Tuesday, September 21, 2010

update with new Edit

Hello Precious People.  
I have not been able to post much of late.  Dr. says I have pneumonia.  It is seriously cutting in on my crafting time! 
The nights are hard, but I want you to know that Jesus is my healer and I am trusting Him with this.  And I am thankfully very much at peace on the inside, even in the midst of this struggle. 
He is ever so close to me.
  Thankfully I have enough energy to still be creating something, so I am drawing more rubber and digital images for Whimsy!
 And, I'm really excited about my upcoming rubber release at Whimsy!  It is in a style you may not have seen me do before - I'm not saying what! (heh-heh, teasing)   Sneak peeks begin showing up by the Whimsy Design Team on Th Sept. 30 and continue until the release on Sunday October 3rd. 
I hope to get back to crafting soon.  I'm having serious Card Stock, Copic, Spellbinder, Cuttlebug and Satin Ribbon withdrawals!!  ;-)  heh-heh  naw, but I do miss the fun.
Bless you big time!


EDIT ADDED:
I am on the mend!  When I woke up today it felt like the worst is over.  Still coughing a lot, and weak, but much better than I was. Thank you so much Dear blogging friends who sent well wishes and prayers.  God is good to me! 

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Whimsy Back in Business!

After a few days of being temporarily down, the Whimsy Stamp Store is up and running again. Thanks for your patience while they worked behind the scenes to restore the site!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Whimsy

Hey There peeps, just letting you know that if you are trying to shop at the Whimsy store, the site is temporarily down.  Please be patient while Denise and her tech support work behind the scenes to remedy the situation.  We all hope it will be back up soon.
Please go to theWhimy challenge blog or Denise's blog if you want more detailed info.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Oil Painting: Ice Wings

I have an oil painting to share with you today!  I do other forms of art besides cards, and I have decided to begin sharing some of it with you here. 
Oil painting is something I just began practicing.  I had done a couple other practice paintings before this one, but this is the first one that turned out!
I actually did it during the worship service at the church I attend.  I am really lucky that they let me paint during the service!  It is a way of expressing my love for God, just like singing is, and so they welcome that expression.  I sit at a table at the back of the sanctuary and paint there.  
I "saw" this butterfly, in my mind's eye and it looked like there was frost and snowflakes all around it.  It kind of blended into the blue-ish white background of the frost and snow.  I thought, strange, as butterflies do not fly in winter months, at least not up north where I live!  In my imagination, this butterfly's wings looked so frosty and beautiful.  I did my best to capture what I saw in my mind on the canvas here.  The dove above it just sort of "happened" as I was painting it.  One white stroke looked like  wing, and so I went with it. 
I think it is a picture of the impossible - a butterfly alive and well and flying in the winter months in freezing temperatures.  Makes me think of "With God, all things are possible!" And that we can "fly" and be free, no matter which season of life we are in, when we are empowered by the Spirit of God ( as represented by the dove). 
Enjoy. 

Monday, September 6, 2010

God In My Heart

Hello Precious People out there in blogland!
If you are one of my regular visitors (bless you, hugs to you!) then you have come to expect to see a card in every one of my posts.  Well, that is about to change, slightly!
 I have decided to start sharing my heart with you, as that was my original intention for this blog, and why I came up with the title, "Crissy's Art and Heart".  I have shared a lot of my art with you, but not a lot of what is in my heart.
 So from now on, sprinkled in amongst my regular postings which do display my hand drawn images and hand made cards, you will also find my personal heartfelt beliefs, musings and teachings based on my relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has taken up residence within me!
  It will be your choice whether or not you tune in to these posts.  I will not be offended if you don't.  This is first and foremost an act of love and worship to my King, whom I adore.  So in a way, it is really between me and Him.   But at the same time, I am making it public, and inviting you to see what He has done within me.  And if you as my reader are encouraged by that, then He has used it to bless you.  So that will be a double blessing for me!

God is showing me lately just how close He is to me.  I mean, it is incredible, really!
Previously, and really for years, I had bought into so many lies.
 I would look at this person or that person, and based on what I saw them doing, I would assume  that they must be "so close to the Lord".  As an example, I would observe these missionaries who had given up the comforts of the western world to go into the poorest of countries just to help the poor, build orphanages, build schools, feed the hungry, etc.  I automatically judged them as knowing God more than I did, and loving Him more than I was.
I was judging  myself, based on the works I saw them doing, in direct contrast to the works I was doing (or not doing).
And then to make it worse, I began to become very conscious of my own sins.  I mean, I would hear this inner voice hundreds of times a day, reminding me of this old sin, that old mistake, and speaking negatively to me, about me.  I agreed with those thoughts, and felt so burdened!
On top of that, I accepted as truth some misguided teachings by some well-meaning Christians which only re-inforced these ungodly beliefs.  Unfortunately, some people teach that we have to do this, stop doing that, and cut this off and cast that out or we can't call ourselves Christians.  They tend to put the whole emphasis on the works that we do, rather than the completed work of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So basically, I had become very burdened with thoughts of my own failings, my own sins, my own shortcomings.  And I felt this tremendous pressure to measure up to a standard that seemed farther and farther away from the realm of possibility.
I was basically living without joy and without any peace all the time.
Fear began to permeate every part of my life.  I had periods in my life where taking a normal breath was impossible.  This would go on for weeks and even months at a time.  I just could not take a deep breath or sigh when I needed to.  I had so much trouble falling asleep, because there was so much tension in my chest and so much pressure there.  I seriously had forgotten how to breathe, and relaxing was impossible. Needless to say, I was pretty uncomfortable a great deal of the time, and felt quite desperate.

Well.
Jesus had great compassion on me.
In my searching to find some answers as to why this was happening, I decided the one thing I needed was Him, and Him alone.
I guess you could say He began to stir up a hunger in me for the Truth.  I knew in my head that Jesus was the answer.  But I knew also that I was missing something, because I was not experiencing the peace that was supposed to be mine as a believer.  Nor the joy, nor the love for that matter.  And so I went on a quest to find out how to find Him.

Lo and behold
He showed me where He was..
People!  He was in my heart all along!

 I had long ago given my heart and life to Him in faith, believing that Jesus had died for me, forgiven me, and had made me His own.
But I had slipped into agreeing with and accepting ungodly lies about who I was to Him and who He is to me and what my calling really was.  And these ungodly beliefs were preventing me from seeing the Truth about where He was - which was in my heart.
The Gospel in the simplest definition of the word means, "good news".  I had forgotten how good this news really is.  But God has broken this evil mindset I had been walking under, and now, I am seeing the truth, almost as if for the very first time:
All my sins are paid for.
Past, present and future.
Sin is out of the picture now, because of the shed blood of Jesus.   I no longer have to be afraid of punishment or judgement of my sins.  Jesus took them away and cast them away from me as far as the east is from the west (which is a never ending distance).
Because of what Jesus did, I am now a child of God, and will be His for eternity.  I never have to fear God rejecting me.
In fact, I am Loved as much as the Father loves His perfect, sinless son Jesus! In John 17:26, Jesus is praying for all his followers, including you and me!  And He says in that prayer to Father God, "I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."
The love with which God loves Jesus is in us!  And HE is in us!  Jesus Himself is in every believer!!  In this prayer, He stating His intent, to make His amazing love known to us, known in our experience, in our heart, in our emotions, in our minds, in all of who we are!
  He wants in!  In me and in you!  And He wants the same love Father God has for Him to be ours!  Isn't that incredible!
I choose to be the answer to His prayer, by letting Him in, and by letting His love come in! Yes Lord, you may come in! I open my heart to you afresh right now!
So as the days go by, I am meditating on these truths, thinking on them, pondering on them, letting them seep into my heart.  Soaking in them.
I'm using my imagination, to picture Jesus on the inside of me.  And when I do, you know what I see? I see Him smiling as He looks into my eyes.
Not because I've become a missionary and suddenly I'm working day and night to house the homeless and feed the poor.  No.  I am not doing those things right now.  But I am seeing Him smile because I finally BELIEVE and TRUST that He loves me!  And He is not smiling because I believe, as if to reward me for my believing, no!  He is smiling just because He is delighted with me being one of His kids!  Only I can SEE it now, because I believe!!!!!
I am believing in my heart that He is not angry with me.  That He has not rejected me and will not reject me. That I am His Precious child.  A Precious Peep to Him.  Very precious.  (like you are, dear Reader)
And as I  am daily practicing this new belief, I am realizing, wow, my whole outlook is changing.  Peace is coming in and replacing fear!  I am actually experiencing and feeling God's love for me!  Its like a huge Heavenly Hug felt only on the inside of me!
And the best part is, I now know I never have to loose this again.  I never have to go back to the old dead works mentality or "crumbs" mentality, if you will.
I am breathing normally now, and taking deep breaths.  And it sure feels GOOD!
I have so much more to say on this subject, but I will save it for another day.  Just be encouraged today, that if you want to, you also can experience this lasting peace and sense of being loved, just as you are today.  Without having to do any work at all.  If you have invited Him into your heart because you want Jesus to be your Lord and you believe that He died for you, then all you have to do is look inside your heart to find Him smiling at you too.  That is the good news of the Gospel.  You are LOVED.
And if you are reading this and you haven't invited Jesus in yet, what are you waiting for?  He is and has all the love, peace, and joy you have been longing to experience! He made you for Himself - to have as His very own prized son or daughter.... just invite Him in, and receive all He has for you.
He loves you!

Colossians 1:27
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Bless you!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Sundays With Crissy Challenge #9, "Sparkle and Shine"

Edit added below:

Hi Precious Peeps!
My card today was made for a special someone in my family and I look forward to giving it to her.  It is also for my challenge over at Sundays With Crissy.  The theme today is "Sparkle and Shine".   You can't see it well, but I put gold stickles all over the outer edge of the main layer and the swirls for my sparkle, and the rhinestone flourish is my shine.  :-)
The butterfly image is one of my creations for Whimsy and it is one of my latest digital images.  I called it, "These Three Remain".   I called it that because I have the words, "faith, hope and love" on the wings of the butterfly.  And one of my favourite verses in the Bible is, "1 Corinthians 13:13  
and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest ofthese [is] love. 
I printed These Three Remain onto water colour paper and I painted it using my Tim Holtz Distress inks, for a nice change.   I got a plastic palette, and just smudged the ink pad directly onto it to create a "pool" of ink.  And just used water colour techniques to paint.   I got a lot of nice texture in the wings by using a lot of water and dragging my ink filled brush across it in  a striped fashion.  You can see the effect of this esp. on the wing on the left.  I just love how using water colour gives unexpected results!
EDIT:
I forgot to let you know that I have altered my original sketch of the butterfly in Photoshop.  The original Whimsy sells has a few more decorative things on the wings, leaves actually.  I wanted a larger space for the paint to flow and so I brought the image into Photoshop, selected the eraser tool, and erased the lines that made the leaves.  I want to encourage you, that if you purchase one of my images, I give you full permission to alter it, remove lines, add lines, layer it with other images from other companies, flip it, resize it, really anything you want to do with it, the sky's the limit. 

Something I'm not too happy about is the photo:  I find reds and purples the hardest to photograph because the shades never show up correctly.  The ribbon and roses actually do match the main image!  The photo distorted the shades quite a bit.  Oh well!
Here is your close-up:


I hope you'll head on over to my challenge blog and play along!  The challenge runs for an entire month, so there's lots of time to add your card.  You can use any image you like, however, only projects made with one of my digi images counts towards the blog candy!
Have a great long weekend, peeps!