It was my week to teach lettering again and I went with a totally novelty style.

Here are the daily lessons:

MONDAY

This week we’ve got an ‘all caps’ font built out of little sticks and decorated with leaves. SO CUTE! We’re calling this font ‘garden’.

The base form is pretty standard printing with a little bit of crossover where ‘branches’ meet one another. Practice your basic letter forms in pencil.

Add bumps here and there on the lines as buds. Add thickening at the base ends of the lines.

Draw a line out from each letter and add one leaf. These can vary in placement when you have more than one of the same letter in a word.

Trace your letters, buds and leaves in ink and erase the pencil. LOOK, YOU JUST GREW A GARDEN!

I think this alphabet looks very decorative just written out by itself!

Go about building your alphabet in the same step-by-step way as you did yesterday. Don’t work on it letter by letter. Instead, do the whole set of base letters, Then the whole set of buds and thickened stems, then all the leaves. You’ll get a more cohesive look this way.

Ink after all the forms are completed and erase your pencil.

I added a full set of numbers for this font as well. Who knows when you might need a few sprouting digits?

Today, practice your letters on a ‘garden’ quote.

After inking and erasing your pencil, trace over your stems with a brown color. Use green for the leaves. Add some scrolls and little flowers to decorate the background.

Now we will use our ‘garden’ font to write out a verse on paper. Feel free to use blank paper, lined paper, dot grid, or a journal.

You’ll note how I moved the leaves if they were placed too similarly on adjacent letters – this is especially true when there are double letters in a word.

I decorated my page using the coneflowers.

Use the same coloring as yesterday for the letters.

We’re working in our Bible today, on a verse with the word ‘garden’.

You can see that I had to scale down the size of my letters to fit the space. You can’t go too small or you lose the definition of your letter forms. So, if your text is too long, just use your special letters to feature certain words. Do the rest of your text in an alternate font that is plainer and smaller.

I decorated my page with root vegetables as the Israelites were being instructed to ‘take root’ in exile.

I love doing these lessons to show people how easy it is to create beautiful writing for their projects.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:04 AM PDT

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This week I completed days 23-28 of the Lenten Bible Journaling Challenge that I am participating in. Again, the scriptures chosen are part of a book that some in the Facebook group have access to. Others of us just have the list of scriptures and study on our own for the insignts God gives to us.

Day 23 - Isaiah 61:1-3 - I wanted this page to reinforce how the ashes are a side product of fire (suffering). The beauty comes out of suffering so I made the rose 'grow' out of the flames and smoke.

Day 24 - Jeremiah 33:14-18 - The intent here was to make the branches form the Star of David to represent David's line.

Day 25 - Ezekiel 34:23-31 - Here I practiced a little of the font from this week's Lettering Lodge tutorial and included a whole flock of sheep based on my recent Drawing Room tutorial.

Day 26 - Haggai 2:6-9 - I had no inspiration for an illustration of this scripture passage so I just did lettering in the royal colors of gold and purple.

Day 27 - Zechariah 9:9-10 - I found a step-by-step 'how to draw a donkey' lesson online and drew this cutie. I know the scripture said that it was the 'colt' of a donkey that would be ridden (and it was) but the drawing lesson was not for a colt. So we got an adult donkey. (Still cute)

Day 28 - Zechariah 12:10-14 - Just illustrated the weeping and mourning spoken of in the passage.

So, there you have it - 6 more days of Lent in Bible Journaling. We have two more weeks to go to completion.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:41 PM PDT

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I attended the Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup Washington again this year, the first three days of March.

This year I decided to ONLY take classes that let me do hands-on creating. I ended up with 5 classes over three days (one full day and two half days).

I have not completed all my projects but will be posting each as those finishes happen (except for the one that I was so disgusted with that I threw it in the trash when I got home). So I will have a total of 4 art projects to share.

Today, I am very proudly showing a beaded bracelet. We paid for a kit of materials from the instructor and brought our own tools.

Without a clue what I was doing I was able to follow the wonderfully presented instructions and complete and attach three links for the start of my bracelet. The rest I finished at home this week, including the attachment of the clasp.

Here are some various views of my project:

One important thing this taught me was reading of the diagrams for beading that I've been looking at in the beading magazines for years. I feel like I could actually do a project from one of those articles with what I know now.

One thing I DO know is that I will be watching for this instructor in future years as I definitely liked her teaching style and her design asthetic.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:16 PM PDT

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I was the leader for the Lettering Lodge on the Creative Bible Journaling Facebook site this past week.

I chose a curly font that only came in upper-case and went looking for a lower-case thathad a similar feel to it. I then manipulated letters from each to make them a good pairing and assigned the focus word 'Glory' to it.

Here is the lesson plan:

MONDAY

The whole concept of the Glory of the Lord is so awe-inspiring it is almost overwhelming. We’re going to focus on that this week as we explore and use this new font.

There are deep curls in both the upper- and lower-case letters. These are actually two separate fonts that I combined and then edited to make them more alike in their characteristics.

Pencil your letters first, then ink them and erase the pencil.

Let’s celebrate the glory of the Lord with our work!

TUESDAY

Here is the whole combined alphabet for the Glory font. Don’t these letters just give you a little thrill?

Practice the elements that are in common (the initial curl on the F, K, L, P, R, T, U, Y, Z) watch for the little extensions on the letters B, D, J, P, R, T. There are similar legs on the K and R. The same curl on O and Q.

When you practice these elements first you will make it easier to form your letters consistently.

Work in pencil until you like all your letter forms, then ink and erase the pencil.

Because these letters are so busy, keep them firmly on the base line. Bouncing them around will make them more difficult to read.

GOOD MORNING, WEDNESDAY!

Let’s use our new font to write some song lyrics containing the word ‘Glory’.

I find that using the initial capitals on every word adds continuity.

I decorated mine like a hanging banner, complete with tassels!

Just like on my lettering, I use the Pencil-Ink-Erase sequence on my pictures.

For our THURSDAY lesson we’ll practice by writing a verse on paper with our new word font.

I chose Psalm 19:1 and used colored pencils to blend a sunset since the verse refers to the skies.

Are you finding it easier and easier to form these letters after you’ve done them so much? That is the goal!

IT’S FRIDAY!

It’s the day we move on to using the Glory font in our Bibles. The thing I noticed was how much curlier the letters look in small size like this!

I borrowed the idea for the illustration from Joanne Fink’s book. One of the artists had something very similar for the creation story.

I hope you use this font in your Bible, too.

You'll note in the pages I did for Lent this week that I used this font even more.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:05 PM PDT

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I have another week of Bible journaling pages done for Lent March 5-10.

Monday - Psalm 72:12-19

I wanted this page to read as a celebrations so I included lots of banners and bright colors.

Tuesday -Isaiah 42:1-9

As I read this selection I kept hearing echoes of the voice of God at the baptism of Jesus. 

Wednesday - Isaiah 49:7

Jesus is the one sent to light up the world so I encircled the globe with Christmas lights. This verse points out that the Gentiles were not an afterthought or saved because of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews. It was God's PLAN that he die for all because it was 'too small a thing' to save only the Jews.

Thursday -Isaiah 50:4-

Describes Jesus' silence in the face of his accusers, mockers and murderers.

Friday -Isaiah 53:1-6

I couldn't come up with an illustration for this scripture laying out the reason for the suffering and death of Christ - so I borrowed an idea from Pinterest.

Saturday -Isaiah 55:1-7

Beautiful words of invitation to drink of the living water.

Sunday will be a day 'off' from the Lenten Bible Journaling Challenge.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:43 PM PST

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Our instructor presented a lettering style that was more vintage than last week's dots. Not only are the letters full of graceful curves but the neds are widened to resemble 'branches' - the focus word.

Monday - learn to write the focus word in both open and filled letters:

Tuesday - learn the full alphabet - I did mine only in the open style so that I could see the structure of the letters. This way I can fill them when I do my projects.

Wednesday - we were to write words that had to do with branches. We also coordinated the activity with the Drawing Room and learned to draw trees.

I added leafy. blooming areas to my trees and wrote things that are happening this season:

Thursday was for writing a scripture in our journal or workbook:

And finally, Friday is for using the new style in the Bible. My selected scripture does not contain the focus word 'branches' but the spirit is there.

I was especailly pleased with how this grafted plant drawing turned out.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:58 PM PST

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The other instructor was in charge of teaching the lettering lessons this weel. She chose a dot style with the focus word 'hear'. These are the homework pieces I created:

Monday - learning the basic structure with the focus word:

Tuesday - Learning the whole alphabet in the new style

Wednesday - writing words of things we like to hear, We also learned arrows and banners.

Thursday - Using the font on a scripture in our notebook

and Friday we used the new font in our Bible on a scripture containing the word (or a form of it)

I am practicing more on drawing hands. Most of them are my OWN hand. In this case, I wanted to draw a 'right' hand but I had to draw with thatone! So I took a picture of it on my phone and drew from the picture.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 1:02 PM PST

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Day 9 of the Lenten Bible Journaling challenge was 2 Samuel 7:1-5 and 1-17. This section of scripture talks about David's desire to build a house for God and God's greater plan to build a house through David. I made the builder/planner cast a foreshadowing cross.

Day 10 was Psalm 110. This refers to Christ being an eternal priest in the order of Melchezidek. I had absolutely no thoughts on illustration to accompany this so created an acrostic with the name to describe attributes of Jesus.

Day 11 was Psalm 2 where I focused on verse 12: Blessed are all who take refuge in him. I illustrated a downcast stick-man taking refugeunder the protective hand of God.

Day 12 covered Psalm 118:14-24. I only used verse 20 and illustrated it with a cross - the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.

Day 13 is using Psalm 69:1-1. David describes himself as being in need of rescue. 

Day 14 - Psalm 109 - David calls down misfortune on his enemies. I contrasted this with Matthew 5:43-47 where Jesus instructs us to pray FOR our enemies and LOVE them. I used dandelion weeds as illustration.

Day 15 - Psalm 22 contains a picture of the coming crucifiction. There are scattered throughout it many phrases that we see repeated in the new testament surrounding the death and resurrection of Christ.

I borrowed an illustration from the internet but drew it myself.

Day 16 references Psalm 68:7-1. I used the early portion of this psalm and illustrated it with God's people marching out where God was leading them.

More to come as I continue to work my way through this study.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:27 PM PST

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In the midst of a long conversation in Facebook among several of us using the Rejoice font (shared here on the 23rd), someone mentioned it might be fun to use the musical staff to write out the word Lord.

That sounded intriguing to me so I looked up a scripture and had a go at it. It ended up in my Bible only a couple of pages from my previous one in the same font, but I'm OK with that.

For this one I used Psalm 27:6.

It does make the word take up a large amount of space, but with a shorter word like this it is manageable.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 7:59 PM PST

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Time to wrap up another week of lettering lessons. This font is such a departure from any that have gone before.

I found the original alphabet on the web but did a lot of editing and substituting of letter forms to ones I liked better. So here's the lesson plan:

MONDAY

This week we’re going to learn a font that uses and mimics musical notations in place of letters. It kind of looks like a code and we are going to work with the word ‘rejoice’.

Right up front, I’ll tell you that this is NOT a precise font. Sizes of the letters vary and can be adjusted to suit yourself. Letters can move up or down from the baseline to put a little bounce in the step. If you don’t like the form given for the letter, go ahead and draw up one you like better. You get a LOT of leeway on this font. 

Here are the letter forms I’ve drawn up for ‘rejoice’. Sketch in pencil, refining as you go. Write several times. Select your best effort and trace over it in ink. Then erase the pencil.

Crank up the music and get writing! 

Are you ready for the whole crazy ‘rejoice’ alphabet?

As I mentioned yesterday, this font is completely customizable. As long as your letter form has some resemblance to the real letter and some element that evokes the feeling of music, you are good to go!

I hope that’s not too much freedom for you!

Don’t forget to vary the sizes and the positions on the base line. In fact, as you begin writing words later in the week, these two elements can change from your alphabet and change within the piece you are writing.

What are you singing in you head as you are writing these letters?

Today I will show you how to change those ‘twisty ribbons’ we’ve learned into musical staffs. THERE WILL BE FOUR POSTS WITH PICTURES.

You will start by drawing a softly waving line looping around your page. Leave white space on the page as you will want it to write in.

Add a second line with space separating them. Let the lines cross over but immediately open them out to the same width apart.

Add a line down through the center. This should pass directly through the place where the lines cross.

Add another line, evenly spaced between the center and each side. You will end up with 5 lines.

Close both ends with a double line that is perpendicular to the 5 lines.

Practice till your staff flows naturally around the page. Use your very thinnest tipped pen to ink over your lines. Erase the pencil.

Set this aside – you’ll use it tomorrow.

THURSDAY

Today we’re going to use the twisty staff you made yesterday as a foundation for lettering a verse with the word ‘rejoice’.

Remember that you can still vary the size and position of your letters. Try not to go TOO sideways with them as they can quickly become unreadable.

Pencil-Ink-Erase. Add little random notes along the empty spaces on the staff.

FRIDAY

In our Bible were going to use the lettering off to the side and let the twisty ribbon staff travel over the rest of the page.

Look at the example to get the feel for some note forms you can use to randomly fill the staff. There is no need to make a real musical score out of this (unless you’re into that sort of thing) nor to mark bars, rests and all. Remember, we’re just trying to evoke a feeling or impression here.

No need for color on this page, either. Music IS black and white.

I sure hope you’ve had fun with the ‘rejoice’ font this week. I certainly have.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:19 PM PST

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I have four more pages done for the Lenten Bible Journaling challenge. The list of passages we are working from originally came from a devotional study. But I don't have the book so any insights I have are probably not related to that study at all!

I find that, in looking at the pages done by others in the Facebook group, we are all seeing something different in these passages so we get the benefit of 'many minds' in our sharing.

February 19 - Genesis 40:8-12

February 20 - Exedous 12:1-13

February 21 - 1 Samuel 2:1-13

February 22 - 1 Samuel 2:27-36

This series will be continued....

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 9:30 AM PST

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When I went to log this quilt into my spreadsheet I realized this is the 70th one I have made for the hospital's Passages program. I am so glad that this program exists and that I have a place to donate the quilts I make where they will serve as a comfort to a dying patient and a remembrance for their survivors.

The fabrics for this are more from the stash we were given by the family of a recently deceased quilter. 

I used two reds, two greens, two blues and two browns - each color having a dark and a light version. The colors were chosen out of the focus fabric which is printed with a faux quilt pattern.

The quilting is done with diagonal lines both directions through the frames and squares.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 11:10 PM PST

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Back in December there was a lady who received one of our Passages quilts at the local hospital. When she passed away, her family contacted our group with the offer of all of the fabric their mother had in her house. You see... she was a quilter!.

So three of us went and picked up about 14 totes-worth of fabrics and sorted them all out. We had a 'stash bash' where anyone in our group (and several people from other groups we had invited) chose whatever we wanted to work with.

So far, I have made 4 quilts from her materials:

This first baby quilt will go to the pregnancy center. The center portion had alteady been pieced, perhaps with the intention of using it for a pillow. I used coordinating fabrics to add multiple borders to extend the size to 40 inches.

From a different donation we had on hand some flannel and some polyester batting. I quilted it with three sizes of hearts and it is so cute with all that puffiness!

The second baby quilt was constructed with the online instructions for a 'disappearing hourglass' block. It also finished at 40 inches and got a flannel backing.

Third up is a quilt that will go to the Passages program. On this one, our donating lady had completed the ladder portions of fabric strips. I used more of her stash to create sashings to set these into a lap quilt size.

And last is a rail fence quilt that started as a striped fabric. Those stripes were of alternating prints of 'pieced fabrics'.

I cut apart all those stripes and alternated them with a coordinating stripe. With sections that were 4 strips wide, I cut them to make square blocks and then twisted back and forth to complete the rail-fence layout.

This is lap quilt size and will also go to the Passages progerm.

So, the donation of a quilt led to the gift of fabric which was made into quilts to make more donations... full circle.

The gift goes on.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:40 PM PST

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The second day of the Lent Bible Journaling was on a passage I had already drawn in my Bible. So I contemplated on the verses but posted to the group the spread I had done on the covenant of the rainbow.

On day three we studied on the covenant with Abram over the promise of his posession of the land.

Then on day four the study was on God's provision of a substitute for Isaac when Abraham was sent to the mountain to sacrifice him.

More to come.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:26 PM PST

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I used the other of the doodled hearts on a Bible page (the one not used yesterday). I combined it with more of the text from the Lettering Lodge.

This time I included the stitching and hearts in the letters.

It is good to combine these two activities!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:22 PM PST

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Another week of lettering lessons! I love how every lettering style speaks in a different way. We who are teaching try to select a font that reflects the spirit of the word we are going to focus on.

Monday we got lots of letters to practice because the focus word was a long one... 'treasured'.

The font was not a squared as I made it but I liked my version better. It has hearts embedded in each letter and little 'stitching' lines along one line. These can both be moved to suit yourself.

On Tuesday we got the whole alphabet. This is an all-caps font.

I liked the way the letters looked when I squared them off on Monday so I kept doing that for my exemplar.

Wednesday was for making an acrostic with the letters from 'treasured'. I made all of mine action words.

I made my initial letters bigger and filled in their hearts. On the rest of the letters I left the hearts hollow.

I made little banners to make the initial letters stand out.

Thursday was the day to use the new fontto write out a verse.

I used the hearts in the illustration so I left them (and the stitches) off the letters.

Friday we move on to using the letters in our Bible.

I used one of the hearts from the Drawing Room on my page and left off the hearts and stitches again on the letters.

And that wraps up another week.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:02 PM PST

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The new Drawing Room downloads have been posted on the Creative Bible Journaling site.

This week I drew up multiple styles of hearts to be used in their Bibles since it was Valentine's Day.

You can go download a 'Tangled Heart' and a 'Filigree Heart'at  http://creative-bible-journaling.com/drawing-room-tutorial-102-hearts-filigree-and-tangled/

In addition to these, I drew up three more to post later in the week. No breakouts of the steps in the pictures but easy to follow along on the bullet points.

Feel free to download these lessons for your own use.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:39 PM PST

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A small group of us are part of a Lenten Bible Journaling challenge and are posting our work on a closed Facebook site.

The passage for today was Genesis 3:14-19 dealing with the consequences of the sins of Adam and Eve. 

For my artwork I placed the tree/garden behind a barbed wire fence and added Eve in labor and Adam working the soil while the serpent bites his heel.

The journaling I added is titled 'because you have done this...' and a paragraph 'there are always consequences to disobedience - not only to be paid by us, but also those around us and those who come after us. This was not just the fall of a man but of mankind. One sin opens the door to more.'

Looking forward to the rest of this daily challenge.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 6:29 PM PST

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It was my week to teach a lettering lesson again and I chose one that reminded me of a crown. So 'crown' was the focus word I ask them to focus on in their homework.

Here is the tutorial:

MONDAY - In a few simple steps, you can create this regal lettering style we’re calling ‘Crown’. I embedded the notes on the steps into the illustration, so you can, if you wish, print it out and have the samples and steps all in one!

In pencil, sketch out the basic letter forms. Note the common elements in this style: there are serifs top and bottom, some letters have a trailing leg (R and N).

Draw a guideline across the midline of the word. Add crown shapes as shown, striving for consistency.

When the letters are just as you like, ink the crowns, then the tops. Erase the pencil lines.

Color the tops and bottoms of the letters with different colors to emphasize the forms.

TUESDAY - Today we’ll learn to draw the whole alphabet in the ‘crown’ font. This is a ‘caps only’ style.

Remember the steps we went through yesterday:

·         sketch out and finalize the base shapes

·         note the common elements (serifs and trailing legs)

·         draw a pencil guideline across the midline

·         use midline to draw in the crown tops

·         ink the letters

·         erase the pencil.

Show us your beautiful alphabet!

WEDNESDAY - I just love how this font looks so regal. It works perfectly for writing an affirmation of our standing with the King of Kings.

There is better effect when the featured font is used judiciously. Those words will just pop off the page when combined with a simpler font.

I added some vines as dividers on my page and colored everything with colored pencils – gold and purple, both royal colors!

Remember the P-I-E: pencil-ink-erase when you write your own affirmation page.

THURSDAY - Today we’ll write out a scripture using our feature word (crown) and the new font.

I used faux brush lettering as a complement to the regal ‘crown’ letters.

I employed a rainbow of colors to carry the eye from top to bottom.

FRIDAY - Today we finally get to take the font we have learned into our Bible. Find a scripture that uses the word ‘crown’ and journal it.

I used faux brush lettering again but also included the simple straight letters.

The gold gel-pen I used on parts of the crown don’t agree with my camera so you get a broken image over there. Sorry about that.

NOTE: It is especially important when working in your Bible to sketch in pencil, ink over it and erase the pencil so you can ensure that spellings, spacings and letter forms are just as you want them before the final version is locked in. Do the pencil work lightly so it will erase easily.

Won’t you give this a try and show us your work?

I don't know what alphabet I will be teaching next but I do know there will be a Drawing Room tutorial on Wednesday!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:56 PM PST

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I've been mentioning for some time the Bible Journaling Facebook page that I joined last year. I found them through an 'advertisement' on my Facebook feed. I first got involved with the weekly lessons in the Lettering Lodge and eventually became a co-leader of that topic thread. Then, at the first of the year, I started participating in the 'Devo Den' where we are working through a daily devotional book that includes coloring. I also began following along in the 'Scripture Writing Desk' where we write out the assigned scripture of the day.

In the midst of all that, I became interested in providing a way to help others draw simple illustrations to use in their Bible journaling. I suggested a new thread called 'The Drawing Room' and volunteered to staff it.

So, today is the first posting there! I do step-by-step drawings followed by a finished color version and write simple directions. Susan makes the lessons look consistent with a banner, frames, typing the instructions and posting to both the Facebook page (member site) and the website (where resources are open to everyone).

I can't direct you to the Facebook page but you can see and download the resources from the website at http://creative-bible-journaling.com/the-drawing-room-lesson-101-wavy-rose/ 

While you're there, have a look around, there may be more resources you'd like to access!

This is what the first lesson teaches:

This will become a regular, weekly thread (new lesson every Wednesday) on the Creative Bible Journaling site. I will link new lessons here - finished artwork only - so you can go download the lesson if you wish.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 10:16 AM PST

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