Advent Day 2

Day 2 of the Advent devotion project at His Kingdom Come was written by Alicia Feaster. You can find her blog here. If you are looking for additional Advent resources, I put together a list for our church website here.

I'm participating this year with art on Rolodex cards. I'm keeping it small and simple to better ensure that I can actually complete the project in this busy season! Here is my Rolodex art card for day 2:

I used up a few scraps form the background of the page I made for the HKC devotion yesterday. I love using up scraps! I also liked how the navy paint worked on my Gelli plate.

I hope you are finding ways to slow down and engage in Advent practices this year to help you prepare for the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Please feel free to share what you are doing for Advent in the comment section below.

30 Days of Blogging Challenge day 16.

Advent Day 1

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The theme this week is hope. At His Kingdom Come you will find the first of our daily Advent devotions. If you are looking for Advent resources check out this post for a list  I put together for our church website.

My art journal page for today's HKC devotion:

"And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

Isaiah 25:9

My Rolodex art journal card for Advent day 1:

30 Day Blogging Challenge day 15.

Advent Season

Tomorrow begins the Advent season and our journey toward Christmas and the celebration of the birth of Jesus - Savior, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel...

I'm participating in a number of ways this year:

1. In the His Kingdom Come community there will be a daily Take Me Deeper Advent devotion. For the past year we have had a weekly devotion which our members have used as a prompt for making art in the medium of their choice. One does not need to make art to participate and so we will be posting the devotions on the home page so anyone can participate without having to sign up to become a member - though it is free to join! I will be posting a link to the devotion each day from my blog as well. I have been very busy this past month writing devotions, editing and coordinating our schedule of devotion writers, and getting everything in place for this Advent project. I think you will enjoy the variety of talented authors and artists!
2. I am also coordinating a weekly devotion with my friend Jean for our church site. Each Sunday during Advent we will post a devotional, an Advent playlist and Scripture readings that lead us through the Advent story. We began today with an introduction and an Advent resource guide.
3. To keep things simple this year I am using cards from my Rolodex art journal and intend to fill the "A" slot with an Advent art card per day. With the busyness of my schedule these past few weeks and again in the weeks ahead I needed something quick and easy. I can make a card or two per day since they are only 3 x 5. My Advent divider card is here:
   
   
   
   
    

How will you participate in Advent this year?

There are a few hours left for Small Business Saturday and a sale in my Etsy shop runs through Midnight tonight.

30 Day Blogging Challenge day 14.

Small Business Saturday November 28

In honor of Small Business Saturday all purchases receive a 15% discount in my Etsy shop Found on Brighton all day Saturday, November 28. Please support small businesses this weekend online and locally.

The Joys of Online Classes

With so many artists offering online classes it is possible to learn any art technique and one should find it difficult to find themselves with nothing to art journal about. I have enjoyed taking online classes over the past few years and have learned so much from so many talented artists. One of my favorite benefits I have found about online classes is that, although they make take place during a certain time period, most of the teachers offer long term access to the class content. This is so beneficial for one who goes through periods of busyness when not much art time can be found. Case in point: My latest art desire is to learn how to paint/draw/sketch with watercolors. I am so drawn to art journals and nature journals with watercolor sketches of the things one saw while out in nature. I have also been drawn to the watercolor sketch art of Junelle Jacobsen. So when she announced that she was starting a new series called "Art of Pilgrimage: Wild Faith & Wild Art" I wanted to jump on-board. The problem was, the series was beginning the first week of November and I knew my schedule was full with outreach events and prep for the HKC Advent project. Here is where the benefit comes in...I could sign up, even peek into the classroom and the class Facebook page from time to time, and then dig in once I got past my busyness!

I got a little bit of a start a few weeks ago but this weekend I finally got a chance to dig in and get my feet wet with the class and watercolor sketching. From watching Junelle paint I found out the key really is to paint and not fuss too much with it but then let the ink pen add the detail and form to your object.

We had our first snow of the season overnight. It was a beautiful morning with the snow sticking to the branches of the trees and sparkling in the sunlight.

This weekend is almost over and I have my sights set on next weekend already. I'm so ready for a four-day weekend!

30 Day Blogging Challenge 13.

Rolodex Art Journal Cards

Last month on my weekend with my sister we had the great idea to use old Rolodex holders and cards as art journals. You can read more about the beginnings of this project here. In searching for ideas for this project I have run across a some other artists who have made Rolodex art journals also.

At Tuscan Rose she calls her project Scrapodex. Her project is from a few years back but if you click on Scrapodex in her category list she has a lot of posts about her project.

Collage artist Seth Apter called his project Rolodecks. He didn't have a Rolodex so he used a small box as his holder.

Kristin Peterson at Altered States Studio often uses Rolodex cards to get her creative juices flowing.

My sister has created a few more cards for her project of positive quotes:

One of the things I am enjoying about this project (besides the fact that it includes vintage office supplies) is that it's quick. My cards are 3 x 5. Once I built up a little stash of covered cards it was very easy to fit a little art in after a busy day and complete a full card in a short amount of time.

I'm going to fill the "A" section with a card a day for Advent.

30 Day Blogging Challenge day 12.

Advent 2015

The past two weeks have been very busy for me with outreach events for my job and preparing for the upcoming TMD Advent project for the His Kingdom Come community. I have been busy prepping, writing and editing devotions for a daily blog post and challenge beginning on November 29. We will be featuring the Advent devotions on the HKC blog so people can participate whether they are TMD members or not. I will also be linking to the Advent posts daily from my blog.

I am going to continue to use the Advent journal I made a few years ago for this year's Advent pages. I only make a handful of Advent art pages each year so there's room in this journal to cover multiple years.

Here are a few sneak peeks of the art that will accompany the Advent devotions I wrote.

We have a variety of people from the HKC community writing the devotions. Each day's devotion is based on a song of the season or on Scripture that the song is based on with a piece of the author's art accompanying it.

In my busyness I got off-track on the 30 Day Blogging Challenge, but I determined to finish it and will continue on now that I have slowed down some.

30 Day Blogging Challenge day 11.

Tips For Getting Words on Your Art Journal Pages

Adding words to art is really at the heart of what art journaling is all about. Whether you're spilling your feelings out on your page, using one simple word or using a quote, art journaling is all about adding the words.

I art journaled for a few years before I used my own hand lettering on my pages. What got me over my fear of lettering was taking a class taught by Hope Wallace Karney at besottment.com. You’ll see her influence in my lettering, but after a while of practicing, my lettering took on it’s own style. The key to my lettering style is very simple: You go over the first lines a second time, letting the spaces and imperfections actually become part of the lettering style. 

 Besides hand lettering, there are a number of easy ways to get words on your art journal pages. You can type them on your computer, print them out, cut them and adhere them to your page. I gravitate to old typewriter fonts and this summer I finally found an old working typewriter that was inexpensive at a flea market. I love typing words and sentences on old book end paper and then cutting them in strips to put on my page.

Another great way to get words is to cut up old magazines and use the words to form sentences. You can also cut up book pages and use the words you find there to express yourself on your pages. Stickers and letter stamps are also good tools for getting your words on your pages. 

And then there is always using letter stamps.

Even though I now do my own hand lettering, I still use all of these other options as well to keep my pages fresh and unique. I will also use combinations of lettering options on my pages.  One of my most enjoyable ways of getting words onto a page is to use hand cut letters from painted and pattern papers. (I mentioned this is my post the other day about tips for using old book pages) Simply write a block letter in reverse on the back of the paper and cut it out. Here are a few examples from various journal pages.

I love words and I love getting them on my art pages in whatever way possible!

30 Day Blogging Challenge day 10.