This week I have a special blessing image for you. This is Samson at 4 months old. I used his Puppy Grad picture as a reference.
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Samson is a Great Pyrenees/Newfoundlander/Border Collie mix, with
possibly some lab in him. Here is a more recent pic of Samson at 6
months old. Looks like I have a new dance partner.
Thanks for stopping by. I would love to see what you make with any of
my images. I rarely have time to colour them up so it is really nice to
see what my talented followers can do with them.
The other day I was fooling around with an app on my IPad called Art Rage and I came up with this silly cartoon face. I decided to enter it into the Face Off challenge group at Praise Heart Creative Community. I am far away from my goal of 100 faces by this year's end, but at least I am doing some.
Last weekend I went to a conference at an Island church. A talented artist friend and myself brought some gifts for the participants. I made up over 30 scripture cards/bookmarks as my contribution. A few friends have asked me to explain how I make these so I took pics of my process.
I used box board for my bases. These are the covers for blister packs of prescription medication. I had a good stack of them. First I decoupage them with strips of light-weight papers and book pages.
I spread a light coat of Gesso over any areas not covered with papers or where the papers were slick and needed something to help grab onto the paint. Then I got out some various items, like bottle caps and sponges, for adding texture and interest.
I randomly added paint, watering some of it down and applying it with an eye dropper to make drips. I turned the pages or used a blow dryer to move the paint drips around. I used other items with the acrylic paints until I was happy with the results. I let some of the papers show through.
I used my guillotine cutter to divide the sheets into smaller sizes. Most of them were about 3x4 inches, but I made some larger or smaller. I applied stamps, glued pictures, scriptures and faith quotes to the fronts and backs of each piece, hole-punched them and attached handmade paper beads with twine. I managed to save one for myself and to show to you. It has a verse from my favourite Psalm on one side.
I hope this give you an indication of how to make these yourself. They make nice little gifts that people can tuck into a book or purse and I must say, they are rather addictive. I am already thinking about doing another batch. One thing you should know is that you have to allow drying time between layers so it is best to allow yourself 2-3 days to complete a batch. You can always speed your drying time up with a blow dryer though.
Lately I have been studying a book by Matt Tommey called, "Unlocking the Heart of the Artist".
In chapter six he talks about how each of us was created in God's image
and when we conform to his image, we are most alive. As I contemplated
that I had an epiphany moment.
Of course we are to
emulate the characteristics of Christ, such as the fruits of the Spirit -
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness and
Self-Control (Gal. 5:22-23) - but we are not to become a bunch of robots
or Jesus clones.
What I saw, in my mind's eye, was a
glorious image of God, as though he were an infinitely-faceted diamond,
with an infinite number of glittering surfaces - aspects of his
inexhaustible character. In each one of those glittering, reflective
surfaces was an image - complete in itself, yet only a tiny aspect of
the gloriously infinite Divine Nature. And -- here it is -- in one of
those marvelously beautiful surfaces, the image I saw was the one in
which I was specifically created. I saw my sense of humour, my love for
animals, my unique way of looking at things. It was all part of that
tiny aspect of God's Nature - the specific aspect in which I was
created. The more I conform to that specific aspect of the image of God,
the more I become fully alive and fully me. Not a robot or even a Jesus
clone, but ME. Not the me that demands my own way, but the me that
submits to God and lets Holy Spirit shape me into the real ME - the one
created in a specific image of the multi-faceted, glorious God.
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope I have inspired you to seek God so you can discover the Real, Beautiful, Divinely-natured You.
On Resurrection Sunday (Easter) this year two wheelchairs parked in the rows in front of us, one behind the other, in the section of our church where our family normally sits. As with most churches, people tend to sit in the same general areas every Sunday. These regulars to our church normally sit in another section. Directly in front of us a friend who suffers with hearing loss sat; also not where he usually sits. Then two rows behind us was a dear gentleman who lost his legs and most of both of his hands. None of these people usually sit in this section of the church and probably were there because of the Easter Sunday crowd. Still .... it got me to thinkin'....
What if our church had a wheel section, a place something like the pool at Bethesda (John 5), where whoever sat there would be healed? I like to pray crazy big prayers, so I asked the Lord if he would do that and I drew some pictures in my journal to help me remember it.
How about you? Do you ever pray crazy big prayers? God says that he will do more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20) so why not put that imagination to good use?
Last Sunday I gave you two images of
my male Zebra Finch, Fred. This week I drew a fun facsimile of his mate
for you. I call this "Wilma on the Town". How do you like her jaunty
little hat?
I apologize again for not having an image for you last week. To make up for it, I have two images for you today.
Recently I adopted a pair of Zebra Finches. I have wanted finches for years and these are my first pair. From their "dee-dee-DEE" beeps and tiny red feet to their hummingbird-like flight patterns, their puffy little bodies and their love of bathing, the cuteness just never ends with these two. Of course I had to attempt a drawing or two.
Here are Fred and Wilma. I named them after the Flintstones because of the leopard skin pattern under the male's wings.
I started by drawing Fred. Maybe next week I will have a drawing of Wilma.
I did a cartoon drawing, attempting to make Fred's markings look like clothes. Then I did a more serious drawing. You can use the pictures to help guide your coloring or totally go with your imagination to make your own kind of finch. If you like Fred, let me know in the comments if you would like me to draw Wilma for you next week.
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Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope you are enjoying your Sunday.
This is a creative devotional I did for the Take Me Deeper group at His Kingdom Come.
July 15, 2016
"Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess." Hebrews 3:1 (NIV)
Artist: For King & Country Song: Fix My Eyes
Fix My Eyes
by Teresa Arsenault
Today's devotional did not come easily for me. I have been mulling it over, doing art, choosing the music video, studying different verses and versions, for a couple of weeks and even now I don't know how I am going to pull it all together. (This took nearly another week)
The Take Me Deeper theme for 2016 is about discovering our identity in Christ and I found a lot in this study about that, especially after meditating on the key verse in the Amplified version of the bible.
"So then, brethren, consecrated and set apart for God, who share in the
heavenly calling, thoughtfully and attentively, consider Jesus, the
Apostle and High Priest whom we confessed as ours when we embraced the
Christian faith." - Hebrews 3:1 (AMP)
First of all, we are family. Don't be put off by the word "brethren"; it's just an old-fashioned way of saying "brothers and sisters". Next we learn that we are set apart for God. That's what holy means. Then we find out that we (brethren) share in a heavenly calling. And what is that heavenly calling, at its highest pinnacle?
To fix our eyes on Jesus.
King David expressed it this way: "One thing I ask; this one thing I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." (Psalm 27:4)
Once I had a dream that I was taken up to heaven. I was given two guides, who immediately began showing me wonders and marvels in the heavenly realm. But I had a sense that this was a short visit so I said, "I want to see Jesus." They tried to put me off, but I insisted, "I want to see Jesus." When I wouldn't stop asking, they brought me someone I recognized as an actor who had played the part of Jesus in a movie. I told them that was just an actor and I wanted to see Jesus, the real Jesus. I demanded, over and over, until I woke myself up shouting, "I want to see Jesus!"
Heaven held no delight for me unless I could see the One my soul loved.
The theme of this month's TMD is "I am a Heavenly Citizen". That is a wonderful thing to contemplate, but even more wonderful is that I get to have what King David longed for; I get to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. And I get to do that each time I enter into my prayer closet.
Like the wardrobe in C.S. Lewis's "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", my little prayer closet grants me access into the heavenly realm, where Jesus resides and where my name is written on the registry of official citizens.
There God is writing my story. He already has plans (Ephesians 2:10) for the works I will do and a photo album of cherished memories of my past, present and future. Not only is my name written in the registry, it is complete with current, up
to-the-moment photographs so there will be no mistaking who (and whose) I
am. I am God's house (Hebrews 3:6), built by the Father, cared for by the Son and lived in by Holy Spirit.
Due to a busy schedule and a very
unscheduled migraine, I do not have an image ready for you today. I am
working on something and may have it ready in a few days, or maybe I
will just wait and give you two images next Sunday.
Thank you for your understanding and I do appreciate your visit.
This Sunday I have a set of images for you, with a bonus sentiment. I hope you like them. The images are in JPEG and PNG formats. Left-click to enlarge the image. Then right-click and choose "save as" to save it to your computer.
Hello Friends and Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians!
Some of you know that I have been participating in a 100-face challenge over at Praise Heart Creative Community. I have scribbled a few faces before this one, which I might show you at some point if I get desperate to increase my numbers. (grin)
For this one, I really wanted to make an old, wrinkled face. I couldn't find an image I liked online so I drew from my imagination. I was tempted to ask my neighbour to let me take a picture of her, to use for a reference, because she has a marvelously wrinkled face. But I didn't know if she would find my appreciation of her creases to be a compliment.
While the face I created is a far cry from the wonderfully creased face I wanted to make, here is the poem (original) that inspired the idea.
Her face is a wonder:
a criss-crossed roadmap of a life well lived;
when she smiles
each lane rises toward
twinkling lights beneath
fleshy porticoes;
my face can do nothing but smile in return
July's theme in the Take Me Deeper group at His Kingdom Come is "I am a Heavenly Citizen". The verse I focused on is Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6:
"For God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." (NIV)
Gee, that sounds nice, but what does it mean? I went back to chapter 1 and sat for a while with verses 19-21. Here they are in the Passion Translation:
"Yes, my prayer for you is that every moment you will experience the measureless power of God made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the resurrection power that was released through Christ when God raised him from the dead. This resurrection power raised us up and seated us with him at his place of supreme authority in the heavenly realm!"
It is important to note that Paul was writing this letter to the believers at the church of Ephesus. We don't know most of their names, but most of them were not pastors, elders or leaders. They were ordinary folks just like you and me. And they had moment by moment access, through faith, to the measureless power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.
So why don't I see that power at work in my own daily life? Rare are the occasions when I have prayed for someone and they were healed; and I have never raised anyone from the dead.
Once a man told my husband and I about a back injury that had put him out of work and forced him to live on a pension. Joy bubbled up inside of me and I nearly blurted out, "Oh, we can pray for you and you will be healed." Nearly.
I stuffed it down, telling myself I had been watching too many Todd White videos. Besides, what if nothing happened? Wouldn't it be worse for everyone if he didn't get healed? And then what kind of crazies would he think we were? By the time I had hashed all of this through in my mind, the man was talking about something else. I figured the moment had passed and it was probably just my imagination anyway. Or was it? I will never know.
When the early Christians began experiencing persecution they did something rather unusual, which reminds me of how David ran towards Goliath. They asked God for boldness. Here is Acts 4:29-31 in the Passion Translation:
"So now, Lord, listen to their threats to harm us and empower us, as your servants, to speak the word of God freely and courageously. Stretch out your hand of power through us to heal, and to move in signs and wonders by the name of your holy Son, Jesus!
At that moment the earth shook beneath them, causing the building they were in to tremble. Each one of them was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they proclaimed the word of God with unrestrained boldness."
If you go back to Acts 2 you will realize that these believers were some of the 3,000 people who believed on Jesus on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was first released. These were ordinary church folk, like you and me.
When I read that we are seated with Christ in heavenly realms, my imagination conjures up a bunch of chairs, like in church, and people hanging out. But the word seated, in this context, is referring to a position of authority. We are seated with Christ. We have the authority to preach the word, with signs following, (Mark 16:17-18) through our positionwith Christ and access to the power of God through faith in Christ.
The only thing I seem to lack is that boldness ingredient and that is apparently easy to obtain. I merely have to follow the example of the early Christians and ask for it. I have personalized their prayer that you can say along with me. I had to push passed a lump of fear just to pray this, but you are probably braver than I am.
"So now, Lord, empower me, as your servant, to speak the word of God freely and courageously. Stretch out your hand of power through me to heal, and to move in signs and wonders, by the name of your Holy Son, Jesus!"
I recorded the verse in my scripture memorization journal and did a little art on the facing page.
