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Wednesday 25 February 2015

Take Me Deeper Feb week 3

This week's theme for Take Me Deeper at His Kingdom Come is to love one another.  We can't love God without having love for one another and this week we were challenged to think about how we show our love.  When we know God loves us it only makes us want to love others.  God's love is a funny thing, you can't think about it, or talk about it, or write about it without a warm feeling welling up inside.  Quite often its accompanied by a smile.  Sometimes its just a look of wonder as we marvel at God's love and are amazed that He can love us so much.  These feelings simply have to spill out and as we return God's love our love also spills out to love the people around us.  How do we show our love?  In many ways, I've listed the first ones that came to mind.  Its about being there for people, putting them first, ready to help them or listen, making them feel you really really care about them.

My page this week was a v quick page and since I had a happy feeling inside I went all bright :).


I can't seem to stop adding texture pasted hearts!


The backround was sponged in the blue and pink and then stencilled over with a little black.


Lets spread a little love today..... make that lots!

Friday 20 February 2015

Take Me Deeper Feb week 2



The theme for week 2 Take Me Deeper at His Kingdom Come  was:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and 
with all your soul and with all your mind.
Matt 22:37

Loving God is our response to His great love for us.  How do we do it?  By putting Him first, spending time with Him, doing what Brother Lawrence called practising the presence.  Whatever Brother Lawrence did he did it unto the Lord. 

Here is my journal page.  I loved the scripture word art which came with the study so much I've included it:


I want God to be at the forefront of my mind and the centre of my heart every minute of my day.  I need to practise His Presence not daily, but moment by moment.


Monday 16 February 2015

Glory Art no 3 - Truth

I am so enjoying the Glory Art Scripture Challenge.  This time was on truth and Patter as usual got us thinking about it.  God's word is truth and to follow God we need to know His word to us.  I love that word - TRUTH - and I asked myself why.  What I realised was that there is no uncertainty in truth, we can believe it and hold on to it and in this uncertain world that is a precious thing. We also need to live it so that as we study God's word and are open to His Holy Spirit leading we will live in and demonstrate that truth.

I said in an earlier post here that creating scripture cards is really fun and totally addictive!  I thought I would combine a couple of creative challenges to do these:  the February challenge at PaperArtsy  is paint and at Craft Stamper its stencilling, two of my very favourite things right now and even more when combined.  Here they all are together.  I am going to mount them on black and make them into a devotional minibook.


I started off with my favourite kind of backround at the moment, paint brayered in different shades on an A4 sheet of card, and cut it into 8 cards.


Then I realised I wouldn't need so many of the cards so stuck three of them together and trimmed to make  two bookmarks.  I added some stamping and then my home made texture paste through stencils. I mounted the bookmarks on black cardstock and finished them with the ribbon and verses.


I love using texture paste through a stencil and since I make my own its very cheap so I use it with abandon!


Adding the initial paint with a brayer gives a lovely interesting backround to start off with.  Then I had fun with stencils and stamps, keeping to the same backround colours, black and white:


Here I've added some splatters, although I had a bit too much water on the paintbrush so they have not come out as white as I wanted:


I love the texture that stamping with acrylic paint on foam stamps gives, so this circle stamp is a great favourite.


The verses were typed on the computer and printed out but they are too thin to cut with my guillotine and I just can't cut straight with a scissors so they are all a bit wonky:


I couldn't stop at four cards!  Here is the last one:


I'm linking up at:
Triple the Scraps Glory Art
PaperArtsy
Craft Stamper
Create with Joy Inspire Me Monday
Creative Every Day


Friday 13 February 2015

Take Me Deeper Feb wk1 - He Loves Me!

The theme for February for Take Me Deeper at His Kingdom Come is LOVE.  February is connected with St Valentine's Day and love so its an appropriate theme for this month!  However, the love that God has for us is not limited to one day!!!  He loves us with His perfect love all the time.  Unfortunately many people struggle to really feel that God loves them.  They may know it in their minds but can't quite accept it in their hearts.  This is sad really and must grieve Him.  God gave what was dearest to Him, His only Son, to die on our account that we might be saved.  He really does love us :)

So for my journal page I wanted to express the wonder and joy of knowing God's love:


I had to add hearts of course.  These ones were done with texture paste through a stencil and painted when dry:



I started off this page with hymn music but then it went a bit wrong when I scraped off some surplus paint from another project and covered it too much - these things happen!  So I went all over it with texture paste through a bubble stencil - bubbles are celebratory and God's love is definitely something to celebrate!


Finally I added our scripture for the week, a key scripture when we are talking about God's love for us:


I'm going to enjoy the theme this month, not just because I love hearts, but because when I think and talk about God's love it somehow brings a response in my own heart of love, joy and peace.

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Circle Journal - 1

Well, I received Beverley's stunning journal, her theme is LIGHT.  It was so stunning that I was paralysed and unable to pick it up and do my page until my friend Tracy told me to jump in and get on with it!

I was also helped by Leandra's post at PaperArtsy where she introduced this month's challenge which is simply paint.  In this post she said she had never had any training or previous skills or knowledge of what to do with paint but she creates really amazing things and is truly inspirational.  I was really encouraged by this because I've never had any training either.  I decided to pick up my paints and get on with it.

Since the theme was Light I used Cosmic Shimmer Paints which I got for Christmas but still hadn't used - they are lovely and shimmery and perfect for a light theme:


I brayered paint on in different colours.  I actually learned to brayer paint from Leandra too!  This gives such a lovely textured backround, then I stenciled and stamped over it:


Then I added my home made texture paste through a stencil.  I sponged some ink over and when it was dry added Icicle stickles for sparkle:


Beverley had done both sides of a page in the journal so for my other side I scraped two colours of the Cosmic Shimmers and then texture paste through a stencil:


Again I sponged some colour over the top of the texture paste and stamped a script stamp:


I realised I hadn't taken any photos of Beverley's pages after I posted it off to Tracy, so if you're reading this Tracy please show Beverley's wonderful pages when you do yours!

I've learnt something from this experience of initially being paralysed and unable to do my pages through fear of them not being good enough.  Firstly obviously don't compare your own work with anyone else's.  I knew this  really.  But what I've mainly learnt is that you've just got to do it because you love creating.  So next journal, I shall relax, have fun and enjoy the process!
I have no training, previous skills or specific knowledge of what I'm supposed to do. No one taught me anything about how to use paint, where to use it or why. So I guess for me, it's been a suck it and see adventure. - See more at: http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2015/02/2015-topic-3-paint-challenge.html#sthash.CjPAl6Yp.dpuf
I have no training, previous skills or specific knowledge of what I'm supposed to do. No one taught me anything about how to use paint, where to use it or why. So I guess for me, it's been a suck it and see adventure. - See more at: http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2015/02/2015-topic-3-paint-challenge.html#sthash.CjPAl6Yp.dpuf

Friday 6 February 2015

Glory Art no 2 - Representative

The theme for the second Glory Art scripture challenge was Representative.  Patter challenged us to think of ourselves as God's representatives here on earth.   Do our lives bring honour to Him?  What areas do we need to work on, or what things do we need to let go?  As we open ourselves up to God's work in our hearts, as we spend time with Him in prayer and bible study, He will bring about a change in us, transforming us into His image.  So as we live our lives and go out as His representatives or ambassadors we really will reflect God's love to the people around us.

Here are my scripture cards:


These are such fun to make.  I sponged the backrounds with distress ink and flicked with water then added the stamping.  This one has the definitions - what an awesome thought it is that we are ambassadors for the Lord.


I kept this set simple but sometimes simple is just right:


For the last two I also laid a polka dot stencil over the sponged backrounds, sprayed with water and blotted.  I actually lost this card for several days.  I hunted high and low but it had mysteriously disappeared.  I had quite given up on finding it when it turned up stuck to the back of my art journal :)


Lastly I had to include the bible verse which speaks of us as ambassadors and I like to think that the little bird flying away from the bird table illustrates that :)


I'm linking up at
Triple the Scraps Glory Art
Create With Joy Friendship Friday
Word Art Wednesday

Thursday 5 February 2015

Take Me Deeper Week 5

Here is my journal page for week 5 Take Me Deeper, a weekly devotional at His Kingdom Come.  This week the subject was Transform Purposefully which is the last topic for January's theme which has been on transformation.  As we surrender ourselves to God He will help us to grow into maturity but we need to do our bit and practise the spiritual disciplines (prayer, bible study, meditation, meeting with other Christians, serving) which will help us to grow into Christ's image.


I sponged distress inks for the backround and flicked with water.  Then I added some stenciling and stamping.  I did the flowers with my home made texture paste - this batch at the moment is a bit lumpy - I was in a hurry!


For January's theme I've been printing off the journaling and torn the edges:




Sunday 1 February 2015

Take Me Deeper week 4

Week 4 on Take Me Deeper at His Kingdom Come was Transform Faithfully.  I loved this week's study.  Being a follower of Jesus means we are being transformed into His image, but transformation requires real deep heart change which is often painful.  However, we have a great and mighty God, a God who loves us and is the epitome of faithfulness - He wants us to be faithful too.

Here is my journal page:


This is a very simple spread.  The backround is black because I didn't like the initial backround I did and covered it all up with black!  Then I added the texture pasted hearts:


And then I added some v simple stamping in green plus the journaling:


 I used the rubber on the end of a pencil for the small dots:


I quite like the simplicity of the green on the black, not my usual style at all. But I think its a bit too plain for my liking after all!!!


This is the last study on transformation.  I've kept the journaling in the same style for all 4 weeks in January - same font and torn edges.  I thought I would change the style of journaling for each theme.  If I do week 5 this week I will have caught up!