Leaving a Legacy

Oh wow, I'm sooo late with this one!  This is the art journal page I created a couple of weeks ago for Patter's Hymn & Scripture Challenge.  This round the Hymn chosen was Faith of Our Fathers.  A familiar and traditional hymn known by pretty much anyone who's been to church.  Check out Patter's write up to find out the history behind this great hymn.

Seeing as how my "other" hobby is genealogy, I have done quite a bit of research into the religious background of those family lines I've been studying.  Mostly they are my paternal ancestors and I have several religious heritages on that side.  Oddly, my Catholic background comes not from my Irish or German ancestors, but my Bohemian ones (on mom's side).   My Irish family moved north in the 1790s because they were opposed to slavery, my Polish/German family moved to America during the time when Tsarist Russia was moving in on Polish territory.  They all brought with them their strong Christian beliefs and while their religious practices might not be the same as mine are they helped shape the faith communities they lived in at the time by building churches, donating land, and furnishing their faith community with things that were needed.  It's amazing to see how the history of the family has always included a strong connection to God and his children.  Even after the church buildings have crumbled, the legacy left behind by the acts of faith my ancestors committed will remain strong.

Trust In Him

Hey bloggers, thanks for dropping in today :)  I have a peek at my latest art journal page for the Hymn & Scripture Challenge over at Triple the Scraps.

Patter's Hymn choice this round was Trust In Him When Thy Wants are Many (words by Lucy Ann Bennett).  This is another of those unfamiliar hymns for me.  I think maybe it's because I'm most familiar with Catholic Hymns or those hymns that the Catholic church has "borrowed" from our protestant brethren.  In any case, the lyrics for this hymn are inspiring.  You can read all about this one on Patter's Blog.

Here's my Art Journal page based on this hymn:

I loosely based the text on my page on they lyrics and ideas from the hymn.  I left quite a lot of white space on this one, it was a challenge for me to not fill it!

Blessings,

I Wanna Be in the LIGHT!

Hey bloggers, thanks for dropping by today!  As you know, I've been working on my first ever art journal, it's been an interesting and challenging experience so far.  Working with mixed media is a lot of fun but it's still so new to me that I find myself wondering mid-page if I should scratch it and start over.  Somehow I always manage to keep going and am usually pleased with at least some of the page, if not the entire thing, upon completion.

Today I have a page for you that I created for the Hymn & Scripture Challenge over at Triple the Scraps.  Patter has chosen Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing for this challenge.  Yay!!  A hymn I'm familiar with :)  Patter has an amazing write up on her blog about this wonderful hymn and it's author as well as a recording of it from Mark Schultz - one of my fave renditions of this hymn!

As I was reading through Patter's write up, I was particularly struck by one verse:

1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin."

In the previous verses in this chapter, John talks about light and dark - contrasting between the two to show us that God is light.  Not only is God light, but a light so bright that no darkness can be present in Him.  In other words, God is all good, all perfect and all of His decisions are just.  Darkness is the opposite - or the absence of all these things.


This verse immediately brought to mind another song


In the Light - DC Talk



Then in verse 7, John tells us that we need to walk in the light to have fellowship with one another and with God.


What in the world is walking in the light?  Simply, walking in the light means we are in fellowship with the one who is the light.  Walking in the light is a relationship that you have with God. Notice something here though; it says that if we walk in the light… John does not say here to simply say we are walking in the light, or to sit in the light, He tells us if we walk in the light. Walking is important for us to be able to understand this verse because it means certain things that we need to know in this Christian life. For instance: walking is much harder than just talking about walking. I can sit and talk about walking, and can even talk the language of walking, but until I actually walk my words are cheap. It is when my feet back up what my mouth has been saying that it gains some value.

Here is my page for this challenge.  The lyrics for both songs are included on the page (the hymn is written on the hands).  I used some tissue paper printed with music for my base and the colors are done with several things - Ranger Distress Paint, Ranger Distress Ink, Gold Metallic Paint, several pens and markers, gesso...I particularly like how the gold shines on this one - like light coming through the darkness.

 Blessings,

Know My Heart

True to form, I can never seem to keep up with everything I want to do daily (or even weekly!).  I just finished Hymn & Scripture Challenge #4 and Patter's already published the next challenge!  So as usual I'm catching up this week.

This week's hymn in Cleanse Me.  Check out all the info on Patter's blog!

How Great The Father's Love

Hi I'm back with another art journal page!  This one is for the Hymn & Scripture challenge over at Triple the Scraps.  For challenge #4, Patter chose the hymn Worthy of Worship by Dr. Terry W. York.  This contemporary hymn (written in 1988) is one of more than 100 worship pieces written by Dr. York.  You can read more about him and about the hymn on Patter's page.

Here's my art journal page for this hymn:

It's all about HIS Timing...

Wow am I impatient...

We live in a world where instant gratification is pretty much what's expected and so we have all learned to be impatient without even realizing it!  Praise the Lord that he throws things at me to remind me to slow down.  It's so easy to get caught up in the rush-rush of everyday life! 

This week's Hymn & Scripture Challenge encourages us to let God be our guide.  One of my Mom's favorite sayings was "God always answers your prayer...sometimes He just says "no" or "not yet"." 

Just today I had plans to run to my lcs to pick something up that's coming out today and  we are in the midst of a winter storm so it'll have to wait..."not yet."  Nope, it's not always the really momentous things in life...sometimes it's just the little things too.

For Patter's information on the hymn for this week My Faith Looks Up To Thee check out her page.  I had some trouble coming up with something for this week's art journal page as this is not a familiar hymn to me, so I just started with a background, placed a copy of the hymn and just let things come to put on the page.

Supplies for this project

Stamps:  Stamper’s Anonymous Tim Holtz – Wallpaper Wood, Mini Classics

Inks, Stains, Paints & Colored Pencils:  Ranger Distress Ink – Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Weathered Wood, Barn Door, Chipped Sapphire, Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint; Versafine – Onyx Black; VersaColor – Scarlet; Gellyroll Pens – Black, Green; White Paint Pen; Black Ballpoint Ink Pen

Accessories & Other Stuff:  Gesso; Matte Medium; Tim Holtz Idea-Ology – ChitChat

Be Blessed!

No Fear

Suffering...wow, it's a HUGE concept and one that we so rarely understand.  At some point in our lives all of us will experience suffering - mental, physical, emotional, or otherwise and we may ask "why does God allow us to suffer?"  Sometimes God allows suffering in order for us to see our true colors and to help us realize that we are not invincible. So in some ways God uses suffering to get our attention. He may use an illness to slow down the pace of our life in order that we may see what we are truly missing--Him! It is only when we at our lowest that we sometimes look beyond ourselves and see Him and His ways.

Peter tells us  "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7)

For this week's Hymn & Scripture Challenge, Patter has selected they hymn It Is Well With My Soul by Horatio Gates Spafford.  You can read all about the trials Mr. Spafford was facing when he penned this now famous hymn on Patter's page.

In His Grip and Grace,

Singing

Last year I started following the Hymn and Scripture Challenge over at Triple the Scraps.  Even though I was able to keep up with the study part of the challenge, I quickly discovered that there was no way I could keep up with the creative part.  Not that there was too much to do, rather that I just had too many other projects on my plate!  So here I am again - a new year and hoping to be able to keep up with BOTH this time :)  I've decided to work the creative part of the challenge into my art journal (also a new thing for me this year), so hopefully I'll have some pages to share with you from that as we go through the year.

The first hymn for the new year is Lift High The Cross.  I love this traditional old hymn.  To learn more about the composer and the history of the song as well as Patter's wonderful study, check out Triple the Scraps.

After reading Patter's write up and contemplating what she had written, I focused on the refrain of the hymn for my page.

Lift high the cross
The love of Christ proclaim,
Till all the world
Adore His sacred name.

 

As a musician, I'd always rather sing or make music than speak.  Music speaks to me and to pretty much everyone on a level that is almost subconscious.  One of my favorite verses is Psalm 108:1 - "I will sing and make music with all my soul."  I was reminded of this again when I was reading Patter's introduction to this year's challenge and she mentioned the song "Until the Whole World Hears" from Casting Crowns.  This hymn says the same thing - "Till all the world adore His sacred name."

Blessings,