Documented Faith Week Four

On Sunday evenings (most Sundays, anyway) I prepare the week ahead with paint and or minor embellishments. As I learned last week, watercolours aren't my best option, but I love acrylics - they work great, are bold and give good coverage. By the end of the week I've added several tip-ins and layers to accommodate everything I want to include. The "Everything Grows with Love" print was in my last letter from my pen pal. It's so fun and cheerful, I knew as soon as I saw it, that I would want to use it.

Opening up the first tip-in reveals the back side with a verse that I'd journaled and studied in my Bible  and another little tip-in with more verses. It was a week filled with intentional fighting and I needed the encouragement of the Word to continue to fight.

Zephaniah 3:17

This is where Illustrated Faith and Documented Faith worked together again this week. I was so humbled by the Lord's words to me when I went to Him for reassurance of His love for me. He exalts over me?! Wow!

Deuteronomy 31:6-8

I wanted to quit fighting this week, several times, in fact. I went to the Word and found this command to not be dismayed (to lose enthusiasm or resolution). It game me the much needed push to keep going.

At the top of the page is our verse of the week from Stephanie Ackerman. Psalm 86:11, simply written in. The little tip-in opens to show my little birdies. I painted these before Christmas and like many of my paintings I'm using them here. 

a close up

A little private journaling is easily contained in a fold out. I like this method and will probably use it a lot. 

It was a busy week. My Abigail's 6th birthday was on Wednesday and I was her parent helper in kindergarten and we brought rainbow cupcakes to share with her classmates. They were a big hit. Our church led us through a week of prayer and fasting and so there were many opportunities to go to the church and/or prayer furnace. It was much needed and worth fighting for (though, if I'm honest, it didn't feel worth it at the time on one of the evenings). I had a very emotional week and I'm glad to move on to a new week.

Checking In (Plus week Three of Documented Faith)

January, a month of beginnings, of birthdays (our Abby and friends), of resettling into routines and stupid cold weather. Lots of time inside for more crafting, because I only go out when I need to in this weather. Well, maybe a bit more than only when I "have" to. Speaking of crafting, how about a little show 'n' tell?

• I had the pleasure of mixing a CD for Abby's little friend's birthday present. Then Abby and I sewed a little bag to put it in (Abby did most of the actual sewing) and added a little monogram painting inside. It was a fun package to put together.

• I got a great treat of a hair colour and cut on the weekend. I then discovered how awkward selfies truly are. It's really hard to take a good picture of dark purple hair. Sorry, Julie, I couldn't do it true justice. David bought me some dangly bling to match and I was trying to capture it all and in the end I spent way to much time taking pictures of myself. Rather embarrassing.

• In the end my favourite picture was really useless because you can't see the purple hair or the great earrings. 

• You might have seen on Instagram that I whipped up a little scrappy bunting. I love these and I ended up cutting way more than i needed for one, so...

• ... one for a friend!

• I did a few pages in my Bible, some from my Documented Faith project and some from my Moms' Group study. 

Finally, here's my week three of Documented Faith. So, I began the week by painting around the border, then I doodled in some appointments. I added the week's verse (Psalm 24:4-5). I did mini journaling on the days, including my delight at a date arranged by my David. I love it when he does that - totally spontaneously planned! The red background was really damage control when I attempted to watercolour the next week and it bled through. I have used acrylics without bleed and didn't think it through. I used pencil to get a more solid cover and called it "fixed" I have some more damaged control for the next week, too. I finished it off by added a few quotes/notes from the sermon on Sunday around on the border. I really would like a white pen to use on the dark paint, but it's still legible. 

What is this the selfie edition of the Angry Turtle?! I promise it won't happen like this again. *wink* 

It was a difficult week with my dolly, but I'm fighting for her heart. This is a reminder of what I'm fighting for

one of my haircut selfies  - it really was such a treat!

There were a lot of great things about this week, too.

And just because they're adorable, I'll leave you with a picture of my littles:

Documented Faith Week Two

I started the week by painting the pages and embellishing the dates. I worked on the daily entries to be a little more interesting with doodles and I did mini journaling on a couple of the days. "The time of Singing has come" a verse from Song of Songs that struck a chord with me, a verse of hope! This was one of the verses that I put in my journalling Bible and wanted to record it here, too.

The tip-in is a list I stumbled across on a blog that I follow. "15 ways to make an ordinary day happy". You can find it here. The tiny picture of my David and two of my littles is from their date, yesterday. They captured it at a photo booth. They all needed that adventure.

Inside I added my identity thumbprint. This is a copy of the original that I made and blogged about here. While reflecting on truth, this seemed an appropriate reminder. "It's the TRUTH". The truth cutout, I did by hand (you don't need a fancy Cricket or Silhouette or Sizzix cutting machine to make art - use what you have. Don't get me wrong, I'd love a fancy schmancy cutting machine!). I used glitter tape from the dollar store and cut it out with an x-acto knife. "I cannot be separated from the Love of God" is the front of another tip-in. I decided I wanted to record some more thoughts on truth and didn't really want it all "hanging out there". The tip-in seemed like a great way to journal and keep it to myself.

In keeping with my word FIGHT for the year. Part of my new year goals are health goals. FIGHTing for my body. Simple goals, but hopefully effective in how I feel. 

1. No snacks after 8:00 PM
2. Less Sugar
3. MOVE
4. drink more water

The hearts and rainbow paper are more practise paintings. Use it all!

Journal Tip-in (privacy and art can work together)

FROM FACEBOOK: This two page spread is a "hot mess"! It's raw and unpractised and though there's no sense of form or order, it's dear to my heart. In 2007 at a conference I dared to ask The Lord, "what do you think of me?" His response (through a prophetic leader) came in the form of many verses: Song of Songs 1:8a, 1:15, 2:10-13, 4:9-10, 5:2b, 7:1a I smiled my way through this page and felt I really wanted to write it all down as it sticks in my mind and heart best that way. Last night "the time of singing has come" especially encouraged me. It feels like I'm coming out of my season of surviving into a season of thriving!

Documented Faith and Illustrated Faith working hand in hand

For future journal pages, I've doodled some weather icons. In case I need fillers or want to make particular note of a weather trend. I think I'll be interested to look back.

Documented Faith 2015 Introduction

Three posts in less than a week? I guess I have a lot to share ;)
I want to show you my progress on my Documented Faith (DF) planner. I joined an online community run by Stephanie Ackerman. We get a word of the month to focus on and weekly verses to study and pray over. There's a lot of latitude to make it your own and I've explored on Pinterest many pages from the sister group Documented LIFE. I've explored Stephanie's blog for inspiration and in the end I'm just winging it. I want my planner to be a mini journal of sorts, a beginner's version of an art journal, a place to remember what God has done and is doing and a creative outlet that has some daily function. I think it's going to be a collection of "me" on paper. I'm loving it already.

First I prepared my planner with suggested washi taped edges. Then I made monthly tabs with labels I cut into circles. I sewed on a happy scrappy house on the cover (yes, with my sewing machine).

Next I did a few pages inside.  Happy New year page - more painting tidbits and the date circles as inspired by this lady's pages.  My contact page resulted in wanting to use my practise paintings and needing a cover up for the stitching from the cover. Finally a few family pics. I followed Stephanie's instructions for printing little pics from iPhoto. It worked great and I'm sure I'll be using this technique a lot over the year. Alberta or bust packing list - colouring page inspiration from here. 

Stephanie posted the list of words for each month and suggested we use these month at a glance pages in the beginning of the Moleskine (a suggested planner, but NOT required). I realized after I posted this on Instagram that I made an error and that January's word is TRUTH not trust, but I'm using both hand in hand. We can know truth, but we need to trust in that truth. 

I've seen on Facebook groups and Pinterest and on blogs that I follow, that people have been choosing a focus word for the year. OLW has in-depth details, but I'm not following a specific group or project to go with this. I am praying that God will show me more of what this word means for me this year. FIGHT. This word came to me for a few reasons. At the end of last year, David and I went for prayer after church and the gentleman who prayed for us prayed that we would get our FIGHT back. I'd said many times last year that I was tired of just surviving and wanted to thrive. I think it's something I need to FIGHT for. This is just the starting point and I'm excited to see where this goes.

So, week one's verse was Jeremiah 29:11 This is a favourite verse of mine and I was happy to journal it in my Bible as I hadn't done it yet. (The beauty of DF is that is works hand in hand with Illustrated Faith aka Bible journaling).

Here's my week one at a glance. The right side is a tip-in. The TRUTH image is from Stephanie and I journaled under it. On the left there is a Bible verse on a mini tip-in that I wanted to remember as it was the focus verse from the sermon on Sunday and wouldn't fit in the space I had left. I just used washi tape. I've been keeping track of the temperature (it's not necessarily the temperature that lasts all day, just whatever is listed when I look it up online - just a general idea) it's been crazy cold the last few days -40, -45, -33 (I always use the windchill temp. because that's what you feel). This is celsius and for reference, -40 is the same in celsius and fahrenheit. "Stupid cold" as my friend says.

Opening up the tip-in reveals, in the middle, our verse of the week and underneath in another tip-in (it was how I chose to make it all fit) is a declaration that was read at our church this week. I'm waiting to find out the source to share with you, but they had print-outs to take home and I wanted to keep it and re-read it often. The picture on top of the tip-in was a free colouring page offered up by a lady on my Bible journaling FB page. I coloured it with watercolour pencils. On the right is a quote from the sermon by one of our pastors, John Mickelfield. He preaches the best inspirational messages for the new year! This sermon isn't posted online yet, but here's the link to the sermon main page and it should be listed soon.

"The Covenant of Purpose" - I'll share more in detail when I get the information/permission if you're interested

UPDATE: Rick Warren wrote this declaration and led his congregation in declaring it for the first time on their church's 25th anniversary. You can read an article about it here.

Here's how the little tip-in flips out.

It's busy, it's messy, it's full of nuggets and it represent me. So glad to be a part of this journey.

Just Because...

My last post seemed a bit on the heavy and I didn't mean it to be, but I've been thinking about 2014 (still) and I thought I'd throw in some silly and just because favourites of 2014.

• I was introduced to a few new movies and my favourite one was definitely The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - I watched it twice one evening after another when I was first introduced and have watched it several times since. My David even bought us the soundtrack. So good! My favourite scene is the shark scene! I laughed so hard and still do every time.

• We camped overnight with the littles last summer - I don't think I like camping anymore. I'm good with a warm bed shared only with my husband. I'm okay with my sense of adventure being different than it used to be. 

• Bible journaling and Documented Faith have brought me into a place of self discovery in art and I'm loving every minute of it! 

• A group of my girlfriends have been chatting throughout the holidays via Facebook messenger (it actually began in the beginning of December) and I love these girls more everyday! I am so blessed to have such great community here! Its real and funny and crazy and honest and encouraging and I love to hear my phone ping at any and every hour! 

• Our weekly tradition of pajama van has been invaluable to me and has made my littles amazing road trip travellers! This might make us sound like crazy mean parents, but on the trip home from holidays, David was the only one to leave the van (to fill up with gas once) from Moose Jaw, SK to home (Winnipeg, MB). That's about 400 miles or 640 kilometres! The day before, the older littles got out of the van once for a bathroom break and that was almost the same distance. I take for granted how well they travel, but I think it's because we drive 1-2 hours at a time every week. Some days we go for a extra 45 minute-1 hour drive just because. David and I have always loved going for a drive together and now we take the whole family and hope they love it or learn to just as much as we do.

• Hannah's first year went by so fast! Phew! It's like I blinked and it was gone. I'm trying not to miss anything and like Jesus' mother,  Mary,  I'm treasuring all these things in my heart.

• Being an artist wasn't my only discovery last year. I'm so glad to look back and see some character growth. That's especially encouraging when I feel stuck in the SAHM mom rut.

• I've grown to really enjoy Instagram and I post there almost daily. Sometimes I forget that I have anything to blog about because I've already posted about it on Instagram. 

• Last year's parties were fun and I'm pondering what to do this year. Any ideas you've been itching to try?

I think this should be all for my 2014 musings. I will give you a quick rundown on our road trip soon.