Pause, Ponder & Prepare

Advent is a time to pause, ponder and prepare to celebrate the birth of our saviour Jesus Christ. 

The birth of Jesus Christ more than two thousand years ago is more than just a story...it’s the fulfilment of a promise, a life transforming event.

When we come to celebrate the Advent season this year Diane and I invite you to transform your preparation of Christmas from one of commercial expectations/ obligations to one of personal transformation and spiritual affirmation by creating a faith devotional and/or an advent calendar.  However we know how busy everyone gets in December and so we are running a dedicated blog Pause, Ponder & Prepare through November with some preparation posts in the last week of October.  Find out more here.

The purpose of this journey is to honour God in prayer, reflection, and create art about His holy words and the gift of Jesus’ birth.  Show your gratitude for his gift of a saviour to us.  It is our hope that by spending your time in November to create a devotional or advent calendar you will be able to pause and ponder in December and reclaim the true meaning of Christmas- celebrating Jesus birth. 

Read the scriptures with your imagination. Focus on the images - light, stars, crowns, the wise men, your heart, the baby, the songs and the people and enter into the poetry of the Bible. Even if you have not used techniques such as writing, art journaling, or scrapbooking, allow yourself to experiment with them this year. There is no magic in the techniques, they are just a tool - a way to consciously place you in God’s presence and allow Him to create through your hands and heart.

May your Christmas be radically different this year as you take the time to see the Christ in Christmas and the faithart you create will be a lasting testimony and legacy of your advent faith walk and His transforming power.

Join us on our blog at Pause, Ponder & Prepare and at our Facebook group Pause Ponder and Prepare.

Visit Diane's blog to see the video she has prepared for Pause, Ponder & Prepare.

9 months!

I have been keeping my planner up-to-date for a whole 9 months!  And taking part in One Little Word.  I'm really pleased with  myself.  Of course, stickers are really useful when you sit down to catch up and find you can't remember what you did 2 weeks ago!

My last update was here!

Week 35

Week 36

Week 37
The real story: One Little Word entry for September

Week 38

And it's amazing how the colourful stickers make it look as though I have a colourful life!

Don't forget to have a look at Pause, Ponder & Prepare.  Not long to go now!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Make It Personal 5

I've just spent two days at The Bramble Patch again at the Make It Personal workshop with Hilary Beattie.

This was the 5th of 6 sessions this year but actually my last one as I will be in Florida when the next one happens.

I've written about these sessions in January, March and March again, May and July.

This session was about using the fabrics and papers we had made during the other sessions as a starting point for inspiration and designs.   The fountain in the photo above has been the inspiration all year but I have really struggled with it as I didn't have any definite images I could use as focal points in any designs I came up with.    I wrote about this problem here.

However I decided on the first day to just tear up papers and fabrics and stick them down on a large piece of Pelmet Vilene (Pellon Peltex) and see what came to me.   I should have taken photos of the process but didn't.   On Friday once the piece was dry I started looking at what I could do with this background and Hilary suggested cutting up slivers of one of my gelli print deli papers. I put Heat'n Bond on it first and then cut it up and ironed it on.

This is it with all the raw edges.

  And here it is in closeup.

I worked on 3 design pieces over the two days working on one or other as I waited for things to dry.  I worked on this 12 inch square canvas.

This is a rectangular canvas that has some stamped seedhead images  using one of Hilary's stamps.

All of the pieces need more stitching and marks made on them.  Whether that happens is another matter!

The course is being run again through 2015 so you could sign up.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice