The LORD Hardened Pharaoh's Heart

This morning I read this on Pinterest ... "The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still."  (Exodus 14:14). Awesome scripture right?!  I love the idea that The Lord has my back ... I just need to be still.  BUT... That's all that was shown on Pinterest...and my guess is that few people bother to take the time to look up the verse and read it in context.They miss the lesson that way.

Before I went to the scripture I planned to draw the above words in some pretty way ...but ... Then I read it and "my plans" changed. 

God had just told Moses to position the people in the wilderness so that they were "boxed in" by the sea and the Egyptians that HE was going to cause to chase them down to kill them.   Hummmm... Think about the times in our lives that we find ourselves in a place that looks like we have been deserted by God and we think that we can't possibly be in "God's will" when in fact He has us right where He wants us. ... And it may have nothing to do with us...but it might be entirely for someone else's benefit or growth.  Unfortunately we usually do exactly what the Isrealites did, we whine and complain and of course, we are scared of what might happen...forgetting that God really is in control.  

I decided to draw God hardening Pharoah's heart today because He does that so often in Exodus and for me, that really was the message today.   I may draw a stone heart in the margin next to every verse where He does it.

Just think how often people have a "harden heart" towards us and we get an attitude towards THEM when their actions towards us are just part of "the plan"!   If only we could remember that... I'm pretty sure our responses would be entirely different.... If only....

Do YOU See What I See?

I have done this in the past but it needed to go in my Bible...next to the only mention of the shepherds... In Luke 2:1-20.

Can you just imagine how they must have felt when they saw the angel appear suddenly in their fields?!  I only drew the star and not the angel because I don't believe that they have wings.... If it is possible for us to "entertain angels unaware" how can they have wings?  Right?... Anyway, if I drew them the way I believe they are... Just like everyday men, then you wouldn't know it was an angel....so, there is just the star.

Proverbs 16:18

My New Coloring Book by Johanna Basford!

I got my new "adult" coloring book today.

Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book

by Johanna Basford.  ... for those times I would rather practice coloring without having to draw something first.

LOVE IT!   I love it because there is no thinking required...and you can doodle in it along with her. Like on the pages below...everything is completely drawn, ready to color on the far left, then in the middle the leaves and flowers are partially drawn so you can fill them in with a .005 pen...then there is the area to the far right that is empty allowing you to draw more flowers if you want.  In a sense she is teaching you how to doodle flowers ... 

  

I started coloring below.   

One of the complaints about the book (on Amazon) is the that people have a problem with marker bleeding through to the back side, and they blame the paper for the problem...my guess is that they are trying to use alcohol markers like sharpies or Copics...both WILL bleed through!  I used a combination of colored pencils and Tombow markers on the picture above.  Below you can see that the only bleed thru I had was where I got the color wet by using a blender pen once and then by accidentally dropping some water on it.... Because the markers are water based...made for easy blending:

PLUS... You get to go on a treasure hunt, looking for hidden insects and such ...  

AND, There are more than 80 pages to color! (I lost count)

I will definitely get another of Johanna's books when I finish coloring this one... Which could be YEARS from now!

New thing... I just got some new colored pencils that are actually associated with these books... they are MARCO ... And I actually like using them more than Prismacolor, and they are sooo much cheaper! 

   

Practicing on Kraft Bags

Yesterday I bought 250 Kraft bags!!  I know, crazy right?  But I LOVE kraft with black and white so I figured I would eventually use them.

I made a quick little gift for each of the 30 people in my Weight Watchers class using black and white striped cardstock so I want to add some black and white to the bag.  So here I played around with some ideas using black sharpies, a uniball white pen (LOVE), a white colored pencil and  a tan Tombow marker... today's doodle offering:

The actual color Tombow is 026... not the color shown below.

  

Pinterest Inspired Doodle Play Time

Felt like doodling nonsense yesterday...more pinterest inspired stuff ...  I really wish my iPad took better pictures, the colors are so much more vibrant in real life!

close up:

Normally I have a REEEALLY hard time coloring but I got a whole new set of Tombow markers from Amazon last week so I wanted to use them.  LOVE THESE MARKERS!!! They just blend so well and have such great bright colors.  Another thing I love about them is that they aren't too bad about bleeding through...except where I really layered on the color...like the blue bird...it did go through to back because I really layered it on, but the page is really thin (in my moleskin calendar) I actually already had a LOT of the markers already but I wanted the whole set and buying them all at once was cheaper than buying what I didn't have individually!  Go figure.

  

Still a Weigh to Go...

I have not mentioned this on my blog at all but I started Weight Watchers on 1/1/14.... and, so far, so good! (Not saying how much until 1/1/15)... OH! OK!!! So far I have lost 81 pounds! Insert Happy Dance here :-)

That's all great and good but the last month until now I have had a heck of a time staying focused!  The junk  I was eating before is calling my name again and that frustrates me!  I still have about 50 pounds to go so I don't want to lose momentum!

Anyway, I woke up during the middle of the night thinking about how I could motivate myself again and I got this SILLY SILLY idea that I thought I would share with anyone interested in playing too.

I created a dot to dot "drawing" that I plan to complete over the next 50 pounds.  I will draw a line to each dot based on the number of pounds lost.  It goes from 0-50 or you could even go 50 -  0 depending on how you count pounds down.  And, if you have less to lose then I guess just draw to the number that you need to lose... or if more, print it more times.

Sorry, it isn't pretty, but hopefully if you play along you can doll it up a bit on your own.

Here ya go:

Hopefully you can just right click on it and save the file or print it ???

LOVE is a VERB

Moses Had a Stick....What is in YOUR Hand?

Exodus 4...  Moses gets his calling...

...  Moses had a stick....What is in YOUR hand?  

I drew this to fit in my Bible but I drew this same idea slightly different on Jan 5, 2013 here: http://polly-wollydoodle.blogspot.com/2013/01/of-course-god-can-use-you.html

The reason things look a bit crowded around the book (Bible) scissors area is that I had already committed the paint brush and the scissors to real ink then decided to add the bottle of Gesso and the book under the brush, that's why the brush seems to be painting upside down...whoops!  And on the original I only had one spool of thread and a floating needle, I added another spool and the heart patchwork under the needle.  That's what happens when things never seem finished!  I am forever changing an "already done" doodle!

I

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 a Quick Makeover

I am so sorry that all my posts lately have been short ans choppy! I have to use my iPad now and this app is AWFUL! ... I haven't been able to use my PC because I can't remember my password!  PITIFUL!  But Google makes it near impossible to change it!  

Anyway, for today's Bible entry I decided to use a doodle I did back in February...Back in February I doodled a page of words as an exercise in practicing different writing styles... (Draw a box and fill it with words) here http://polly-wollydoodle.blogspot.com/2014/02/filling-space-with-words.html. ... Today I decided to print out a portion of what I had done onto label paper, add a bit of color to it, and stick it to my Bible... Quick and easy post for today!  Deuteronomy 6:4-5

And then I played some more...

The Fear of The Lord

...is the beginning of knowledge...fools despise wisdom and instruction.  Proverbs 1:7

No Time? Trace It!

If you don't have the time, the talent or the want to .... Find a font that you like ... Print the word then trace it!

I LOVE this font and I I really wanted to I could have freehand copied it but ... why ... I didn't have the time so I quickly traced it...

I used an AWESOME light"box" that is only 3/8" thick!  LOVE, LOVE it! 

Let It RAIN!

... He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.

Hosea 6:3

And then I played some more ...

BEFORE You Were Born!

In Jeremiah 1:4 God told Jeremiah that BEFORE He formed him in the womb He knew him,  he consecrated him and had his life all mapped out!  Same for us!

In my Bible today...

And later in Jeremiah doing God's will leads him to jail and in the mud of a cistern ... His will isn't always easy.

In the Beginning ...

Yesterday I got the new Journalling Bible that I ordered from Marilyn Hickey.  It is the NIV NoteWorthy Bible.  Naturally, just after I placed the order I started reading tons of negative reviews!  They said the the font was very tiny and the paper was really thin .... TRUTH!  But, the positive is that there is a blank page across from every page of scripture!  How awesome is that?!  The text is on the left side with the blank page on the right side.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that!  Now, to the downside to that wonderfullness

Is that any bleed thru will affect the text on the backside (which is not a problem with the EVS Journalling Bible I have been using because the blank Journalling area is back to back in that Bible).  In order to avoid any bleed thru I will need to use colored pencils like I did here...

As you can see on the right picture (or the back side of the drawing) the color does not show through. But.... Any use of a black pen does "emboss" the paper....hummmmm....oh well.... As soon as I saw that I place a something under the page to keep it affecting anymore pages.

Another problem with using the color pencils on these pages is that the pages are smooth and don't have as much "tooth" as regular copier type paper so you can't make the colors as dark as you can with regular paper.... Notice on Day 1.... That is a black pencil, several layers!  I just couldn't get it dark enough for my taste.

Now, let me tell you how cool God is.... Last night as I was writing all of the above on my Facebook posting on my picture the Holy Sprirt gave me an idea ( I just Love that about him...I  will meditate on a problem and almost immediately he will give me a solution!).  One of the things I had noticed about the colored pencils was that they made the area I colored shiny and waxy.....   Hummmmm. I wondered if the waxy would "bleed proof" the page.... So I tested it by coloring over some areas with my Ranger Distress Markers.... Eureka!  Success!

There were only a couple places that show through, and that is where I just lightly applied the pencil...like on the yellow "light=day" area, I just barely colored that so if I tried to go back over it with a marker the back side would be affected.

So, even with its minor flaws I still LOVE the blank pages and. I will continue illustrating in it .... And my other one too because I love both!

OU! OU! I just had another idea!  One of the things I want most is a map of the area that is being talked about.... I want it right there in front of me, I don't want to have to look for the map....this Bible will be PERFECT for that!  I'm going to draw, or print/cut/paste a map everywhere I want one!  But the happy idea is that I can create a clear accetate overlay showing then and now, or route taken or, whatever!  OK I now know what today's drawing will be!  Whoohoo!

The Bible IS NOT JUST ANOTHER BOOK!

I don't think I have mentioned that I am part of a Facebook group called Journaling Bible Community.  It is only 2 months old and has almost 3200 members already!  The beauty of the whole idea is that people are getting interested in their Bibles again.  Some are even buying their first Bible because of the group....AWESOME!!!  I love that!

But...

Occasionally folks will question the act of drawing in a Bible, is it disrespectful?  My take on it is, it HELPS me to meditate on the Word and I LOVE flipping through and catching a glimpse of a picture and I know instantly what is on the page and the scripture repeats in my head. I haven't mentioned the group so far because while I am very careful not to cover any text, and I am illustrating what I read, some other folks are just "doodling" for doodling sake....some are completely covering the text!  I cringe every time I see text covered.  The flower doodlers don't bother me so much because they will get the same benefit of flipping through and getting instant recall...BUT, I really do have a problem with folks covering the text so that you can't read it!!!  EVERY WORD MATTERS!!!

Sorry, back to the occasional threads questioning any form of marking up Bibles.  I have been appalled at some of the responses to the question!  A couple have even said... "It is just a book, just like any book."   WHAT?!!!  My first thought was to disassociate myself from the group, but then I decided better to stay and say what I am thinking ... I guess it would call it being passive aggressive...

This is my new title page of my Bible... posted to the group... not very beautiful but I hope it gets the point across ...

 

The Bible is NOT JUST ANOTHER BOOK!!!

 

1. - It is actually a collection of 66 books
2. - Written by 44 different authors
3. - In 3 different languages
4. - In 3 continents
5. - It took over 1600 years to write and it is still being read and changing lives!!!
6. - It is a love letter from our Father God
7. - It is THE instruction manual for how to live life (yes, life DOES come with instructions!)
8. - It is THE HOLY Bible!!! (all three of those words are significant)

• THE - meaning THE ONLY
• HOLY - sacred, reverent, deserves respect
• Bible - the collection of sacred writings of the Christian religion, comprising the Old and New Testaments. authoritative, the most important book in a given field.

 

NO! NO! NO! The Bible IS NOT JUST ANOTHER BOOK!

Signs of "The End Of The Age" Matthew 24

The TRUE Vine

I usually like to stay away from the soooo obvious, but, sometimes ya just gotta, ya know?

I used ranger distress markers and a regular black ballpoint pen.

Taking My Drawings to My Bible

Hi All!  Long, long time no talk!  Is this really typing in red and underlined???  Weird not sure why or how to fix...I'm using my iPad and things work differently!  Sorry! I will try to fix it when I get back to my PC.

 

Anyway, LOTS has been going on here.  I am making lots of things for a party my niece is planning for her wedding in October.  I have built (am building) a website to sell stuff!   YAY!   And I've made lots of stuff for craft sale season.  Oh! And I joined a Facebook group called Journalling Bible Community, created for folks like me that want to do Bible art...but the difference in what I have done in the past is we are dining it directly into a Bible.  

 

Below are some of the things I have done so far.... I am LOVING my Bible!  It is the EVS single column Journalling Bible so the margins are big enough to play in ...at least 2".

Black and White "Happy" Box

I cannot tell a lie, one of my least favorite things to do is to go to the post office...hate is a better word for it....So, it is always a happy day when I get something off and on its way.  Last week I sent a package to my niece in California.  

The box included tons of confetti I made for her wedding party invitations .... That's all that had to go, but I added some little extras.  

First, I made a 6x9 three ring binder from scratch .... The ribbon below is just to hold it together for shipping.

I made an envelope, pen holder, pens and booklets to go with the binder ... all black and white so they go together....

All I did for the chevron and polka dot pen/pencil was insert straws in the barrels.

The only thing that was actually "doodled" was the label for the box.  I printed the name and address with an existing font  (Cantoni Basic) onto an 8.5"x11" kraft label, then I added bits and pieces to Mattie's name and doodled the frame ... with a little creature peaking over the corner. 

Original:

Played with:

I shifted the uppercase letters down and added swishes...covered up the existing crosses of the t's and connected the the t's at the bottom.  

The black and white check is just duct tape...lots of it.

Prima Doll #23 (Zoe)

This is another runway inspired doll.  

The actual drawing it much closer to navy than what this picture shows... in this picture it has suddenly become royal blue instead ?!?

I couldn't get happy with the hair on this one so I just kept adding slivers of cut black paper ... and even with that I'm not happy!  Her head looks all wonkus (sp?)

One thing I did to speed things up was I bought store brand Ivory Cardstock at either Office Max or Office Depot???   I cut the doll from that then just add the shadows with a marker....saves ink. 

...but with God ...

ANYTHING is possible!

I used a black brush pen to write on black then scanned it and inverted the colors.  Done!