His Kingdom Come Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to a very exciting blog hop. This week His Kingdom Come is celebrating its first birthday. Can you believe that we only launched our community on November 1st 2014 and we have grown to over 2000 members. This week we have a special blog hop and event to celebrate. Keep reading!

Thank you, everyone of you, for making this journey with us. We had no idea what we were taking on when God called us to build a new Christian creative online community. And it is totally thanks to Him that we are where we are today.

 If you have been with us the whole time then thank you for your support. It has been most appreciated by the Foundation Team. If you have joined us during the last few months then you are very welcome. To find out about our history visit the His Kingdom Come website where you can read our story.

The Foundation Team are already planning new classes and new products for 2016 and we hope you will continue to belong to the His Kingdom Come community.

To celebrate our first birthday each day this week the Foundation Team is blogging about their experience of HKC and showing some of their faithart.

Each blog has the complete list of participants so if you miss a day you can go back and read our blogs.
Monday 26th   Diane Marra
Tuesday 27th   Shonna Bucaroff
Wednesday 28th   Merri Dennis
Thursday 29th   Mary Brack
Friday 30th   Bernice Hopper
Saturday 31st   His Kingdom Come

As you visit each blog please leave a comment. Each of us will choose one person at random to win a prize. Please leave your comments by noon PST (8pm GMT) on Tuesday 3rd November.

 This past year has been a lot of fun as we have built up the HKC community. I have enjoyed the new friendships I have made with the foundation team members and the members in our community. HKC is so blessed to have so many wonderful artists and creatives! I'm continually blown away by the art and the expressions of faith made by the members of our community. In the past year I have grown as an artist, gone deeper in my walk with the Lord, and have discovered a knack for writing devotions that I didn't know I had.It's been a good year! It has been such an honor and a blessing for me that this community has become a place of encouragement, support and friendship for so many people. Thank you all for being a part of this!

 A few of my art projects for HKC

And there’s more! 
To celebrate our birthday on Sunday November 1st we are offering you a discount of 25% off these classes: Faithart 101 5 class bundle, Faithart 102 God’s Aviary class, The Zigzag Postcard Book and the Altered Books: The Promised Land 3 class bundle. These will be discounted on the shop site so you do not need a code at the checkout.
You will be given a full refund if you buy one of these classes on Sunday 1st November and then win the class from your comment on a blog.  

You can also receive 10% off any faithart products you buy from the HKC shop by using this code: bday2015.
You will be given a full refund if you buy one of the products on Sunday 1st November which you then win from your comment on a blog.

These discounts apply between 12.01am PST and midnight PST on Sunday 1st November. (Sunday 8.01am GMT to 8am Monday)

Prize winners will be announced on the His Kingdom Come Blog on Wednesday 4th November.

Prizes to be won by leaving comments on the Foundation Team members’ blogs:
Diane Marra A God’s Aviary Dove stencil & a set of Doves stamps
Shonna Bucaroff Faithart 102 God’s Aviary class
Merri Dennis Faithart 101 5 class bundle
Mary Brack A God’s Aviary Eagle stencil & a set of Wings stamps
Bernice Hopper Altered Books: The Promised Land 3 class bundle
His Kingdom Come A set of Promised Land stamps & a set of Sparrows stamps

Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a prize!

A Little Bit of Vacation and a Little Bit of Art

We had a great fall vacation a few weeks ago. We spent a few days in a cottage near Lake Erie just slowing down and relaxing, took in a Cleveland Indians game, and then went to southern Pennsylvania for a few days. While still in Ohio we visited a state nature preserve, Sheldon Marsh, and took a walk and did some birding. Birding is quickly becoming a favorite pastime for me and each time I go out and add a new bird to my list it is quite a thrill for me.

This is the cove at the end of the trail.

This Blue Heron just kept posing for me. Every time I got too close to him, he would simply move a little further down the coast, but he never left the cove.

The best I can tell from my bird books is that this is a Common Yellow-throat Warbler.

This was as close as I could get, This is a Belted Kingfisher. Our first sighting of one! Ironically, earlier in the day we had been talking about how it would be cool to see one.

Male and female Red-winged Blackbirds

Time near the water and just relaxing at the cottage was a great way to start our vacation.

In my Nature Journal I have attempted my first drawing/watercolor. I have always been drawn to the look of watercolor and have been looking at different tutorials online. I finally got up the guts to try it myself. While it is no masterpiece, I'm pretty pleased with my first attempt. Of course, it was a bird that inspired me. :)

 On vacation I took some time to work in my Light and Sight journal I made last month and wrote about in my last post.

Make sure you visit His Kingdom Come this week. We are in the midst of a birthday blog hop in honor of our 1st community birthday coming up on November 1st. There are prizes and discounts at each of the foundation team members blogs throughout this week. You can find out more at the HKC site here. My Birthday Blog Hop post and giveaway opportunity will be here on my blog on Thursday, so stop back!

His Kingdom Come Blog Hop, Announcement and Giveaway

Welcome to a very exciting blog hop.  Today His Kingdom Come is celebrating the launch of a brand new faithart stencil & mask line “Praise Him” designed by Diane Marra.

His Kingdom Come has created tools to help draw you into God's presence and lead you deeper into creative living. faithart tools help create art with the intention of connecting with God.

His Kingdom Come faithart tools help you exercise the artistic gifts God has bestowed upon each of us. These faithart tools allow you to work together with God to discover the creative, holy and abundant faithart He has placed upon your heart! Join His Kingdom Come in creative expressions of faith!

His Kingdom Come showcases faithart products designed by Christian artists who know and love God and are passionate about sharing their faithart. Our faithart products include canvas ephemera, stamps, stencils/masks and Thermofax screens.

A team of talented HKC artists have come together to launch these exciting new stencils & masks.  This blog hop is your chance to get to see how these artists have used them in their faithart.

It doesn’t matter where you start within the blog hop.   Or you can start at the beginning at His Kingdom Come. Each blog has the complete list of participants.

His Kingdom Come

Diane Marra

Penny Bragg

Pearl Brown

Bernice Hopper

Mary Brack

Kathy Shaull

Tricia Berg

Paula Parkison

Shonna Bucaroff

As you visit each blog you will be given a letter eg. D.   When you have collected all the letters they will make a word.  When you have worked out the word email Bernice with the word.  We will randomly choose 4 people who have the correct answer to win a free stencil of their choice.   All entries must arrive by Noon (Pacific time) on Tuesday 23^rd June.

The letter to collect from my blog is  "U"

How I used the "Praise the Lord" stencil/mask:

Confession time: I don't typically use people in my art journaling pages but I'm always up for a challenge! I wanted to use the stencil in my own style which usually includes collage. To start I collaged a variety of papers to make the background.

I trimmed the edges and then covered the paper with gesso and a bit of pale blue-green around the edges and across the bottom half.

Next I took a piece of gesso covered music paper and taped the stencil in place. Using a few colors of Tim Holtz Distressed Ink pads and a blending tool the shape of the praising lady began to appear.

I then cut the shape out and gave it a few spritzes of water to set off the ink.

Going back to my background page, I gathered some painted paper scraps to create beams of a sunburst - something I often use to symbolize God's glory. I cut the painted papers into strips and glued them in place on the top half of the page. I glued the praising woman onto a heavier piece of paper and cut her out again. Having the heavier paper behind her prevents the outlines of the papers underneath from showing through.

I wrote Psalm on the page and then cut letters out of painted papers to add holy, holy, holy across the sunbeams.

And there you have my way of using a stencil with collage. I hope you enjoy the blog hop and find your way of using our faithart products.

We hope you are as excited as we are about this new product line from His Kingdom Come, an online creative community, a place where you can find encouragement, share your heart and receive prayer and inspiration!

To join our community please visit His Kingdom Come

Prize winners will be announced on the His Kingdom Come Blog on Wednesday 24^th June.

Faithart 101 Class Launch 2.28.2015

On Saturday February 28^th,  His Kingdom Come is launching its first collaborative class prepared by the 5 members of the Foundation Team.  Faithart 101 has been developed for beginners to Faith Journaling.   The 5 classes cover basic journaling information, how to translate scripture into art, the basics of drawing people, using scrapbooking techniques and mixed media techniques.

Each of the 5 classes can be purchased individually or all 5 can be bought together with a discount.  The individual classes are $8 each but you can buy all 5 together for $35.  PayPal will sort out the currency for you if you live outside the United States.    Once you have purchased your classes and have been added to the class site you can work through the classes at your own pace.  You will have unlimited access to the classes you have purchased.

The Foundation Team consists of Bernice, Mary, Shonna, Merri and Diane and each day this week you can find out more about each of us on our personal blogs.  We will also tell you about the class we are teaching as part of Faithart 101.

Bernice at Newly Creative on Sunday 22^nd Feb.

Diane at Adore Him Creations on  Monday 23^rd Feb.

Shonna at Twisted Figures on Tuesday 24^th Feb.

Merri at Connecting Faith and Creativity on Wednesday 25^th Feb.

Mary at Me, With My Head in the Clouds on Thursday 26^th Feb.

My class is:

Let me tell you a bit about myself:

I live in Toledo, OH, have been married to Bob for 23 years, and we have two grown daughters and two step-grandsons. I have been a Christ-follower for 26 years. For the past 12 years I have worked in full time ministry at our church as the Executive Director and the Director of our outreach ministries. 

Below you will find some questions each of the blog hop participants will be answering:

How does your faith impact your creativity?  

When I got connected to art journaling it opened up a new life of creativity for me. God has used art journaling in my life as another spiritual practice. It has become another way of drawing me near to Him. Madeleine L'Engel says, "Art is incarnational." Art, whether in word or image, helps me put form to what is inside my heart and mind. When I take what I am seeing in Bible study and prayer and express it visually it is planted in my heart and mind more fully. Art becomes another tool used by God for spiritual transformation in my life.

What is your favorite technique?

 That's a hard question to answer! One of the things I love about art journaling is that it gives me opportunity to use a variety of techniques and art mediums. As far as techniques go, I think it would probably be a tie between finger-painting circles doing hand-cut letters. My favorite art medium would be collage - I love gluing paper!

Who is your favorite person in the Bible and why?

 It often changes based on what I am studying! Right now we are going through the Gospel of John at church and I really appreciate how focused the Apostle John is. He keeps the bigger picture purpose of why Jesus came as a man in mind as he writes. John is vision and mission minded (qualities I can relate to) and is always reminding his readers of God's mission and vision through the Son. And even though John is passionate about sharing truth, he is just as equally passionate about sharing God's love.

What Bible verse do you regularly rely on?

Again, this answer can change based on what I am studying. But, overall, I think one of the verses that keeps me grounded is Philippians 2:12-13: "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." I need the constant reminder in this verse that God and I each have a role to play in my spiritual growth and maturity, but even in my role I must depend fully on Him.

Where to find me: 

• Here on my blog! www.mewithmyheadintheclouds.blogspot.com ~ you can follow me by email or Google+ on the right column.
• Instagram
• My Etsy shop : {found on brighton}
• Facebook: Mary Brack
• Flickr: marynbtol

Join us on February 28th in taking Faithart101 at His Kingdom Come and learn more  about Faithjournaling.  If you are not already a member of the His Kingdom Come community then please sign up.  You can purchase the class or classes from today.

His Kingdom Come Blog Hop

Welcome to a very exciting blog hop.  Today we are celebrating the launch of a brand new online Christian Creative Community: His Kingdom Come.

This is an online Community where fellow Christians can encourage, share and learn about Christianity and explore the God-given creativity that he has put in us all.  It will be a safe place to share your faith, be inspired, and explore creativity across many art mediums - journaling, mixed media, painting, bible journaling, textiles, watercolor and more.  His Kingdom Come will offer free tutorials, technique classes, devotionals, crafts to celebrate the holidays, opportunities to go deeper in your faith and in your knowledge of God and the Bible.   The website will also offer Christian artists a platform to host classes (free or fee-based) which you will be able to sign up for.

A team of talented Christian artists have come together to launch this exciting new community.  This blog hop is your chance to get to know them.

It doesn’t matter where you start within the blog hop.   Or you can start at the beginning with Diane.  Each blog has the complete list of participants.

DianeMarra

Bernice Hopper

Mary Brack

Marjolaine Walker

Merri Dennis

Justine Dandrea

Libbi Byrd Corson
Anita Van Hal

Shonna Bucaroff

As you visit each blog you will be given a letter eg. D.   When you have collected all the letters they will make a word.  When you have worked out the word email Bernice (hkcbloghop@gmail) with the word.  We will randomly choose 3 people who have the correct answer to win a prize.   All entries must arrive by Noon (Pacific time) on Monday 3^rd November.

The letter to collect from my blog is O

Let me introduce myself:

I live in Toledo, OH, have been married to Bob for 23 years, and we have two grown daughters and two step-grandsons. I have been a Christ-follower for 26 years. For the past 12 years I have worked in full time ministry at our church as the Executive Director and the Director of our outreach ministries. 

Below you will find some questions each of the blog hop participants will be answering:

1. How does your faith impact your creativity?  

When I got connected to art journaling it opened up a new life of creativity for me. God has used art journaling in my life as another spiritual practice. It has become another way of drawing me near to Him. Madeleine L'Engel says, "Art is incarnational." Art, whether in word or image, helps me put form to what is inside my heart and mind. When I take what I am seeing in Bible study and prayer and express it visually it is planted in my heart and mind more fully. Art becomes another tool used by God for spiritual transformation in my life.

Bible study art journal page

2. What is your preferred medium of creativity? What appeals to you about this? 
Art journaling is my main medium of creativity. I am drawn to it by the opportunity to practice so many different art mediums within this one world: collage, lettering, mixed media, painting, memory keeping, etc. I can spend hours painting backgrounds, cutting and gluing paper or writing out quotes and Scripture. Lately I have delved deeper into collage and am exploring different ancient art forms in modern ways, such as mosaics with magazine paper or painted papers.

Mosaic background from magazine pages

3. What other areas of creativity do you dabble in? 
Decorating, photography, making travel journals. Being in nature is a form of creativity for me. I enjoy altering photos and making digital art in PSE. I also make my own journals from old books. I enjoy this so much I started an Etsy shop a year ago in order to do something with the many, many books I pick up at book sales.

Digital art

4. What is your role within the His Kingdom Come group? 
I will be helping with the Take Me Deeper devotionals and participating in various ways with Logos365 and other projects. I hope to contribute tutorials and classes as well. I will also serve as one of the moderators for the Faith Art Journaling group.

5. What are your hopes for this new community? 
For me, faith and creativity are so intertwined and I hope this community will be a place to connect with others who feel the same way. A place where we can share our creativity and our faith stories and find encouragement, support, prayer, and friendship. A place where we get more in touch with our Creator and with how we have been and are being made in His image. I hope it will be a place where people can come and explore, connect more with their own creativity and with the God who loves them so very much. A place where we can find prompts and challenges to stir our creative juices as well as a place of learning, whether it's art techniques or Bible study skills or spiritual practices that help position ourselves for God's transforming work in our lives.

6. Where to find me: 

• Here on my blog! www.mewithmyheadintheclouds.blogspot.com ~ you can follow me by email or Google+ on the right column.
• Instagram
• My Etsy shop : {found on brighton}
• Facebook: Mary Brack
• Flickr: marynbtol

I hope you are as excited as I am at being part of this online venture.  Our vision is to build an online community not just be a project-led site.  A place where you can find encouragement, share your heart and your problems and find help.

To join our community please visit His Kingdom Come

And now for a peak at the prizes for our three giveaway winners!

If you haven't already been there, your next stop is Marjolaine Walker.

Blog Hop Coming Saturday

This Saturday, November 1st, join me in a blog hop for a new online community called His Kingdom Come. This blog hop will introduce you to the group of artists (including me!) who are launching this creative community of faith. Oh, yeah, and there will be giveaways!

Blog Hop With a Difference

A few weeks ago my friend, Bernice, invited me to participate in a blog hop that is a bit different than a traditional blog hop. Each person participating is asked four questions about their creative life and then introduces their readers to a few other bloggers they follow and are inspired by.

Q1: What am I working on?

As usual, I have a number of projects I am participating in and September seems especially busy on the art journaling front. 

30 Days of Lists September 2014 - I wasn't going to join this time around, due to the other projects, but I'm a sucker for a list, so I caved in at the last minute. The cover of my journal is actually the back of a book but it has my initials on it so I made it the cover!

I wrote about the Made Course 2014 in my last post which you can see HERE.

Kingdom Come is a free online class offered by art by Shonna Bucaroff. Shonna is a new friend, who I was introduced to by Bernice, and participating in her class was a way for me to get to know her better. My first project from her class is still in process. Her class just started last week so it's not too late for you to join in!

I continue to participate in The Documented Life Project and, seriously, I'm so amazed I have kept up for almost nine months! Pretty good for one who loves to start projects but doesn't always finish them!

Q2: How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My "genre" is art journaling which includes so many genres: mixed media art, lettering, paint, collage, etc. Through art journaling I learned to make my own journals, and more specifically, altered book journals, and that led to the start of my Etsy shop {found on brighton}. I don't know how my work really differs from other art journalers, but at the heart of my art journaling is my faith. Art journaling is, for me, another way to express my journey with God.

Q3: Why do I create what I do?

In regards to art journaling, I create what I do because it is a way to recharge my emotional, mental and spiritual energy. I am an introvert who works in ministry full time. I work with people, meet with people, serve people, and help people all day long. Art journaling helps restore my energy, helps me sort out my thoughts and emotions, and helps me visualize and "incarnate" my spiritual journey. It is also a great creative outlet for me. I love doing anything with color and texture and I must use up the creative energy that is usually bouncing around in my head!

Q4: How does my creative process work?

Much of my creative process begins with my morning habit of prayer, Bible study, writing in my journal, and reading. This morning habit is often the kick starter to my pages. Fridays are my day off and the day I protect as a "Sabbath" day. Fridays offer me a day to extend my morning habit without time limitations and then I will spend a few hours recharging with art. I will often simply make background pages with paint and collage. This process requires no thought and I can get lost in it! It also sparks so much creativity. I will jot down and sketch my ideas for art journal pages while I "play". Then, throughout the week on my work days, I will spend time in the evenings making my pages - anywhere from 15 minutes squeezed in to an hour or so. A little bit each day, no matter how little, is so healthy for me!

Well, that gives you a little more insight into my creative life. Now let me introduce you to a few of the bloggers I follow. They will each post their Blog Hop With a Difference stories next Monday.

Felicia Aaron blogs about her art and her faith at her blog There's More To Me Than You See. I actually met Felicia through my blog and through comments she has left. On her blog you will see her art journaling, stamping, Zentangle, and water color painting.

Leigh Ann Lukens blogs at His Artist. Leigh Ann has great posts on her blog about Faith Art Journaling. I stumbled on Leigh Ann's blog and found a kindred spirit! Leigh Ann's combination of Bible study and art journaling drew me to following her right away!

I hope you will enjoy getting to know these two women of faith and creativity!

Come back and visit on Thursday ~ I have something to celebrate and share with you!