New project for 2010

One of my favorite blogs that I follow is "Art du Jour" by Martha Lever. She blogs every single day, and most of the time she posts these beautiful journal pages that are a combination of collage, her own artwork, lettering, etc. SO . . . I have been inspired enough that I am going to TRY to create a journal page every day -- or at least 4-5 per week. My goal is not to blog about every one -- just to make sure I'm keeping the creative juices going every day.

So here is my first -- in preparation for the new year!

New Year's Blessings to Everyone!

The Rumplestiltskin Project

After Christmas, our pastor asked me if I could find a way to connect the manger (Christ's birth) with the cross (Christ's death for us) by making tiny crosses out of manger straw. It turned out that the straw in the manger was too crumbly, so we decided to try to work with a huge bundle of wheat, which we spread out in our Christmas manger. I wish I had taken a picture of it -- we had white lights under the wheat/straw, and it looked very festive. Each person picked out four pieces of wheat and broke them apart and fastened them with a piece of yarn. The fastening was the hardest part, but if you've ever done "God's eye" weaving as a child, it's the same concept. We worked on them during our face2face worship time in the service, and it was a great activity.

Merry Christmas!

Our church created this beautiful collage picture during our worship services in December. If you look closely at Jesus, you will see that the entire nativity scene is made out of advertising that we received for this Christmas season. There are four panels -- we worked on one at a time so no one really knew what the whole picture was going to look like. We just filled in the colos written in each section. On Christmas Eve we set up the whole picture and it literally looked like stained glass. So it is possible to see the real reason for Christmas in the midst of all the hype and merchandising.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas Cards!

They are finally finished with three days before Christmas! Most people will be getting them afterward, but that is usually a better time to just enjoy them anyway.

I'm not sure I like the star I put on the inside. I wish I had taken the time to buy a star stamp to put there. But hopefully the whole thing expresses the joy we can have because Jesus was born in Bethlehem all those years ago!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas card in process

I have been working on a Christmas card and so far this is what I have come up with. Lately I've been intrigued with illuminated letters, and trying to play around with decorating with my colored pencils. I'm pretty sure it needs some kind of frame around it to set it off, but I wanted to post it unfinished just to ponder what I think of it so far. I'm still trying not to be overly critical of what I create -- I know writers get writer's block. Do artists get artist block??? I'll answer my own question -- yes!