Dad

My Dad passed away a this year. He was a good, strong, hard working Christian man who could be a bit on the quiet side.....unless you got him to start talking about fishing!  He loved to fish! On our visits, my husband could always get him talking about some fishing trip or a good "fishing hole"  he had found!

As a way to honor him and comfort myself, 
I decided to make a small collage of him. 

He's in the boat. :)  

Some of the painted paper I used was made from copies of Math papers he had written. 

He had long since retired but was a Math Professor by profession. 

We have joked that he only chose to be a teacher so he could have summers off to fish!

When I was a kid, he got to take a big trip to Alaska to fish. I remember he came home 

with two new, large, clean garbage cans with really big fish in them on ice! 

He was proud! 

 I love you daddy!

Rest for Your Soul

I'm learning that one way God can bring joy, peace and REST is through my creativity. 

MAKING and CREATING are such a balm to my soul.

 I have been trying to improve my collage skills and discover my artistic style by making LOTS of art. I use the term "LOTS" loosely. Finding time to MAKE can be a challenge. There are soooo many obstacles. Internal and external.

After creating the backgrounds I played with circles first.

Then decided to do DOODLES instead. I like the flower doodle on the left the best. :)

Learn how I cut out my "doodles" here.

For quite a while I have been craving REST. Not sleep or physical rest, but rest for the soul and mind. I came across a great podcast called  " unQuiet Life ", that addresses this.

From their website: "unQuiet Life is an ongoing conversation, delivered as a weekly podcast, about living a contemplative life in Urban America. Come discover the benefits of fostering a quiet inner life in a loud, complex, busy world. 

We aren’t experts. We’re just two guys in Chicago on a spiritual journey. Our guide has been Jesus of Nazareth, and contemporary followers of his like Henri Nouwen and Richard Rohr. Regardless of your religious background, we invite you to join us on a spiritual road-trip. We’ve found this part of the path to be largely uncharted by the churches we’ve known, so let’s find something special together."

Aaaaah, doesn't that sound appealing? They have 10 podcasts so far. 

I have listened to several and really like what I have heard so far. 

Check it out and let me know what you think. 

A second resource is a group called the Sabbath Society  on a blog called "Redemption's Beauty" . Their tagline is what enticed me to subscribe:

"Want to make rest a routine, not just something you 

fill in between the cracks of your busyness? 

Welcome to the Sabbath Society, a group of hundreds declaring “I’m all in” when it comes to implementing a rhythm of rest into each week. 

We’re not doing this to achieve perfection or sainthood, just linking arms knowing that what we gain in the observance results in transformation as we focus on Peace."

Nice, right? If you sign up for her email, you will get one email every other Friday. 

A third great resource I came across recently is right in my own back yard, sort of.... It's a yearly conference for Christian Bloggers, held in Greenville, SC! It's called Allume and the next one will be October 15-17th! If you can't attend, you can download audio sessions from past conferences (for a fee). Or watch videos of the keynote speakers from the 2014 conference online for FREE! 

Even if you are not a blogger, you will enjoy them. I recommend watching at least two of the keynote speeches; the one by Logan Wolfram and the one by Shauna Niequist. Go the the conference website, Allume.com and click on "Resources", then "2014 Keynote Speeches". Great inspiration for the creative person of faith!

Hope

" The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

 they are new every morning;  great is your faithfulness.

 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.' ”

Lamentations  3:22-24

I came across a quote on a blog post at the nester that speaks to my passion and ministry:

"Find the things that stir your affections for Christ and saturate your life in them."  

Two things for me are scripture and making art:  

Faith Art Journaling!

Sometimes my Faith Art Journal page starts with a scripture and then I make art around it.

More often, though, I start making art on a page and 

THEN a word or a scripture comes to mind.

I also love that sometime my "leftovers" that didn't get used on the original page get used on a second page. 

Here is a page waiting for a word from the Lord. 

I encourage you to make something and then ask the Lord for a word.

Grace

If you are a Christian, you have probably heard the following verse a lot.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; 

it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)

But KNOWING about GRACE and FEELING that GRACE are two very different things. 

At least it is for me. God has been teaching me and reminding me to ...

LIVE IN HIS GRACE.

For me, that manifests itself as forgiving myself like Jesus forgives me.

 Over and over and over and over and OVER!  

Listen to the same verses in The Message version of the Bible.

"Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work.  All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves."

Ephesians 2:8-9 (The Message)

 In her keynote address for the 2014 Allume Conference, Logan Wolfram said 

" How easily we forget the value that has been attributed to us as masterpieces of the Kingdom of Heaven. As creations of the God of the universe, our identity lies not in who has seen or affirmed our worth, but in the reputation of the master who has made us."

I sooooo love that! I do not have to perform to earn my salvation or to earn the love of Christ. 

That is Grace.

More Cutting Paper!

Super easy shapes using hand painted and doodled papers and book pages.

Cutting paper and collaging is so relaxing and therapeutic! Give it a try! 
Use what you have... book pages, scrap booking paper or magazine pages.

As I was cutting shapes from a dictionary page, I noticed the word "HOLY".

 A  nice reminder from God that He is always with me, 

even when I am relaxing and enjoying a little creative time.

My Happy Place

Where is your happy place? You know, the "place" you can go to that 

always leaves you tired but happy. Lately, mine is cutting paper!

I've been trying to improve my paper cutting and collage skills. 

A few weeks ago I decided to use some doodling designs 

I came up with years ago for patterns. 

First I draw the design on the back of some painted paper. 

Then I cut it out with an Exacto knife.

I cheated on the  little circles. I used a hole punch and then stacked a

 few together an cut them to oval shapes. 

 These shapes are not collaged to anything yet. I'm still pondering 

on a layout and background colors, etc...

Yes, "making" is my happy place. 

Of course the only true happiness is in the Lord. 

But I feel He gives us beautiful things in this world to encourage us 

and to remind us to see His beauty as the ultimate creator. 

 I love to bring it full circle and offer it back to Him in thankfulness.

Thank you Lord for making me creative and giving me the supplies and 

imagination and time to make small objects of beauty.