Making More and More Crosses

Making crosses Day 6 was much more labor intensive than previous crosses!

After last weekend's hectic cross making I wanted to spend more time this week making my crosses and subsequently spend more time with God or at least thinking about Him. Some crosses this week were more labor intensive and required a fair degree of concentration. On at least one occasion that was a very good thing. Several things had gone wrong and that had set me off on a path of doom and gloom and asking the "why" questions. The "Why Question Path" is never a good one for me. It was near the end of the day and it came time to make my cross. It was difficult to get into the right frame of mind and quite frankly I didn't have the time I thought it would take for a complete attitude adjustment so I just began to make the cross and hoped for the best. It is impossible for me to make a cross without thinking about God. The combination of fully realizing His presence and then the realization that He had just heard me whining plus the concentration it took to make the cross (it was an origami cross) completely changed my state of mind. It should not have been a surprise, this was the point of making crosses, to focus on God and not myself, but of course I was surprised anyway! Surprised and thankful!

Day 7: origami cross

My crosses sometimes look better if enhanced by Instagram (phone app for Iphone)

 My friend, Denise, said this cross reminded her that Jesus is our rock. Psalm 18:2 says "The Lord is my rock,, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." I did not have that intention when making the cross, I was too caught up in my own problems at that moment to have thought through my choice of rock paper, I just chose a paper and started following directions and folding. That is what is cool about making the crosses, insights are revealed. Certainly God was my fortress and deliverer in the midst of my own problems and selfishness that night. He is the God in whom I take refuge and I am so glad that Denise saw what I did not at first see!

Making crosses: Day 8

Sharing crosses with the world: Posted on Facebook

enhanced with instagram

   I made the cross for Day 8 out of celebration to an answer to many prayers. A dear Bible study friend has overcome cancer in the past but had a weird result from a test recently that required her to have a bone marrow biopsy. Our faithful bible study ladies prayed, asking God to spare our friend another battle. The results of the biopsy were benign!!

Day 9

Day 9's cross was made from an old letter from a long-time friend. It did not turn out exactly as I had imagined. I made a collage of the letter and envelope and then cut out my friends signature to add on top. I stamped around the edges, used watercolor, did more stamping, and stamped on the sand dollars. I added the sand dollars because my friend Nanette loves the ocean and the beach and as many of us do, feels a special connection to God when she is there. Here is what I didn't like about the result. The ink on the letters was water soluble and so it smeared more than I wanted. The watercolor crayon I used around the signature was too dark and my many attempts failed to 'lighten' it. The values of the colors were not balanced. Even though I used a watercolor wash over the sand dollar stamps I felt their color was still too strong.

I like the cross because enough of the letter remains that it reminds me of all the times I have pulled mail from the mailbox and been delighted to see that exact stationary over and over again. Nanette is a dear Christian friend and her letters over these many years (I think we have been writing for about 20 years though we have known each other much longer) have kept me afloat. We began writing some time after Bailey was born and we have written through the growing years of her three children and my two. We have written through our spiritual journeys as well, with her I am free to discuss my questions and my doubts, in the safety of her steadfast love for God and me. The cross may not have turned out the way I imagined it but our friendship has been more than I could have imagined all those years ago as a sophomore in college.

Day 10

This cross was so fun! I cut a snowflake out of paper and used it as a stencil or mask over the cross shape, I then spritzed on a silver spray (Smooch Spritz) over the snowflake in order to create a design on the cross. I outlined the resulting design with black micron pen then used the same pen to tangle around the design.  The teardrop tangle is called Flaske, the checkerboard pattern is a misshaped Knightsbridge, The tangle that looks like strips of cloth (reminded me of Jesus' body wrapped with linen in the tomb) is called Hollibaugh. I got most of the designs from a book but most can be found at Tangle Patterns.

I have enjoyed making these crosses this week and I have appreciated the feedback and encouragement from friends on FB. This is worthwhile in so many ways. I love having the 'excuse' to be creative and play with all the different craft techniques and I love having this time with God. Making crosses, like running is an active way to be with God. It is being with God while doing something- what we do most of the time without realizing it. When I'm running and when I'm making a cross I am very aware of His presence.

Cross Making

Each year leading up to the celebration of Easter I try to focus my attention more fully on Christ and all that He has done for me. One of the things I have chosen to do in preparation for this Easter is to make crosses. The idea evolved from several sources. There are many blogs and websites that promote doing something every day. One friend posts a picture of an art project that she completes each day. Another blog I visit frequently features a different drawing each day. One of the Zentangle blogs features a weekly challenge using Zentangles.  A while back I purchased a book, Making Crosses, by Ellen Morris Prewitt. Prewitt uses found objects and scraps to create crosses as a way to express her relationship with God. In her book she offers a daily exercise to be used in making a cross.

I will use her book loosely to make a cross every day until Easter. Instead of using found objects I will be inspired by whatever aspect of God or Christ I am focused on for a particular day or by the direction the Spirit leads.

The first reading in Prewitts book is about God's love for us. I was uninspired by the writing prompt given. The idea would be to write something based on the prompt and then either pray or meditate on that aspect, in this instance - God's love, while making a cross. While trying to think about a moment when I experienced God's love in a profound way my mind wandered to something I recently read about God and joy. This came from The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard:

"We should, to begin with, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseparable from his infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breadth and depth and richness".

Wow! While it seemed a new and surprising view of God, it immediately rang true. Willard went on to describe a time when he was taken to a beach in South Africa. Apparently South African beaches are beyond other beaches in beauty, Willard described it this way, "Words cannot capture the view that confronted me. I saw space and light and texture and color and power...that seemed hardly of this earth."  Willard, I believe, experienced great joy at this sight and he began to realize that God sees such sights and more, sights beyond our galaxy that must constantly bring Him great joy: "I had some sense of what an infinitely joyous consciousness he is and of what it might have meant for him to look at his creation and find it 'very good'."

This was a completely new way for me to think about God and a wonderful insight. One more quote from Willard and I will come full circle to the making of the first cross of the Lenten season. "We are enraptured by a well-done movie sequence or by a few bars from an opera or lines from a poem.We treasure our great experiences for a lifetime, and we may have very few of them. But he is simply one great inexhaustible and eternal experience of all that is good and true and beautiful and right. This is what we must think of when we hear theologians and philosophers speak of him as a perfect being. This is his life."  

I immediately thought of the time I sat in a darkened and comfortable movie theater surrounded by my family. We were watching "The King's Speech". At one point, and I do not remember exactly which one, tears came to my eyes and I feared I would actually cry, not because the movie was sad but because it was so well done, so well written, so well acted. I had not seen anything of that quality in a long time and I was grateful to God for it.

I wanted to focus today, in prayer and in cross-making on God's infinite joy and the brief glimpses we get of who He really is. He is always there for us to "see" but comprehending, really understanding His character and nature is another thing entirely.

Cross # 1 using words from "The King's Speech"

I chose to make my cross from the words of the speech delivered in the movie (and in history) by King George VI. It represents a joyous moment in my own life that drew me closer to my understanding of the God who makes all joyous things possible. There have been, of course, many other joys and greater joys for me (meeting Dean, birth of children!!, amazing sunsets, great runs, beautiful hikes); however this was the very particular joy that came to mind today.

I believe there are 46 days until Easter. I don't know if I will post each cross or just the ones I like the most! Time will tell. I do hope that this journey in cross making will lead me into a closer relationship with God, into greater understanding of the sacrifice Christ made for me and will allow me to dwell longer beneath the shadow of His wings.  

Tangled Valentines

One of the personal issues that frustrates me is that I enjoy a wide variety of things but never seem to master any one thing to the degree that I might be perceived as accomplished. I like to knit but I am just a beginner and everything I knit looks terrible. Also, I always abandon crafts that use yarn, thread, or string because something always goes terribly awry. In sewing I was constantly getting the thread tangled near the bobbin. In embroidery, the back of my project looked like a complicated insect nest. With counted cross stitch I always lose count and my whole design is off. With knitting I forget my row and end up doing it backwards or one row is different. I never moved beyond chain stitch in crochet.

I like to draw but am not good at it. I like to craft but nothing I do ever looks professional like the cards, crafts, etc. that you  see on other people's blogs. I made Bailey a card for Valentines day, inspired by an image of an owl on The Queen's Scene . I envisioned my version of a precocious little owl. Well there were some issues with my owl and while I could have improved upon him the second time around I didn't have time to make him a second time. Real world crafting has time limits.

If I could show promise in one area then I would invest in the tools of that particular trade. I would buy all the stamping stuff or all the drawing stuff or all the scrapbooking stuff. Some of the equipment for paper crafters is essential if you want to get a professional look. I like to dabble in all those things so I don't actually own a good paper cutter or a die cut machine, I own lots of stickers, random paper, regular scissors, some stamps, some ink pads, all kinds of pompoms, yarn, pipe cleaners, some sketch pads, a regular pencil, lots of different kinds of markers (from Crayola markers to Prismacolor to micron pens), and (I can't stress this enough) I never feel like I have the right glue for whatever I'm working on!

My latest interest has been Zentangle. I am not an artist and I am not interested in using Zentangle for meditation but I do like to doodle and this seems like advanced doodling to me. Here's how the Zentangle website describes Zentangle: " Our Zentangle method is a way of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is fun and relaxing. Almost anyone can use it to create beautiful images. It increases focus and creativity, provides artistic satisfaction along with an increased sense of personal well being. The Zentangle method is enjoyed all over this world across a wide range of skills, interests and ages".

I have used the book Totally Tangled by Sandy Steen Bartholomew to get ideas and practice different tangles. 

 I used the book Illustration School, Lets Draw Cute Animals by Sachiko Umoto to draw the little animals in the center of the design.

Most of my tangles have been fun but not uniform and again not "professional" or polished. I may need to accept my creations as they are and as with every other area of  my life: persevere. I need to take the running mantra mentioned in my previous post and apply it to creativity: Be Strong, Be Brave! Happy Tangling!