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