It Was Then That I Carried You

Inspiration

I created a series called Faith Journaling. It is inspired by a poem written by Mary Stevenson (1922 - 1999). I've loved this poem since I was a child, it is so simple and speaks to my heart. For those who have a relationship with Jesus Christ, it is an expression of His love for us that he is there to carry us through difficult times. I think the poem is beautiful

Techniques

In this layout, I used several techniques. I wanted to include the poem, but I did not want to put so much text on my layout, so I devised a way to add it by attaching a fold-able flap. On the back of the flap is a personal note to my daughter, reminding her that difficult times don't last forever. One of the things I picked up from watching some of my favorite YouTube vloggers is to date my layouts. As you can see the date stamp slipped in my hand on the message, but the date on the actual layout is accurate. One of those accidents, that happen, but not to worry, it does not detract from the design.

I found an illustration on Graphicstock.com for the feet. The original image had the toes separate, but when I imported the image into Cricut Design Space, I edited the image to join the feet to make one cutable image. I could not see myself cutting and pasting ten toes for all of those steps! I wanted subtly, so I made the footsteps in craft paper and simply added shading to distinguish them from the tone on tone background that represents the sand. I also used some Ranger Glossy Accents to put down some real miniature sea shells I had in my stash. The flood of white represents the crashing waves from the water, and I used some Farber-Castel Light Modeling Paste to get the texture I was looking for, and topped that with some Recollections Extra Fine Glitter to give my crashing waves some sparkle. Using my Cricut machine again, I cut my title in black paper and laid it down with some Ranger Gel Matt Medium. The clouds are hand drawn and fussy cut out of white card stock. I did use my Wink of Stella Pen to add some sparkle. And as I love the technique of adding shadows with my Farber-Castel Big Brush Pens and highlights with my UniBall White Gel Pen, to give everything a finishing touch. As I am still learning, each one of my layouts brings joy and happiness, and education. I learn something new with each one.

A Lesson Learned

A funny story, when I first started art journaling, I tried to make a layout from one of my favorite artists on YouTube. Things were going well, until I thought my layout was dry and it was not. I closed the book, and the pages stuck together. I opened it the next day and it was sticky some of the elements lifted from the page, and I was so embarrassed to myself. I cut the page out of the book and started over. It was a good lesson. First, make sure it is dry before closing, if using a heat tool, then still leave it open over night. Second, I ended up fixing that boo-boo, and the layout was fine. However, I had already torn it out of the book, so it did not get a chance to live with its "friends" (other pages created by me). Bottom line, accidents and boo-boos are learning opportunities and should not be discarded, but kept as reminders of the lesson. So my friends, jump in, have fun, and create something you love.