Blessings Board

In my inspiring class with Junelle Jacobsen, The Art of Holiday Goodness, one of the projects was to create a Blessings Board. I used an 8x10 deep canvas, covered first with tickets and then several acrylics applied with a credit card. I like having a place where I can clip reminders of blessings. Pictures do not show the dimension, but there is a lot of depth due to the many layers of paint.

Autumn Drive in Missouri

We enjoyed a Sunday afternoon (after church) drive to our favorite German restaurant in Hermann, MO, about an hour from our home.

We are drawn to that area because of Russell’s German heritage. His FORD family came to the United States during the Revolutionary War, by way of his great great great grandfather William Ford, a Redcoat who stayed in the US and married a girl in Tennessee. William and Phoebe subsequently moved to Indiana, along with their adult son Philip, Russell’s great great grandfather. Philip’s son John served in the Mexican War and was the father of Joseph Shields Ford, Russell’s great grandfather. Joseph was a depot agent for the railroad, and his job moved him from Indiana to Missouri, to the area of Hermann, home to a community of German immigrants. Joseph married Carrie Kallmeyer, whose parents were both born in Germany and are buried in a quaint little cemetery close to Hermann. So, it was through Joseph Shields that our Ford family ended up in Missouri and to whom we attribute the German heritage. Joseph and Carrie are also buried in that area.

I always feel close to family history when we visit Hermann. Of course, it is actually Russell’s family, but we have been married 48 years, so I feel like it’s my family history, too (and it’s certainly the direct-line ancestral history of my children and grandchildren!).

The Art of Holiday Goodness

I am taking an online class with Junelle Jacobsen. This is my favorite time of year, so the projects are especially fun for me. I am also working on, and making progress in, my goal of allowing myself to be “satisfied” with less than perfection—so, it’s okay!

Watercolor

 

Acrylic

 

Mixed media in altered Reaching for the Invisible God book

 

Acrylic in altered book

Autumn Goodness

Time for more catch-up—I can’t even keep up with myself these days!

Last weekend my sister came for a visit. We had a great time, as always—lots of talking, coffee, good food (if I do say so myself), and did I mention coffee and talking…

Catching Up with Completed Journal Pages

 

 

 

 

Joy…and Sadness?

Is it possible to have joy and sadness in your heart at the same time? I think so. Is it possible to have happiness and sadness in your heart at the same time? I don’t think so.

It seems to me that joy is a state of being. I have an eternal joy in my heart that is a direct gift from God (a “fruit” of the Holy Spirit), a result of being His child, by my own personal decision/choice. Because that joy is given for eternity, the joy never leaves. My state of being (who I AM) is always full of joy.

But happiness is something entirely different. It is a state of mind, a temporary state that can be caused—and controlled—by individuals and circumstances. The same is true for sadness. I can determine my own state of mind, to a large extent. I can allow circumstances to manipulate my state of mind-- but not my state of being.

Are Christ-followers sometimes sad? But of course. The sadness can even overshadow the joy at times, if sadness is allowed to become more than a temporary state of mind. Even David prayed that God would restore to him the joy of his salvation (Ps 51:12). But the joy is there, in the heart, ready to be restored, at any time the individual is ready to rely on the state of being rather than the state of mind.

So, my answer to my own question is this: While it is not possible to be happy and sad at the exact same moment, it IS possible for joy and sadness to coexist in the same heart at the same time.

Sometimes I am happy. Sometimes I am sad. Always I am joyful.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith…Galatians 5:22.

Walk in the Light {Pump and Pumpkins in Altered Book}

(Sketch idea from friend Laurie May)

⁵ This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; ⁷ but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

This passage helps me understand why in some situations, such as in some family settings, it is difficult to have meaningful fellowship.

We know that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness. According to this passage, some may claim to have fellowship with God, while they are walking in darkness. This claim cannot be true. One who is walking in the Light (God), can have fellowship with another who is walking in the Light. But having fellowship with someone who is walking in darkness? That is not promised in this passage.

Does this imply that one who is “walking in the Light” is without sin or blameless? Certainly not, as the Bible also teaches there is only One who was without sin, and that was Christ himself. But it does imply that it is possible to “walk in God,” through the cleansing (from sin) that takes place upon acceptance of Christ as Savior. And when we do walk in God, we can expect to have fellowship with others who are walking in the Light. Note: It is not possible to walk in darkness and in light at the same time.

This “blessing” (of being able to have fellowship with others who are walking with Christ) is available to anyone who is willing to come out of darkness and into the Light--for one who has come to God in repentance and acceptance of Jesus as Savior.

If you wonder how it would be possible to turn your life over to God, click on this link.

Artwork is watercolor on gessoed page in my altered Purpose Driven Life book..

(Linking to Artistic Stamper challenge, Alter Something.)

12 Tags of 2013: October

 

It’s been a while since I have participated in Tim Holtz’s 12 Tags, as I’ve been wrapped up in art journals and scrapbooks. But I do love autumn, so this one required my attention!

 

I’m not a huge Halloween fan, but I love pumpkins and harvest time. Tim suggested using the Distress Paints for the marbled background, so I used the three I own: Peeled Paint, Seedless Preserves, and Wild Honey. I also love the first Tim die I purchased—the little pumpkin and acorn.

 

 

I never seem to be able to get a good shot of glitter, so here’s a closeup that shows it some better.

 

Art Journal: Peaceful Dwellings

(Click image to enlarge.)

 

For some unknown reason, a phrase just popped into my head, for the first time in years. When we lived in a tiny rural community many years ago, there was an older lady who would begin lots of her sentences with “Most general thing…,” using it much like we would say “usually” or “typically.” As I started to write here, I thought, “Most general thing”…  is that I fill my journal pages with many, many elements. In this case, I made the background following exactly the steps that France Papillon used in her Stampotique challenge for this week and then kept it very plain and simple after that.

 

I was particularly glad to see France’s use of  Dylusions spray inks without actually spraying (I don’t do it well). The background layers are: Tim Holtz Tissue Tape (no, not tissue paper), stamping (little circles) with Tarnished Brass Distress Stain, covering all with three colors of Dylusions Spray Ink (using a sponge) and topping with clear gesso.

 

So, I opted NOT to do my “most general thing.” I wanted only black silhouette images, and as I looked through my Tim Holtz dies, the Artful Dwellings caught my attention. As I often do, I thought of a relevant Scripture passage, this one referring to “peaceful dwellings.” So I painted chip board with black acrylic and cut the dwellings on my Vagabond. Resisting the temptation to add more and more, I must say I’m satisfied with the simplicity and the “peacefulness” that the dwellings imply, albeit on a wild and crazy background (life????)…

 

Do you remember…I LOVE the word “rest.” It calms me just to say the word (really).

 

My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. - Isaiah 32:18 (NIV)

Art Journal Lovely Lady {I Don’t Do Faces}

 

I keep saying, “I don’t do faces.” And I really don’t. But I also don’t do monotony and boredom, so now and again I do something that is outside the box of my usual “style.” It is fun to do faces, I admit. There’s something about seeing the “person” come alive, as I give her eyes and lips, especially. I should take a real art class and learn the “right” way. For now, I just rear back and sketch and then see many irregularities when I’m all finished. But the process IS fun, so there you have it.

Art Journal: Walls=Doors

 

(Click image to enlarge.)

 

Borrowing techniques for this spread from France Papillon, one of my favorite art journalers, this one was really fun because it’s not my “usual” style. After deciding to use the concept of a door, and the suggestion of a brick wall, I found a great quote to go with the page. I think it is true as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, that every wall certainly has the potential for becoming a door!

 

For this spread I used fluid acrylic paints, Pan Pastels, Ranger Rock Candy Crackle Paint, Golden Molding Paste, Distress Stain (Gathered Twigs), Tim Holtz numeral (the number 9 has a family significance right now), and several brads and tiny staples, finished off with some background stamps using Archival Ink.

Art {Messy Page} Journal

 

Just pulled out a blank page, adhered a page of sheet music, topped it with a Gelli Print on deli paper left over from months ago, and then started layering and doodling and painting and stamping. Done.

Birch Panel Project: Vintage Photo of My Grandmother

 

 

Inspired by Jeanne Oliver, I have been incorporating vintage papers and elements into some of my projects. Some “artists” purchase authentic vintage photos to use in such projects, but lucky me, I have the real thing and much prefer to use pictures of my real family.

 

In this case, I used a photograph of my paternal grandmother, taken when she was a young girl. I assume it was a studio portrait. She was born in 1904, so the picture was made more than 100 years ago. Incredible! The elements were placed on an 8x8 birch panel.

 

My memories of my grandmother are sweet. I hope and pray that my grandchildren will one day remember me with such fondness.

 

Above the three buttons on the right of the photograph is an earring from my mother’s jewelry.

 

Art Journal Play

Another crazy, messy art journal page, using a stamped image I had colored a long time ago, as well as some collage elements from my clutter.

Shout to the Lord

Just did a quick page in an inspiration journal with some leftover paints. Love this song, love this thought!

Emerging from the Cave

Have really been literally “under the weather” for the last 10 days or so—bronchitis + sinus infection that just didn’t want to go away, even with antibiotics. But I do feel better as of today, left with mainly allergy symptoms (that’s what I’m going with). While “down” I continued with some crafting (completely caught up with scrapbooks, and added to some of my art journals).

 

This is one of those light-hearted sketch/watercolor pages:

 

 

Cupcake Obsession

 

Then another crazy, messy one:

 

 

LIVE

Two Types of Art Journal Pages

There are several “ways” to art journal, and there is no wrong way. I have about 3-4 styles I incorporate into my journals.

 

The newest style for me is to sketch and then paint (usually water color but sometimes acrylic). Because I am very new at this and not “bent” toward being artistic anyway, I tend to use ideas from other people for this style. The ideas don’t just pop into my head yet. For example, here is my take on a piece that was inspired by a gal in one of my classes.

 

Ready for Fall

 

Ready for Fall was sketched, then gessoed, then painted with water colors and finished with pen work. This style requires a lot more work (with eraser in hand) than the style that is probably my favorite: wild and crazy painting/collage/markers, such as the following piece:

 

Moving On

 

For this page I used the Gelli Plate with several stencils, several acrylic paints, book text, markers, Liquid Pearls, Stamps with Archival Ink, a little bit of Salty Ocean Distress Stain, and my new Montana markers (love)—a marker that is actually acrylic paint. I even used some OilBar for the first time. I covered this all with DecoPage, since it had some smudgy stuff on it. This was a really fun, no stress page.

Celebration of 48 Years of Blessings

I don’t think there has ever been an understatement that is more understated than “time flies.” Seriously. We have been so blessed in so many ways. I am thankful that God directed me to this man, His plan for me. Happy Anniversary to the most wonderful husband in the world!

Lighten Up

(Inspired by work of Dawn Maurice)

A benefit of doing whimsical, light-hearted art is that it tends to…uh…lighten my heart. This is good, as I tend to be a serious-minded thinker most of the time.

Practicing: Sweet Girl

I keep saying, “I don’t draw faces.” And I don’t, really. But I am fascinated with trying, apparently, because every now and then, a face appears in my art journal. Maybe what I really mean is that it’s fun to try to draw faces, but I don’t actually want to learn how to do it right!

Actually, I was very happy with my sketch. But when I applied the paint, not so much. Perhaps I should have used water color rather than acrylic. At any rate, here she is.

Paper Piecing: God Cares

This was a fun little piece I created, inspired by a Day Spring notecard.

I sketched everything and then filled it in with patterned papers, except for the sky and the owl (painted).

I just love the simple truth in this reminder from Scripture. He really does.

Art Journal: PRAY

I created this simple art journal page to provide a simple reminder: Pray. Life sometimes gets complicated. Okay, life is almost always complicated. But sometimes the complications of life are a result of my own tendency to, well, complicate things. For a child of God, any possible solution starts with a simple act of communication with the Creator: PRAY.

Simpler Times

 

Sometimes my heart yearns for the simpler times. Having lived for 66 years (*gasp*), I have a perspective that today’s 30-somethings will not have when they reach their sixties. Although I pride myself on staying up on at least some of the most productive aspects of technology (I am blogging right now, after all)—things like iPhone, iPad, twitter, Instagram, GPS, google—at the same time, I can well remember the days when postal mail was the only way to communicate outside your own home (well, eventually we had a phone when I was growing up, but much of my growing up years, as well as my early married years, not even a phone). Oh, and inside your own home? We talked. With our voices. And I don’t mean dictating to Siri. I mean two-way communication, one-to-one.

 

When today’s teens reach their sunset years, they will not have the memories of “simpler times” that often bring me peaceful moments, just in the remembering. They will actually never have had a “simpler time” as I would define it. Oh, but of course, everything is relevant; whatever “state” they find themselves in, at that age, it is likely that our “now” will be defined by them as “simpler times.” That’s somehow sad to me. It’s more than sad, actually. It’s frightening.

 

I’m all about progress, and I generally have a positive outlook. But sometimes I wish I could just hold up my hand and say, “Stop for a minute. Breathe. Enjoy a moment of silence. See how long you can go without reaching for your phone or iPad.” Seriously, I fear we have a very real problem. Now, I admit, to an extent, I’m right there. I never sit down without my iPad AND iPhone handy. I might want to check communications. I don’t do personal facebook, and I don’t play games on the devices, but I might want to watch another crafting video, or see if there are any new photos from family on Google Plus or Instagram. Not so bad. But every time I sit down, even on the deck, to relax with coffee? Ever notice that rarely does someone lose an iPhone or leave it behind somewhere? It’s because they just looked at it a minute ago.

 

Sometimes my heart hurts when I see, what seems to me the vast majority of, children holding devices and pushing, swiping, tapping—instead of interacting with real people in real life. When they reach 10 or so, they’ll have their own facebook page, and that will expand what they will be able to do with their device. I am not saying that children should never be allowed to use iPads—I think it can be a great brain exercise (much better than zombie-like TV-watching). But I do suggest balance, maybe limiting the amount of time they spend on something like this (I do see some parents exercising that sort of control, and I think that’s great).

 

When my children were growing up, we parents were cautioned not to let the TV be the babysitter for too much time during the day—a Sesame Street now and then, and maybe an hour of cartoons, and then Saturday morning cartoons for sure. But it seems like no one is noticing that our children today are not learning social skills because they have a device in their hand almost all the time. Parents are “off the hook” on supervising their children. The kids are in their seats and quiet (mostly). It’s quite common to see this, even at tables in restaurants. But, what’s the big surprise in that—their parents are also on their own devices. Really? A family of four, seated at a table in a nice restaurant, and all four of them are on their phones. It is considered “cute” when a child in a high chair knows how to use an iPhone to play a game. This is downright scary to me. Fast forward. What will that “child’s” grown-up world be like? (I recently read a news report about how many young people exiting college have their device with them in an interview and may even text during an interview. Seriously?) Last year I was in a Starbucks where a lady literally pushed past me (seemingly in desperation—I thought something was wrong) to get to a table and get her laptop set up and facebook loaded. THEN she could breathe for a second and order her coffee. It reminded me of a smoker who cannot wait to get outside to smoke.

 

I don’t have the answer. And I’m not the only one who is seeing the problem. But I do see it as a problem, and I try to find a balance between enjoying the benefits (and fun) of modern technology while still being aware of the dangers and negative results.

 

Of course we want our children to be “up” on the latest technology, and we do not want them to be behind as they enter high school, college, and the work world. So, clearly, I am not saying they shouldn’t ever use devices such as iPhones and iPads. And I do realize I am generalizing here. There are absolutely exceptions and parents that I would put forth as examples on achieving a balance.  But I am observing these kinds of things (out of balance) SO OFTEN that it almost seems like an epidemic.

 

I used the work of a friend as inspiration to sketch and watercolor the above art journal project (on the pages of my altered book). It is nostalgic to me and reminds me of simpler times. It brings a sweet memory to me of my maternal grandmother telling my sister and me bedtime stories. She would make up the cutest stories, and I would have such a lovely picture in my mind. Her stories always included little girls in their frilly little dresses, bows in their hair, going on a picnic.

 

What about bedtime stories? Is there still room for imagination?--for creating a picture in your mind, instead of seeing someone else’s idea on a screen? I hope so.

Art Journal: Three Angels

One of the online classes I am taking is “21 Secrets,” and one of my very favorite teachers for this class is Kate Crane. This project was done for her class, and it’s a poor “imitation” of her work, but it was fun. She used the “lines” on the angels for journaling, but I opted to simply name the angels based on one of my favorite Bible passages, 1 Corinthians 13 (“the love chapter”).

Blessings Journal

Working in my altered vintage Hawthorne book that I started in the “Journey of Letting Go” class. I am using this particular book (from my mother-in-law’s collection of “old” books—this one copyright 1800’s) for documenting some of my Blessings. (I have a duplicate of this one so didn’t mind altering it.)

Here are the two pages I just completed in this Blessings Journal: