What to do when our perspective fails us....

Our pastor shared this thought during his sermon last Sunday, 

and it has been a beacon of hope for many I have talked with this week...

Sometimes we cannot see our lives clearly, and that is when we get worried or feel that maybe God has forgotten us, but we must remember the message here...and when we cannot see His hand clearly, we can know that when our perspective does become clear again, that He has been there working all along!

Joining with my "In the Studio" creative friends here...

and

Faithfilled Fridays here.

Another Project Peek...

Sweet Tweener has always liked white tigers...she chose this kit several years ago, 

and I have always worked on it during our summer break...

Top: Close-up of my work; Bottom: What it will look like finished...

 Another look at my "in progress" work...almost 2/3 of the way done, I think...

Summer is here...and a little peek of ONE project going on here...

I've been focusing a little more on my art, and my family's art, lately...I have a big cross-stitch project going because it will go into sweet tweener's room redo scheduled for the last half of the summer...a little peek at that tomorrow!

I also have some Scriptural studies that I have been working on...so will be sharing more with those beginning next week...

This is some of my son's art work...I have been working at getting his images world wide web ready...you can see he has a definite style...soon we should have an online shop open for prints...

He's been clever with his watermark and name (his name is David).  The acronym his name forms is : Dynamic Artistic Visual Expressions...perfect, right!

What have you been doing so far this summer?

Reflections...

Man...
Created in His image.
An exact representation of God...
That is the meaning of the word "likeness"...
The Crown of Creation - all the colors, the universe, water and earth, the kingdoms of all living things, sun and moon and stars and sky - all put in place; each day rising in a glorious crescendo of color and vitality - awakening to the Presence of the Creator ---
And being rebirthed, restored, renewed,
Each day when we reach forth and touch the depth of His Love ---
We become His reflection once again...
by Cindy Fort 2013

An original photograph was processed in Corel, then Photoshop, adding a layer of Kim Klassen's texture "Peony" set at divide.  Come see more lovely photos, especially florals and still life at Texture Tuesday here.

Happy Father's Day!

There is nothing as strong as gentlenss;

nothing as gentle as real strength.

St. Francis de Sales

See also "A Letter from Your Heavenly Father"

from Father's Love Letter

"New Creation" creativity...butterflies to print for projects...

A harvest of souls...

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 
2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB

This butterfly printable can be found here

I grew up in a church that used many symbols to convey the truth of the Scripture.  One such symbol was that of the butterfly, which symbolized the new birth; a new creature/identity/person was formed when the Holy Spirit indwelt our hearts - just as a new creature - able to fly -  emerges from the cocoon of the old caterpillar...

- PLUS -

 I love old books and projects made with text...so of course I had to love this when I saw it on pinterest.

Download a digital copy here (without the watermark)

 


I couldn't find the butterfly printable, though,
so I decided to make my own, as I had collected quite a few butterfly images over the years.  Sweet Tweener wanted to learn some more photoshop techniques this week, too.  You can see what we created to the right ....

These butterflies are about twice as large as the ones in the Pinterest example - so I am glad to have both sets available, now!













A lot of times the pages of an old novel are smaller than the standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch printer sheet, and most printers can handle that...but the sheet of butterflies I made was a full sheet size, and I didn't want to change that...so to print I used spray adhesive and sprayed a sheet of copy paper, then smoothed my book pages onto the adhesive.  This brand is just what our local craft store had - it only has to hold while going through the printer, so nothing needs to be perfect...I just made sure the adhesive was covered...(that way it wouldn't stick while going through the printer)...

All printed out and now it is time to start snipping! 

Here they are, ready to go...some on Japanese text, some on an old dictionary page...

Can't wait to use them!  Stay tuned to see the finished project!

Joining with my "In the Studio" friends...

7 things you find in "The Shadow of His Wings"

When times seem hard, 

when you want to stay in bed with the covers over your head,

when you want to hide...

...hide in the shadow of His wings...

Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, For my soul takes refuge in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.                                                                                 Psalm 57:1

here you will find:

a covering 

protection

a hiding place

shelter

refuge

a place of singing

joy

There is a progress under His wings....we run there in a time of neediness, of vulnerability, perhaps even fear...then as we find comfort and refuge, in other words, we feel safe once again...we return to a state of joy, perhaps as we step out in song and praise, expressing our confidence in our Lord.

I have felt this way - haven't you?

Scripture References for the list (in order):  Psalm 91:4, Luke 13:34, Psalm 61:4, Psalm 17:8, Psalm 36:7, Psalm 63:7