This week has been super crazy in our house, with appointments and a funeral when we were, technically, supposed to be on vacation. Many are the plans of a man’s heart, but the Lord’s will prevails. How true.

The week’s fast-paced intensity finally came to a screeching halt in the form of a hiatus from the phone and email yesterday. Even my Facebook had me quoting “sometimes life just HAS to stop.” Ever had one of those weeks?

It is during times like that where I am reminded that once upon a time, I thought I would become an art therapist.  Only a select few know that about me (well, until now, that is).

I have said it before and I will say it again; sometimes plan B is better than plan A. MY plan B came to fruition as I recently became an intern educational therapist since my years of homemaking and homeschooling lent itself to the opportunity beautifully. July was an insane month but, as always, God is good. I experienced so much of His peace, patience, kindness and goodness that I just knew I had to share with you a neat art experience I had with a group of 26 homeschooling kiddos … yep … I LOVE a crowd!

Try this mixed media project for yourself.

Here is what you need:

• Paint,
• markers,
• cardstock or other heavy weight material that will hold glue and assorted ephemera,
• pages from an old book or dictionary,
• sticker letters or stamps of letters (optional).

My students had completed six weeks of art lessons which led up to the collage, but you can start anywhere you happen to be; young or old, new or seasoned. All you really require is some imagination.

Here is my sample:

Start with a favourite Scripture for inspiration. In the case of my class, we used the fruits of the Spirit, as it had been the theme for our lessons. Choose colours of paint that you feel reflect the words you are going to be adding to your image. The first thing I did was to lay down the page from an old dictionary, on the right. Next, I added some paint around the edges, spreading it with a sponge rather than a brush, to obtain a more free-flowing look. You can experiment with watered down paint in spray bottles, like I did or lightly wet a sponge and spread the paint. Be careful not to use too much paint or water, or your cardstock will ripple. (This may or may not be good in the end, depending on how often you like to hear yourself saying “I meant to do that”.) My stamped linoprint came next, one pear on each side. You can draw a piece of fruit or find one in a magazine, cut it out and glue it wherever it looks pleasing to you. Then I used a combination of sticker letters, stamped letters and my own handwriting to print out the fruits of the Spirit.

Since I cannot guide you step by step through linoprinting on this post (though I am really itching to do it!), I will show you another way to make a print, should you like to try it out.

You need a Styrofoam meat tray, washed of course (or better still, ask at your grocery store for some clean, never used ones. My butcher was more than happy to give me a stack of them once he realized what it was I wanted them for). With a pen, press down into the Styrofoam, leaving an indent of whatever image you chose to draw. In my case it was a pear, again. Simply brush ink or paint on top of your Styrofoam image and press it onto paper. Voila! Instant print! You can also cut out your image and re-glue it on paper, in sections, spaced lightly apart, repeating the same inking instructions. Both examples are shown here, the one on the left in black ink and the one on the right in black, light blue and light brown paint:

Kristina is a happily married wife in her eleventh year of homeschooling the flybytheseatofyourpants method. So far her two boys seem intelligible and relatively unscathed. She is an intern Educational Therapist with NILD and in her spare time loves to scrapbook, paint, make linoprints and write novel study guides. In your spare time, check out her blog On Fire at: www.kristinacamp.blogspot.com