Art: Saw Your Painting

 

 

This was one of the first paintings I tried on lace.  There were things I liked about it and things I didn’t.  I thought that because it was lace, I needed to have it behind glass for it to last.  We think lace is delicate, I found out differently when I took a big risk.

I am preparing for an art show, trying to get everything together and in frames.  I wanted to include this particular piece, but here is the way it was framed.

 

And it was behind a piece of glass.  For some strange reason, I just don’t like my work behind glass.  I found a frame I thought would look nice but, it was a bit smaller than my picture.  This lace is stretched over the top of canvas hardboard, so the only way I could crop it to go into the frame was by sawing it.  I swallowed pretty hard, made my marks and began sawing.   

 

Strangely enough, the hardest part of it all was getting through the lace which in no way could be separated from the the canvas or the painting would be ruined.

This is what I got for taking the chance:

Sometimes it’s worth taking a risk.

 

This piece was also too big for the frame I picked out, but it is on stretched canvas.  Not a problem.

 

 

I just took the knife and cut it off from the backside of the stretcher strips it was stretched onto.   After figuring out where I wanted to cut, I just marked it and cut.  Afterwards, I re-stretched it onto hard board, taped it and framed it.  I actually cut a couple inches off the height and a couple off the width.  This is what I ended up with:

 

 

As I was doing all this sawing and cutting, I was thinking…………………….

Sometimes you may think it would be so nice to be able to cut away pieces of your past, those things you did that hurt someone else and even those things that damaged your own life and self-esteem.  As hard as it may seem, we have to be able to forgive ourselves and move on.  If God can forgive us then we surely should be able to forgive ourselves.

He can wipe away our tears and forget our wrongs.  He will give us opportunity after opportunity to get it right.  He doesn’t require us to use a saw or a knife, all we have to do is simply ask for His help and believe that He will do what He has promised.  Of course this won’t erase the memories, but He can help us to rise above it all.

 

Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Art: He Smiled

Took this painting into work one day to show the man who supplying the wood for me to paint on what I was doing with it.  He said he would like one.  I asked him the normal questions, what would you like for me to paint for you, do you have a photograph of something special and on and on I went with my questions.

As we were talking another man walked up and said I’d like to have a painting.  He is an older man that is probably past retiring age, but cannot afford to retire.  He works two jobs.  He has also had some severe challenges with his health recently.  I asked him my normal questions about what he might like to have painted. He didn’t have an answer for me, but said he would think about it.  He did however ask me how much it would cost.  I told him we’d talk about it later after he decided what picture he’d like me to paint.

 As the days went by he would stop by to say good morning and oil my machine for me, as he had always done. I would ask him if he had come up with any ideas for his painting and he would just look down toward the floor and shake his head, no.  Then one day he said to me that he would just like to have something painted by me.

Well, what an invitation to give a painting away.  What more did I need than that nudge God gives me.  So I began thinking about it.

Just a few days ago, he came by my machine, didn’t speak, didn’t even look up.  His head was hanging so low, it was obvious and concerned me, something was wrong.  As he made his rounds again later that day, I walked over to him and asked if he was feeling ok.  I commented that it was quite obvious something wasn’t right, he wasn’t smiling as he usually did.  He just looked up at me, still all slouched over and said, as I looked into his red, sad eyes, “Honey, my self esteem is just about gone, they have just about destroyed it”.  I wasn’t sure who, they, were, but it didn’t matter, he was hurt.

I took the painting to work with me again, the one he had already seen and first sparked his interest in wanting one. I told him I’d just like for him to have it, how much he meant to me and how much it would mean to me if he would accept it.

And he just smiled.  He took the picture and rode off on his little cart, smiling.    Even if the smile is just for a moment maybe that moment will come again and again whenever he looks at my painting.

So this painting is now hanging in the home of a man, I hardly know.  But knew enough to know that he needed compassion.



Thank you God for the opportunity and privilege to make someone smile.

No More Bah-hum-bug Valentine’s Day

 

 

I know Valentine’s Day is approaching.  I try to stay in sinc with the special days coming up and gear my crafts toward them just in case I might possibly be able to sell something on my craft site.

Even though I didn’t want to think about Valentine’s Day, I felt I had to.  Valentine’s is about romance and love.  Only when my children were small did I have the privilege of experiencing love.

But now, I am experiencing life on my own, alone.  Sometimes I catch myself feeling sorry for “me”.  I hear people talking about what they are going to get their sweetheart for the special day coming up.  I see hearts everywhere advertising Valentine’s Day.  His and her this and her’s and his that.  I try to ignore it all, but it’s really not possible.  So yesterday I did a small craft and it said “I will always love you”.  But, I wasn’t impressed with it or what it said.

This morning I was trying to steer away from the theme, but it kept creeping in.  I found out why as I began pondering what I was going to put on this canvas.  All these “love” things kept popping into my head and my response was, no, no, no.  Then a song came on the radio…………………………….

Yes, there it is……………. “my heart is spoken for”.  Covered by His love divine, child of the risen Lord.

My heart is spoken for

I do have a Valentine.  My Valentine is my Comforter, my Love Divine, my God, my Heavenly Father, my Teacher, my Friend, my Tear Catcher, my Shoulder to lean on, my Counselor, my Creator, my King.  My Valentine is the greatest Valentine of all, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, my Rock and my Savior.

 

So………………………..

 

God is preparing you for flight……….

As we experience different aspects of life we grow, learn and begin to be able to say what we feel and think.

When my oldest was about 2 years old she obviously wasn’t feeling well and I kept trying to figure out what was wrong.  When I would try to communicate with her, asking her where it hurt, she would say “my tummy hurts”.  But when I finally decided it was time to go to the doctor, we discovered she had pneumonia.  She was telling me the only thing she knew to say, she wasn’t familiar with the location of lungs or phrases like, it’s hard to breathe.  But she was telling me as best as she could.

As she grew and learned she was more able to tell me exactly where she was hurting or uncomfortable.  This is just an example of common, basic learning and necessary for life.

But as we become older a more spiritual education begins to take place, an emotional journey I guess you could say.  A journey that God is in complete control of.  Whether your parents are believers in God and teaching you His Word is really of no consequence.  God is preparing you for flight, a flight of your own.  Whether or not your parents, or those who are in control of your life have it all figured out spiritually or not really doesn’t matter.  God is in control of it all.  He is preparing each of us for flight into this world as a spiritual being and our flight when we leave this world to join Him.

Rebellion, vanity and greed can get in our way of even the easiest lessons in life, as they can the spiritual lessons also.  Earthly and spiritual life lessons continue on a daily basis as long as we are alive.  The spiritual lessons will go on and on.  I’d like to get them as they come along so I can continue on to the next one.  But certain things in our lives keep us from getting it the first, second, third and sometimes even more times than we care to admit.

But through all the lessons and things we learn, we become better at articulating our spiritual feelings.  Here is where our wings come in to play.  When someone is hurting, you can say, “Can I help”?  Maybe you have gone through something similar and can lend a helping hand or just an ear.  Your wings are flapping now with the understanding of why you went through something, it was simply to help someone else and Glorify God in the process.  And you realize that God was preparing you for flight for this journey quite sometime ago.  Through the lesson, you learned how to help another.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

If you like this art or enjoyed the story, click here to purchase a print.

Collage: Tattered Pieces

 

This piece was actually done some time ago when I was really struggling to accept some things in my life.  At the time I wasn’t tuned into the significance of it all.  But now, reflecting back, God was in it the whole time.

This is a collage’ on cardstock.  The flower (if you see it as a flower) is made up of torn pattern pieces.  The butterfly is also cardstock and they are all glued together by the decopauge technique.  The doodling all around the edges (and you will see this on quite a bit of my art and crafts) is just therapy.  It’s a process I just started doing one day and was amazed at the time I was able to pass and the thought process it provoked.  It also gives me reflection time and a long conversation with God.  But since (somehow out of the blue) I began doing this, I noticed that it wasn’t such a revelation, many are doing it.

This piece really stood out to me this morning, the bits and pieces of the torn pattern and the beauty of the moth shining above it all.

The torn pattern pieces, as you might also be thinking, represent our lives as we live on this earth and experience events that, well, feel like they are tearing our hearts into pieces.  How it all comes together to make a flower like shape, tells me of how God can take all those pieces and mold and shape them into something that makes sense.  Into something that can become beautiful, but not perfect.

The moth, as it stands out in it’s beauty, represents the power of the Holy Spirit, how He is there at all times in our lives, watching over all those torn bits and pieces of our hearts, all the while letting us know that He is in control and everything is going to be alright. The battle has already been won!  He takes all those bits and pieces and keeps them together, refining us.  We may be torn and tattered from some of the decisions we have made in our lives or by the hurt others have caused us for no reason we can think of, but God will mold all that together into something useful, if we will just let Him.  He will be glorified and out shine all the tears and tragedies that we have experienced.  He is standing in front of that torn flower, shielding it, protecting it and showering it so it will know that His Grace and Love are sufficient.  It is important and can still be used.  We are important and He can still use us for His Glorification.

That flower may be torn, but it can still be used, as a flower.  It may not be perfect, but it is still has a purpose.

Have you thanked God for keeping the broken pieces of your heart together?  I pray He will use my tattered heart to do something good for His sake that will Glorify His name, spread His Living Word and cause someone to smile and acknowledge that He is Lord and King.

Have a wonderful day!

God, Grace, Glory

 

 

 

God’s Glorious Grace!  Thanks so much for that!

There was a law at one time that no one could live up to.  God sent His only Son to die on a cross so that we could be freed from that law. Blood was shed so that we could have the freedom to live our lives as best we could for God’s Glory without living in fear that we were always making God mad.  God will never take that away from us.

There was a law at one time that others felt would take their freedom away from worshipping their God the way they felt was right.  God put it in the hearts of those who believed their freedom was being threatened, to do something about it.  Blood was shed.  America was born and we were no longer under those laws.  Will we let these rights be taken away from us?

Just like God expected a Man to stand up and do what was right for His people, just like God expected men to take a stand one time against being controlled, He expects it now.

Will we let the freedoms we have had for years be taken away?  Those who are trying to tell us how and when we will worship our God will not win.  They will not prevail.  The battle has already been won.  I guess they didn’t get the memo!

Even though the battle has already been won, don’t you want to be on the winning side?

What are you doing?

God, Grace and Glory!

The Rhythm of God’s Grace Art

Is your heart tuned in to the rhythm of God’s Grace?

Hmmmm…..

What does that mean?  Well, I can only give you what it means to me and you can agree or disagree and take it from there on your own.

Many years ago as I sat in the choir beside the pastor’s wife, we were chatting before service time.  She confided in me that she had a sin in her life that she could not seem to overcome.  She named the sin and asked that I keep her in my prayers.  Feeling compassion for her I also shared a sin in my life that I was just beginning to have a struggle with and I too named my sin, hoping that it would make her feel that she was not alone in her battles.  Instead, she turned to me and told me that I must no longer sing in the choir that I had open sin in my life and it would not glorify God if I was seen singing in the church choir and then seen out in public “committing my sin”.  It was early in my walk with God and I was really confused.

Thank you God for your Grace, the greatest gift given to us through the loss of your Son, Jesus Christ.  Thank you for helping me to learn that there is no one so much better than the other as to call themselves a judge over our lives to decide whether or not we are worthy to do this or that.  Perfection is not something obtainable here on this earth, when we walk through the door of death and live in heaven with you, then we will be as perfect, in the way you choose for us, as you allow us to be.  That’s as close as we will ever come.  And I thank You for that.

I know that Your Grace does not give us freedom to do whatever our human desires tempt us to do, but as we struggle from day to day with those temptations it’s a wonderful thing to know You’ve got us covered.

If you’d like to know how to build this wall decoration just click here to see the instructions.

In addition to those instructions, for this particular craft, I used Apple Barrel Lilac Mist acrylic paint, wood buttons, a wood button heart painted with Ceramcoat Tompte Red by Delta.  I also used a paper doily as a stencil with Apple Barrel White acrylic paint.

Let me know if you make this craft, share your pictures with me.  I’d love to see what you make.

Have a gracefully crafty day!

Inspired by God’s Love

I guess when you first look at this crafty little plaque, you might not, at first, think about God’s Love.  I haven’t ran across many people in my life time that make me think of God’s Love.  But He still gives all of us many opportunities to see His Love for us.
He shows us His Love in the flowers, birds, trees, the air we breath, and the freedom to live our lives for Him as we see fit to glorify Him.  There are countless ways He shows His Love for us, too many to mention here.  He freed us from the law and replaced that law with Grace by giving the life of His only Son to free us.
As I groped to find a way to express what makes me think of love here on this earth, I thought of the beauty of God’s creation that He shows Himself through for everybody to see.
It might be hard to see God’s Love through people all the time, but as the bird sings, the flowers bloom, the butterfly flitters by, the sun rises and sets, the tides roll in and out, the trees sway in a gust of wind and the rain falls to clear away the dust and give life, we can definitely see Him and feel His presence.
Thank you God for giving me a way to share the love you have put in my heart with others.
Today, when a little bird calls out to you with a sweet song, I hope you will think about the only One that could have ever put that song in that little beating heart.  What a wonderful gift to give.

For a tutorial on how to make this sweet little frame and canvas to decorate for a gift or for your own home just click here.  You can have one ready to decorate in 5 easy steps.

Free From the Cocoon

Listening to Beth Moore this morning about law and grace made me, once again, compare our spiritual lives to the butterfly.  The metamorphosis is the one thing I always picture in my mind when I think about the changes that take place in us when we allow God in.
But this morning as I listened to her speak about grace, I just envisioned the caterpillar in the cocoon of the law, unable to move, to stretch, to spread it’s wings and fly.  Coming out from under the law represents our wings growing and once we begin to understand grace, we can finally spread our wings and begin to fly.
And this is what I thought of……………………

Thank you so much for freeing me from the law and giving me wings so I could fly.  So I could be free to worship You and live my life in accordance to Your will Lord, instead of man’s.  And I thank my daughter for sharing this with me, she knew I needed it greatly and would appreciate it.
If you have any comments please share them with me.  You can visit me on facebook too and we can get a discussion going about God’s wonderful, glorious grace.

If you would like to see the tutorial about how to make this crafty little frame and canvas to decorate for less than $5, just click here.