Hand Lettered Brush Script

Hello Friends,

This art journal page layout was inspired by Lesson 3 at Art Journaling By Heart - a free summer faith art journal course.

I used my black brush pen which has an ink cartridge in it. The words did not show up very well so I went over them with a fine liner brush and white Gesso. My background and grape vines were done with acrylic paints.

Incidentally, I have three temporary house guests - two juvenile and one adult pigeon. I rescued one of the babies myself a couple of weeks ago. It had a broken leg, could not yet eat on its own and did not yet have all of its wing feathers. The other juvenile was discovered by another good Samaritan the day before and they appear to be clutch mates. The adult was hit by a car and is blind in one eye. I will care for them until they are able to be released. I've asked my wonderful husband to build a little shelter for them at the back of our garage so they will have a safe place to come back to once they are free. We will put food out for them for as long as they keep coming back. I love the sound they make.

The bath was a big hit.

Thanks for visiting my blog. As always, it is my hope that you will know that you are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,

Teresa

Bridge to Breakthrough

Hello Friends,

Bible Art Journaling Challenge #29 with Rebekah R. Jones is based on verses in Jeremiah 51 and the word "Breakthrough". The challenge is to paint or draw a bridge in our bibles.

Rebekah drew her beautiful blue bridge with Inktense Pencils. I don't have those so I used my water colour pencils and Gelatos for this challenge. I also used a reference photo from Paint My Photo by photographer Tam-Tam. You can see the photo here if you are a member.

I had more detail in this to begin with, but when I realized that it obscured some of the text I went over it with a baby wipe. I actually like the slightly blurry effect better.

Okay, I'm laughing now because my son is downstairs listening to his music and the song he is playing is called - you got it - BREAKTHROUGH. And here I was about to share with you how I am believing God for a breakthrough in a specific area of my life.

The Lord often speaks to me through colour. In this painting the colours mean this to me:

• Red - for the blood of Christ shed for my redemption
• Brown - for the wooden cross where he gave his life for me
• Green - new, abundant life and growth, made available through HIS resurrection power
• Blue - Holy Spirit communion and revelation, because Jesus sent his Spirit to live inside of me.
• Yellow - Hope for my future and the faithfulness of God toward me

Jesus, by means of his great sacrifice and resurrection, is the bridge to my bright future in the cup of hope that he holds out to me. He is faithful and he will do it.

Are you desperate for a breakthrough in your life? Often when things are at their bleakest is when God comes through for those who put their trust in HIM. The bible is filled with accounts of people in desperate, seemingly impossible situations, but God is not bothered by what we call impossible. He parts the sea, he shuts the mouths of hungry lions, he heals the leper and raises the dead. And in case you thought HE lost the knack of doing miracles or went into retirement, just read Hebrews 13:8 or James 1:17, where it says that HE has no shadow of turning and HE is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And no matter who you are, or where you are at in your faith journey, God sees you and says that you are beautiful and so very, very loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Angela, of Crafting with Jack, has several delightful new pages to share with you.

Sunday's Art Reflection - Abegweit

Hello Friends,

A couple of weeks ago I started posting pages from very first art journal that I started years before ever hearing the term "art journal".

Today's page was one of my very first drawings - April 2008. It was drawn and coloured with Prisma pencils on a loose piece of paper. I glued it to a blank page in my old journal and painted a frame around it.

Abegweit is the Micmac name for Prince Edward Island. I drew Abegweit as a Micmac woman with water, fish, trees, grass, Lupines, blueberry bushes and sea gulls in her hair.

The scripture (Deuteronomy 11:12) is a verse the Lord gave to us when we moved from Ontario to Prince Edward Island.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you are enjoying this trip down Memory Lane with me. Most of all, I hope you will know with all of your heart today that you are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Wonderfully Made

Hello Lovely Followers,

I am just popping in to share a Matthew West music video with you that includes clips from an extraordinary young man.

Enjoy and be blessed. You are beautiful and you are loved.

Angela has a new faith art page at her blog, Crafting with Jack. 

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Sunday's Art Reflection - LATE

Hello Friends,

My apologies for not getting this post ready for Sunday. I have been laid up for about a week with a bad back and this is the first day I can sit at my computer for more than a minute or so.

I will make this reflection brief. Unfortunately, I can't remember all of the mediums I used on this page in my very first art journal. I think I started with chalks and Prisma coloured pencils. I may have added a little paint later on; I don't remember. It was done in July of 2008.

This was done during a worship time with some friends, as the Lord poured his revelation on me - that he lovingly spoke me into being in my mother's womb. (Jeremiah 1:5) The first time he highlighted this verse for me was when I was nine years old.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. May you know that you too were created by Love. You are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Call to Me

Hello Friends,

Yesterday I was inspired by bible art done by fellow blogger Lisa on her blog, Praise Heart. What really grabbed my attention was the scripture she used - Jeremiah 33:3. I was so inspired I immediately determined to look up the verse in my own bible. I didn't have to search for it; the book opened up to exactly that scripture. How delightful. I knew the Lord was speaking to me now.

The first thing I did was to put on some worship music and then stencil a butterfly over the verse. I drew just around the outside lines of the stencil with a red water colour pencil. I filled it in with a yellow water paint brush. The brush gets its colour from an ink cartridge which unfortunately bled through to the other side. On the up-side, the colour is transparent so the words can be read on both sides of the page.

My NIV is a devotional bible and the facing page just happened to have a devotional article on it. I decided to use it to do some daring art. First I brushed on a coat of white Gesso to give the page strength and, hopefully, to minimize any bleed-through to the other side. The ink brushes still did show through a little. A second coat of Gesso might have prevented that. I hope my sharing these details will help you who are shy about doing art in your bibles. I want to be able to read mine without hindrance, so I will let you know what I find that works in favour of that goal and what does not.

Anyway, I had a full page on which to play where I was not concerned about being able to read the words under it. I used a printed out Praise Him digi (FaithArt Products) as a mask on the prepared page and went around it with a yellow Gelato. I also framed out the page with the same Gelato. The Gelatos are wonderful with no bleed-through at all. I drew curvy lines with blue and red ink-based water brushes to represent flames. I also added some white acrylic paint.

I tried to draw in a bible at the bottom, but I have trouble with representing depth in art. It's one of those things I really need to work on and gain more instruction about.

I looked up Jeremiah 33:3 in several versions on Bible Gateway and really liked the way it was put in The Message translation. I went to MS Publisher and tried out some different fonts, within a text box that I knew would fit at the top of my page. I printed it out, tore around the edges and adhered it with Gloss Gel Medium. I painted around it with my ink-based water brushes and a bit of white acrylic.

And here is the completed page. I went over the image with white acrylic paint and outlined it with water colour pencils.

I told Lisa, on her blog, how I was inspired by this verse. I am going to share this page with her as well. We never know how our words can affect others around us, even in cyber space. Sometimes it is difficult to share from my heart. Someone may stomp on it. Someone may misunderstand it. But then, someone may be encouraged or even inspired as I was by Lisa's post. I choose to be more excited about the possibility of being a blessing than the possibility of being hurt.

Thank you for opening your heart to me today by visiting my blog. I hope you have found this a tender place for you to land for a little while. And I hope you will receive this message from me and from God today:

You are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Isaiah 54

Hello Friends,

A few weeks ago we started having a weekly time of worship in our family. During this week's time I painted this.

I used water-ink brushes and water colour crayons, including Gelatos.

During our after-worship sharing time, I felt the interpretation for my painting was Isaiah 54:11-12.

At first I thought I was painting a flower, but the result looks more like a plant shoot of some kind. For the last month or so I have felt that I was about to step into a divine purpose for my life. Not that my life has not had purpose before, but it feels as if everything has been building toward this moment in time. All of the storms that crushed my hopes, stripped me of my (false) identity and dashed my dreams against the rocks of repeated disappointments; all these were forming me into something beautiful and life-giving. I don't know what that is yet and it may not look like much to others.

A simple pea shoot grows into a vine that produces an almost continual crop of humble nutrition. It is not the star of the garden, but it is steadfast and lasts throughout the growing season. Or am a watermelon shoot that takes a long time to grow and is enjoyed for only a short time? Either way, I am happy to be and to discover what the Gardener has purposed for me to be. It will be good and it will be beautiful.

Like you: beautiful, full of divine purpose, and loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Links:
Paint Party Friday - painting

Bible Art Mistakes

Hello Friends,

Yesterday I painted in my bible again. This meditation was based on Psalm 68:13. My bible is NIV but I like the 21 Century KJV for this verse:

"Though ye have lain among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold." 

I started by stenciling a bird image over the verse. I began with Water colour metallic paints, but was not happy with the results so I switched to watered down acrylics. The gold was nice, but the silver just looked grey. I went over it with a dry blue chalk pastel, but that didn't help. I decided to just leave it as a failed experiment rather than risking further damage to my page.

I printed and die cut the verse in the preferred version. Then I punched a hole to make a tag out of it. But how would I affix it to my page? I don't have a journaling bible and my pages are very thin. I decided to be brave and sew the tag in. This seemed to work - at first.

What I didn't mention was that I heat-embossed the back of the tag with all kinds of scrumptious silver and gold powders. I used that method where you pile it on and heat from underneath first. (I forget what that technique is called.) I thought it would be nice to have that part showing and then flip it over to see the verse.

In all of the tying and re-tying, as well as the weight from the melted embossing powder, my page tore between my needle holes. As they say, "In for a penny; in for a pound." (Which never made sense to me as a child since we have dollars, not pounds, in Canada) I hot-glued (low-temp gun) my cotton string over the tiny hole in my page. Yes, I am cringing even now as I think of it. But it seemed to work and now I have a slightly ugly but memorable page, highlighting a beautiful verse in my bible.

If I had to do this again I would go with a one-sided tag (very light weight) and a narrower needle. One thing I went back and did was to tie this very loosely so it does not pull on the page when I flip it over. I'm not sure how I would improve on the silver paint. Maybe I would just not do it at all.

The thing about mistakes is you don't know you have made one until AFTER it is done. But you will never discover new ways of doing things if you don't take the risk of making a mistake.

The bible is filled with stories of great people who made blunders at different times in their lives. There is no attempt to hide these mistakes, even the really big ones. God was always ready to forgive and restore. He is still ready to do so even today.

I'm not suggesting he is concerned about me messing up a page in my bible. He is just as pleased with my artistic meditation on this page as with anything that looks pretty to my eyes. They are all just delightful scribbles to him of a child who loves and wants to please him. How could a loving Father be anything but pleased? :)

Thank you for visiting my blog today. Please don't feel you should compliment my page, but I do hope this blog post inspires you in some way. Above all, I want you to know that you are an exceedingly beautiful creation, full of divine purpose, and God the Father loves you with an infinite, everlasting love.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Journaling By Heart

Hello Friends,

Recently I started a free summer art journaling course called "Journaling By Heart". There were two assignments this week and the first assignment was two-fold.

First we were to look up our favourite scripture in several different versions on Bible Gateway. I have used BG for years, but Erin showed me some cool features that I hadn't known about. I totally did not know that I could look up five versions of the same scripture all at once. I am definitely going to be using that feature in the future.

Next, we were to look up one or more words of our favourite scripture in the Blue Letter Bible to find their meanings in the original language. I didn't do so well on this. I looked up "eyes" which means "eyes". Word studies hurt my brain so I didn't go any further with it.

Our crafty assignment was to use fabric in our art journal page. I don't like sewing, so this was a challenge for me, but I did it. I really like the extra texture and interest it added.

My chosen scripture - Deuteronomy 11:10-12-  reminds me of God's promises to bless me.

I painted my pages with chalk pastels and white acrylic paint.

I used part of an empty Kleenex box on which to mount my scripture in The Message translation. I poked holes in it at intervals coinciding with the spiral binding of my art journal. I then sewed two strips of daisy pattern fabric ribbon, wrong sides facing, onto my cardboard piece with the scripture. I finished by sewing the other side of the ribbon strip to my spiral binding. Any seamstress would laugh at my pathetic sewing attempt, but forcing myself to do any kind of a sewing job is a major accomplishment so I am choosing to be proud of myself for it.

I painted the wrong side of the Kleenex box piece with pastels before adhering the scripture.

Thank you for visiting my blog. As always, my prayer is that you will know that you are beautiful and that you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Freedom

Hello Friends,

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a First Nations gathering of Jesus followers. It was an all-day event during which I did a mixed media painting. I started the painting in the morning and added the scripture in the last session. Near the end of the day I met a sweet young woman and felt I should give the painting to her. She was kind enough to send me a photo of it so I can share it with you today.

The verse I added is from Galatians 5:1 in The Message translation: "Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take a stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you."

Thank you for visiting my blog. Many blessings on your day and I pray that you know this: You are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Angela has an art page with some pretty little worms on her blog, Crafting with Jack.

Sunday's Art Reflection

Hello Friends,

A few months ago my DH came across an old sketch book of mine - my very first. This was long before I had ever heard the term "Art Journal". This was in my early days of "playing with paint" and other mediums.

It took me a while to work through the old art pages, many of which were created during some turbulent times in my life. As I flipped through, I prayed about each page. Some were difficult to look deeply into and needed to be wept over.

There was much healing that came to me through this process. I would like to begin sharing my journey through these older art pages with you. Today seems like a good day to do that so each Sunday I will share a page with you until we reach the end of the book. My hope is that you will find healing for some of your hurts too along the way.

This was one of my very first acrylic paintings, rendered in 2008. It was very intuitive, painted during a time of worship. I called it "Deep Calls to Deep", based on Psalm 42:7 -- "Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls." The figure on the left is me, as the Bride of Christ. The figure on the right is God. The black flecks in the whirlwind tell of my misconceptions of God that kept me from more fully connecting with him. They are also distortions of how I felt he saw me.

I understand Him better than I did seven years ago. And my understanding will continue to increase as long as the depths in me keep reaching out to connect with the unfathomable depths of God's love for me. Now I begin to know that he is delighted in me. I begin to know that I am beautiful and that I am loved beyond measure. And if he loves me like that; if his eyes sparkle with delight when he looks upon me; then I KNOW that he looks upon you with those same eyes of deep, deep love.

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. AND YOU ARE LOVED. BEYOND MEASURE. BEYOND IMAGINATION. YOU ARE.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

I did it again!

Hello Friends,

For the 2nd time I painted in my bible. My meditation was on Deuteronomy 11:10-12; particularly verse 12: "It is a land that the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end." (NIV)

This portion of scripture is very personal and special to me. It was one of the ways the Lord spoke to us about leaving everything in Ontario and moving to Prince Edward Island. There were many other signs and confirmations along the way as well, but this verse has remained dear to our hearts.

 I used chalk pastels (applied with damp makeup sponges) and stencils for most of the page. I made paper masks for the shapes of the eyes. I later detailed these with water colour pencils.

And this is the complete page in my bible.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and letting me share my thoughts and art with you. I pray that you will know that, to me and to God, you are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Link-ups:
Paint Party Friday - painting
Word Art Wednesday - anything goes
Chalk N Stock - use chalk

Art Journal Page - Throne of Grace (Stage 2)

Hello again,

In my last post I left you with one hot mess of a journal page background. Unfortunately I did not stop to take photos during the rest of the process. I find once I get a momentum, I just have to keep on going. This is the finished result.

I started by stenciling stars and circles with white paint. I used black archival ink for the question marks and "You have my heart" stamps within the circles. The question marks were inspired by Journal 52's Week 25: Questions & Answers. Often I approach the Lord with questions and concerns. Some of his answers are represented by the stamps embossed in gold. They are: "This is Love", because no matter what happens I know that he loves me. "Today, Tomorrow & Always" because he will never leave me and I will spend eternity with him. "Miracles Happen" because they do. I have experienced them and I have witnessed them - many times.

The silver starbursts came because of an accident at the bottom of the page. I used a Pilot Ultra Fine tip silver pen for the scripture, which is this week's verse at the free summer Faith Art Journaling course I am taking. When I was writing I accidentally pressed down on the tip too hard and got a big splotch of silver. If you have followed me for some time, you know one of my favourite quotes is "There are no mistakes in art; only opportunities to do it differently." I heard another quote recently that I like equally as well. "If you do it once, it is a mistake. If you repeat it, it is a design element." That is exactly what I did. I used a toothpick to draw out lines all around the wet silver puddle. Then I made more splotches and did the same with them. Ha!

Splotch #1 - my lucky mistake

Using one of my Praise Him digital images as a pattern, I cut out the shape from a paper 'quilt' I made last week. A leftover piece became the ground that she is lifting off from. Smaller splotches under her foot became stardust, lifting her into Heaven and before the Throne of Grace.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope you feel inspired and just a little braver in your artistic endeavours. Most of all, I hope you know that you are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Angela has a devotional thought and art journal page at her blog, Crafting with Jack.

Link-ups:
Paint Party Friday - painting
Journal 52 Week 25: Q&A
Summer Faith Art Journal - Hebrews 4:16

Art Journal Page - Throne of Grace (Stage 1)

Hello Friends,

Recently I signed up for a free summer faith art journaling class. You can check it out here. Every Friday a new post and technique videos are posted, along with the focus bible verse. July 3rd was the first class so you have plenty of time to catch up if you want to join in.

This week's verse is Hebrews 4:16: "Let us the, with confidence, draw near to the throne of Grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

I started with a coat of white Gesso. I wanted a dark background. I don't have black Gesso, but I wanted to protect the backside of the page from bleed through if I could. Once the Gesso dried I started adding water colour paints in dark colours, plus crimson red. It looked okay, but it was not what I was going for.

Before I added the water colours I dripped some candle wax onto the page. It was an experiment. I figure art journaling and using cheap materials is supposed to free me up to experiment.

But... I really wanted to start with a dark background, so this was not working for me. My next step looked like a disaster. I slathered on black acrylic paint. It really didn't look streaky IRL. The light from my window did that.

I added some green glitter paint to try to bring some colour and sparkle into this mess.

While the paint was still wet I pounced over it with a sequin negative strip. That let some of the original background show through.

Admittedly, it still looks pretty awful. Come back tomorrow and I will show you Stage 2 and the completed page.

 Hugs & smiles,
Teresa

Water Colour Painting

Hello Friends,

I did a mini water colour painting for today's project, which is on my other blog, Tickell Expressions. Please pop over and take a look.

Also, Angela has some faith art journaling pages on her blog, Crafting with Jack. Angela and I have entered into a painting/art journaling challenge for the month of July. Last month we did a daily drawing challenge.

Thanks for dropping in. Remember today that you are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Taking The Plunge

Hello Friends,

I have been looking at lots of beautiful bible art for many months now. I even joined a couple of groups and watched tutorials. But my heart always caught in my throat whenever I thought of painting in my bible. What if I destroyed it? What if I could no longer read the words?

I watched a daring bible art video by Rebekah R. Jones this morning. During the video she read from Psalm 27. I closed my eyes and let the words wash over me; that is my favourite Psalm. That is when I decided to take the plunge.

I started very timidly, applying dry eye shadow to one verse. Yeah, that didn't do much. So I got out my chalk pastels, a little jar of water and some make-up sponges. I used a Praise Him stencil and pink pastel on a damp sponge. I really liked how that looked and it didn't bleed through the page, as I had feared.

So I used the mask and sponged yellow pastel on the remainder of the page. I like the white halo that is left around the image.

Next I wrote "To Gaze upon You" at the bottom of the page with a pink glitter pen. I figured if that bled through it was not such a big deal since it was at the bottom. It didn't. :)

Next I wrote along the side of the page and added some flowers in the corners, all with glitter pens. I had to set these with hair spray and a dryer because the glitter ink stays wet for a long time.

I was really getting into this now. I stenciled at the top of the page with more pink pastel and even stamped onto the page with it. The stamping was as bold as I got but the words are still relatively easy to read. In fact, a blue highlighter that I used once on the other side of this page bled through, but nothing I did today does. I want to get some clear Gesso to protect my pages in future.

I often connect with God through my art and I often use bible verses in my art, but painting over the actual scriptures brought this experience to a whole new level. The words seemed to dance from the page to my heart and back again. I felt I was given new eyes, fresh sight, and renewed passion for the Word of God.

I spent a long time dipping my toes in and backing away, but I am certainly glad I took the plunge into bible art journaling. I can hardly wait to do it again.

How do you connect with God? Do even you know that you can? He wants a relationship with you and he made the way for that to happen through his son Jesus. Maybe you are still dipping your toes in and backing away from having a personal encounter with Jesus. That is okay. Wherever you are at in your faith journey, the Lord wants you to know that you are beautiful; so very beautiful; and you are loved with an everlasting love.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Challenges:
Bible Art Journaling challenge - Psalm 27 (Week 27)

24 Elders

Hello Friends,

I am thrilled to let you know that Angela Hoynes (Crafting with Jack) has agreed to join me in my daily painting/art journaling challenge for the month of July. We will be linking our blog posts whenever we do something for the challenge. Some of my posts will be here and some will be on my Tickell Expressions blog, but I will put a link on each blog so you know where to look. Of course, you could always e-mail subscribe so you don't miss a post. :)

Today I have an art journal page inspired by this week's Take Me Deeper scripture at His Kingdom Come. This scripture describes a vision the apostle John had of 24 elders worshiping God around his glorious throne in Heaven.

Recently I bought the digi set called, "Praise Him" at the His Kingdom store. There are four digis in the set and it is less than $4. I made cardboard stencils and masks with some of the digis (labour intensive work; I recommend buying the mylar stencils/masks if you can), but for today's art page I printed the digis out. First I made the images into 12 graduating sizes. I copied and pasted my 12 resized images and flipped the copied set horizontally. I created margins to fit the size of my page, centered an oval shape within the margins and arranged the digis around it. Once I was happy with the placement I deleted the oval. I printed this page on regular paper. It would be my map for the placement of my scripture and the individual 'elders'. I created two additional pages on which I copied and separated all of my images. I printed these pages onto cardstock and fussy-cut each image, which took about an hour.

I added iridescent white acrylic paint, WOW clear embossing powder (heat-set) and clear glitter glue down the center to represent the glory of God. 

Gold metallic acrylic paint highlights a few words of especial importance.

Whenever I try to do anything that depicts the beauty and glory of the Lord, I am acutely aware of how poor are my skills to ever do such a magnificent thing. I am like a little child doing a stick figure crayon drawing and saying, "Daddy, this is you." And his eyes sparkle with pleasure because he knows it a gift of love from his beloved child.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope I have inspired you in some way. Let me leave you with this thought from the Father's Heart: You are beautiful and you are loved.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa