Thankful

The current Glory Art Scripture Challenge is 'Thankful'.  This is actually a topic very much on my heart at the moment.   Nurturing thankfulness is so much an attitude of heart.  We need to be thankful for the little things we take for granted in our life - the sun, light, running water, green grass, beautiful flowers and a world of colour, good food, the list is endless.

 The bible tells us to be grateful many times.  Its easy to be thankful for the good things but we are to 

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is

the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thess 5: 18

 That means no moaning and complaining!  - oh dear! I'm afraid I can lapse into that all too easily!  If we thank God for all things no matter what is happening in our lives we will keep a grateful heart and trust Him and I guess this is what He wants - a relationship with us where we really truly put our trust in Him knowing that He brings all things to good.  

Here are my scripture cards:

I started off sponging paint:

Adding a little stencilling:

Stamping a script:

and finally stamping a flower stamp repeatedly in the corners:

Every day when I wake up I've got into the habit of thanking God for at least 5 things which happened the previous day.  I've found that the benefit of that is that it makes me focus on what is positive and sets me up nicely for the day.  It has helped me this autumn while I have been unwell with a flareup of chronic fatigue following a virus.  I'm much better now although still having to pace myself.  I'm sure staying positive and looking at the good things has really helped.

Yet another thing to be thankful for!

I'm linking up at:
Glory Art Scripture Challenge
Create with Joy Friendship Friday

More Autumn Colours

I can't get enough of autumn colours at the moment.  I love working with reds and yellows and orange and rust.  So this month's theme at our monthly craft group this coming Friday is just that - Colours of Autumn  and yes, it was my idea :)  Here is another card I made.  This time I wanted to include lots of texture and layers for the Country View October Challenge - Add Some Texture and Try It On Tuesday - Lots of Layers challenge. 

This started off as one backround which I had sponged with different shades of yellow and red acrylic before adding layers of stencilling and stamping:

Then I added my home made texture paste through a PaperArtsy leaves stencil and sponged colour over the texture paste, I like the white edging this leaves.  I didn't like it!  The leaves simply didn't go on the backround. 

But I had an inspiration to cut the backround up and use the pieces as tiles and it worked!  I really liked it:

 

Excuse the photos, the light was reflecting off something.  I find it hard at this time of year to get decent photos.

This was really fun to do, especially since I managed to 'rescue' it - always extra satisfying. 

If you are anywhere near Northampton on Friday, come and join us!  Scrap and Yap at 10.15-12.30 at the Jesus Centre, Abingdon Street.  Everyone is welcome and all materials supplied.

I'm linking up at:

Country View Challenges 

Try it on Tuesday 

Colours of Autumn

The theme this month at Scrap and Yap, a monthly craft group which I help run, is 'Colours of Autumn'.  Every month we concentrate on a different theme.  Although we started off as a scrapbooking group we found that our members wanted to make cards and other papercrafts so we choose a different topic each month and bring along examples which we've prepared.

Every since the leaves started changing colour I seem to have been using autumn colours so this challenge has been really fun.  Here is one of the cards:

This is a simple distressed ink backround, sponged and flicked with water.  So simple and still one of my favourite kinds of backrounds.  I stamped the flowers, gorgeous Inkylicious Alliums, and added the white highlights.  My husband saw it and loved it and said I absolutely couldn't add anything else.  So I left it at that.  Sometimes simple is the most effective.

I often look at nature and marvel at the richness and incredible variety of the colour palette which our amazing Creator God came up with.  He must have had such fun - a giant easel and limitless and inspired creativity.  I'm so grateful for colour!  Thank you, Father God.

I'm linking up at:
Craft Stamper
Creative Every Day
Create with Joy Friendship Friday

Glory Art no 17 - Discouraged?

The theme this time at theGlory Art Scripture Challenge was 'Discouraged?'.  Who doesn't struggle with discouragement at times?  I know that I do, its part of the human condition where life doesn't always work out exactly as we'd hoped or planned and we have to cope with illness or financial or job worries, or concerns about loved ones or..... the list is endless.  But its what we do with discouragement that is important.  Do we let it hang around, going over and over what has gone wrong, or isn't right, or has been a disappointment?  If we do that we are going to stay discouraged!

The only way I can get over discouragement is to take my eyes off the issue and focus on God.  I find reading the bible an immense help, there are so many promises in there that God Himself is going to help us and give us strength and wisdom.  As I start reading my eyes are taken off myself and are put straight on to Him.  He is the very opposite of discouragement - He is a God of ENcouragement!  He promises to help, guide and protect us.  He gives us hope and enables us to overcome and get on with things again.

Here are my scripture cards:

I started off with a masterboard.  I love doing these.  For this one I brayered several shades of orange then stencilled all over:

Its a very good base which can be cut up and finished off however you want.  I decided to add some flowers:

 It was such a lovely vibrant backround that I didn't want to add too much else over it:

I had a bit of the masterboard left over so I used it for bookmarks:

This was a fun project to do.  The scripture verses are really uplifting too so no chance of any discouragement sinking in!

Are you going through a period of discouragement at the moment.  I pray that you read these verses or your bible, focus on God and allow Him to lift you up.

Blessings to you.

I'm linking up at:
Glory Art Scripture Challenge
Create with Joy - Inspire Me Monday

Grateful

Here is a project which I did to say thank you to Angie and Angela, two wonderful friends who really looked out for me recently.  I was ill with laryngitis while my husband was away for a week but they kept popping in to make sure I was ok and I was so blessed by them that I made the following as a thank you.

I started off doing a couple of masterboards, first up was paint brayered in several shades of pink:

and yellow on the other side of the card:

Then some stencilling:

My masterboards were now ready to cut up for final stamping and finishing.  I wanted to make bookmarks for Angie and a little book for Angela.  The theme for both was thanksgiving scriptures from the bible.  Its so good to have a grateful heart and there are so many wonderful verses in the bible.  Here are the finished bookmarks:

and the minibook:

Some of them have a little extra backround stamping, but I wanted the flowers to be the focal point:

For the minibook I alternated pink and yellow pages.  In the end I wished I hadn't done both sides so I could have mounted each page on black card, but they still look lovely I think:

I stamped a script backround on this page in white, yes white, but I hadn't cleaned the stamp properly so it came out grey!  But I liked it and I think I might get a grey inkpad now :)

I love dandelion stamps!

This was such a fun project to do and Angie and Angela loved them too.

I'm linking up at:
Craft Stamper Take It Make Challenge
Create With Joy Inspire Me Monday
Creative Every Day

Let Every Season Yield Its Fruit

It feels like an age since I last posted or indeed did any creating.   I was ill with a horrible bout of laryngitis and felt so rough I couldn't even pick up my art journal :(  However, I'm better now and have been having fun doing something creative again and I'm looking forward to seeing what you've been creating too.

Here is an art journal page inspired by the colours of autumn and also by a reading in my daily devotional.  As we go through life we pass through different seasons, not just in our age but also in our circumstances or our health.  Sometimes, if you are anything like me, you might be tempted to think it is a barren season, a time of not achieving anything.  But if we put our trust in God and try and live for Him, then God will make out of every phase in our lives something beautiful and good. We will be:

like a tree planted by streams of living water

that yields its fruit in its season

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does he prospers.

Ps 1: 1-3

Here is my page:

I love the richness of autumn colours.  I started by spreading different colours around with a baby wipe and then building up different layers with stencils:

Plus a little stamping:

Finally texture pasted trees.  This was a new batch of my home made texture paste and it was too runny so it bled a bit.  I need to thicken it up with talc.  Of course I should have done that before I spread it, but I was too impatient!  I sponged the paint on the trees with the stencil still in place. 

So in every season of my soul I will follow God and praise Him and will do the good things He has for me to do.  All my seasons can be beautiful and good if I allow Him to work in my life.

I'm linking up at:
Craft Stamper October challenge
Country View Challenges - Add some texture challenge
Art Journal Every Day
Create With Joy Friendship Friday