Advent Study - Day 3

Running a little bit behind in my study already ... but hoping to get caught up (or close to caught up) soon.  Day 3 focuses on God's strength and how He is glorified more as we admit our weakness and let Him work through our weaknesses.  Oh how I sometimes wish I didn't give Him so many areas of weakness to work with LOL  It is still difficult for me to rejoice in my weakness knowing that it will glorify Him, but will keep working on that.

This lesson also focused on Isaiah 11:1-10 ... a prophecy that the line of Christ would come from the branch of Jesse.  I just love this passage, but the book of Isaiah in general has become one of my favorites; I find it so full of hope.

I collaged a variety of text pages down for my background and added a thin layer of gesso to mute them.  I drew a tree stump and a branch shooting out in charcoal.  Then I added a wash to the background using dye re-inkers ... loving those more and more these days!  I am having to get creative to find a way to use my Christmas stamps in these pages, but oh so fun!

Advent Study - Day 2

I just finished day 2 of my advent study and it spoke of God's promises ... especially His promises to Israel and Judah ... despite disobedience and unbelief.  The point to ponder is what promises God has made to me and kept.  There are many biblical promises He has kept certainly, but my heart always goes back to the promises He made me when I was little ... when I was unable to defend myself in a cruel world.  Before I was even in kindergarten, He told me He would protect me from the worst ... that nothing I experienced would cost me my life ... and that one day He would save me.  I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I knew it would be a day of celebration.  Reflecting on that, I see a chain of broken promises from imperfect people ... and a chain of fulfilled promises from a perfect God.

I focused on the advent prompt for my journal page.  I scanned and enlarged an old Polaroid of me from that time.  I got gobs of pixellation, so I painted the image, but it is still a bit blurry.  I added a red ribbon to highlight Isaiah 9:2.  My eyes look haunted ... a reminder of all that God has brought me through ... and a reminder of what my own spiritual death looked like.  I felt like my mouth needed to be covered ... a reminder that I grew up with a social handicap and that God is my voice when I let Him :)

My life is full of life.  I could not always say that, but walking with Christ, I can say that.  He remembers His people ... and He is Truth ... and He fulfills His promises.

Advent Season and a New Journal

Well, I have been terrible at blogging the last few years, but hoping I can be a little more consistent over the holiday season.  I started a new art journal to record my artistic responses to an advent study I am doing over at Pause, Ponder & Prepare.  I am still embellishing the cover, but started on the study part.  Many of us are starting on the study in November and will go back through our study, journals, etc and reflect more in the month of December.  I am not likely to get this done in a month, so hopefully I can finish up in December.

I don't know that I am going down the path the study writer intended ... but God is leading me somewhere with this study :)  I used the word prepare on my page, because the real meaning of the word is starting to resonate with me.  If Christ came back tomorrow, I would be excited and also disappointed in myself.  God chose the word "persevere" for me this year and I have persevered through much for sure ... but my first instinct usually is to run.  I want my heart to be ready for Him when He returns ... and all the hard stuff He has asked me to persevere through this year is meant to prepare me for Him.  I have to keep reminding myself of Jeremiah 29:11 ... that God has plans to prosper me and not to harm me.

The scripture at the bottom is from 1 John 1:5.  This scripture has came up 3 times in different places over the past month, so God is speaking to me.  Most of my life -- especially childhood was filled with a darkness I did not understand.  My heart was heavy and without hope ... without light.  Only through Him have I dared to live in the light ... and had reasons to hope.

Here is to a God who loves ... never tires ... and will continue preparing my heart ... rooting darkness out of my heart, so that there will be more room for Him.

Whisper ...

The word whisper seems to resonate with me this year ... not sure why.  Maybe because I feel like I have to strain sometimes to hear the direction my Lord has for my life.  I did this page earlier this year.  I've since added some journaling, but never rephotographed.  This page looks like the new me perhaps, but definitely not the old me.  I usually have at least 190 things competing for attention on the page.

Everything is meant to be used ...

I don't really date my work, so not when I made this page, but it was several months ago.  Many life-altering things have happened since I did this journal page and I can now hear the gentle whisper of God's encouragement, as He tried to prepare me for so much of what was to come.

"Everything is meant to be used," He whispers ... and so I can have peace in the knowing that nothing is too broken to be of use to God.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me ... and He can use all things for His good purpose.

Journal -- Framed!

Recently I found an old art journal I started several years ago in a class with artist Kelly Kilmer.  Each page has a frame cut nad I will be making works of art to insert in each window.  I decided to try collaging across some of the windows, glue on some extensions, etc ... just to shake things up a bit.

I didn't have any real design for the cover, but just felt like adding a starfish and painting.  I like the look, but it may take some additional work to keep it from looking like an ocean-themed book.

Birthday Greeting

I don't know if the recipient will like this, but I just wanted to do a fun collage postcard for their birthday.  I used images from Collage Play with Crowabout.  Wish I would have remembered to add the shading around the images ... but it was still fun!

Sun Burst

This was a fun piece I made for a friend away at college. I consider myself somewhat fabric-challenged, so I was happy it turned out the way it did.
  

Egyptian Fragment

I have always been drawn to Egyptian art.  I did this page a few months ago while I was taking a Kelly Kilmer class.  I was actually working in a journal I made in her class the year before ... the Reclaimed Artist Book.  This book has been my favorite book ever!  If you get a chance to take that class, please do! I just loved the fragmented look of this face.

Farm Truck

This is a long overdue post.  I thought I would post one of the collages I did a few months ago in a class with Stephanie Lee.  I am also posting the original photo.  This is my grandparents on their Kanasas farm.

Pages for Funky Fusion

Still working on that book title LOL
Here are some pages I did for the inside. My favorite is the geisha picture. I've had that image for a long time. She was on a pink background, which I loved -- but I do have to say I like my background even more LOL

Jacqueline Sullivan Classes

I don't have computer access at home right now, so I haven't been able to post as soon as I would like. I had a wonderful time taking 2 classes with Jacqueline Sullivan. It was a lot of fun and I learned some new techniques. The green collage is pretty good size, but I was determined to alter these paper-mache half-hearts. I used family photos on that piece. Hope you like them!

St Paddy's Fantasy Postcard

Aaaahhh ... it feels like a long time since I've made something LOL I'm in finals week at college, so I've been stuck behind a computer the last several days. I decided to make a postcard for a friend that works for Gothic Arches and WednesdayStamper. I usually don't scan the backs, but I loved the look of this one :)

Collage of my Parents

I finally got a photo from my brother's camera downloaded of the collage I did of my parents. I gave this to my father on Christmas Day and he passed away exactly a week later. I painted the photo using the techniques I learned in Karen Michel's class few years ago. I had some difficulties, as usually you start with a high contrast photo ... but I had to use what I could find and this was my favorite picture of them together.

I didn't do a very good job on my Moms eyes. What was funny ... my Dad said he recognized my Mom right away and wanted to know who the man in the picture was . I told him that was him ... but the funny thing is I did a better job on him and it looks just like him LOL He said he never saw them together in a photo LOL

My brother only took one photo --- grrr! So this is all I have. It is not particularly good. The little white dots are where the flash was shining on the glossy parts.

Grandma Z Collage

This was a collage I did over the holidays. It's funny, because I can use a photograph for inspiration and come up with something completley unlike it LOL I used a picture of a beautiful bride out of a bride book -- but she looked like an old woman -- so I made her hair blue LOL The name popped out of nowhere that her name should be Grandma Z -- she must remind me of my Grandma Zelda on some level.

Unmasking ME!!

Wow -- It feels like forever since I have psoted! I've had a mountain of homework, but also got caught up in the whole self-portrait thing going around LOL I'm not one to stick with just a drawing, so mine is incorporated into my journal page. I drew my image by looking in the mirror without looking at the paper -- mostly without looking at the paper LOL I was supposed to do without lifting the pencil, but I did cheat a but and lift the pencil.

My brother didn't care for the fact that I did'nt finish the eyes, but it seemed importatnt to keep them hollow and let the background show through. I couldn't figure it out until I sectioned off my page and started journaling, but it seems to represent a mask.

I am going to call this my face book LOL Every page will have a large face -- or maybe a collection of faces -- not sure there yet. Last year I saw this supersize wooden photo album at the thrift store that looked like it was straight out of the 70s; I couldn't pass it up. I want to get a few pages done before I figure out what I want to do to the cover. This had those magnetic film pages with cardbaord inserts. I peeled all the film off and am using the cardboard pages as my bases. They are large -- almost 12X14". I meant for my faces to cover the whole page almost, but so far they are ending up a bit smaller than I anticipated -- so I improvised with all the writing. This is new for me too. Almnsot almy journaling has been in one font mor or less -- so I tried mixing up some styles here.

This is also inspired by the "Taking Flight" book. I am so loving the whole patchwork paper background thing -- although I ended up covering a lot of it up here ...

Collage Art

Wow ... I can't tell you when the last time was that I did a real collage on canvas LOL This was a stressful holiday, as my Dad was suddenly diagnosed with a terminal illness and not expected to make it much longer. My sister is doing in-home hospice care for him and he made it out on Christmas Eve to be with his family, but is basically an invalid for the remainder of his days.

We were all fried between his hospital stay, last-minute preparations to bring him home, and all the normal holiday rush ... so we had a couple art nights to de-stress ... and this was the third of my pieces. The first one was a painting of my parents for my Dad's xmas gift, but no one had a camera to take a photo ... so I don't have a photo of that one right now.

The background was done with scrapbook papers and paint ... Kelly Rae Roberts style. The painted face was inspired by DJ Pettitt, but I did a little different painting technique and I really like the look ... so I hope you guys do too :)

This seems to fit in with several prompts, so I am posting it on Arty Girlz, Mixed Media Monday, and Wednesday Stamper.

The photo is not particularly good, so I also scanned as much as I could squeeze on my scanner bed for a better shot of the face I painted.

Junk Mail Journal

I altered a little 3-ring binder to store my junk mail journal pages. I had lots of leftover images from previous collage sheets from the Collage Play with Crowabout group, so I used those on my cover.

This is also an anything-goes entry for the Rainbow Lady's Challenge.

Homework Woes

Well this was kind of a drag. One of my classes was easy, but also hard in that there was a huge amount of work. This class was about creating professional and academic success. The teacher made it more of a personal discovery class -- to learn what your personal keys to success are. She more or less passed over the class text book. We used Sprititual Doodles & Mental Leapfrogs as a workbook for the term. This is a vey fun book overall, but some of the items were a little tougher than I was expecting.

We were to turn it in at the end of the term, so she could verify that we did the assignments -- but most of the class complained about this not being their cup of tea and she buckled and gave everyone a perfect score -- even though some had barely touched it. It just aggravated me, because I worked really hard to be sure I got all the assignments done; it gets under my skin that people who put little effort got the same grade as me after I gave it my best effort.

So anyway -- I am posting a few of my exercies out of the book. This assignment was to do a collage based on your dreams.

Pink and Blue Blessings

This is my final page for March. I've been wanting to use that crumpled up blotter paper for a while and I stuck to the original pinks and blues in the paper and went from there.