Take Me Deeper: Transform Vulnerably

The theme for week 2 of Take Me Deeper has been about being vulnerable - not something I am at all comfortable with.

Unlike last week where I drew the boxes after I'd applied the paint, this week I drew the boxes on the left hand page.  I spritzed the right hand page with water and using watercolour paints I put colour onto the page.  I spritzed with water again and then moved the paper to make the colours merge.

I screwed up a carrier bag and pressed it into the wet paint and left it to dry.

When I pulled off the plastic bag there was a beautiful pattern in the paint.

I stamped butterflies onto the pages and stamped the words using orange Distress ink.  I coloured them in with a Neocolor II crayon and went over the colour with a waterpen.

In the photo you can see the empty letters, the coloured in letters (Vuln) and the water painted letters.

I printed out the verses that I had really picked up on through the study and cut them up, inked the edges and stuck them down.   Sadly where I wrote the words Charis and Grace the pen I used was not a waterproof one so when I put the orange colour on the black ink ran!

At this point, when I needed to add the journaling, I went off on avoidance activities.  I backed up my computer to the external hard drive and tidied up the hard drive on the desk top computer.  Anything to avoid accepting the need to do business with God.

However I returned to it and wrote in the boxes.

I didn't feel I had anything to write in the last two boxes so I stamped a dandelion and its seeds instead.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Take Me Deeper: Transform Willingly

The January theme for Take Me Deeper Is Transformation and this week's prompt is entitled Transform Willingly.

The devotional was based on Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.   I particularly concentrated on verse 2.

In my journal I ripped up pages from a Bible I bought at a Dollar Store for using in journaling.

I glued it down and then smeared a thin layer over Gesso over the middle of the pages.   When this was dry I stamped the butterflies with Archival Ink.

I scraped some acrylic paint over the middle.  I tried removing some of the paint with a wet wipe through a stencil - the small rows of white lines you can see.

I stamped the letters for Transform Willingly onto a map.

I cut the letters out and stuck them down.  I printed out the verses and cut them up.  I inked the edges with Distress Ink and then stuck the verses down.

I drew some boxes to write in on the left hand page.

I wrote the words Trust, Sacrifice and Renew in the boxes and painted inside the boxes with watercolour paint.  I did my journaling.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Take Me Deeper: January

At  His Kingdom Come we are hosting a year long devotional: Take Me Deeper, with weekly postings.  Each month of the year has a theme and this month's theme is Transform.

I am a Moderator of the Textile group and I have decided that my textile response to this is to make a #12 size tag book using calico.   Below is a photo (heavy) tutorial of how I made my tag.

I cut a tag out of card to use as a template.  It's 10.5 inches by 4.125 inches.

I used this to cut out a piece of pelmet vilene (Pellon Peltex #70).  I also cut a piece of calico larger than the tag.

I used Bondaweb (Pellon Wonder-Under) to fuse the vilene to the calico.

I also ironed Bondaweb onto some offcuts of fabric.  These are Batik fabrics which don't fray so are ideal for this technique.

Using the Bondaweb backing that I had peeled off I worked out how large I wanted my branch to be.

Then I made it wider.

I could have drawn it frrehand on the backing paper already attached to the fabric but I used my try out piece to trace the image. You have to remember that you need to draw the mirror image.

I cut it out and ironed it on.

On the peeled off backing I stamped some leaves to see if they were the right size. I could have drawn them freehand but I had the stamps.   Always use waterproof ink when stamping in case for any reason at a later stage you want to apply a wet media like Gel Medium or paint.

You could stamp on a piece of paper and cut out a template but I chose to stamp directly onto the backing paper.

I cut out the leaves.

I peeled off the backing and ironed the leaves onto my branch.

If you peel the backing off carefully you are left with some pre-printed leaves for another project.

I ironed some Bondaweb onto a page from a Bible that I bought from a dollar store. You could use book paper or dictionary paper. I stamped some letters on and then cut them out.

Using fabric with Bondaweb attached I cut out a caterpillar and a chrysalis.  I used a butterfly stamp on paper and cut it out to see if it was the right size.

I stamped on the back of the Bondaweb on two different fabrics.

I cut the blue one out the full size of the stamp and the orange one smaller to fit inside.  I ironed the caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly onto the tag.   It was my intention to do the same with the transform letters.  However I could not get the backing to peel off so I used Gel Medium to glue it down.

I stamped the words using a small set of wooden letter stamps and Archival Ink.

I machined lines on the leaves with black thread and some zigzag lines on the caterpillar.  At this point it would have been possible to add more machine or hand stitching.

Up until this point it was my intention to back the tag with some more calcio and fray the edges.  But then I changed my mind.  I trimmed the calico down and using doublesided tape folded the calico over to the back and stuck it down.

I cut a piece of Mixed Media paper the same size as the tag and using doublesided tape adhered it to the tag.  I decided it would be better to have a paper backing in case I wanted to journal on the back.

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