Glory Art no 1 - Trust

I've decided to have another go at doing the Scripture Challenge by Patter Cross at Triple the Scraps - last year I gave up on it because I got bored with the format I chose.  This year the challenge is called Glory Art - isn't that such a wonderful name - and I was really inspired by Patter's scripture cards so I will do the same.

The first one (they are twice a month) is on TRUST.  We need to trust God when times are hard and how do we do that?  One way is to really study His Word in the good times.  As we meditate on His Word and spend time with God in prayer we will get to know Him better, walk more closely with Him and when dark times come we will be able to Trust Him knowing He loves us and will help us through these times.

Here are my scripture cards:

I started off with random blobs of chalk acrylics.  Then I found some music paper, actually its from an old hymn book I found in a second hand Christian bookshop while on holiday.  The hymn is perfect for this because it is Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus which Patter actually included in her study:

I added stamping and texture paste through a stencil:

 

The verses were typed and printed - my writing would be too big to fit on these, they are roughly 4 x 3 inches, 8 cards from 1 sheet of A4.  The triangle border is stamped with my first home carved stamp!  I got a stamp carving kit for Christmas.

These cards are so much fun to make.  They are a totally addictive and I just wanted to go on making them!  I'm going to mount them on black card and make them into a book., the idea being to have a different verse on display each day.

The Daniel Plan

Have  you ever been full of good intentions to exercise, eat healthily, develop good habits, etc, etc, etc......and failed?  Or have you ever started off really well and then your good intentions either petered out or went out of the window with a big bang?  Well I have, and I guess many of you have too.

I'm hoping that I'm going to learn the secret of getting into good habits and keeping them with a programme I'm just started with a few friends.  We meet regularly for lunch and a chat and some spiritual sustenance.  The programme is called the Daniel Plan and its different because it doesn't just focus on dieting or exercise but on 5 Fs:  Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus and Friends.

Here is a quick journal page which I did to mark the event:

Whenever I want to do a quick page I start off by scraping acrylic paint and here I scraped pink and yellow.  Then I added some stenciling and stamping:

 

I added butterflies to illustrate change:

 

Lastly the words:

 No doubt I'll be doing some more pages on the Daniel Plan and sharing about the process.  For now I'll just say that the author, Rick Warren who also wrote The Purpose Driven Life, says that all good habits, all change, must start with faith.  We need to acknowledge our powerlessness to God and ask Him to help us.  God wants us to be healthy in spirit, soul and body and He will give us the help we need.  This plan is different because it tackles every area in our lives, not just our bodies but our minds, our spiritual health and friends for support.

So here's to health in spirit, soul and body!

I'm linking up at
Art Journal Every Day
Create With Joy Friendship Friday

Take Me Deeper week 3

Finally here is my week 3 for Take Me Deeper, a weekly devotional at His Kingdom Come.  I lost my inspiration for a while during and following a horrible fluey cold so I'm a week behind but no doubt I'll catch up.  Its funny how some things affect creativity :(

Week 3 was on Transform Submissively and what struck me this week is how it is God who effects the change in us, its an ongoing process and it starts with us bowing the knee and surrendering ourselves to Him.

I love the verse for the week:

For the backround I sponged differnt shades of blue sparsely all over, then added the stamping.  I've had  Anita's 3D gold  dimensional paint at the back of my stash for years and remembered it in time for the rays which I had to have.  Can't speak about the Glory of the Lord and not have golden rays, though they are a poor shadow of the real thing!  I found the silhouettes on Google images:

Then I printed and tore out the journaling::

Isn't it amazing that we are being transformed into His likeness, but it all starts with us on our knees.

Birthday card

Blue is the Colour is this month's theme over on the  That's Crafty challenge blog so I chose blue for a birthday card for my son - can't believe he is going to be 29!!!!!  I tore bits of book paper to add texture, then brayered different PaperArtsy chalk acrylic blues and added a little stamping.  Some raffia and twine with a sentiment finished it off:

I always used to find masculine cards difficult but then I started art journaling and discovered paint.  With paint you can do a grungy look, perfect for masculine cards.

I'm linking up at
That's Crafty

Take Me Deeper week 2

Week 2 for Take Me Deeper, a weekly devotional at His Kingdom Come, is on Transform Vulnerably.  What really spoke to me this week is how we all build up walls to protect ourselves and to go deeper with God and with one another we need to tear those walls down. 

Here is my journal page:

The backround was sponged with distress inkpads and sprinkled with water.  I rubbed a baby wipe through polka dot and circle stencils to create a bit more interest in the backround. The brick stencil was perfect for this page, what better way to illustrate tearing down a wall!

I also found a couple of perfect songs in an old song book I found in a second hand Christian bookshop and they are in the backround peeping out from behind the wall:

I had to include a texture pasted heart too:

Take Me Deeper week 1

This year I've signed up to do a weekly devotional at His Kingdom Come called Take Me Deeper.  Every month will have a theme and each week there will be a devotional with scripture.  The idea is to go deeper with God whilst encouraging and sharing with one another and studying the bible.  We also express what we learn and how we grow in our art journals.

The theme for January is Transformation and week 1 is on Transform willingly with this scripture from Romans 12

 

What struck me this week is that for real transformation to take place we need to surrender to God all we are and let Him bring about the change in our hearts.

Here is my journal page:

I scraped blue and white acrylic for the backround and then stenciled and stamped:

The cross of course speaks of sacrifice - Jesus gave His life for us on the cross:

I had to include some hearts for the heart change and these are done with my home made texture paste and the Balzer Mix and Match Hearts stencil:

 

What better place to start a Take Me Deeper study than in surrender.  My prayer is that God will help me - and you - to let go and let Him bring about real lasting heart change.  Blessings to you.

Friendship Journal

Hello again, my lovely blog friends.  Happy New Year to you all!  It seems an age since I last posted, a full three weeks!  A new year means new beginnings, new resolutions and - joy!- new projects!  I must admit I've found it difficult to get going again after Christmas.  Part of the problem is that I'm swamped with possibilities and ideas and projects I want to do and take part in.  However, since I need to watch my energy levels and not overdo things I have to be selective about what I take on. 

One of the things I've decided to take part in is a circle journal.  I've always wanted to do one so I couldn't pass up this opportunity.  My theme is Friends and Friendship and I've already shared my pages here.  Today I'm showing the journal covers.  I was inspired to cover them with tissue paper by the challenge over at the PaperArtsy blog which they have revamped this year.  There will be fortnightly challenges with a different theme and the first one is Fragile Papers.  I love using tissue paper - it gives such a wonderful texture.  Here is the front cover:

and the back:

I brayered all over the tissue paper in different shades of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk acrylics.  Since I learnt to do this, again inspired by Leandra at PaperArtsy, I can't stop brayering!!  Then I used matt medium to adhere the tissue paper to the covers.  The tissue gives a lovely wrinkled effect:

I stamped and embossed a friendship definition stamp and then added my home-made black texture paste through the Balzer designs Fleur de Lis stencil:

The hearts are made with white texture paste put through Balzer designs Mix and Match Hearts and then sponged yellow and cut out:

So I'm ready for the first posting.  There are 9 of us doing this so I will have to wait nearly a year before I get it back!

Wishing you all blessing, inspiration and fun for the year (and projects) ahead :)