Thank You Lord For My Ravens

Right now, I am walking out a faith walk with the Lord.  I know that he WILL PROVIDE no matter what the circumstances "look" like ... There are just too many promises on provision to not believe that.  On August 29th, 2011 I wrote a check that took my account down to zero.... and I have watched the provision come in since.  Lets put it this way, I haven't lost any weight!  

Yesterday I decided that I would start giving friends that have been used by God to "provide" for me a "Raven Award".  Unfortunately the very first person I gave it to had never heard about the ravens feeding Elijah.... I was really surprised until I found it in the Bible and there are only five verses that talk about it...TWO specific to the ravens!  Hummmmm.....  Look what you might miss if you don't read every word of the Bible!!!

Here you go:

1 Kings 17: 2-6

Elijah Fed by Ravens

 ² Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: ³ “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁴ You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” ⁵ So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. 

Then in Ephesians the Lord promises to bless all that are a blessing so I have included that promise on the painting.

Ephesians 6:8

⁸ because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

So, here is a scan of my gift  (pre-wire hanger) to the folks that have blessed me, and who continue to bless me still.... The bird is holding a bag that says "Special Delivery". 

One down, tons to go!

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• Background = acrylic paint (RYB blend), 
• Raven = black acrylic paint, 
• Wash under the letters = watered down Gesso that I blotted off lightly with a napkin, 
• Letters = Black Copic bullet point 

Sitting At the Airport

Hebrews 10:36

This one happened while I was sitting at the airport in Chicago for a SIX HOUR layover!!!  MAN! 

PERSEVERE is another word for me this year.  The Lord is testing me right now and I have GOT TO HANG TOUGH!  Can't stop.  I'm not certain why I used a tunnel except I needed the room for the word.  Unfortunately,  the "God's Will" path isn't really like a tunnel... it is more like a wide open path that you can jump off at any time... but, for me, I just can't so maybe that determined decision is my tunnel.

Peace, Hope, Refuge

More sitting around waiting on Andrea while she cooks.

Jesus is my Hope, my Peace, and my Refuge

Back From Vacation

I went to Michigan (first time ever) this past week to visit a friend that moved there about 6 months ago... I just got back last night.  I had a lot of time to just sit and doodle while I was there because my friend LOVES to cook and she spent hours and hours and hours doing it so I was left to fill time "my way".... so, I doodled.


All I took with me was ultra-fine time Sharpies, paper and my Koi watercolors...and my water fill paint brush. OH!  and of course a pencil and a big eraser.

  I got several things done...here is one....just sitting there filling in the space... I don't even know a Toby!:

The thing that I forgot to bring...and wish I had, was my white correction pen for highlighting the letters. Thankfully the Koi actually has a white!  It surprised me that it actually did work....not perfectly, but enough to give a bit of highlight...see the letters? ...kinda rounded looking.  If you look back at my earlier stuff you will see that I LOVE to create the illusion of 3-D...I don't know how so I'm not good at it, but practice helps right?  So I practiced on the letters.

About the letters: My new favorite artist is Linda Rapchak ... I "met" her and fell in love with her lettering in Joanne's letter love class.  Linda's letters were amazing so I asked why the heck she took the class!  As it turns out Linda is an middle school art teacher...and she said that it was just to focus on doing something for herself for a change.  I am SO EXCITED that she just started her own blog so now you will be able to see what I'm talking about here: www.rappy-art.blogspot.com

go check it out!  

I am pretty certain that I will be learning a lot from her!  And, I'll go ahead and admit I will be using some of her techniques because I LOVE THEM!

I'll post more of what I did on the trip as soon as I find my mouse... I put it down somewhere now I can't find it!!!  Talk about dependent on something!  WHEW!

Today's LARGE Doodle

I got a request yesterday to paint two 8 foot long signs!  Hummm... always up for something new.  Thought on it for a long while...about how to deal with the spacing because I have to say, that is one of my biggest problems...beginning and ending two lines of text in about the same place.  Four inches is a challenge and these were EIGHT FEET!!!


When it came time to put paint to paper I just took my chances and started painting without any pencil lines! And it worked PERFECTLY!  WHOOHOO!!!  I guess its time for me to go into the sign making business!  Love it!

I just let the paintbrush do the work, nothing fancy for sure....but it says what its suppose to.... DONE!

When do I stop???

I don't know about this one, I kinda like it, but ???

Will anyone else like it???

It was a constant "mess up" / "fix it" kind of project!

Steps:

1. Mod-Podge Tim Holtz tissue paper down to canvas board
2. Write the whole scripture with a black pen.
3. Heck! margins not right on the word "Reward".
4. Paint black paint over the word "Reward".
5. Paint over "Whatever" just so there isn't just one black stripe.
6. Rewrite the words "Reward" and "Whatever" again using the eyedropper for white ink. (sloppy mess, but do I fix?...or just think that maybe that is "a look" ???)
7. Draw small  black lines on either side of the big black blocks in hopes of making it all look intentional.
8. Small lines too small so try to make larger with a larger marker...oops, too much, shoot!  Leave the rest alone
9. Add white dots to the thicker lines so they look more like it was planned that way.
10. Add tiny black dots to the thin lines for continuity.
11. Oh heck, "they do" is too far to the left, add a flourish to the "o" to stretch it out.
12. Add distress ink and spritz with water to age.

To give or not to give?...THAT is the question!


Maybe I'd better just put it "out there" for sell and see if someone will buy it rather than force it on someone that might hate it!

Time to HURRY AGAIN!

If you are taking the Joanne Sharpe Class you may want to take advantage of this sale on Tim Holtz Color Wash!  If you haven't gotten to that lesson yet I promise you will want it!  I just order every color.  BUT HURRY!!!  Things run out fast on this site!

I would go get some even if I weren't in Joanne's class if I were you. :-)  Gotta love a sale!  And actually, I just bought $50 worth of stuff for free because of their AWESOME buying credit plan!  My biggest problem is wanting everything I see, and saving points up for what I really, really want. 


Here are a couple of things I made with the last order I placed for the Tim Holtz Tissue Paper.  LOVE THAT PAPER!...it makes a quick job of an easy background.

COLOR MAGIC!

Years and years ago, "before the fire" I was a polymer clay artist.  I LOVED it!  But, it was extremely messy, and expensive so when the fire destroyed everything I chose not to get back into it...because I had all new carpet...and, it was expensive!

One of the things that I (FINALLY) learned after wasting lots of money trying to buy all the colors of clay is you really only need THREE! + White +Black.  You can create the whole color wheel with the primaries and all the colors will blend beautifully together.   Just don't try to throw in a different "red" (or blue, or yellow) into the mix, you have to stick with the SAME three primary colors.  

Back then I used a formula to create each color 1 part blue + 1 part yellow =.  What I did today was far less

formal, as you will see when you check out the tutorial I followed today: 

Belinda Fireman over at "Drawn From the Fire" blog.

I pinned it back in December and finally decided to give it a go today.  I love all of her paintings.

WAIT!!!  Before you jump over there I want to show you an example of what I was talking about above... today I started with these three colors + white.

Look at what I got! LOVE!

I KNOW!  Doesn't seem right does it?  To start with only those three colors and end up with all this!  BEAUTIFUL!  I will definitely be doing more color mixing because I just love the results!  These aren't actually finished, I want to add words, or something ???

Note how you could combine any colors from this pallet in a picture and they would look good together.  That would not necessarily be true if you mixed a different red/blue to make purple...that purple probably wouldn't look good, all you internal alarms would go off because something just isn't right...stick with the original three.

Now you can go check out her blog and see her instructions.

THANK YOU BELINDA! for bringing it all back to me!  I LOVE the tutorial!

Ephesians 6:8 Made Personal

I had to go to the dentist yesterday so I decided to have another go at this while I was waiting ... only this time I made it personal and put "you" instead of whoever....and I added stuff in the white space.  It is still not "there" but it get the point across...I'll have to do it again later, time to move on to other things.

Ephesians 6:8

I love this scripture... 

There were two goals with this one today.  First, I wanted to do something like this...only better.  I see so many BEAUTIFUL layouts of words and I keep saying I want to do that!... but, I have no clue where to even begin learning how to do it well.  I can tell that it takes a LOT of will power to practice and be patience enough to go slow and have a perfectionistic (sp?, is it even a word?!) type of personality and none of that describes me...AT ALL!  I do something once and I'm about ready to move on to the next thing...I guess that's why I doodle ???  


But, you know what, I have to start somewhere, so I just made this up as I went.  All the mistakes just scream out at me but something happens when I get a black marker in my hand.  Its like it has a mind of its own!...and straight isn't in its vocabulary!!!  ARGH!!!


It started with this:

then it went to this:










Another reason I wanted to do the scripture is that I am "a giver", I LOVE GIVING... but I am a lousy receiver.  Not too sure why that is.... BUT, right now the Lord has me practicing receiving and it is a TOUGH, TOUGH lesson for me!  But I have got to snap out of it in order to move on to the next lesson, one with more eternal value, ya know?  Anyway, I want to give something to those that are blessing me now and I think this scripture will be perfect....when I get it written perfectly that is!  So, I guess I will have to practice...and take my time after all huh?


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later.... after saying all that ^ up there, I decided the best way to get it right was to actually SEE what I was trying to create so I went back and typed the bottom two lines using a TTF I wanted write...now, when I do it again, I'll do better just because I had the letters all wrong!  That's what happens when you just try to do it out of your head while watching a movie downstairs!


DER!

A Block At A Time

Yesterday I just decided to fill the page up one block at a time...drawing each block as I went. Clearly, there was no rhyme or reason...just put something in the block.  

Thankfully, I started with a pencil, then came back with the marker.  When it was all filled up with pencil there was only one word ... the "Peace" at the bottom so I decided to erase what was in the "love" and "joy" blocks and put the words...  I've decided I like filling up a shape with a word and leaving as little "white space" as possible.  Fun, will definitely do more of that!

Now, I may, or may not color it ??? Hummmm?

Dot Grid

In Joanne's class, lesson 16, Falling For Fountains, Joanne shows a journal that she uses to practice writing with her fountain pen.  I want that book! BUT, I don't have the patience to wait and I like binding my own journals anyway so today I built a grid that I can print and bind, or just practice with....both blue and gray.


If you would like a copy of the blue, it can be downloaded here: 

The gray is HERE:

I Will Give You Rest

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Matthew 11:28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Proverbs 3:5Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 

Pan Pastels, markers, watercolor pencils...a lot of erasing around the letters and figure!
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Just As You Believe

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This is just such a simply profound concept to me:

The Faith of the Centurion

 ⁵ When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶ “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” ⁷ Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” ⁸ The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹ I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³ Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

You'll notice that I actually used this scripture more as a reference than a quote.   "Let it be done, just as you believed"...You have to BELIEVE!   Of course I know that, BUT, you also have to be careful of what you believe, "just as you believe" can be the negative as well... if you BELIEVE you will always be poor, done, you get what you believe.

Another part of that though is, he also had to ask...he believed in Jesus's ability to heal the servant, but nothing happened until he asked.  So there are two parts to get the results.  Ask, pray, speak it out + Believe = Results.

Again, even with the negative, people always put a voice to their negative beliefs, it comes out in almost every conversation... Listen, pay attention to what people are saying,I promise, it is what they believe  ( Matthew 12: ^34b... For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.)  


.... and again 

"It will be done just as you believe"

The tongue has the power of life and death,

 and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 18:20-22 

OU!  Something else about that passage, I just noticed (see why I do this?)  The servant was the one sick (no mention of his believing or asking)... the centurion was the one with the faith! So YES! you can pray and have faith, and expect, for someone else's healing....even if they don't. I honestly always wondered about that. 

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Done with Inktense Watercolor Pencils (love), a Sharpie and a paint pen.


later: black added... better

Give Him All That You Have

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Matthew 14: 
¹⁵ As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

¹⁶ Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

¹⁷ “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

¹⁸ “Bring them here to me,” he said. ¹⁹ And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. ²⁰ They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ²¹ The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.
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Later:
I just came back and read the scripture again and  started meditating on it.  Notice, the multiplication happened when each person "GAVE".  

• First the little boy "GAVE" the fish and bread
• Then Jesus blessed it and he "GAVE" it to the disciples.
• Then the disciples "GAVE" to the people.
• and each person took a share then "GAVE" it to the next person!

The multiplication happened at the "giving" stages!  The multiplication would have stopped at the point that the "giving" stopped. Gotta give it away to get the multiplication! 
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Lady Lizbeth Speaks Out

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Test! Test! Test!

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Today I wanted to draw a girl looking up with her hands on her heart, with words saying "Lord, I give you my life".  But before I do the final picture I wanted to test a few things.

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  So,

1. I drew the partial picture in the bottom right corner.
2. I then pulled it into PSE and erased out the hard line for the nose because I didn't put a good bend in it.
3. I also erased the bump on the right arm.
4. I then printed it out, outlined again adding the hair 
5. then colored it.
6. I scanned it again and 
7. used PSE to add the background on the top right picture to see how that would look....
8. I also had it saying "Heart" at first but changed that to "Life".

Again, same thing, only different:

And a little while later I came back and decided to fix the red head with PSE. Notice, 

1. I moved the lips down, 
2. I got rid of the dark wrong nose,
3. I "cut" her hair 
4. and I used the body of the dark hair girl

...better.

YAY!  I feel better now... Now I can go to sleep :-)

And then I decided to play with color :-)

I know!  I got kinda wordy and carried away with it all....so, let me recap:

Test! Test! Test!

Parallel Pen Test

On Monday of this week I did a post on drawing with a Pilot Parallel Pen. I included a You Tube video of  Brett Weldele using distress ink in his pen.  That really excited me because there is so much potential there!  

DR left question in Monday's comments that I couldn't answer, so I decided to do a little test.  

I had saved an empty cartridge from the pen so I decided to put some water in it and add a few drops of StampinUp! Refill ink (the only kind that I have) and see if that would work.  It was really kind of tricky because I don't have a syringe so I had to improvise.  I stuck a water brush down into the cartridge as far as it would go (there's a little black piece about 1/4" down so that was as far as I could go) I then squeezed the water brush so that the water went down into the cartridge... very cool, very easy.  However, the trick came when I had to add the ink.  I couldn't squeeze it as hard as I did the water brush because ink would have gone EVERYWHERE!  I just squeezed it enough to fill that 1/4" space then pushed it onto the nib....when I turned it over the water drew the color into the cartridge.

And then I started writing.  You'll noticed that I had not cleaned out the nib before I started this whole process so there was still A LOT of black ink inside the nib.  Normally, I would have stopped and cleaned the nib but I was curious just how far I could go with the black before it went to the pure red.  See below... I got three pages worth and started getting REALLY BORED writing...you can see towards the end

The big red blog was some of the pure color directly out of the ink bottle...because I really wanted to know what color I was looking for!

When I finally started getting mostly red it was actually pink so I knew that more ink was needed, it was too weak.    So, I added another few drops.  I'm guessing that it might be about 2 parts water to 1 part ink....but that really is a guess.  If you want to try it you just have to test until you are happy.

Now, I am pretty certain that I won't be doing this again until I get a syringe!

I have ZERO CLUE what this is actually doing to the pen itself!  I only decided to test it because Brett does it... I figured it was worth the lose of a $6 (with Michael's coupon) pen to see what it would do....BUT, if  you decide to do it,  it is AT YOUR OWN RISK!

What I know is this, I now want more Parallel Pens!

Because He Loves Me

Psalms 91:14

I took the lazy way out with this one... I used Tim Holtz Tissue Paper...

1. cut a piece, 
2. glue it down to my canvas board with ModPodge 
3. and started writing... the paper made it SO MUCH EASIER to write on the board!...the boards are eating my markers up!  

Quick! Quick! Easy! Easy!  Really though, I will probably distress the edges with brown before all is said and done.

I got the paper on sale at Blitsy (and I'm about to go get some more, I LOVE IT!). I got the text and the music tissues. I placed the order and had it in 3 days!

The best part was that I only had to pay the $7.95  shipping, for a $48 order,  because of the $10 they give when someone signs up that I invited...and they buy the first time.  It really is a SMART business plan!

HURRY if you want some!  Sale ends Friday March 2....and you want to start building your own buying account!  Blitsy


SHOOT!!!  They are out of this particular tissue paper! (still have the music)  HECK!  That's the thing about Blitsy, the sale runs 1 week from when it is listed, but it is good only while supplies last.  Gotta get it quick before they run out!  SHOOT!!!  I really wanted more.... seeeeeeee, that's what procrastination gets ya.

Be Kinder Than Necessary

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Colossians 3:12 (NIV) 

 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.