HKC Birthday Bloghop Winner

This past weekend we celebrated our first birthday as an online faithart community at His Kingdom Come. Each of us on the foundation team gave away a prize on our blogs. I am pleased to announce that Julie Donahue won the prize on my blog - 2 stamp sets from our God's Aviary line.

Congratulations Julie Donahue!

An interesting note about Julie is that she has designed her Pinterest art boards by the books of the Bible. So if you are a Bible journaler and looking for inspiration on a particular book or passage you are studying, check out Julie's Pinterest boards. Thanks Julie for this wonderful resource! And enjoy your new stamps!

Visit the HKC site to see who won on the other foundation team members blogs.

30 Days of Blogging Challenge day 4

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!

Hello Creative Spark! (And a giveaway winner)

September always makes me think of fall - even though we are in the middle of a heat wave here! But the fall bug has started for me! I read a quote the other day that really struck me:

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing.Wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating.There really is no such thing as bad weather,only different kinds of good weather."  ~John Ruskin

That really does sum things up well for me - maybe with the exception of hot, humid weather! I really do like all of the seasons and all types of weather, but I would have to say that autumn is my favorite followed closely be spring. I'm pushing the season a bit with this little package I ordered from Citron Faire shop on Etsy. Aren't they cute!

For the past few months I just haven't had a lot of creative energy. I've made art and done quite a bit of art journaling but I just haven't felt the creative juice I'm used to. I've started painting papers many times only to give up, unhappy with the results. But over the past few days that creative spark has returned. It really started with a little Bible study I stumbled on by accident. I was studying chapter 9 in the gospel of John for the study team I am on at my church. This is the chapter where Jesus heals the blind man and one of the places in the book where he says, "I am the light of the world." I got rabbit-trailed in my study by looking into the Old Testament, and especially Isaiah, at the Messianic references to light and how restoring sight would be a sign of the messiah. This rabbit-trail of light and sight made me want to make a journal to record my findings creatively, So I made a stitched pamphlet with water color paper and started painting some papers. In between all the other things that needed to get done over this holiday weekend I have been covering pages in this journal with painted papers. And I have felt that creative spark ignite! I can make art without the spark, but, wow, do I really feel more connected to it creatively when that spark exists! I just don't like doing things on auto-pilot, whether it's art or Bible study, and it's easy to get into ruts and do just that. My Light and Sight journal pages are filling up with background papers and then I'll start adding what I gleaned from my study.

Our Take Me Deeper theme for faithart devotional studies in September is about God's promises. My first page of the month:

Now for the winner of the bird themed vintage paper pack from my Etsy shop: Shawna Rash! If you like birds join our newest class from the His Kingdom Come foundation team, God's Aviary. Thank you to everyone who participated! Shawna, send me your mailing address: marybrack@gmail.com.

Congratulations Shawna!

A Giveaway and a New Class at HKC

Tomorrow we are releasing a new collaborative class from the foundation team of the His Kingdom Come community. This will be our third collaborative class offering this year. The five of us have such a great time connecting and sharing ideas and art, and it's always neat to see how different our five projects end up!

The class is called Faithart 102: God's Aviary. Anyone who has followed my blog for any length of time knows how much I enjoy birds! We each took a different bird or bird subject and traced the theme through the Bible. We then each made a different type of journal to put our study notes and art into. You can purchase each class individually for $8 or a bundle of all five for $35. Visit here to read more about the classes. Here is a sneak peak video of the class:

For my study I dug into bird symbolism used in the Bible and focused on three areas: trust, refuge and renewal. Here is a sneak peak into my journal:

Since I love birds and I love collage and I have bird themed collage packs of vintage papers in my Etsy shop I decided it would be fun to do a giveaway on my blog.  Here is what you do: pop over to my Etsy shop, {found on brighton}, and take a peak around. then come back here and share a comment about an item you saw there. The winner of the random drawing will win a bird themed paper pack plus a few extra goodies! Leave your comment here by 6:00 pm EST Sunday.  I will announce the winner here on Monday, September 7. 

Well, I'm looking forward to a long weekend and a little extra time to play with art. I hope you enjoy your holiday weekend and that you find time to be creative. :)

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.

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!

And the Winner Is...

Yesterday, in honor of the first anniversary of my Etsy shop, {found on brighton|, I announced a giveaway of one of my altered book journals.

And the winner is....

Tracy! (from Sojourner blog)

Tracy, please email your mailing address to me ~ marybrack@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone who visited my shop yesterday ad to all of you who left comments! I'm off to camp with a group of kids this weekend. I'm looking forward to enjoying a beautiful Fall weekend. I hope you enjoy your weekend as well!

{found on Brighton} Anniversary and A Giveaway

My Etsy shop, {found on brighton}, 

is celebrating its first anniversary today! 

The little shop I started a year ago as a way to use up the books and vintage papers I collect for my art journaling hobby has managed to stand on her own feet. I have enjoyed all the wonderful people I have connected with through the shop and it has opened up another avenue of creativity for me. As well it has fed my enjoyment (addiction?) of digging through library book sales and giving a new life to old and falling apart books.

Some recent additions to the shop:

So to celebrate our first anniversary I am going to give away an altered book journal. Simply visit my Etsy Shop, then comeback to my blog and tell me which journal is your favorite in the comment section on this post. Tomorrow I will randomly draw one winner from the comments and that person will win their favorite journal from my shop. Comments must be made today only.

I appreciate all of you who follow my blog and join my journey in art, faith and Etsy ventures!

A Winner, a Sneak Peak, and a Little Art Journaling

A week ago, in response to having won a stencil in a Stencil Girl giveaway, I decided to pass on the fun and do a giveaway from my Etsy shop. The winner of a vintage paper pack for making art is:

Brenda F. !

Brenda, please send me an email at marybrack@gmail.com and I will email you back with the information I need to personalize your goodies! 

Thank you to everyone who left comments and participated in the giveaway!

For quite a while I have had an idea for a class that combines exploring faith, identity and creativity ~ "Be Who You Are". It has been a bit of a struggle pulling all of my thoughts together into something cohesive and translatable to other people. So, I have pulled together a group of 6-7 ladies from my church and we are doing a trial run to enable me to get my thoughts and ideas out of my head and made into flesh, so to speak. We begin this Monday and will meet together for five weeks. At the end of this time I hope to have gained a better understanding of how all of my ideas and the paths God has led me on can fit together in a class format. Then, I hope to be able to put it together and offer an online class as well as develop it more for future use at my church. Below is a little sneak peak at the notebook I have been using as I have studied Scripture and tried to compile my thoughts and my art ideas.

Some recent art journaling ...mainly for The Documented Life project.

Week 30 challenge: do a smash book style page using receipts, etc.

I am off to help my in-laws move. We have Vacation Bible School this week. Looking forward to hanging out with the 4-6 year olds! It's my favorite age group and I'm excited that my little neighbor girls who are 5 year old twins will be joining me this week! I'll try to post some progress from the class next weekend.

May you enjoy your week and make white space for being creative and filling your soul!

July Art Journaling

In July I have been playing catch-up in my Documented Life Project journal.

Week 19 challenge: A random act of kindness

Once my June pages were finished my DLP journal could hold no more! With July's pages I began a DLP volume 2 journal for the second half of the year.

And in my everyday art journal this month:

Stencil Girl Products hosted a blog hop last week for the Documented Life Project and I won one of their stencils! It was fun opening the mail yesterday to see which stencil was inside. So, today, I'd like to share that anticipation and excitement with one of my blog followers. Simply leave a comment on this blog post by next Friday (7.26.14) and then on Saturday 7.27 I will draw a name from the comments and that person will receive a lovely package of vintage papers and ephemera. Enjoy your weekend!