Baby Album Using Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot

A baby album with elements cut with my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot lately to make a first year baby album for my little niece for Christmas.

I found a great set of baby cut files by The Scrapping Table.  These files were bought with a subscription, however, there are tons of free files out there you can use with your SCAL cutting software and Cricut.  For this project, I just wanted to find files already grouped together for me, and I loved these.  All her files are well worth the small subscription fee.  The files are easy to use, stored by theme, and clean to cut.  I also enjoy the emails she sends out with links to how-tos on updates to the SCAL software as Craft Edge releases them.  I am not being paid to endorse her site, I just love it.

SLIDESHOW OF ENTIRE ALBUM:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

My favorite adhesive so far for piecing is tape dot roller.  I just got a pink ATG gun on sale at Jo-Ann’s, so we’ll see how that goes.

INFO ON FALL .SVG FILES:

The autumn title (see slideshow above) is a free file from a cut file internet seller called www.svgcuts.com.  They also have great files for small charge bundled by theme (like cartridges), so that they are tested and easy to find.   I’ve bought several from there usually very reasonable prices with great sales (join their mailing list for free weekly files and promotions).  I created the Halloween title myself by welding letters together in SCAL with a pumpkin welded in the middle for the “O”.  The scarecrow is the most complex paper piecing I did, but I had made it for fun during some down time the previous fall–he was just waiting for a page!

SPRING SVG  FILES:.

The Easter embellishments are for her first Easter photos this spring.  Everyone who sees the cut embellishments can’t resist holding onto them and rubbing them for a while!   Even me.  We laugh at each other at our scrap group…you just have to hold them! You just can’t help but want to touch and hold them.   I know, it’s crazy, but textiles are just that way!

The donkey and cross are three layer file–they look great and were easy to assemble.

SCAL gets two thumbs up from me!

Related Articles On This Blog:

Fancy Free Fonts I Love & How to Install Them

Fall Pumpkin Card Using Cricut and SCAL

7 FREE SVG PACKS| High Quality Cut File Packs

New Font for Cricut plus Scal

Live Full

I think of high gas prices.  I don’t know about you, but I keep letting my tank get closer to empty every time, hoping gas prices go down before I have to refill again! 

Thinking on this in spiritual terms, we are so blessed.  We don’t have to wait until we are sputtering, coasting into the station on fumes.  We can quickly “tank up” every day, every hour, every minute just by giving ourselves to Christ anew.  His energy, grace, passion, forgiveness, and purpose are not cheap, but they are free!  (Jesus already paid the price, once for all time.) 

Makes me want to get out extra containers and jugs!  Fill them up, being sure to have plenty to share.    ‘Freely you have received, freely give.’”

Join me in “TANKING UP” this week!  Hunt down all your jugs and containers and fill them up, too!  Let’s run on full, with plenty to share!  What we have access to is very expensive, but free!

A Little Explanation Is In Order When A Mom Decides to Make a Sort of Poorly Edited…er…”Music Video” Starring…well, herself (somebody just commit me now)

I really don’t know how to preface my first written little melody (I’m not really sure I should actually call it a “song” per se), it just “IS”, and that’s about all I know to say. 

But, alas, I will probably need to say more.

As I explained in the post prior, the no make-up, non-showered, Mommy-made-up-song-in-two-minutes-melody-thing” is all the rage!  

It is really the fault of this guy named Kevin who started “Talking Tuesday” last week on his blog.  Both his posts have  been worth the watching.  It puts a voice to the “blog”.  Another bloggy friend did a devotional that way and I loved hers too (as soon as I find it, I’ll link it up).  Anyway, Kevin gave his whole freakin’ testimony this week with little Presley and his wife piping in.  I LOVED it.  It rocked.  I’ll do my own testimony sometime, as soon as I get up the nerve. 

I mean, I thought…that is socool and un-edited, and AWESOME.  It’s REAL.

I was driving home today and started singing a song to go with my “verses of the week” and penned it a few minutes later, and thought it would be fun to tape it and share.  I love it when “God gives YOU a song”.  It seemed more up my alley for now, not that I’m skilled.  I just worship the Living God and have me a big time.  

After I watched my own UNEDITED, “REAL” video, well, it needed some editing to keep from being totally lame and boring, especially since I had to edit out some stupid mannerisms and…well, it was fun playing with editing softward I really don’t know how to use much yet, but I’ve messed with it couple times and am teaching myself when the urge hits.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard yourself sing, but if you are from Kentucky and do so, well…talking makes the accent worse, if that’s possible.  (I don’t think I said, “ya’ll”, but I may as well have.)  I’d be interested in making a list of the words I said that I hate hearing with my accent, but that would spoil the fun for you.

In any case,  I don’t think I’ve ever heard these verses put to music before, and it was a good ‘ole time for this chick…so I thoughtI’d invite only my closest bloggy friends. 

Welcome to my living room, my worship time, and my very lame video-editing in some attempt to keep from having the camera just sat there staring at me. 

Just so you know, my little camera set on “ON”  ACTUALLY has NO zoom ability and I was taking it myself, so it’s all post-production magic gone wrong…that’s what it is.  Only two takes before the battery ran out, so I tried.

There’s  your warning right there.  It’s all fun here or I wouldn’t be doing it…that’s the beauty of blogging.  Anytime ya’ll want to worship to avoid the laundry rooms, I’m here for ya.  (Man…now I’m behind.  Oh well.  What else ya gonna do with a rainy day?)

With no further adieu (and you would have thanked me for saying that a long time ago, I know), welcome to my living room: (I suggest you listen to this while like people are not standing over your shoulder wondering what the heck I thought I was doing and laugh.) 

(Yes, I know, it’s a bad hair moment.  I don’t do hair and makeup to drive my kids to school, so join the party and let’s just get real here.  I was ignoring the hair at the time, as should you.)  Sing the song …I challenge you to let the word of God to impress this on your mind and heart.  Share with me what He does with it in a few days. 

The power of doing things creatively with scripture keeps it fresh and at the forefront of our minds:  draw, write poems, walk to it, dance to it, whatever.  Do your thing!  I had never meditated on these two “most important” verses as I have this week and it’s been totally amazing every day since they were put on my heart. 

It’s Very Exciting, This Lack of Logic

Well, I sang a new song coming home to my two focal verses this week.  It being a rainey day, not having not much to do and a hankering to sit down and see if I could peck it out, I did. 

The second time through, with nothing much to do, not having a shower, put in my contacts, fixed my hair beyond the “to school” once over, and having put on negligable makeup, I was compelled by some force outside of human logic to video tape this endeavor for you. 

Then, having realized how boring it was, I gave myself a shot at trying to edit-merge the “two takes” I taped on my digital still camera (which happens to record about five minutes of video on a good day).  The battery went dead after that, so I stopped. 

I would have, or perhaps, should have, stopped after the first time through the piano was so out of tune, but the first time, I realized I had aimed the camera off center cut off my entire head, which seemed worse than no eye makeup to me at the time.  Don’t ask me why.  It is “lack of logic” day.

Again, not having bathed today, or put on make-up, I decided to write my first public song, make a makeshift video to try to make it less boring, and share it with you.  Did I mention that my voice is not what you would call “a trained professional voice”.  Um.  No.  I would be a siesta worshipper, just like you.  They sometime give me a mic to keep me humble.  It works out nicely.

Now that you are teeming with excitement and anticipation, it will be forthcoming. 

Try not to chew through your pencil eraser waiting…those things cost money.

Jolly * Merry* Bright*!!!

Christmas words are just great!

 ”Let humble hearts enthrone Him”.  I caught that phrase today in “What Child is This” on the radio and just soaked in it for a while…the Christian message, so clearly spelled out in that song sung by John Denver over the airwaves of America. 

Wow.  The last day the kids are in school!  Most of the shopping is done, but I still don’t feel ready.  It feels like Christmas is tomorrow!  No…that would be jury duty.  

Today:  shoppping for 10 days of meals X 5 family members at home to snack on all day.  My weapons of choice are fun cookies with sprinkles and Rudoph candies, fruit salad on hand at all times, sausage balls, Tyson chicken, and lots of it.  Brown beef X 3 pounds I’m browing right now for chili, sloppy joes, and tacos… and chicken salad.  Not to mention yogurt, juices, and POPCORN by the case.

Ethnic dishes with a lot of different flavors to break up the pallette…I’m sure to add a lot of spicey foods around Christmas.  They are fun, but don’t have any more calories than all the “extra” foods.

Today, I found another pair of in-line skates for $2.00!  Now I can roller blade with my daughter as she wishes.  I got her a used pair for Christmas, too, a few weeks ago.  They are normally $70.00 a pair, so I’m ecstatic about it.  Both pair were in great shape.

I also got a “science” children’s illustrated book set for.  They are slightly dated, but the whole set was $5.00, and the content was somewhat timeless, “How do gears work?”  “How does film work?”   I sat them by the fireplace…for our chats.

I like to bring in some new games and books for Christmas break so that the kids don’t just get their gifts close to the time the holiday is ending. 

I got Labrynth used today for $2.00.  I used to LOVE that maze-wooden crate game.  You turn knobs on each side to try to keep the metal marble from falling into holes.  I think I have the missing metal ball in our stash here.  

Wewill have fun with new games and puzzles all week!  I’m thinking of giving them some of their stocking stuffers early to work on this year as well.  Namely, I got some paint by number (I think I need to get one for myself I’m so excited about theirs.  I never had a nice paint by number set for some reason!  Probably the mess factor!  I’m leery myself!) 

Boy Wonder is into on-line magic tricks right now.  He had new tricks for us every day.  It’s fun to watch. 

I found Constant Comment Naturally Decaf tea today…I’m going to try that having run out of Lipton last night.  I like Constant Comments subtle blends.  Their regular decaf is a fav of mine.

Oh!  By the way, for fun Christmas ornaments, use the lids off of icing cans…they are already circular, bright holiday colors (they have red and blue often).  Add embellishments and a pic cut out into a circle and a hook.  We made them one year the kids were sick.  Fun to use things on hand for ornaments.

Well, the oven is ready for my Tyson BBQ-honey strip oriental salad lunch.  I’m going to use some fresh greens, the chicken, and dig some of the fruit out of the fruit salad in progress.   I’M HUNGRY! 

I’m so glad people have brought  sliced ham and turkey and breads as gifts this year!  I’ve needed help getting fed it’s been SO busy!  DELICIOUS banana bread and PUMPKIN bread…MMMmmmmm!  Thank YOU, PEOPLES!  Now, I can keep wrapping!!!!

In Stillness and Simplicity

Perfection is achieved,

not when there is nothing more to add,

but when there is nothing left to take away.

  – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I keep hearing the words of the Michael Card song “In Stillness and Simplicity”.  It’s from one of his earlier albums.  I posted this quote today and have thought of it all day long, not so much in terms of perfection, but in knowing where to stop.  I remember times I’ve created something, a craft or piece of art, and I fool with it and mess with it, and then, the point comes when it feels I am taking away something to add anything else to it…any more work, effort, or “touching” of it at all.  There just comes a time when it is time to stop.  I think of that everytime I cut hair!  You can strive for perfection to the point that you are bald.  There comes a point when you just stop.  It is what it is. 

Editing applies to this quote.  One AP English teacher taught me over and over again:  “It is harder to write briefly a clear and effective message than to write a 2000 page book.  Strive for brevity and concise writing.”  How true. 

I don’t know that I hit “concise writing” well.  I enjoy the various facets of a thought and I enjoy turning over all the rocks to see what lies there. 

Still, the message of simplicity, or “less being more” is central to my thoughts this season.  Oh yes, I won’t lie:  there is that desire to be delighted that is the child in each of us.  But, I want more than anything, below the surface, to just know the gift of contentment.  The gift of using well what I have.  The gift of sharing my time, myself, my life-energy…good priority.  The appreciate and give more the gift of the smile.  To love, to know, to be, to do.  Those precious things can’t be bought or measured, only deliverately given from a very disciplined, honed, focused life driven by clear, sole, purpose and priority.  You don’t “get” that.  You attain it.  You reflect it from the very life of Jesus.

 

Jazz Up Your Christmas Wreath in 5 Minutes

This has been my front door Christmas wreath the last three years.  To it’s credit, I had a hoard of pine and fully ornamented stuff around it on the door so it didn’t seem so plain.  When lit, it was really pretty and simple.  But, during the day…ugh!  I love the cluster bulbs…I added those when the pre-lit part of the wreath no longer “lit”.  

It’s about time for a bigger wreath in general for this house, but the coveted “larger wreath” is currently $49.00 at K*Mart.  I thought I’d wait for a sale and see if I could find one later.

Wreaths with a lot of sparkle and ornaments are beautiful and make the front of a house, but they can be over a hundred dollars at the store.  I enjoy changing mine up a lot depending on my mood and decor, and it’s not hard to do.  I’m not a pro, but it’s fun, and I enjoy playing with it. 

Ornaments I  bought on clearance last year post season for it from Wal*Mart (I’m very high class), glittery flat ornaments hard to see in this pic, sparkly wine baby breath sprigs for fullness, silver stars, just for fun, poiensettas and sparkly fruit-like beady-things…both had fallen out of other things. 

Yes, I’ve seen ones I like better, but you have to say, it looks A LOT better! 

How do you attach stuff?  Stuff, and wire.  Glue ruins a wreath for future inspiriation.  Remember to prop the wreath up to place ornaments as they will hang on the door. 

Selections:  I hadn’t planned on using any glass bulbs, but decided they reflected the light so well I couldn’t live without them.  If you get a lot of wind in your area, you might give that some thought.  Plastic bulbs are probably best.

Ribbon (The Tying of the Dread Bow) 

One word:  wired ribbon.  It’s forgiving, and it can be bent back to shape coming out of storage. A little floral wire and you can do wreath bows. 

Bulk outlet card stores or craft stores will discount HUGE rolls of wired ribbon.  GET THOSE ON SALE!  You can use it on gifts and other decor for a cohesive look.  I buy several in coordinating colors.  There are books to tell you have to make bows.  I bought one at Wal*Mart and learned how.   

For now, just gather it up and tie some wire around it, squish it around until it looks somewhat even.  With all the lights and ornaments around it, you won’t be able to tell the difference…I promise.  Oh, and be sure to leave plenty wire at the end to tie the bow onto the wreath.

I am into mixing gold and silver this year.  I love them both.  I need them both.  I like them together.  If ebony and ivory go together, than I should have no problem.  I used a more rustic gold with a buffed silver and I think it works alrighty, but that’s up to your taste. 

Keep in Mind Ideas for the Next Step Up-Do:  Keep in mind things you are looking for.  For me, stiff sparkle mesh to weave around the wreath.   Sparkly curly sticks or sprigs to poke out of it.

Enjoy your wreath rennovation!  Send me a link to your pic.  I’d love to see your creativity!

Balance and Artistry

To be “artsy”, an “artist” of any kind can be a precarious thing.  It can bring irrational focus and vision for something trite or trivial, at times.  A need to “create”, get “it” out, fine tune.  It can provoke time- consuming, unjustified, attention and focus. 

The results?  Beautiful or noteworthy to some, perhaps.  To others, inconsequential.  

The “consolation” of “the creation” takes a lot out of a person.   Therefore, the “it” can be a mixed blessing, like most things. 

The same for all “gifts” or “talents”.  A fine line between grace and flesh. 

I’m not yet good at that balance sometimes.  I have not yet experienced the effortless, joyful dance of a dancer,  the flow of an ice-skater.  I am still the one falling, bruised, battered, tired.   In the flesh.  I pay the price for focus, or over-focus. 

Insatiably drawn to “it”; blessed relief.

Lord, help me surrender all to You.  Keep the “it” a blessing, whatever they day’s “it” is.   

comments are intentionally off for this post.   (thank you so much for reading)

I Created My Own Handwriting FREE! to Celebrate Thanksgiving

I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time and will still play with my 30 Day Trial of FontCreator 5.6 to try to accomplish several of my own fonts I can use, including my signature.  It’s not all that difficult, but tedius and time consuming. 

I found the tutorial wich came with the program to be quite inadequate to learn to function in the program.  But, after doing the full alphabet, I found an online tut to help with the symbols and number imports.  Up until then, I was having to save each character to an individual file, then import it in.  UGH.  Turns out, you can copy and paste, you just have to be on the correct screen to do so.  Glory!

My Tutorial and Tips:  

I used a combination of a flatbed scanner set to high resolution, a felt tip Micron 02 Black Pen, a writing guide found on-line (just to keep letters to scale and separate from each other).  I would like to try writing again on a pad rather than on the table to smooth out some marks, as recommended, but I forgot.  I sort of like the pen look.  I’d also like to use a light box and a slant guide.  I’m not that picky, but it just saves some time later trying to get letters to match up correctly.  Writing individually, it’s hard to remember if you are writing up-right, as in print, as opposed to the slant of cursive. 

Most cursive hands on-line slant to the left, rather than correctly, to the right, and that bugs me, so I don’t use most of them.  They need A BEKA curriculm, obviously. 

I learned a few tips I’ll share for those interested in trying this for fun sometime when you have 7-8 hours to kill.  {Llike I do, but I really wanted to try it.  I’ll begin my cooking this afternoon, and fortunately, am not expecting company…nobody needs clean laundry for school!  YEAH!  It was worth celebrating.  Did I mention I have a passion for letters?  Yes, I know, it’s a little lame.  I just love lettering, always have.  Doodling in front of the TV for hours was my past-time as a kid, when I wasn’t learning to cross-stitch.  I was totally born in the wrong century.

In any case, tips.  For the most part, don’t “enter” into your o, n, m, y, i…just start as if writing in “print”.  Then, remember to keep a slant line for italic lettering, and end with a swish, but not overly.  The letters must connect sometimes.  It’s unfortunate that you can’t program an ending letter separate from a connecting letter.  (Somebody take that and run with it…computers are smart enough to figure that out if told, surely.)

I did most the letters by hand, but a few of the unexpected symbols and fractions weren’t on my template.  Rather than re-scanning, I just wrote them by computer mouse and copied them in in the same way as I did the scanned items.

 In PhotoShop, you’ll just select the letter with your box selection tool, then click from the edit menu, “copy”, then open the letter you are working on in FontCreator, and hit “paste”.  Then, you want to drag the letter to the appropriate guides for the letter, and move the guides to fit the size of the letter.  Just drag the dotted vertical lines to do so.  You will have to adjust these guides later for good connections, but try to get close on the first pass. 

Click from the keyboard F5 to see your progress and learn as you go.  You can type there phrases and it will help you see what you need to do to correct.  You can also get there from the menu under Font|Test.

Also, if you don’t like the way a letter has progressed and want a fresh slate, it can be hard to clean everything off by selection at times.  So, go to the letter screen you are working on, then menu|edit|”Make Empty”…then past in a fresh letter and start over.

“Make Empty”…I laugh every time I see that come up (not a level 10 laugh, but a level 2, “inside laugh”.)

So, you then save it occassionally to avoid crashes and that sort of thing.  You install to Windows|Fonts on a PC.  Then, if you don’t like it, want to make changes, and must reinstall, you first really need to close any programs where you’ve tried to use it.  I needed to uninstall and reinstall several times, and eventually had to reboot the computer to convince it that I wasn’t currently using the font.  So, once you uninstall from “Fonts” folder, you can reinstall by selecting from the File menu in FontCreator:  File|Save As, then I just drag that .ttf folder you see there with the name you named it down to my toolbar where my Fonts folder is open.  You have to wait for the Fonts folder to open or it won’t install your font there for you. 

You should have no problems.  It was automatically available to my PhotoShop Elements program without a computer reboot.

Good luck! 

Birthday Tea Cookies Were a Smash

Here’s the recipe: 1/2 c. butter or margarine, softened (I needed to melt it, it’s the only moisture)

3/4 c. sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 C. all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375. Mix, (I just piled it all together, but, you can separate it into a gazillion bowls and mix in the flour items and the wet items, do so.) Dough will be VERY stiff (they ain’t kiddin’). Work about a third at a time (to keep from overheating the dough and getting flat cookies).

Roll out to about 1/8″ and cut with cookies cutters.

Cook 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

“Frost and decorate as desired”.

Oh. We desired!

I used the Pampered Chef Decorator Tool to decorate…it worked beautifully!  AND, it was SO MUCH FUN!  You can switch out the tips without having to fool with bags and tips in the end of the bag (those of you who are real cake decorators know very well the hassle I’m talking about!)  Switch icing color or tips as often as you like.  I even tried pink and white swirl, which was pretty, too!  It wasn’t a very technical process.   Just fun.  A “just do it and whatever happens, happens” sort of deal.  I love those projects!

They were all gone in about 15 minutes. 

On a dull Saturday, I plan to get these out again and let my daughter go to town.  I think she’d love it.  The kids were gone yesterday.  I think I enjoyed the morning decorating as much as I have anything in a long time, not to mention an unbelievable sugar high!

The LowDown on Free Work

I just wanted to share a moment my goals for blog design.  In my little break, I’ve had several questions about it. 

First, I do not charge for it personally because the work was a specific answer to a specific prayer…it is not an extra-ordinarily giving heart or great thing that I’m doing…it’s just that God answered my prayer.  There came a time to give, and our family decided what we could give to a ministry, and I was still sad that I had nothing of my own two hands to give, and I prayed, “Lord, if you will give me a way to have access to some resources that will help, any work I can do that won’t interfere with my family life or be too complex for me, it’s all yours.  All.”

So, a month later in a very low time for me personally due to some relational stress I was aware of that affected me, I designed some art that appeared on Beth Moore’s blog site for a few days.  I didn’t really know what the Lord was asking or wanting or working, and feeling my way through that was about more than I could absorb. 

But, people began to ask if I designed blogs, or would help them with blog work.  So, I took it that it was a way I could help people and bless them, and if they wanted to do something that would bless me, they could give to a charitable organization or ministry heaviest on my heart at that time.  I would send a link…and would not deduct their donation from my own taxes.  It goes straight from them to the ministry. 

So, that’s my heart.  I have taken July off to focus on some other ministry I was growing behind on, and to spend time with family, and to clean up some loose ends. 

I hope that gives you a little better idea of what has gone on and how good God has been to hear the desire of my heart.  It generally takes 4-5 days of full attention morning to late at night to do blogs as personalized as I like to work with people.  Headers take 1-2 days, depending.

I’ve did about 15 jobs in May and June.  God is good, and everyone I’ve worked with has been a blessing to me.

I’ve written three blog entries today with some loose ends I wanted to catch up on…read what’s relevant to you.  I’ll be out some this week celebrating my wedding anniversary, so you’ll have plenty to chew on here until I return! I always enjoy your thoughts as well. Feel free to let me know your impressions as time allows. Many blessings to you and yours,

Willow Creek Worship Arts Conference–Personal Notes

David Crowder above 

Click Post title to view photos and entire post 

Personal Reflections from Willow Creek’s Arts and Worship Conference 2007:

• Point of HOPE:  The theme was around celebrating “What Is Right With the World”.  As I said in an earlier blog, my “hope tank” needed some enlargement.  I’ve known that for some time.  God met me there.  I was beginning to wonder what “hope” really meant.  And I started to remember.  That’s about all I can say about that.   With hope, that’s about all you need.  I was just thinking that hope isn’t a deep, tangible, easily expressed idea–it is more of–say,  a butterfly you aren’t sure you saw, but think you did, were quickly captivated by it, and felt an urge to chase it to see it again– even though you know that if you touch it, you’ll likely kill it.  If you are fortunate enough to have a camera, there is no way to capture the beauty of the moment…and it will likely flight again before you can even focus, and the light will not seem as true, nor the colors on the wing completely captured enough to describe to someone else.  The magic just can’t be shred.  But, only if you smile, if for that brief and unreasonable chase…that’s hope.   I don’t know how, but it just keeps you going in hard times.  It comes and it goes, we never know when it will come, that flitter of hope we need, but we need hope.
• Point on CYNICISM:  It would behoove us to keep in mind that when Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun”…he was having a really bad day.  Later, we also read the God’s “mercies are new every morning”.  That’s the heart of the artist…capturing it, looking for it, knowing it.  Not getting caught up in cynicism and fatigue too long, even when we have a really bad day that brings some really sobering and wise- sounding, perhaps even truly wise thoughts.
• Point of Wonder:  God, who WAS Creator, is STILL creator.  We have gotten old.  He hasn’t.  So, He’s STILL creator.  That is who he is.  So, creation and art are very important to him.  They ARE Him.  So…what if, every day, He says to the shining sun…”DO IT AGAIN!”, with a big smile on his face, still creating works of wonder for our pleasure?  The point?  Facts alone don’t do God justice…we need the arts to awaken our hearts to God.  Creation does that.  Art does that.  Stories do that.  Relationships do that.  We are wired for, not just agreements of theological concepts, but romance, mystery, beauty, creation, newness, freshness, moments of inspiration.    
• Point of Challenge:   Decisions are not always made based on a rational set of bulletted points.  We are influenced to decisions by irrational processes often.  We often justify those decisions as rational when they were mysterious and anything but rational at the time.  This should direct the way we try to reach people. 
• Point of Learning:   When God tells a story in the Bible, He does not then often say, “Here is the point of the the story”, or “Here is the moral to the story”, or “Here is your take home message”.  The stories speak for themselves.  Often, we look for “the point” too much in our own lives.  So, in the same way:  God is telling a story with our life’s ups and downs…put there for creative interest and contrast.  Movies with no tension, nobody is watching.  Take heart.  Let him be a great producer and writer…just cooperate.  Stop looking for the point quite so often.  (God has said this to me so many times this year… it is quite scarey).
• Point of Encouragement:  God wants us to be filled up each day with him…each and every morning, for our tasks, trusting we’ll be refilled for the next day.  Personally speaking, often lately, I start to doubt if He can keep up with the pace of my life!   If I can keep up!  I need to learn to pace and trust more and more and more and more.
• Point of Disagreement:  I did not agree with the way dealing with long term sin was handled from the “emergent” standpoint.  I don’t know if this is inherent to their thinking or not.  I did enjoy some awesome speakers and enlarged my mind.  I am reading a couple books with more of an emergent slant.  However, I do not applaud those who clap to every idea a popular author says.  We need to sift.  More on that at another time.  Tough love is very tough, but it works.  I know that personally. 
• Point of Ministry:  The last day of the conference, a worship leading couple from Australia shared their life pain and how it is a contradiction leading in worship when your faith and strength are spent.  People need hope and energy and you feel “busted up”.  I wept.  I mean, really wept at their whole thing.  I needed it.   I can’t say that there was a take home point, no filling or healing or great wave of understanding, or even any new feeling of favor or love of God…I have that.  Just reality–a need to see it.  Face it in terms of faith.  Cry it out.  I did.   God was reassuring me that He’d just give me the time I needed to cry…, and He did.  I appreciated it royally.  I appreciate time for a good healthy and relevant cry.   It’s a gift.   (An older man in the back of the room pressed his hankie into the palm of my hand and asked me to keep it as a souvenior as I tried to return it for washing, though I didn’t get it too dirty.  I thought it a rather odd word “souvenier”, the word he used.  But, the more I pondered his eyes and words, the more I realized the precious difference in a tissue and a hankie.  Tissues are dispensable, hygenic, and cleaned, hankies are recycled, washes, and personal.  He asked that I just remember him.  We’ve shared tears on the same hankie…I doubt I could forget him if I tried.  
• Point of Tears:  I pray I’m more like a Hanky than a Kleenex.  See ”Point of Ministry” above.  
• Photos:  Click here for my photos

I’d love to hear about what “spoke to you” and discussions from your group.  Link here for me to follow your writings and posts.

Willow Creek Worship Arts Conference–The Story

I’m home.  Slept until 10AM, and it feels great.  11 hours in a car yesterday and I needed a good sleep!  Can’t wait to go pick up my kids! No time for pictures yet…I may come back and add some to this post later for you blogline readers.  Necessarily, this will be short right now.  I’ll add more later on various topics as I have time to review notes, which were awesomely packed with great stuff to chew on. 

The conference was timely for me.   Such gentle and sensitive layers of grace for both of us.  Free to listen, rest, cry, and just celebrate that our God is a master story crafter, needing all the elements and ‘tensions’that seem so grueling to us to make a “good story of our lives”.  More on that later. 

For now, just a lot of little affirmations that I am where I need to be for this season, and it’s all okay.  It’s all part of my story.   

Also…HOPE:  hope in the midst of pain is still real hope.  Hope in the midst of fatigue brings us through.  “Hope is as frivolous as it is indespensable.”   It seemed so fragile, undependable, unreliable.  And yet, “these three remain”. 

a hope, not blind, but one that stares life and pain and reality in the face and knows it still needs hope as much as it needs God. 

My oldest son was sick at camp Wednesday and Thursday, my younger son lost his first tooth this week while we were gone (don’t ya think he could have had the decency to wait until I got back home?)  My uncle had a massive heart attack, but is doing better now. 

Lots of “stuff”…always…to test hope, but God is good, all the time.  Truly!  Always! 

Blue Man Group…and Worship?

I took this shot of my son this weekend, climbing to the top of a fence rung, gazing up into the sky in awe and wonder.

He stood there for the longest time, just watching the clouds shape and form.

The  Willow Creek Arts Conference sent an email yesterday,  asking for .jpgs from attendees to be sent in for the creation of a worship experience using them throughout the conference.  I couldn’t help but think of this picture.  

Willow folks talk a lot about “cultivating a sense of awe and wonder”.  Why?  Well, I don’t know.  It almost seemed like the idea of “shock value” to me for a long time.  I don’t like that approach to TV programming, and I sure don’t like having to be “wowed” by some big production of a service every time I turn around. 

After much thought having heard that language for the first time several years ago, I think I’m just starting to “get it”.   It’s to marvel over God.  To have our sense of wonder and inspiration awakened.  It’s that “make God big” factor we try to hit as worshipo leaders.

Awe and wonder help us open our hearts to experience a God bigger than we are–something, anything, bigger than we know and can imagine or comprehend.  It is…to have our imaginations stretched.  

You want to hear what’s crazy?  Even if “the thing” is not traditionally thought of as ”worship”, or consecrated as such, it still does this same thing for people…that is why, I think, people crave something new in movies and music and the latest and greatest of technology…they are looking for the “wow factor” we get every single day of our lives when we stop and look and listen for it.  People are so hungry for inspiration!  It makes me want to inspire people toward God with consecrated skills, let me tellyou.

It is this element of untapped reservoirs of imagination we need to tap into as a church here and there to help people open their hearts ALSO to a God bigger than they know or have believed so far.

As part of our 15 year wedding anniversary this summer, I’ve purchased tickets for my husband and I to see Blue Man Group (click for video)  while we are in Chicago as part of our Worship Arts conference.  Do I think that time will be “worshippful”?  Well, I may need some serious Tylenol!  But, I hope we laugh and share a different and unique experience –opening our hearts and minds in a new way.  

I serve a very creative God! 

Have you done something lately that has cultivated that sense of awe and wonder?   Have you let it lead you to worship a creative God? 

Arts and Worship

Current Listening:

My Savior, My God by Aaron Shust  (iTunes excerpt)  A must have.   Buy it from iTunes from the link for $.99

Current Reading:

Thriving as an Artist in the Church,  Nory Roland, Willow Creek Resources 

I bought this last week at a bookstore going out of business in anticipation of a conference I hope to attend this summer where I’ll hear Nory Roland speak, among other great artists.

Nory quotes Jim Elliott:  “I see tonight that in spiritual work, if nowhere else, the character of the worker decides the quality of the work…in any work for God.”

Currently Practicing:

on Guitar for personal worship:  Thank You for Loving Me, by Tommy Walker.  Awesome song for worship.

on Guitar for personal worship:  Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall

(I generally do backup on keyboard, but enjoy my guitar on the porch sometimes.  The strings sooth me.  My Dad played me to sleep as a child.)

Currently Planning:

Anyone else planning to being at the  Willow Creek Arts Conference?

What is your view of arts and the church?  Until lately, I’ve had a too limited view of the things that captivate my senses and draw me into the presence of God more quickly.  Several factors are drawing me in that direction now…one being, our moving to a gym to worship.  I seek out “art” now…places of worship.  I relish in them.  Soak in them.

How you ever learned to cultivate the arts into your personal worship?  How?