn't seem to find people just tossing out their several-hundred-dollar binding machines. 

Until last week. :)

I really thought this was my "peeler/corer/slicer"  moment.  It was staged almost exactly like Kate's was. I told my friend (who's also my daughter's babysitter), "I'm looking for this weird thing."  My friend says, "Seriously? We have one collecting dust.  We've never used it.  You can have it."  I jumped around, cried, laughed, hugged my friend, hugged the pastor's wife, and just couldn't believe it.

And God still had more plans for me!

I never even prayed for this.   I asked God for "help with storage and sorting all my junk," but never, ever EVER dreamed that He would give me something like this.  It's a five-unit cabinet set, with dozens of drawers, and made entirely of poplar wood.  I paid $370 to buy it and have it delivered from Columbus.  The seller had gotten it for free (he's in construction) and had to get rid of it when he moved. 

I couldn't have bought the drawer pulls alone for $370, not to mention all the careful workmanship that went into these.  I never dreamed that something like this existed, but God knew, and God had a plan. THIS was my slicer moment.  I cried a lot. 

If God cares this much about my crafts, how much do you think He cares about my kids?  Or my marriage? Or my dreams?  Or about my friends? Or about all those things I've been praying about? 

Do you ask God for what you need?  Or do you just go get a Mastercard and hope for the best?  Do you ask God for what you need, or do you think if you just work a little harder it will all work out?  I've had a spiritual awakening, and I found out that God is smarter than me.  God is more creative than me.  God is more frugal than me.  And God loves me.  He really does know best.  Ask, and it will be given to you.

Week 9. Whew!

Ok, lots going on.  To keep this from getting too long, I'm going to give as much of the story as I can in pictures. :)

I found these jello molds at a thrift store, for about 1.50 for all of them. Score!

Eva and I then used them to make these crayons.  Silicone jello molds seem to be oven safe, for now, lol!

 I got invited to *pray about* going on a craft mission trip to Managua, Nicaragua.  I have no idea if I can go.  However, since finding out about it, I've been almost *obsessed* with finding artistic uses for trash.  Green Crafting was already fun for me--now it feels like a lifestyle.

I worked on making my own dyes.  This is from grapes from my fridge, and roses from Valentine's day.

I took soda cans,old tea light holders, and acrylic craft paint, cut and smooshed them together....

....then covered credit card ads with paint (using the fake credit cards they sent me to apply the paint, lol!)...

 ...then painted a piece of scrap wood with gesso, some totally random colors of craft paint, and....

...this is the work in progress.  I didn't like the background I'd done at first, so I'm re-doing it.  I'll post more pics as I finish it.  Don't ever try to paint around sharp aluminum flowers that have been nailed onto plywood.  I'm just saying. :)

I've also made a ton of recycled scrapbooking embellishments, from household cardboard boxes. (Think cereal, crackers, snacks, spaghetti---all those perfectly good pieces of cardstock that we throw away!)  I covered some with vintage papers, and used my trusty Sizzix machine to cut them out.  Loving it!

I also made a few inchies with some scraps of ledger paper from another project.

I love it when God answers prayers.  I have a thrifting friend, and we watch thrift stores for each other's shopping lists.  She was going to spend a whole day in Columbus, perusing about a dozen thrift stores, so I said, "If you HAPPEN to MAYBE come across a binding machine, I've been looking for one.  It would really cut down on my paper waste."

She gave me a look like, "Are you kidding?"

I thought, Dang, I know it's rare, but I've found weirder things at thrift stores.  Like furniture that perfectly matched mine, or the exact unused toy my kid wanted, etc. Why is she giving me that look?

"Dotty," she said, "We have one that's been sitting in storage for years.  It's collecting dust.  We've never used it."

Sometimes, I think God giggles when He provides for us, you know?

The pastor's wife was there, and she went into the storage closet, dragged something out, and said, "Is this it? I've never even opened it.  Dang it's heavy!"

"Lol!" says God. 

 The first thing I did was make some recycled notebooks (from paper bags and cracker boxes) for the girls.  I had no idea how much they would love it!

"This is my Supergirl Superpower Super-secret book."

"Look Mommy, I wrote my name!" (not really, but she was trying. I'd told her that her name was on the cover.)

God kept right on giggling through this past weekend.  I'd never even PRAYED for one of those super-cool storage units that a lot of paper-crafters use.  Like this one.  It has plastic drawers and pouches and fold-down tables and keeps your stuff all organized and cool.  The cheapest one I could find was a thousand dollars.  The cheapest one I could find that would fit in the space I had was almost $1700.  No need to even pray for that, right?  It wouldn't happen.

Then I found these.

Two wall units, three base units.  Only one base unit is pictured here, standing up on it's end. 

All five units, all wood, delivered from an hour away, for $370.

God giggles.

I'm also working on a week's worth of skits for this summer's VBS. I'm having a real blast with that one. I seriously doubt I'll be able to direct them, but I'd like to.

Did I mention that the laundry is piling up?

:)