November Take Me Deeper a review...

I haven't finished my November pages...I still have the fourth one to do, but I decided to go ahead and do a post on what I have finished. I hope to get week 4 done and when I do I will add it on to the end of this post. (positive thinking here)

The first is my LOGOS page. I LOVE this verse from Isaiah 43:16. Brings tears to my eyes and gratitude to my heart. :) I started the page with printed tissue paper glued to the page with gel medium. I smeared watered down acrylics in light grey and cream all over the page.  I drew on the heart and painted it. The black around the heart is from a watercolor crayon. I spattered grey, black, cream and red paints all over and then wrote my words with a white Gelly Roll pen.

Week one page is influenced by Erin Leigh. I just played with paints, gesso and watercolor crayons, a black pen and white Gelly Roll pen.

 Week 2 was just an experiment for the background and then didn't know where I was going with it. I was in a red mood so, that is why red happened. ha!  I think this was mostly gesso and watercolor crayons for the background, red acrylic paint, and doodles with a white Pitt pen and black pens.

Week 3 is done with gesso and watercolor crayons. Very quick and simple, maybe a half an hour of work.

Blessings, Zuda Gay Pease

October Take Me Deeper

October has been a month of review....a Review of the studies from the first 5 months of the year. I decided that I wanted to try something different for my pages to unite them. Bernice Hopper from Newly Creative shared a technique that I wanted to try in which she cut the edges of the pages in her journal in waves causing the pages to be different widths. You may read her blog post about this technique here.  I used various sizes of semi-circles drawn on my pages and then cut them out. I then prepped the pages with gesso and painted them all in similar ways using the same color combination.
Week 1 was from January (you may see a couple of my January pages here) with the theme of Transformed by the Renewing of My Mind. The ways I am to be transformed are Willingly, Vulnerably, Submissively, Faithfully and Purposefully. I painted various plants to decorate my page with the thought that plants start out as a seed and are transformed to become a beautiful plant.

Week 2 was from February (you may see my February pages here) with the theme of Love. I drew hearts with a ribbon holding them together.

Week 3 was from March (you may see my March pages here) with the theme of Journey To the Cross. I changed it up a bit with this page and didn't do a review of each week. I used some of the lyrics from the song "Lead Me To the Cross" on the left page and painted a cross using a credit card and various colors of paint.

Week 4 was a review of the lessons from April. (you may see my April pages here) The theme of April's lessons were about Resurrection and New Life.  I had no ideas of what to do on this page so I just started painting circles with rings so they had outward rings and and inward rings to go with the scripture I chose.

Week 5 was a review of May which focused on Sanctuary. (you may see my May pages here) For this page I made a stencil from a lady silhouette from a dingbat set from Dafont. Then I printed the text I wanted to include onto parchment paper and glued into my journal.

My LOVE page for October is a patchwork. One of these days I may learn how to write in a straight line. ha!

May the Lord bless and keep you!
Zuda Gay Pease

Promises Promises

For the month of September the Take Me Deeper lessons focused on 4 promises from God to us.
Week1: He Gives Us Everything We Need for Life! The scripture I used was from 2 Peter 1:3-4
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.  Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”    
I used watercolor crayons with gesso and a Sharpie watercolor paint pen for the writing.

Week 2: The Promise of Forgiveness - Matthew 6:14-15 tells us “If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”  Which is a little bit scary if you think about it. Kind of like when you are judging others and remember that "the same measure you used will be used for you". Sometimes forgiving others is quite hard and you have to keep handing it over to God and reminding yourself that you have forgiven. Sometimes I wish that when I forgive someone that I could forget the offense as well. For this I gessoed the pages then rolled on acrylic paints in several shades of blue and purple and wrote out "forgiveness" with a navy blue Sharpie. I printed out the words I wanted to include on the pages and then cut them out and pasted them down. Then I decided that a little decoration was needed so I drew flowers and leaves with markers.

Week 3: The Promise of Wisdom - James 1:5 reads: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” What a wonderful promise that we need to use everyday....sometimes every moment of everyday! I had to use an owl on my page...I love owls and whether they are or not, they seem so wise. This page was done with watercolor crayons, gesso and a gold paint pen. (I don't remember what brand, I got two from the clearance isle at Hobby Lobby) I LOVE the clearance isle!

Week 4: The Promise of the Holy Spirit - I LOVE this promise SO much! I can't do this life alone and the wonderful thing is - I DON'T HAVE TO! I used John 14:26 which tell us “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”.  I need reminded - often! And He is so faithful to do so! I need taught and I am often amazed in the ways He teaches me. I need comforted and I am so very comforted with the knowledge that He is always with me and He helps me continuously. (and I even pay attention sometimes) This page was influenced by ErinLeigh at Art by ErinLeigh's Faith Art Friday. I used Gelatos, gesso and black ink with a paint brush....and my words actually came out almost the way I wanted them to! WooHoo!

For my Logos 365 LOVE page I wanted to remind myself that "My mouth speaks from that which fills my heart." If my heart is filled with love and goodness then love and goodness will be what comes out of my mouth.  Not happy with my writing on this. I tried to be ummm....more free with my hand rather than concentrating to make my writing legible, it wasn't a good idea. The idea for the page came from a picture I pinned on Pinterest and not from my head.

 

Many blessings to you!  

Zuda Gay Pease

August Take Me Deeper

I got a bit bogged down in July and I am finally getting, somewhat, caught up now. I finished my August journal pages just a bit over a week behind. :) The theme for the August Take Me Deeper study is thankfulness. The focus scripture for the month's studies was Philippians 4:4-9 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”   

Week 1:  Thankful For All Things I used verse 6 for my text. For the page in my journal, I did a collage of scrapbook papers with some watered down paint over the top to try to make it all come together. I didn't like how it was looking but decided that I would just keep on going. I wrote the scripture on the page and doodled a little. I'm still not thrilled with the page, but that is okay. Everything is a learning experience and I can be thankful for the journey.

Week 2: Think About Such Things  I used the WHATEVER IS scripture....one of my favorites that I try to keep in mind. My attitude is SO much better when I control my thoughts and think about good things. For this page I printed the scripture on a transparency sheet and taped it to the right side of my journal page. You cannot tell that it is a transparency in the photo, you just have to take my word for it. ;) It is a different technique and I may use it again someday. I used my usual gesso/watercolor crayons for page prep and decorating.

 Week 3: Put It Into Practice  For this page I used Philippians 4:9a as my scripture. You need to practice doing what you want to perfect. With anything it takes practice to get better at something. A concert pianist still practices hours everyday so she will always do her best. I want to do my best living for Jesus....so I need to practice the things I have learned so that when the time comes "my actions will reflect my beliefs".  For this page I used gesso and watercolor crayons and Gelatos. I cut the word "whatever" out of a paper that I painted some time ago - for such a time as this. The mirror I had in my stash of magazine clippings.

 Week 4: Peace of God - God of Peace  This is my favorite page for August. I just knew what I wanted to do and it came out pretty much how I had it in my mind. The scripture that I used for this page is Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." sigh.....  When I give everything over to God and I practice gratitude in every situation, when I practice taking captive every thought and wrestle them to focus on "whatever is true, noble, right, lovely, pure admirable, excellent or praiseworthy....THEN my actions will reflect my beliefs and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.  And that, my friends, is what I want! This page was done with gesso, watercolor crayons and a gold paint pen....and it makes me happy. :)

 Lastly is my LOGOS365 page....which was a super fast and messy page with a message that I need to remember...Kindness gives LOVE hands and feet.

 Many Blessings,
Zuda Gay Pease

 

July Take Me Deeper

I got a bit behind towards the end of July and now into August....like 3 weeks behind! I'm not sure how that happened? Anyway, I finally finished up my July art journal pages so I can now share them as a whole. July's theme was Honor with the theme scripture being found in Revelation 4:11 "You are worthy, O Lord our God to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being."

Week 1: Dependance vs. Independence  - As a Christian one of my goals is to be totally dependent on God which is a whole lot easier said than done. I have been quite independent since I was quite young. I can remember telling my Mama many times that I will do it myself and usually she would let me with her standing by to make sure I did what needed to be done. The suggested scripture reading included Matthew 18:2-4  "He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." And Psalm 131:1-2 "
My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content."  The art work for this page (and a few other pages this month) are prompted by Journaling By Heart studies by Erin Leigh and Melissa Ohlson. The flowers are so me, but the second page with the colors kind of randomly painted on, not so much. I used a copy of a picture of myself when I was around 3 years old framed with an antiqued paper doily and the children's hymn Jesus Loves Me.

Week 2: Cultivate Honor - To cultivate honor you must practice it, live it out everyday in the way we relate to one another. There are so many "one another" scriptures. I used the verbs from some of these "one anothers" on my page. This page is done with Gelatos blended with gesso, letters cut from book text and my new favorite things...Pitt pens.

 Week 3: Honor God - The scripture that I meditated on the most for this lesson is from 1 Corinthians 10:31 which tells us, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Bernice (the lesson author for July) asked the question, "How is God honored?" and then shared these five ways: He is honored when we welcome Him, when we worship Him, when we trust Him, when we give him our tithes and offerings, and to be kind to the poor or those in need, and I added to be loving because that is what I am working on this year.  This page was done with watercolor crayons, gesso and Pitt pens.

 Week 4: Honor Others - This week we studied the scriptures that tell us that we are individual parts of a body and we should honor each other as an important part of that whole no matter our preconceived notions of someone's importance. The nursery worker is just as important to the body as the evangelist. Romans 12:3-5 " For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." and 1 Corinthians 12:21-26 "The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”  On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,  and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,  while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,  so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."  On this page I used the tutorial from the Journaling By Heart study, it worked so well with the Take Me Deeper study that I didn't change much at all. This is done with a background of several colors painted on randomly then stamped and stenciled with contrasting colors. I just happened to have foam stamps of grapes and grape leaves so I decided to use them. The border, words and any outlining was done with Pitt markers.

 Week 5: Honor Ourselves - The scripture for week 5's study is “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”    1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Which pretty much says it all. My background was created with Dyan Reaveley's paints. I dabbed on green, blue and yellow for the first layer then stenciled with a flower design and pink for the next layer. I added spatters of black and white. For the final layer,  I made a silhouette stencil as well as a couple of different shapes to make my words stand apart from my very busy background and used watered down gesso so that the pattern would show through. I outlined, shaddowed and added floral touches with my Pitt pens. The words were written with a variety of pens....because my pens kept dying on me.

 The last thing I want to share for the month of July is my Logos365 LOVE page. 

Many Blessings....and on to get caught up on the August lessons!

Zuda Gay Pease

June Take Me Deeper

June....the year is half over! I need to ask myself how am I doing with the commitments I have made for myself to achieve this year.  Some not too bad, and some not good at all. My "word" for 2015 LOGOS365 is LOVE. I still need to work on that one...and I do know that this is a life long thing to grow into. I do strive to change my thinking and attitude on a daily basis of how love looks and what love does in me and through me. My Love page for June is just a cute fun page with a simple, but deep message for me to remember. "put on LOVE which is the perfect bond of unity" taken from Colossians 3:14.

June's theme was Family. The first week started at the beginning...as in Genesis. God created man in His image. He created the first family. One of the things that I have been striving to remember while growing in love this year is that each person (whether they accept it or not) is an Image bearer. This page in my art journal is collaged with faces and the words, "God created man in His image." and "Each one an Image bearer." I want to get to the point that my first reaction when meeting a person is one of recognizing that this person is an Image bearer and one whom Jesus died for, not a preconceived notion or a reaction to what that person might have done or not done.

Week 2 was the Family that is God or the Trinity. We learned that God has always been a relationship within the godhead. I used a Celtic trinity symbol and words from the song "I Believe" for my journal page with the colors of purple and gold.

The third week in June our study was about God being our Father. The scripture I used to help me remember this lesson is Psalm 103:11-14. One of my favorite Psalms. I used Gelatos, gesso and a flower stencil for this page with a few extra flowers for fun.

And lastly, week 4 we studied about the family that we are in as part of God's Kingdom...the church.  Here lately, the church in general seems to get some bad publicity. Some is actually earned from the way some act toward others, and some comes from an agenda that seems to want to put a one size fits all label on us. Often I don't want to claim some groups that call themselves "Christian" as family, that is not what the verse I used is telling me....each member belongs to all the others. I used gesso and watercolor crayons to made multicolored circles on cardstock and glued on to a tree to symbolize one body with many parts all belonging to one another.

Many blessings to you.

May Take Me Deeper

To start off the month of May I did my May calender and May Logos 365  "love" page. I am just showing my Love page this time as my calender is rather boring. I love how this page turned out, I think it is cute!

The theme for May devotions/journal prompts was Sanctuary.  TMD May Week 1: I was caught up in the scriptures about sheltering under God's wing. What a comfort and peace these are to me. I used Psalm 91:1-4 on my page "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust." Surely He sill save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." Life can be so busy with many demands on our time and energy, I need to remember what I learn in Isaiah 30: 15 that "In repentance and rest is your salvation, In quietness and trust is your strength..." Jesus often sought a quiet place for rest and renewal, I need to remember to do the same. I cut feathers from the pages of an old book and used my new watercolor crayons by Staedtler on them. The background is Gelatos and gesso. I used matte gel medium to adhere the feathers to my page and wrote the words with various black pens.

Week 2: Dwelling in God's Presence.  I'm kind of in a "rut" at this time mixing Gelatos with Gesso for my backgrounds. I've also added in my watercolor crayons.  I used scrapbook paper for the house and pictures I cut from magazines on this page.

Week 3: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.  This week the lesson was about taking care of yourself/loving yourself, for how can you love others as you love yourself if you don't really love yourself.  It included several links to personality tests and spiritual gift tests.  I just wrote some results from the tests/surveys I took. Nothing surprising as I usually have pretty much the same results. Very simple page with colorful background and just words.

 

Week 4: Rhythms of Grace.  I had in mind a 4 seasons tree when I studied this lesson. I think each day has its season/rhythm and each part is important, you wake to a fresh new day/spring, you are productive through the day and gradually slowing down toward evening, and end with rest/winter. I found a quote that I love by Margaret Feinberg, "Sabbath isn't about what is done or left undone as much as breathing in the goodness of God. :) This page is done with gesso, gelatos, watercolor crayons and acrylic paints. (The scan shows the winter quarter so much brighter than the actual page.)

Week 5: Rhythms of Grace 2:  I had such a mind block for this week, I'm not sure why.  One of the main scriptures cut me to the quick: Jeremiah 2:13 "My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." I did a study a few years ago on recognizing idols in our lives, although this verse isn't one that was used in that study it exposes the same sin... putting something above God. When anything comes before God in our lives it is an idol, even yourself and your trust in your own ability to provide anything for yourself.  One of the Beatitudes is "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." When we thirst for things that are not from God, we are dealing with making an idol of something that is a very poor trade off of the true thing.  This page is done with gesso, watercolor crayons, gell medium, markers and a print made with a gelli plate. Notice the empty cistern at the bottom of the page.

 
Blessings, Zuda Gay Pease