Out of the Clay!

Good Monday all my crafty friends!! I trust you all had a wonderful weekend!! It was balmy weekend in the great state of Georgia!! Not shocking, of course, but it's barely summer!!! Uggghhh! LOL We have had some storms here as of late, but it has brought some great rains that will be well needed to get through the hot summer's here!!! It just goes to show what God can bring OUT OF the dark places!! Ever the Victor and we in turn made victorious through Him!!! God's perfect love NOT TO BE OVERCOME!!!!! Jesus calms EVERY storm! :)

So today, I want to show you a canvas that came out of that thought process!! I am skidding in the end, and hope I am not too late, of the June Kraafter's Challenge (#KSJune 15) at the Kraaft Shaak!!! If it is too late, well then I still did a canvas the I enjoyed doing and had fun!! I don't usually get in on most challenges because they are product specific, but sweet Heather made her challenge where all could be involved no matter the product! Thanks Heather!!

This canvas is a little out of character for me, but I love to stretch myself from time to time!! I don't usually do vibrant colors, although some would say that this is really not that "vibrant," but for me it is! LOL But I had a GREAT time doing it!! It's a bit of a bow to the wonderful artists like Carolyn Dube and Betty Franks known as Mystic Tulip both of whom I love and follow over on the Google+ Community. The both love and use vibrant colors and I just love what they can do with it, so I wanted to give it a go!!

This canvas is a combination of so many yummy things and may not qualify for the challenge, but it is all incorporated with paint, so I thought, well we shall see! LOL I started this canvas by collaging with all kinds of yummy jelly print papers that were done with cheap acrylic paints! I love to jelly print, although I am not really fantastic at it!! But I have a drawer dedicated to jelly print papers that I toss around with!! It was really neat looking when I got done. After that I put down some dry wall tape here and there for some more texture.

I then went over the canvas with a gesso white wash. I then pulled out some of those same acrylics and hit or miss here and there and then I pulled out my FAVE Silks acrylic paints and applied with a dry brush just haphazardly all over. On a separate sheet (some really great architectural paper that I acquired from work) I stenciled several flowers using Julie Fei Fan Balzer's awesome Lotus Blossom (TCW281) stencil using black acrylic paint and then painted them in with some of the same acrylic paint that I used to do the canvas. I then fussy cut them out and applied to my canvas with Liquitex gel medium. The stems were also applied using some of the gelli print papers that I had done.

I finished the canvas by stamping my sentiment on that same architectural paper that I have and applying with gel medium. I outlined with a Sharpie fine point pen and did some shadowing around the flowers with my Faber Castell Big Brush Pen in Nougat. I wanted one more little texture touch so I used some heavy gesso through this cute little tiny circle stencil that I have here and there on the canvas. Voila!! I had fun and hope it qualifies as painting Heather!! LOL

I love the lotus flower is is so beautiful to me and I knew I wanted to use it on this canvas. I also knew I wanted to use this scripture that immediately came to my mind when I thought of doing this piece! In Egyptian times, the lotus flower was very important to their religion meaning creation and rebirth. It emerges as a pure white flower from the depths of the muddy swamp to grow above the water. For me, I see it in direct comparison to my own Christian religion!

Jesus came to wash us and cleanse us from ALL sin, ALL unrighteousness! So in and through Him we are brought out of darkness and up from the miry, muddy clay and into the marvelous light where we are reborn, a new creature in Christ Jesus who is the ROCK that we set our feet upon in TOTAL VICTORY!!  It doesn't matter what your past looks like, how dark or muddy it was, JESUS CLEANSES ALL!! Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice!!!!

Today, if you don't know Him, He wants to know you! Come as you are, it matters not!! He loves you and wants you to find total freedom, know total, unconditional love, have peace that surpasses ALL and live VICTORIOUS!! Christ your ETERNAL HOPE!!!

Be blessed today as you seek Him! :)