Saturday 31 October 2015

October week 5: Sanctuary

The last of my October ReWind posts for Take Me Deeper is Sanctuary from May.

I used Ranger Transparent Gloss Texture paste through a  stencil.  I love this new-to-me product because when it is dry it looks like how heat embossing with clear powder looks but without the hassle of the powder - which gets everywhere!

While it was drying I watched a new Dyan Reaveley video from Ranger where she demonstrated how to ink a page properly.  So I tried it - although I still didn't get as much ink sprayed on to the page as she said.

I pressed the left hand page onto the wet page and got this result.   This is how I know there wasn't as much ink as in Dyan's video because she had ink pouring out of her journal.

Anyway I rather liked the result so I left it alone - apart from drying the page.   Then I wrote out some of the verses from the month long study prompts.

Sometimes you do pages you really like and sometimes you do pages that look really ugly.  I'm glad to say I think this one looks 'real purty'!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice


Friday 30 October 2015

Happy Birthday HKC

Prizes and Discounts to celebrate our 1st birthday.

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        Diane Marra
Tuesday        Shonna Bucaroff
Wednesday   Merri Dennis
Thursday      Mary Brack
Today           Me!
Saturday       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.

My year with HKC
It's hard to believe it's a year since we started.  We had plotted and planned for about 3 months and then we launched!  It's been a roller coaster of a year.  We have hardly advertised our online presence but God has been good and brought new people to the community almost every day.   I have written devotions for Take Me Deeper - writing devotions has been a whole new expereince for me and a great learning curve.  So glad Mary Brack was there to edit and check my theology!   I've done more faithart this year than I have probably done in my life.  Before being part of HKC I rarely shared my faith or my faithart online.  Or to be honest to anyone.  I have tried out lots of different techniques in  my TMD journal but not sure I have actually found my art style.  But I do have a few favourites to share with you.




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 HKC 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









Monday 26 October 2015

Selfies: and how not to take them

I really don't do Selfies and when you see these photos you will know why!  I am usually the one taking the photos and I rarely appear in other people's photos.  However whilst in Australia recently (more about that in other posts) I wanted to take a photo of Roger & I and the gelato we were eating to show my daughter-in-law.  (That's ice cream for my crafting friends - not the creamy pens you like to use!)   I used my camera rather than my phone so I couldn't see what I was taking.

Since there was too much sun in the first one we moved to another bench and tried again.




Almost!  And then!




As you can see we got photos of us and photos of the gelato but not in the same frame!

Next time (if there is a next time!) I'll try my phone.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice




Friday 23 October 2015

October week 4: Resurrection Life

Continuing with my Pinterest inspiration theme, I saw Diane had pinned a technique from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer but which actually originated from here.

I had been trying to work out how I could have a sun ray effect and so I took the distress ink and water idea and my shattered flower stencil.  I put the Distress ink on the stencil and sprayed it with water.

This possibly isn't the bext technique to use when your journal looks like this.  It would be easier with a flat piece of paper.

Anyway, I persevered.   I put the journal down onto the stencil and then lifted it up with the newspaper and turned it over.   The stencil moved a bit but I rather liked the 'shadow' it gave.

Then I wrote out some of the verses from the month's study on Resurrection Life using Tim Holtz Label Letters for some of the words.  Then I used some large letters for 'new life'.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice



Tuesday 20 October 2015

And the last one!

I shared our day in Lancaster in my last catching up post.    We spent the next day driving around the area north of Lancaster and then walking up Arnside Knot.  Actually it was more of a climb and I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got to the top.  However the view was worth it!


We walked back down through the woods.

The next day it rained.  Actually it rained for most of 24 hours.  We drove through the Trough of Bowland and then to Clitheroe.  We went to Clitheroe Castle which had quite a good museum.

The view from the top.


Then we drove on to Skipton where we were staying the night as we had preview tickets for Art in the Pen.  Thank you Anne Brooke.

We went on a short boat trip on the canal which gave us a view of Skipton Castle.

And then we went round the castle itself.

On our last day we returned to the Lancaster area to view Ingleton Falls.   We knew because of all the previous day's rainfall there would be lots of water and we weren't disappointed.  I had not noticed in the leaflet that it said this was a strenuous walk!

We walked up the valley seeing these beautiful waterfalls.




Then walked across the top to the next valley.




I had thought that we would be walking downhill all the way.  Not a bit of it!


Eventually we reached the bottom and I was exhausted.  I really do need to do something about my lack of fitness.

 And back through the village to where the car was parked.

 On the way back to the motorway we saw this beautiful meadow.

And spotted this old gypsy caravan.

My summer day's out are complete now.  Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice



Friday 16 October 2015

October week 3: Journey to the Cross

Do you ever look at those Pinterest Fails pictures - you know the ones where they show a wonderful picture of say a cake and then the person's version that looks nothing like the original?

Well I started this week's page with a photo I found of a beautiful page on Pinterest.  And right from the start it went wrong.  I sprayed some inks onto the page and there was far too much  - it took up about twice as much of the page as the original.  And actually I think the original used watercolour paints not ink sprays.

I carried on using the original as inspiration but not worrying that mine didn't look like it.  In fact if you know me well I hate my work looking like someone else's.  I usually come home from workshops with finished pieces that look totally unlike the tutor's.

I stamped and added some washi tape.

I cut out a cross and stuck it on.  The theme for March was Journey to the Cross and so is the them for ReWind this week.

And then I used the silver footprint rub-ons that I had.

Then I stamped a verse at the bottom.

It looks a bit unfinished but I decided to leave it because I couldn't think of anything else to do.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice






Tuesday 13 October 2015

Catching up again

I hope you have enjoyed catching up with my short trips away during the summer.  Here's our third outing.  We spent 4 days away this time and I have split the photos into two blog posts.

Despite Roger having been born in Lancashire he had never visited Lancaster - the county town.  Whilst we were driving up to Lancaster, I was texting with my friend Carolyn who lives there asking her what we should visit.

Carolyn's first recommendation was a coffee shop which had some intriguing tables.




And a most unusual toilet (restroom)


Next door was a place to buy coffee.

Then we walked around the town visiting Lancaster Castle which is also a prison.



The view

We walked down to the dockside and went round the Maritime Museum.

And then to the pub for lunch.

Almost everywhere you go in Lancaster (and as you drive past on the M6) you can see this building up on the hill.  It is a folly built by Lord Ashton in memory of his second wife.

We wandered back through the town to the canal.

And then we drove to Sunderland Point - another of Carolyn's recommendations.  Here there is a small hamlet of homes which can be cut off by the tide twice each day.  The tide was out when we were there.



We also walked to Samboo's grave which commemorates the death of a young slave boy in 1796.

After this we drove to Morecambe.  I wanted to see the Eric Morecambe statue but we managed to miss it completely.  However we did see this sculpture from The Tern Project.

This is the famous 1930s Midland Hotel.

We sneaked inside to look at the decor but I only managed one photo as we were being glared at by 3 receptionists.

We had a great day.  Thank you Carolyn for all the advice.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice