Hello Friends!

Did you miss me? I took the summer to just be with my kiddos before they all went off to school again (including my littlest starting kindergarten...how did that happen?!)

Today, I want to share with you my latest piece for The Crafter's Workshop.

Have you heard of Bible Journaling? It is a rising area of art journaling where you actually journal in the margins of your bible. It can be scriptures, thoughts or just drawings. Whatever you feel like.

Recently, I felt called to spend some more time with some recent sermon notes from my church, Keypoint Church in Bentonville, AR. 

My pastor has been speaking on the name of God and that day he was speaking on the Jehovah Raah (pronounced Ra-Ha) which is "Shepherd,' using Psalm 23 as his text: 

Here is my journaling pages: 

This particular passage came up many times around me before I did this journaling piece. It caused me to think this...I posted this on Facebook around the time I did this:  

Why does Psalm 23 keep popping up? 

Today I was finishing journaling my sermon notes from Pastor Casey​'s sermon this past Sunday (which I don't normally do.) I had some space at the end and I just asked the question in writing "Why has Psalm 23 appeared to me 3xs in the Last week?" And then I continued to just write as thoughts came... " What am I to learn from this? Why this passage? Do I understand that it's OK to be a sheep and follow a shepherd?" 

BOOM. 

There it is. This is why this chapter keeps coming up. 

Yes...I believe in salvation and heaven and hell, but am I actually allowing myself to be LED or am I just going through the motions? I am a very independent person...I've always had to be so the idea of "following" or giving up control or even asking for help is not in my typical nature. 

BUT...why am I fighting the Shepherd when all he had for me is good? Am I holding that tight to my pride and my need to be in control that I would truly give up all the GOOD he has for me just to be able to say "I did it on my own." 

Why am I so scared to be a sheep? Things to ponder.

It's still something I am pondering. 

I would love to know your thoughts.

XOXO,

KERI Sallee

P.S. To learn more about the crafty side of this Bible Journaling project, check out The Crafter's Workshop Blog: Bible Journaling with Stencils

Hand-made Christmas-My Wish Book

I'm so excited to be featured on Susan K. Weckesser's Hand-made Christmas Love Campaign today!!

My project is " My Wish Book"

For more details, head on over to Susan's Blog: My Sweet Earth. 

A BIG Thank you to our Christmas Love Sponsors:

Susan K. Weckesser (of course!)

Fancy Pants Designs

Canvas Corp

Tattered Angels

7Gypsies

Core'dinations

May Arts Ribbons

Also at the blog....

HAND-MADE CHRISTMAS CONTEST 

To start off this wonderful year 5th year of the Christmas Love Campaign, we are having a Hand-made Christmas Contest. 

 What you have to do: 

 *Follow along during our Hand-made Christmas event from November 2 - November 16, 2013 at Susan K Weckesser Inc blog

*Like the Christmas Love Campaign Facebook page ---> HERE.

 *Make your own Hand-Made gift. (it can be something you designed yourself or if you want try something that the designers have created please go ahead and have fun and do that!)

*Take a picture and post it on our facebook page. Or if you have Instagram post it there and tag it #craftuplove , #christlovecampaign & #susankweckesserinc so I see it! You can find me @ [SUSANKWECKESSER] on Instagram, so come follow me and I would LOVE to follow you! So much fun! 

 *Give your gift to a neighbour or stranger to make them smile! SPREAD THE LOVE! 

 *Come back to our Hand-Made Christmas post and let us know that you have crafted up some love and you will be entered to win a awesome prize pack from the above sponsors. The prize will include lots of goodies so you can craft up more love! How awesome is that! You have until November 17, 2013 at midnight MST to enter. Have fun! COME & JOIN US!

Blog Hopping with the Susan K Weckesser Crew!!

  2013 Susan K Weckesser Back to School Blog Hop!

Welcome to the 2013 Susan K Weckesser Inc Design Team Back 2 School Blog Hop.  Our Design Team and Guest Designers have created a week’s worth of great projects to bring you inspiration and fun -- all themed around Back 2 School. 

We encourage you to visit each member’s blog, leave a comment and maybe find a new blog to follow.

 After you have visited all participating team member’s blogs, go back to THE STARTING POST at Susan K Weckesser’s My Sweet Earth Blog and leave a comment letting us know which project either inspired you or touched your heart.

 Don’t worry, you have all week to take your time and go through the blogs. We’ll feature a few each day at Susan K Weckesser Inc, but will draw names from comments left on THE STARTING POST for our grand prize.

Here is the list for ALL team members, but again don’t panic, we will highlight a few each day so you can come back and visit a few at a time if you want because we know how busy you Moms – and Dads – are! You have until Saturday night 11:55 PM CST to leave a comment at Susan K Weckesser’s My Sweet Earth.

Here is the entire blog hop list:

Here is the entire blog hop list:

Susan K Weckesser
Rita Barakat – Design Team Member
Lynne Mizera – Design Team Member
Jeanie Dickinson – Guest Designer
Tracy Easson – Design Team Member
Tatiana Allen  - Guest Designer
Einat Kessler – Design Team Member
Jaine Drake – Guest Designer
Julie Short – Design Team Member
JJ Sobey - Design Team Member
Allie Gower – Guest Designer
Keri Sallee – Guest Designer

HERE WE GO!!!!

I'm so excited to be an All-Star Guest Designer with Susan K. Weckesser and this week the designers and guest designers in her crew are having a little back to school blog hop!

You can't have "Back to School" with out first having an AMAZING summer, right? So I wanted to gather all of our summer fun in one place.

Here is my little project:

This sweet little album measures just 4.75 x 4.75, but holds an amazing 18 pictures! 

How you ask?

ENVELOPES!!!

By chaining envelopes together, you can form a versatile album in any size and shape you need!

Click HERE for a full tutorial I did on my blog last year on the basics of making an envelope album.

As you can see, it folds out into a fun according shape that makes it easy to display.

This is how you get 18 pictures in such a small album! Hidden behind each picture is a card that holds 2 more pictures and journaling. I fell in LOVE with these square envelopes I found at Hobby Lobby! Adding my 4x4 square Instagram pictures made this album go together in a snap because there was no picture trimming! I didn't even have to cut paper for my inserts...I simply cut the cards in half that came with my envelopes. Easy Peasy! 

 I wanted to keep things simple because the pictures and paper were so great. I used a little Washi Tape (My Mind's Eye, Carta Bella and Queen and Company) and some wooden pieces (Studio Calico and Hobby Lobby) to accent the fun prints and colors of Susan's Paper. Using Susan's stamps from Unity Stamp Company on the wooden pieces gave them instant character!

I also used her "Celebration of Simple" pennant stamps by Unity Stamp Company to create my journaling spots on each page. Creative NOTE: Changing the placement of each spot keeps the album from feeling uniform when you reuse an  image like I did!

Here is a little side-view!

Here is a complete list of products used on this project:

Flowers: Michaels, Prima Marketing, Petalloo, Hobby Lobby

Envelopes and Inserts: Hobby Lobby

Twine and Adhesive: Canvas Corp

Paper: Susie B Studios (Susan K Weckesser)

Washi Tape: My Mind's Eye, Carta Bella and Queen and Company

Wooden Pieces: Studio Calico and Hobby Lobby

Pens: Sharpie and Sakuro

Ink: Ranger

Stamps: Susan K Weckesser for Unity Stamp Company

Rub-Ons: Fancy Pants Designs

Alpha Stickers: American Crafts

I hope you enjoyed my little project and it inspires you to remember all the summer fun you had now that the craziness of back to school is here!

Until next time creative friends, happy hopping!

XOXO,

KERI

So Glad for a sense of structure!

School started! Yay...and this has nothing to do with wanting to be away from my children (even though there are moments! LOL!) I am just so happy to be back to a time of structure in our schedule. This summer was just crazy!

I have not been in my studio as much as I would like this summer, but I have been able to make a few things...wanna see?!

My amazing friend, Becky Shaffer, (who I have talked about before) had a birthday a few weeks ago and since she has HUGE love and crush on Melody Ross and the whole Brave Girls Club, I thought I would make her a little something to remind her that she, too, is a brave girl.

It's an 8x10 mixed media canvas using Fancy Pants Design's Park Bench line. I, of course, used my Tattered Angels sprays along with some acrylics and my FAVORITE wood grain roller stamp by glitz design. 

Here are a few close ups! My favorite part is the wings. :)

Also this summer....

I didn't get to take a lot of pictures and I will do a FULL CHA post later, BUT I had the awesome privilege  of making a few projects for Marion Smith Design's  new line "Mad Tea Party" for the trade show. 

I LOVED the Alice in Wonderland influences so much that for the Printer's Tray (by 7 Gypsies) I actually used a vintage Golden Book copy of Disney's Alice in Wonderland and each section tells a different piece of the story.

Here are a couple of closeups!

The framed piece was actually my use of scraps. I found a cheap black plastic frame used my bits and piece of leftover paper to make my background and then hand-rolled some (umm...a lot!) of roses. The quote is one of my favorites from the classic Alice in Wonderland.

A good resource for quotes is a website called Goodreads. It has everything from literature to famous quotes and all sorts of other goodies.

Sorry this is so short...I've got some great things in the works that I know you will all be as excited as I am about!

Until then my friends...stay you...and stay creative!