Prayer Doodle

The year of 2012 seems to be the year of PRAYER for me.  I have felt drawn into the heart of prayer and desire to spend more time praying.  However, in those quiet moments, with head bowed and all is quiet, I often find my mind wandering off.  What do I need to teach today?  What is on my to-do list?  What am I fixing for supper?  And on and on...  Do you find yourself in this same place?

That is why I was so excited when I stumbled across this post at Mechelle Designs.  She wrote about a book called Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth.  I can't wait to pick up a copy, but it appears that the author combines my two of my favorite things - drawing and praying. 

Praying in Color explains how doodling your prayers can help you to spend more time in prayer and to stay focused.  You don't have to be a great artist.  Anyone can doodle or even chicken scratch a few marks on paper.  I gave it a try yesterday.  I doodled away as I wrote down the names of those I was praying for that day.  With each stroke of the pen, I would pray for their needs, their healing, and their walk with the Lord.

My prayer doodle ended up being much more elaborate than I expected; yet, it was so nice to have my mind stay focused on God and the needs of others.  Not every doodle needs to look like the one above. I probably wouldn't have time!  For example, this morning, I just used black ink and a bunch of shapes and lines.  Nothing much, but it was a great tool, especially, if you are a kinesthetic learner.

You might also want to check out the website for Praying in Color.  Blessings!

Fondue and Fun

Our family has decided to host a Fondue party at our house at the end of every month for our friends and church members.  Pretty cheesy, huh :0)!  So I sketched out little invitations for everyone with my copic markers. The cute lettering comes from a doodle class that I took from Homegrown Hospitality.

Each month we will be inviting over a new group of people.  Hopefully, we can be a blessing and establish a sense of community.  As we say in our congregation, "mishpachah" (family - Hebrew). 

One other cute idea for this evening, that I stumbled upon in the Taste of Home magazine, is to have a tablecloth that our guests can sign with wash-out fabric markers.  After the guests leave, their signatures or greetings are hand-stitched and the ink is washed out.  What a fun way to remember all those visited our house on Fondue night! I will have to take pictures.

Sketching with Copics

I'm getting a little behind with my illustrated journal.  I will quickly sketch something out in pencil from my day, but then it takes me a while to go back and add some color.  Here is one from a few weekends ago.

I am beginning to use my Copic Markers for the coloring.  I don't have very many, but I would like to learn more about them and get a little bit better with blending the colors.  So, I was pretty excited when I learned that two Copic certification classes where being held near me in a few weeks.  I signed up and I am ready to go!

Instilling a Love for Drawing in Kids

This weekend I participated in a Project Fair for kids.  This was a time for the kids in our community to come and explore different hobbies, crafts, and life-skills.  I hosted a table for drawing and sketching.  It was a lot of fun.  I tried to have some make-it and take-it projects for them to do. Most of the kids would tentatively step up to the table, very unsure of themselves, but then end up sticking around for quite awhile just doodling away.  I wish I had someone to encourage me in my drawing like this when I was younger.  I might have stuck with it instead of waiting until I was much older to give it a try once again.

I think the best part was watching some of the parents sit down and draw with their kids or even just on their own.  It was a great day, and hopefully, some of the kids will choose to continue on with drawing.

Painting a Family Canvas

We moved from Alaska about 6 years ago to the Midwest.  However, if you were to look at the decor in our house, you would never have guessed it.  We still have picturesque scenes of log cabins, moose, and mountains adorning our walls.  I figured it was about time to take our Alaska pictures down and embrace the place we now call home.  A place where the wind frequently blows across the prairies.

I didn't want to just throw any old picture up on the wall since all our previous ones held so much meaning for us.  So, for my birthday this past weekend, I thought it would be fun to have the whole family paint a large canvas to hang up in our living room.  Not knowing where to begin, I stumbled across this online class by Donna Downy at Simply Me.

To start out, I gathered all the ingredients, our four kids (ages 3 to 14), and my husband.  Grab your brushes and let the fun begin!

Here is my 3 year old, taking first dibs.  I really did want them all to paint away with free abandon...well, to some degree.  If you can see, my hand is just inches (centimeters) away to help steady the brush (just in case).  She did beautifully!

Next...

I like the way it turned out.  It was pretty good for our first canvas.  There are probably a few things that I would have done differently.  One of them would have been to take better pictures of the process and the finished piece, but here you go....

It is now proudly hanging on one of our walls in the living room.  We were all so happy with the way that it turned out that we even rearranged our furniture to center around it.  That is a big deal in our house because once we set the furniture down, that is where it stays.  We have moved over 13 times in the past 17 years, so we move things as little as possible. 

This was a great memory maker, and it will always be a cherished birthday gift.

Floral Borders

One of my favorite illustrators is Tasha Tudor.  I remember the first time I stumbled across her children's books and was immediately inspired.  At the time, I was selling used children's books online, but I could not part with her beautifully illustrated books filled with quaint scenes of flowers, animals, and children.  Each time I found one of her books, it was placed on my book shelf instead of the 'For Sale' stack.

The carefully drawn floral borders around her illustrated scenes fascinated me.  Each border had its own unique details and was overflowing with greenery, flowers, and ribbons.  So, in Tasha Tudor like-fashion, I thought I would sketch a little scene inspired by her floral borders.