Make My Monday "Collage Artist-Bev" & Handmade Tags Give Away!!

Oh Happy Monday! My heart is full of JOY as we start a fresh, new week!

"The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except they are so."  -William Ralph Inge

Oodles of stuff to share today...all good, awe-inspiring stuff. So let's get to it...

Today's "Make My Monday" interview is with my Bloggy friend, Bev. She is taking the same ecourse as me with Kelly Rae. I just know it was fate that brought us together:)

Bev, I found you through Kelly's Class and I am so happy I did!! I haven't had a blog speak to me like yours in awhile. I mean as soon as I began reading I was energized!!! Tell us about your blog...what is it's main purpose?

My blog's main purpose is to glorify God and encourage others, just as is my art.  i feel God has given me several gifts, one being the creativity gift, and the other gift of that of being an encourager.   The beautiful bonus is that i am encouraged as well...

When did you start blogging and why?

I started blogging in March 2009...and no one read it!  At the time i was doing it for all the wrong reasons..wrong reasons for me anyway.  After a couple of months, it really didn't serve a purpose, so i quit posting.  When i started making art for God, and opened my Etsy shop in March of this year, I resurrected my blog as i knew that it all kind of goes hand in hand...and I am meeting some amazing women, including yourself, through my blog...it's wonderful!!

I love how fearless you are about creating...you even have your own Etsy Shop!! How long have you been creating?

 I have been creating just about 9 months now.  I laughed to myself when you said the word fearless....it has taken me some time to develop that!  When I first started making art last fall, I was so full of fear.  God is removing more and more of it each day.  Yes, the inner critic likes to visit, but I have to push it aside and push through that fear....it can be crippling!  I think all artists deal with it...but i didn't realize that when I first started making art.  God has really spoken so much to me about replacing that fear and inner critic with His love, His critiquing of what i do...



Tell us about your art and your Etsy Shop. 

 I started making art because I had so much emotional distress that I needed to express, and art was the tool God gave me.  I have lost my mom and oldest sis to cancer, other family members have walked away from the Lord to drugs...my art comes from such a deep place in my soul...God whispered to me that He wanted me to make art for Him...maybe because of what I have been through, what I have to say and put on canvas can inspire and encourage someone else...to bring His love and grace to others. I feel my art is one of a kind.  None other like it.   Just know that my heart and soul is on my canvases!  

 

What other things do you do in your spare time?

I love photography, reading, gardening, quilting, spending time with our kids and grandkids, camping Oh, there is just never enough time... I love inspirational books and movies!! Please share a few movies and books that have touched and motivated you to become the person you are today!!

Alot of the books I have read that have helped me on my journey, other than the Bible, are self-help books, spiritual journey of others, memoirs...I like reading other people's stories...their walk of life.

Anything by Anne Lamott

Anything by Melody Beattie

"Messy Faith, Daring to live by grace" by A.J. Gregory

"Lost Boy" by Greg Laurie

"The Shack" by William Young

"Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren

As far as movies go, I love film that really makes you think and evaluate life and relationships, film that deals with the human emotion..the tenderness and rawness of it all...and of course, plenty of great chick flicks!!

Thanks to you Leslie, for letting me share a little about myself...

Thanks so very much, Bev:)

Be sure and drop by Bev's Etsy Shop!! Here is the link to her Blog!!

**I really enjoy my Make My Monday interviews and I hope you do to!! If you would like to be a part of these fun posts please email me at  leslieackman@yahoo.com 

Yesterday I enjoyed a much needed "art break" in my life. I hadn't done anything with my hands since Em and I painted our canvas's and I was in great need of some creative therapy. Here is what our kitchen table looked like until after midnight!! {who am i kidding? it still looks this way...i gotta get to work-LOL}

 I love it when we are getting all messy and the ideas are coming one right after another and we have ink all over our hands and paint and glue...

Here are some samples of the TAGS we created for my GIVE AWAY coming up NEXT week!! Remember we are still trying to get Words of Me Project to 80 Followers here and on FB!! We are now up to 73!! Check out these tags...they could be yours!

So what do you think? Do you want some?!!:) 


I am giving away 2 Collage gift packs and Jillian Michal's book "Master Your Metabolism". With EACH prize I will tuck several tags in along with 25 punched butterfly shapes to use on your scrappy pages, collage journals...whatever your heart desires!!!


To enter...


Become a Follower 1 entry
Like me on FB {go here} 1 entry
Leave me a comment below 1 entry

Lots of great stuff going on this week!! Have a WOnDERFUL dAy, GirLs!!