Thankful Thursday!!

Thankful Thursdays is a new meme from His Kingdom Come.

Each Thursday I will list 5 things I am thankful for from the previous week.  So here goes!

1. I am thankful that God has put these 4 wonderful women in my life and that we have the same vision for His Kingdom Come!

2.  That I got home safely from Florida (I'm not a good flyer).

3. My son and his baseball team for finally winning a game after weeks and weeks of losing. They all have had such an amazing attitude and have never let "losing" get them down one bit!! They are  a wonderful group of boys!!

4. The amazing group of women in my Bible Study!! I couldn't ask for a more Godly group of women around me who are always willing to pray for me, encourage me and allow me to share my struggles openly with absolutely no judgement.

5. My daughter who continues to impress me with her strength, beauty and resolve!!

Come and join us at His Kingdom Come for free faithart projects and community with other amazing people!!

Peace and Blessings,

Shonna

Sunday Mornings 2...I'm a guest Artist!!

I am so excited to announce that I will be a guest artist in the new online Faithart Journal class, "Sunday Mornings 2" with Mixed Media artist Mindy Lacefield.

Last year, I took Mindy's  first class "Sunday Mornings" and God really used the class to speak to me. I had been lukewarm in my walk with Him for some time and He was pursuing me to put my faith and art into action for Him. Mindy's class really brought me closer to God and helped me to completely surrender my life to him once and for all. Soon after the class was over, I felt God calling me to offer my own online faith journaling class, "Kingdom Come" (available here). My class "Kingdom Come" prompted Diane Marra to get in touch with me about being part of a group of Christian women who wanted to start a Faith Based Art Community. That started my journey with His Kingdom Come and being part of the wonderful Foundation Team!! Isn't it great how God works in our lives??

When I found out that Mindy was offering "Sunday Mornings 2," and was looking for a few guest artists, I had to contact her. Mindy was already aware of how her first class affected my life and I'm happy to say she was extremely excited to have me teach a lesson in her course. I highly recommend this class. Mindy has a very unique style that is loose, intuitive and playful. She really has a way of helping students loosen up and get in touch with how to have fun with art (like we did in childhood).

To learn more about how to sign up for the class (and to view my artist profile), visit this link (Early Bird special is $19 if you sign up before April 20).

Peace and Blessings

 

New Online Class...Faithart 101!

On Saturday February 28^th,  His Kingdom Come is launching its first collaborative class prepared by the 5 members of the Foundation Team.  Faithart 101 has been developed for beginners to Faith Journaling.   The 5 classes cover basic journaling information, how to translate scripture into art, the basics of drawing people, using scrapbooking techniques and mixed media techniques.

Each of the 5 classes can be purchased individually or all 5 can be bought together with a discount.  The individual classes are $8 each but you can buy all 5 together for $35.  PayPal will sort out the currency for you if you live outside the United States.    Once you have purchased your classes and have been added to the class site you can work through the classes at your own pace.  You will have unlimited access to the classes you have purchased.

The Foundation Team consists of Bernice, Mary, Shonna, Merri and Diane and each day this week you can find out more about each of us on our personal blogs.  We will also tell you about the class we are teaching as part of Faithart 101.

Bernice at Newly Creative on Sunday 22^nd Feb.

Mary at Me, With My Head in the Clouds on Monday 23^rd Feb.

Shonna at Twisted Figures on Tuesday 24^th Feb.

Merri at Connecting Faith and Creativity on Wednesday 25^th Feb.

Diane at Adore Him Creations on Thursday 26^th Feb.

My class is "God's Girls." In this class I will go over a simple 3 question Bible Study (created by Anne Graham-Lotz) and how I create a faithart journal page based on that study. Part of the faithart journal pages will incorporate step by step instructions on how I draw a simple girl (PDF included) and then watercolor her. We will finish the page with some doodling and lettering.

Let me tell you a bit about myself:

 I live in San Diego, Ca. I have been married for 14 years (Dan) and have two children Reeana (my stepdaughter) who is 21 and in college to become a Sonographer and my son Jordan who is 9. I became a Christian when I was 18 when a group of friends took me to church. I remember we were studying the book of Revelations and after about a month of going, it was like my eyes were opened and it all started to make sense. I have had some ups and downs in my walk with the Lord. But he has always been relentless, patient and faithful in his pursuit of my soul. In the past year I have re-dedicated my life to him and he is working through me for His glory every day.

How does your faith impact your creativity? I can only create things that mean something to me, so my faith always seems to show up in one capacity or another (even when I wasn't walking closely with Him). This is how I know that even when I was far away, he was always near.

What is your preferred medium of creativity?  Mixed Media/Watercolor/Stylized Portraits  

What appeals to you about this? (Mixed Media):I get bored very easily and with mixed media there is always something new and different you can play around with. (Watercolor): Lately I have fallen in love with watercolor. I love how unpredictable it is and I really feel the results are just beautiful. (Stylized Portraits): Drawing portraits is my first love! In 2007 when I picked up a paintbrush for the first time, it was because of a portrait of a girl, I saw online. The artist was Emily Martin of The Black Apple. I just loved her style and was intrigued on how to draw girls the way she did, so off I went on my journey to learn all I could.

                                                                   The work of Emily Martin:

Who is your favorite person in the Bible and why? Of course Jesus is my favorite person in the Bible, he is the one I love most but if I had to pick someone else, I would have to say Paul. Who doesn't totally love Paul's story! A man who was dead set on persecuting Christians and then ended up becoming the one who wrote most of the New Testament. What a conversion story! Paul, in his love for God, went through so much to spread the Gospel and encourage churches through his letters. The persecutor became the persecuted, but Paul never wavered one bit. His encounter with Jesus was so powerful, he lived and died to tell others of that power. Yes, definitely Paul. 

What Bible verse do you regularly rely on? Lately, it is Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." My Logos365 is "Trust" so I have been meditating on that word for months now. I have created a few faithart pages that reflect that verse.

Join us on February 28th in taking Faithart101 at His Kingdom Come and learn more  about Faithjournaling.  If you are not already a member of the His Kingdom Come community then please sign up.  You can purchase the class or classes today.

Individual Classes are $8 each.
Full 5 Class Bundle is $35

Here is a little promo video showing my portion of the class!! All of the classes are going to be excellent and I highly suggest purchasing the bundle (it is a great deal at only $35).

Join us on February 28th in taking Faithart101 at His Kingdom Come and learn more  about Faithjournaling.  If you are not already a member of the His Kingdom Come community then please join our Creative Christian Community!  

Check out Merri's blog post at Connecting Faith & Creativity on Wednesday, February 25th.

Peace and Blessings,

Shonna

Continuing with the Theme of Love!!

The TMD verse this week is from John 13:34-35

I used watercolors (which I have totally been into lately) for most of the piece. The clouds and church door are acrylics. I used charcoal and a blending stump to shade everything and an Ultra-thin Sharpie to write the verse. 

Peace and Blessings,

Love God, Love People

This weeks' TMD devotion/verse is about the greatest commandment of all according to Jesus. It is found in Matthew 22:37-39. The tax collector Nicodemus asked Jesus what the greatest commandment of all was and this is what He said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself."- So basically...Love God and Love People. The first part is easy, but man is that second part a hard one!! People are so hard to love sometimes!! You can just ask my family how hard I am to love around the end of the month and they will give you an ear full. LOL!! But in all seriousness, this is what I try and think about on a daily basis...not easy, but when you think about what He went through for His love for me, I think it is the least I can do.

This week had me thinking about the song "Man of Sorrow" by Hillsong United.  I also saw an amazing painting on Pinterest that really inspired me, unfortunately there was no artist's information, so I cannot give them credit. So here is what I came up with for this week.

Join us here: His Kingdom Come

And here is the song "Man of Sorrow" by Hillsong United

Logos365...My Word for the year...

I think picking this word for the year is really going to kick my butt!! I have issues with trust in several areas of my life. Sometimes I try and control situations because I don't trust and on the other hand I am sometimes too trusting of people I shouldn't be. Being this way, (I am discovering) is a very dangerous mindset to have. But what I am learning is I can never go wrong with trusting my Lord. Being a Christian isn't easy, just as life isn't easy, but there is a peace in being a believer in Christ that I cannot explain. Knowing that there is someone who has been there, through everything I have ever struggled with and been tempted with. And not only has He been through it, He has been through much much worse. Oh, yes I am definitely on a journey of trusting Him and I have picked this word so He can teach me, and teach me He is.

On another note, have you heard about Bible Journaling? It is such a beautiful thing that I first heard of through Shanna Noel's Facebook Group (Journaling Bible Community). There are bibles you can get that have wide margins for taking notes, but leave it up to Christian artists and crafters, to take that concept one step further and make art in those margins. This group has over 10K members in it and people are actually getting into the word, making art and memorizing verses in the process. How fabulous is this? One of the artists I have been following is the very talented Jann Gray. She does amazing things in her Bible and I am a huge fan. Well she is offering two classes online about this very subject and showing wonderful techniques on how to bible journal and how to get started bible journaling. She calls it "Illuminated Journaling" and there are two classes that start on Feb. 15. They are only $20 and I think that is really reasonable. I signed up for them both. Here is her link if you are interested in checking them out. Fun stuff!!

TMD Theme for February...Love

Week 1 for February of Take Me Deeper is about one of the most popular verses in the Bible. John 3:16-For God so loved the world, He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

I created the background first and then drew my girlie on watercolor paper. I added a secret journaling tag and placed it under the heart (the heart was attached using pop dots, but not in the area where I wanted to place the tag).