Postcard Theology

I spent a second day at Art from the Heart taking a workshop described as a 'gymnasium for the soul' with the talented Dyan Reaveley and the amazing Rev. Andrew Hall.

I met my friend Carolyn and she has blogged a detailed account of the workshop.  So I suggest you pop over there to read it and then come back to find out what I did.

My Psalm was number 126. (NIV)

¹ When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion,
    we were like men who dreamed.
² Our mouths were filled with laughter,
    our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,
    “The Lord has done great things for them.”
³ The Lord has done great things for us,
    and we are filled with joy.

⁴ Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like streams in the Negev.
⁵ Those who sow in tears
    will reap with songs of joy.
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
    carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
    carrying sheaves with him.

Andrew gave us our copy of the Psalm from The Message version and whilst I like to read The Message, this Psalm spoke to me more in the NIV version.

We meditated for a while on our psalm and Andrew had provided various books and notes where we could look up our psalm.   One of the notes said that the Jews would have understood the parched desert of the heart.  This inspired me to work on heart shapes and I used one of Dina Wakley's stamps.

I coloured the background of the A5 card with Distress Inks and then splashed water onto it to represent tears.  I stamped the first heart (the one on the right at the back) directly on to the background.  The heart to the left is stamped onto a map of the Sahara desert from an atlas and the front one was stamped onto music paper for the songs of joy.

I stamped the word hope onto the card because the overpowering feeling I got was that there is hope - that though we sow in tears we will reap with songs of joy.

I wrote some of the psalm around the edge.

The day was very different from any workshop that I have ever done before.  It certainly introduced me to activities I shall use again for my faith journaling.

Thank you Andrew and Dyan.

Bernice

Pan Pastel Masterclass

Last week I went to Art from the Heart in Harrogate to do a Pan Pastel Masterclass taught by the lovely Kate Crane.

She showed us various ways of using the Pan Pastels.  We could do each tag in a different colour or we could choose a colour scheme.  I chose the latter option.

We covered the tag in a similar way to using Distress Inks.  I applied the pastel through a stencil and stamped on it.

This tag is made up of 3 tags.  The strip down the left hand side was the first tag I did and I didn't like it.  So I cut off the bit I didn't like and I stuck the other part onto this tag.  I made a small tag which I stuck on and then put a brad through it.

The large tag had modelling paste applied to it through a stencil and when it was dry I coloured the circles with pastels.  The small tag hangs on the book ring on its own.

This tag was coloured first with the Pan Pastels and stamped on.  Then the diamond shapes were added using modelling paste again and coloured when dry.

The large tag was coloured and then the large stamp was stamped using Versamark.  While the Versamark was wet I applied a light covering of Pan Pastel.  Then I stamped the harlequin pattern with Archival.  The small tag was added afterwards.

And for the last tags I used a variety of the techniques from the other tags.

And finally the tags were put onto a book ring and ribbons added.

A fabulous day with an excellent teacher and some lovely people.  Thank you everyone.

Bernice

New Challenge starting

My new challenge and inspiration blog officially starts on Monday at 12 Months In View.

However, starting today there are 3 consecutive posts about how the challenge blog works.

So pop over to 12 Months In View and have a look.  And please consider joining in.  You can do as much or as little as you wish.

Hoping to see you there
Bernice