Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Word Art Wednesday - May 30, 2012





I'm trying to get back in the groove here with Word Art Wednesday! This week's word art challenge offers the text of Matthew 5:16 (you're welcome to use it for your own art):






My "light" is Christ in me, and I really do want it to shine so that others can glorify God because of what they see in me. Any of my "good works" come from Him. 


Simple art is the necessity for me these days, so I started with a piece of my children's old art as a background. (I like to honour their work -- even if it's just "play with paint" -- by doing that. Is it just me, or do you see an accidental Pooh Bear reaching into a beehive in the top left corner?!?!?) The drawing is more basic than I envisioned -- but like I said, simple is the necessity. I wanted the heart to be the focal point, and the heart-shaped gem served that purpose -- and covered the poorly done hands I'd drawn! I used glitter glue to create the illusion of light shining. I like the fact that it sort of obliterates the drawing when it is held at an angle that catches the light because when the Light of Christ shines through us, our fleshly selves, our selfish carnal parts are diminished and people see Him instead of us. 


Once I uploaded the photo of my art, I played a bit more with it using Picassa. I love the funky results:







If you'd like to participate in this week's challenge, you might just win a little loveliness from our sponsor, Nicecrane Designs


In the meantime, I encourage you to read this guest post at Chatting at the Sky entitled 3 Ways to Leave an Honest Legacy. "Just so you know, whether you realize it or not, you're an artist." Believe it!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Word Art Wednesday - May 23, 2012

My youngest daughter and I spent a few minutes out on the porch today playing with art stuff. Although it's a day late, I decided to do something with this week's Word Art Wednesday text as I love the significance of it. I wanted to try an idea I saw on the net (but can't find now!) -- drawing with non-permanent markers and then using water to create a watercolour effect. While I'm not happy with my actual drawing, I liked the effect of the water on the marker:




If you'd like to participate in this week's WAW Challenge, you could win a little something from Lisa's Altered Art. Feel free to use this clip art of the text:





Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Pass It Forward Art





A few months ago, a friend posted a creative challenge on her facebook status. The idea was that she would make something for the first five people who commented on her status, and they, in turn, would make the challenge their status and create something for their first five commenters -- and so on, and so on, and so on . . . 


Well, it took me a while -- and it has taken even longer for me to post here about it (mostly because I also took so long to mail them, and wanted the recipients to receive them before I posted) -- but I finally came up with something for the three people that committed to the challenge. While I was at it, I created one for a friend that I found myself thinking about as I created the others -- so the result was four creations -- and then something created from those four creations. 


Here are the original four creations -- oil pastel drawings on painted sewing patterns glued to flat canvases -- completed with bible verses chosen specifically for the recipients, and also to complement the pictures:


I actually created this one while having one of my chemo treatments back in March. I am quite certain the nurses thought I was strange -- drawing a picture of a random chicken! But my friend loves chickens -- so it was the perfect image for her :) And this chicken has attitude -- it's not being "chicken" -- so the verse is perfect both for my brave friend and the courageous chicken!

The friend this one was created for likes to walk outdoors and also loves to sing. She lives in the city where trees are not always easy to see, so I thought I'd draw one for her to have in her home. 


The friend for which I made this loves animals -- she has two cats and two dogs. I fashioned this kitty after the mixed media one I made a few years ago found here: http://created2bcreative.blogspot.ca/2010/08/drawing-day.html  . I thought the verse complemented the cat's big eyes nicely :)
This was the "bonus" picture. My friend and I both like birds -- and the verse has special significance for the two of us .




The metallic gold pastel and spritzed spray paint with which each of the pictures is highlighted do not show up well in the pictures, but I like how they look in real life. 


Because I have a tendency to appreciate functional art, I decided to go a step farther and create stationary from the mixed media pieces. I was quite tickled with how they turned out, though the scanner bed doesn't show them off very well.  (A big thank you to my DH who did the actual printing for me.)







A couple of you have participated in a challenge I issued here a few months back. Your little slices of creativity will be off to you soon, I promise! (Phyl, yours is just waiting for me to make it to the post office!)


Have you participated in any creative challenges lately? Why not give it a try?! 




Altered Food Journal

I've recently been inspired to create a food journal to keep track of all the things I put in my body that will affect my health. As you might know, I can't bear to leave a journal all bare and unadorned. So, I rummaged through my stash and found a discard from an old project to use as my base. A few stickers, some rub-ons, a Sharpie -- and voila! 


(Oh, and by the way -- it's sitting on top of our household journal -- which I'm really liking, though we don't use all the sections as well as we could.)




That's about the extent of my creativity of late. I'm hoping to get back into a groove, but have been trying to just be instead of always doing. However, I have also felt some resistance to making art or writing or blogging. I'm not sure what that's about.  It felt good to decorate this little journal, so maybe I need to feed those good feelings by making a concerted effort to spend more time being creative. Hmmmm . . . there's a thought. 


Do you do anything to keep track of your health and well-being?


What do you do to get yourself out of a creative slump?

Lego Place Cards





Every once in a while my 13yo DS comes up with a brilliant idea. The other day it was these Lego place cards fashioned to resemble each member of our family, as well as our guest. 



I have no hair ;) I also wear black pants a lot -- and one of my favourite colours to wear is blue.

DH has a bit of hair with a goatee -- and his principal eyebrows and suit :)

Self-portrait.

She was wearing a strapless dress the day he made the figures. He didn't have any dreadlocks, so hair that most resembled her natural look had to suffice. 

Our guest loves to participate in war re-enactments (military helmet) and his nickname around here is "Wolfie."

No glasses -- but right hair. She also likes to dress in all the same colour. 

Little Bro likes wearing his hat backwards and has clothes similar to these. 
Cute, eh?!


Do you know of any Lego creations that might inspire my boy? 

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