For Katrina

Prize Piece

Katrina, most of the paper-cut piece is done now for you. I thought that you probably like colors more than black and white, so I decided to do your piece in the style like I did for the 12 Days of Christmas ones, with printed papers.

Elements cut out of scrap-booking papers

The composition includes the elements that you said you liked.

A girl reading under a tree, with birds on a branch and a pony

So I did a lot of snipping...

Including individual leaves

And accenting.....

With colored pencils and pens

... to give form and expression...

....and depth.

Then gluing it all together, to make this for you:

"The Reading Tree"

You will note all the words in the papers of the elements, to carry out the reading theme

You can read the tree, too

The tree and the girl and the grass all have words.

You should get it at the end of next month, but I thought you'd like to see it before then.

Fondue and Pie

Well, Ladies, I had no time for art work today. How about you? Maria said she did some more knitting on her next socks, which I heartily cheer. She has snow piled around her little house, and knitting seems to suit that - I'd say.

I do have a couple of art things in progress, but today was Sunday family day, with one son returning in the afternoon from a trip, with Maria coming home for dinner and church, and with requests for lemon meringue pie. That was my creativity for today - plus a cheesecake with blueberries.

Dinner, by request of Thom, was fondue, with accompaniments. Stef suggested an additional small pot of "pizza fondue" with tomatoes and seasoning and such added to the cheese. It was good. For a snowy and blowy day, what is better than fondue and wine and conversation and pie?

There is piece left for you.

More Banner Designs

Seeing Crosses

This morning on my walk I was thinking about crosses (note yesterday's post) and immediately began noticing the shape all over: in fence forms, in windows, in house beams, in roads.

Latin crosses in a fence

And in windows on the community shooting house

And in construction beams on an old farmhouse

And an Andrew's Cross on the road

How might we read these cross forms in so many things? First, the purpose for them is for support, strength, stability, and  to connect small things into a larger unit. Sometimes the cross is used as a marker to direct action. Instantly we can see all sort of spiritual relevance. Just as Christ' cross saves us from sin, death and the devil, so we can see the cross form in daily life lending itself to goodness, life and God's glory. In a fence? Yes, even in a fence. Think about purposes of fences and it becomes clear. It is amazing, when we stop to look at things in relation to God and what He has told us, that everything matters. Nothing is small to God. He knows about the small cell, and the tiny mitochondria in it, and the minuscule atoms that make it up. He directs them all. He cares about them all. Why would He not put meaning in all things. You might say it is His hobby, His amusement. It is not a stretch of subjective extrapolation to see the gospel and grace in the cross forms around us. If you and I had a mind so big as His, we would want to exercise it, too. Just because ours are small we excuse our care-lessness, by saying, "I can't be bothered with everything around me and all those people" - which to some extent is true, for things not immediately in our sphere of life, but is not true for those that are. All those crosses could be our daily, on-going sermon on Christ-likeness.
Anyway, it is worth thinking about.

Greek crosses in paving stones on a parking lot

Celtic crosses on a garden gate

Tau crosses on a schoolhouse, with a Latin cross in the center

I noticed that the older the item, the more likely it would have the cross form, More contemporary structures tend to use only parallel lines, without as many crossed intersections. What does that say about technology leading us away from connections, especially our connection to our Savior; "I have means to stand on my own alone" - for a time.

It also occurred to me that cross forms are found in man-made things, not in God-made things. That is, I think, significant. Man needs the cross. God doesn't. Natural things, God-made things, don't tend to have straight lines. What lines there are tend to be curved and to radiate out from a center, or to cover an area omnipresent-ly. We know what the Center is and to whom is radiates.

Lines radiating out from a center

Man-made and God-made lines

 Ice on a frozen puddle; God-made lines

More Banner Designs

Here, by request, are some designs for Lent and Easter, and some general cross forms, if you want some more inspiration for your project. The liturgical color for Lent is purple, with black for Good Friday. The liturgical colors for Easter are white and gold.

Upper left: Maundy Thursday. Upper middle: Good Friday. Middle left: Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Holy Saturday. Bottom row, left and middle: Easter

All Easter

Various crosses and motifs

Lent and Easter

Easter. The one on the right would be suitable for a funeral, too

Easter, Good Friday and bottom edges.

Signs of Spring

March is coming in like a lamb here in Oregon.

                                      

                   

I have planted lots of bulbs during the last two fall seasons so I could enjoy this as soon as the snow melted away in the spring.

                                      

                                      

           Soon the daffodils will open, maybe in time for Easter. The tulips will follow next month.

                                      

                             This Lenten Rose (Hellebore) always blooms beautifully for Lent.

         

For several weeks now we've had many hundreds of honking geese flying over our little farm and landing for rest in the field across the road. I've never had a camera in hand to capture them in flight.

                                  

                                 A couple weeks ago I brought spring to my back porch.

          

                                        

                           Have a lovely March day, no matter whether it is lambish or lionlike!

Lent Contest

Lent CROSS

Most of us probably have mid-week Lenten services or family devotions, reading the Passion History, but we might need a nudge to put our creative energies also into meditation on the CROSS. I have been working on some cross concepts, an on-going interest of mine and also presently for seasonal use, so I am now inviting you too to make a Cross.

Contest Rules

MAKE A CROSS.
It needs to be a Lenten cross for this (not a bright cheery Easter cross), that helps you meditate on our Lord's Passion for you.

The cross needs to incorporate the colors of black and purple, the liturgical colors for this season.

The Cross can be made from anything. It can be as simple as two sticks tied together with black and purple thread, IF you are two years old and can't think of something more. For the rest of us, consider painting on crossed wood pieces,  mosaic cross (paper scraps or tile), a cross-shaped collage of pictures of Lent items (e.g.: stone, bread, rooster, rope, sword, fire, etc.), shrink plastic cross, colored toothpicks filled in a cross shape on cardboard, a cross painting on canvas, a cross assemblage of odds and ends or bottle caps, a quilted cross, embroidered cross,  a cross cake (take a picture before you eat it!), nails wired together in a cross, ribbons woven across, etched metal cross, wood joinery, a photo collection of all the cross shapes in your environment, a decorated aCROSStic, or anything you like.

When you take a picture of your cross to submit here (or e-mail to me to post), please put a piece of paper beside it with your name  in the picture. Include with your entry (separately, not in the photo) a brief statement of the Lenten significance of your work for you.

Visual Prompts of Crosses

These are from my sketchbook. Don't use the idea in the lower right (not for Lent)

Prize

All entries will  have names put in a drawing for equal chance for all .. AND, to prompt creativity more, a special prize will be given for the MOST CREATIVE CROSS, which we will vote on together.

Deadline: you have more time this time. All entries due by the Friday before Palm Sunday, which is March 18, two weeks from now.

The prize will be a special CROSS, that I had hoped to show you here now, but I have to wait for Thom's help first. Also, I hope to be able to show you Katrina's prize from the Valentine's contest soon.
And Easter is coming and will have its own contest, so save your bright colors for that. That will happen in Holy Week, a busy time, so quite easy, with eggs.
As with the last contest, at least two people need to enter for a drawing to happen.

Another sketchbook page. I will have others next time with banner ideas for Lent.

Significance

The Cross is a most remarkable symbol that God chose for the world to see His grace. It is exceedingly simple, two crossed lines, but of infinite significance that cannot be fully comprehended by the most learned and astute. It is impossible to avoid it in daily life (similar to God's choice of Water as significant for His peoples' regeneration, reminding us of our Baptism all the time), and is used in many, many applications (look at windows, for starters), and is found in everywhere. Each of these crosses points us to our Savior.

Now, for your own edification, go back and count the number of times the word CROSS (or some form of it) appears in this post.(The number is significant.)  For two weeks, let's think of crosses.

Banner Ideas

Pentecost Designs

Mary, I did some banner ideas for you today, as requested; just small sketches on my drawing pad. I wasn't sure if you meant Pentecost and Trinity (separate designs for each festival), or Pentecost with Trinity (combined themes), so I did some of each. These are mostly adaptions from my banner books. Colors can be changed as you like, of course. This gets a little tricky, to combine the themes, because Pentecost has red as its liturgical color and Trinity has green, and you don't want to use both in the same banner (thus getting a Christmas-y look). I think some of these done in quilt fabrics with quilt techniques would be lovely. They would be especially pretty embellished, and maybe with enhanced bottom edges in special shapes.

Upper left: wind and cloven tongues of fire. Upper right and lower left: Pentecost and Trinity combined.

Left: Pentecost. Right: combined. Words could be added.

Left: Pentecost. Right: Trinity.

Pentecost

Left and right: Trinity. Middle: Pentecost

Pentecost

Left and right: Pentecost, could be done in various quilt fabrics. Middle: funeral; the center is the heavenly city on a hill, with the stream of living water below, and the light of the Son above, with optional words.

Funeral

Here are a couple more ideas.

Left and right: funeral. Middle: Trinity

If any of these appeal to you, or spark another idea, let me know and I can make a larger, more detailed drawing for actual use.

Tea

While we today had pouring rain, then thunder and hail, then snow, Mary said she had a fine morning for tea in her garden with Mom. How very nice, Mary; I may have to join you there until spring comes here.

Mary's side garden

Homework...

...for Color Theory class.

                                                                          Triads

                                      

                                                     Leah chose to use the primary triad

                                      

                                         And Sarah chose to use the secondary triad colors 

                                       

Sarah also likes to crochet and this week made this adorable monkey from a pattern she found on Facebook.  She used the yarn she had at hand which happened to be blue and it's great!

                                                  

                                                     (And she took such a cute photo of it!)