Glory Art no 7 - Anxious .... Don't Be!

This time the Glory Art challenge was on 'Anxious'.  We all get anxious at times as we have to deal with difficult situations but Jesus tells us quite clearly NOT to be anxious.  Its so easy to say and can be so very hard to do but Jesus tells us that our Heavenly Father knows what we need and when we need it.  He promises us strength and wisdom and grace to cope and work things out.  He also promises to provide us with the things in life that we need.  So the key to not being anxious has to be to put our trust in Him.  If we have faith and believe in His word then surely we will be able to trust Him.  Then we will not be anxious.

Here are my scripture cards:

I painted the backrounds using purple, pink and white - purple is not a colour I use very often:

I added some stencilling in white.  I should really have added the second part of this scripture but there wasn't room:

 Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil 4: 6-7

Then I added sections of a doily stencil in purple:

 Finally I stamped a script:

I just can't cut straight with a scissors!

When I find myself getting anxious about something I read these verses and they bring hope and comfort as I remember that the living God knows about my situation and that He will work things for good.  And then I can NOT be anxious!

Tracy's Journey Circle Journal - Journey to Heaven

I've really enjoyed doing Tracy's circle journal on 'Journey'.  I thought about all the different kinds of journeys that we make through life, both physical journeys but also our inner journeys as we change and grow as people.  I realised that life is one big JOURNEY and in particular a journey to Heaven!  And the only way to Heaven is Jesus.  He died and paid the price for our sins so we could be forgiven.  All we need to do is surrender our lives to Him and acknowledge that He is our Saviour and the Son of God.  So our journey through life becomes one of walking with Jesus, knowing that when we die we will go to Heaven too to be with Him.

This was such a fun page to do.  I scraped greens and yellows all over and then had fun with different stencils and stamps.  This is a coffee bean stencil which is actually intended to be used to sprinkle chocolate over a capuccino.  It was next to nothing to buy and of course I saw its other potential uses :)

The footprints stamp is a freebie from Craft Stamper magazine:

I like to do open lettering so you can still see plenty of backround through the letters:

Lastly I added a sparkly texture paste sunburst through a stencil.  Some people have asked me how I get such clear definition with it.  The answer is that I use quite a thick paste.  I always make my own (pva glue, white or any colour acrylic paint and talc) and I keep adding talc till I get it to the right thickish consistency.  This paste was white and then I painted gold cosmic shimmer over it for a lovely sparkle.

I won't show the reverse of this page so there is a bit of a surprise for Tracy.  In fact, Tracy, you are in a for a big surprise because the other side is upside down!  In my eagerness to get going I didn't make sure it was the right way up!  Never mind, its all part of the process of learning, or journey :)

Circle journal - Tracy's journal on 'Journey'

Tracy's journal was on 'Journey' and its been so much fun working in it.  Tracy made a folder with loose sheets of paper in it, one for each of us to do on both sides.  One side of our paper has a flap for a tag and here is my tag which I did on words for journey.  I love some of these words like quest, peregrination and odyssey and they give a real flavour of the different kinds of journeys we might make through life.

The border around it was inspired by Liesbeth Fidder's Grunge paste mosaic at PaperArsty where the current challenge is to use grunge or texture paste in different ways.  I love mosaics so couldn't wait to give this a go.  Its not strictly a mosaic since I wanted to leave plenty of space so that the backround can still be seen.  I used my home made texture paste of course!

I started off by painting the tag red and then brushing streaks of white through it.

I stamped a crackle stamp all over in black:

I coloured some of my home made texture paste in blue and added it through a stencil:

I scraped my home made texture paste on a poly pocket folder (my version of a craft mat, works just as well!) and allowed to dry completely.  Then I broke it into different shapes and glued to the tag:

I'm linking up at:
Craft Stamper Magazine - Colour
PaperArtsy

Just Wait

Sometimes faith is all about being patient.  I've written before about praying for a very difficult situation which I personally can do absolutely nothing about.  Its a serious issue with potentially disastrous consequences.  However, the thing that has enabled me to keep my peace - most of the time! - is that I have prayed to God and asked Him for a resolution.  I have felt Him answer that I should not worry because it will be all right.  However, I still have to deal with the situation on the ground as it were and its difficult to keep that faith when those around you are panicking.  But my God is faithful and He has told me not to worry.  Whenever I pray about this at the moment all I hear from God is WAIT, WAIT, WAIT.  Hence my opening sentence: sometimes faith is all about being patient.  The thing is, patience has not been my strong point in the past!  I'm definitely learning it now :)

Here is my art journal page:

I had fun playing in my art journal with paints and stencils and stamps for this page where I started with a paint brayered backround.  I love the texture this gives:

I stencilled the circles and then added the words inside them: