Faith Art Journaling Tutorial: Oh How He Loves Us

Have you heard this song?

I love the David Crowder Band and I can't get this song out of my head.

Love.

If you are stuck and don't know what to journal, 
put on some music, start singing, and journal song lyrics.


Materials: 

An old, hardback book

gesso

acrylic craft paints

brushes

patterned papers

wax paper

a super cute paper-snatching monkey
{not for sale}

Mod Podge

Sharpies!


Let's start!

1. Prep your pages.

I like to use old hardback books for my journals, but sometimes the pages are too thin, 
so I glue them together with Mod Podge a

2. Create your background. 

Choose 2-3 colors for your background. 
Crumple up a paper towel. Dip it in the paint, then drag it across the page.
Do this with several different colors, 
but don't blend them too much or the color will get muddy. 
Use your fingers to blend the color, too, leaving part of the page exposed. 

When the background dries, 

paint your text on your page with gesso or white paint.

3. Catch a climbing, paper-snatching monkey

4. Add color to your letters
with your fingers.
(just to make it more fun)

5. Add Paper

Cut up patterned paper in the shapes of letters.
Glue them to your page with Mod Podge.
Add another layer of smaller paper on top of the first layer.


6. Add Details with Sharpie

Doodle the details to finish the page. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! 

Click here for similar tutorials.

Listening

I couldn't think of one little word this year,

but, after reading this book

I knew I wanted to be more intentional

about being quiet and listening.

I started carrying this big drawing journal with

 me to church. I've been asking God to

open my ears to help me hear what I need to hear

open my eyes to help me see His truth clearly

open and soften my heart to help me accept His truth

and change me.

and I've tried to choose just one word or phrase

or idea from the sermon and doodle it each week, so maybe it'll stick.

some weeks I do, some weeks don't.

As I was flipping through my journal, looking for a free page

I was so thankful to have a record of God's truth.

A reminder of God's fierce faithfulness to me.

He always shows up. Every single time.

Even when I think he didn't... turns out, he did.

³⁸ For I am convinced

that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 

  ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God  

that is in Christ Jesus

our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

{Doodles with Jack}

Trusting God

I've felt overwhelmed for the past months

and I've blamed it on having a baby and going back to work,

which has all contributed, but, it's more than that.

A while back I wrote this post about feeling like

 I really needed to be home with my boys, being their momma,

and ever since then I've been planning and controlling and scheming

ways to get to stay home with them, to work part time,

 to share a teaching contract, for the next 30 years.

And not have to work full time.

But I've also been  freaking out about it on the inside.

freaking out to the point of paralysis

so full of fear about my tomorrows that I can't even enjoy my todays.

Staying up late night trying to figure out how I can make this work,

after all, I'm a pull-yourself-by-your-bootstraps-and-make-it-happen kind of girl.

and I realized that I've been holding this thing so close to my
heart with clenched fists, afraid to give it to God.
{um, no thanks, I can figure this out on my own.}

and I just realized that my fear is me not trusting God.

Not trusting that He is good.
Not trusting that He is in control.
Not trusting that he is for me,
on my side.

and in my brain, I know the truth.

I know that God is good.
I know that He is in control.
I know that he is for me.
I know that he is on my side.
even if I don't get my way all of time.
all of these things remain true.

but I need to surrender this idol to Him.

to bring it to his feet and trust in my heart what I know in my head to be true.
This book is speaking so much truth into my life. 

It's such an encouragement.
I reminder of the truth of who God is.

...we learn to trust God in the midst of our pain, whatever form it may take.
 It doesn't matter whether our pain is trivial or traumatic, temporary or interminable.
Regardless of the nature of the circumstances,
we must learn to trust God if we would glorify God in them.

And what struck me is that trusting God is a learned behavior.

It's not natural. It's something I can get better at. But not by myself.
Learning things takes practice. Daily practice. over and over again.

And so there's hope as I practice placing my trust in God every single day.

and believeing in my heart what I know in my head to be true:

God is good. God is in control. God is for me.

Absolutely nothing can separate me from the love of Christ.

Not even myself.

 What, then, shall we say in response to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—
how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:31-32

 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
 neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:37-39

Today:
We returned home from our beach vacation & collapsed.

Now we're doing all of the coming home work of unpacking &
 laundry & settling back in to life.

I love going away, but even more than that, I love coming home.

What I want to remember this December...

The first day of advent.
This is what I want to remember,
to focus on
every.
single.
day.
this December...

how deeply
and fully
and completely
I am loved
by my Jesus.

That's what this
whole, big Christmas deal
is about---
the love of Christ.

Now, what exactly does that
look like?

I guess that's
part
of
the
journey...

Christmas, ready or not...

Okay, okay, okay... so, now that it's after Thanksgiving, I'm officially really excited about Christmas. Yesterday Jack took a nap and we put up the tree. He came down the stairs and has been absolutely obsessed ever since. So sweet. "Wow!" he says, over and over and over... Wow.

We decorated the tree & the rest of the house, put up stockings & snowflakes, made cookies & watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. We even went to Wal Mart & bought a little tricycle forJack. He tried it out in the store. His feet barelytouched the pedals, but he was on cloud 9.

Breath in, breathe out. Okay. I'm ready. Ready or not... here it comes...

Holiday traditions to start with our family this year:

Advent devotionals with the wreath & the calendar...
I bought an advent devotional book a fewyears back, actually when I was single, and thought, I want to do this with my family one day... I was reading through it, and it'sreally, really cool. Not just for kids, but for the whole family to refocus our hearts on Jesus during such a crazy time. You read a verse from the Bible, read the short commentary, answer a question, and sing a Christmas song. so sweet. I'll let you know how it goes...

Go to the Living Nativity at Horizon
Every year we say we're going to go, and it gets so busy that I'm exhausted by the time it comes around. But this year Jack will love it. We're going. For sure.

I want to start painting houses for a little village. Each year everyone paints a house and our village grows and grows. Love it...

I think that's it. Remember Erin: Keep it simple. Focus on Jesus. Keep expectations low. Repeat to yourself, "You are not Superwoman. You are not Superwoman.You are not Superwoman." Breathe in, breathe out.

Faith, Hope, Love Series

This is my faith, hope, love series. I used a brayer forthe first time to create the background. I got the idea from Kelly Rae Roberts book Taking Flight. She has great tips for technique and inspiration.