As we celebrate hope and love this Easter, I’ve been thinking about some of the words of Jesus:

Be like children.  Faith and love. These are natural states of our being, from the moment we enter life. Babies bask in love. You might wonder how a newborn baby can have faith. I believe the very act of being on earth is a commitment of faith. How beautiful and strong you are, just to be born into God’s creation!  Religion is very lovely, yet with many rules we must learn as we grow up. Many people need the structure of certain kinds of religion to help learn and share God’s love–we’re all at different levels of understanding–but let’s remember that religion is structure only–not the contents–of God’s love.  Think of it as a jar or a box we use to help us hold God’s love. If there is no structure, the contents simply spill into everything–not exactly a bad thing, considering the content, although it can be a bit messy for us humans who tend to like structure.

Love your neighbor as yourself.  This gets complicated only because we each have different ideas about how to share love. We get hurt when we expect others to love us in the same way we give our love to them. This is why babies are so easy to love. They haven’t learned to think of love in different ways yet. For them, love is easily defined: sleep, eat, clean clothes, warm cuddling . . .

When much has been given a person, much will be asked of that person.  I don’t think Jesus had socialism in mind. I think he was talking about personal responsibility. God gave each of us our own free will. What shall we do with this amazing gift? Use it! We help write The Story God Made. He is with us as we make choices that affect every page-turning scenario, but he wants us to do the page turning.  Every time we make a life-affirming choice, no matter how small, we help push our story into a higher level of light and love, to the place God has promised to us.

I am The Way.  But what of people who have never heard of Jesus or the bible? Who’ve never been baptized? No problem, because God works big. Just think of what Jesus embodies: Simple, beautiful love. Love is The Way. It is so big you can’t fit it completely into any jar or box.  It is, however, pure delight to try and fit into an Easter basket.

Happy Easter! Wishing you light and love!

Okay I’m really not here to trash our beautiful spring.  But I am here to talk about trash. I love saving strange bits of garbage in hopes of discovering and sharing their fantastic artistic potential. Here are a few greeting cards I’ve made the last few weeks. Each one is just a bit trashy and a great big easy. (Notice some of the elements are simply stapled together. Because sometimes I’m too lazy to glue.)

This “black vase” is wrinkled-up paper from a bag of coffee. (Hint: Berres Brothers makes the yummiest coffee and the coolest waxy black packaging.)

This “silver vase” is a piece of cream cheese wrapping. A bit messy to wash but so worth it. And you guessed it. My beloved painted cardboard too.

This ”silver vase” is a bit of shiny cardboard from a package of face lotion. I wrinkled it for a fun effect.

This blue background is from one of my favorite art trash resources: a Mentos candy wrapper.  This gorgeous material is always a hit with the kids. (The candy is a hit with the kids too.)

And this “brown vase”is from a Starbucks coffee cup wrapper.  It’s so nubby I’m gonna die!

Now go forth and have your own trashy fun!

How could I not share some of my favorite color with you on St. Patrick’s Day?  You might wonder why some of these images have only a touch of green.  Sometimes just a dab will do.  I think that’s why I love green so much.  It has a way of making all the other colors more beautiful.

I’m so cute I should be on Pinterest.

Dear Green: I love you.

I shall name you Lucky Leprechaun Moth.

Dear God, help me be a green friend who helps make others more beautiful.

You can slow down a wee bit and still win the race.

Goodnight & Sweet Greens . . . but first, you might want to try your Irish luck at the end of over the rainbow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FBKa-bCasY

I’m sorry to leave you hanging for so long on Part 1 of our last art adventure. A few weeks ago I got completely obsessed with Twitter (see sidebar on right).  It feels like a toy made just for me!  Twitter posts must be 140 characters or less which I find highly fun and challenging.  Reading on Twitter is a fantastic experience with quick and easy access to unlimited info/news via links attached to the tweets.  But, Twitter or not, I have been a terrible blogger.  I am sorry.

Now back to our art adventure . . . You probably figured out my little stunt. The photos from Part 1 are simply weird-angle-close-ups of my very clueless paintings.  I had started with simple acrylic paints and yummy textured paper.

At the hands of someone skilled and talented, this would have made a lovely painting.  I am neither.  But I am resourceful and I love a challenge.  So next step: Colored pencils.

These are watercolor pencils–so much fun!  After drawing, take a wet paint brush over your lines and watch the magic as they turn into gorgeous strokes of smeary color.  First I used a white pencil, then some dark pencils with just a slight wet brush smudging:

The colored pencils gave it a nice depth but still needed something . . . Hmmm.  Time to break out the glitter glue and dimensional paints.  You can’t go wrong with this stuff.  The messier the better.

How’s that for a bit of primitive shabby glam?

I am leaving you with a close-up shot of this painting in its very first stage.  Don’t you love how a magnified perspective turns a yawny visual into something quite fresh and interesting?

If only this approach worked with my face . . .

I’m going to do this post in 2 (maybe more) parts.  Thought I’d start by inspiring you with some shots of a couple of small projects I did the other day.  Can I paint?  I really don’t have a clue how to paint anything.  But wait.  Yes I can!  Why let a few clues stop me?

Please stop in again soon for more about my clueless art.  If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, I am in good company.  Let’s have a little fun muddling through.

Paint our woodwork a creamy, dreamy white.  Not all of it, just the nondescript pieces. (My hubby just doesn’t understand.)  I’ll take some of these lovely white book shelves too.

from houzz.com

Take entire family to see Tran-Siberian Orchestra next Christmas.

Write the story of my life in poetic form.  Hmmmm, I better get crackin’ on this.

Start sewing again.

Visit England / Ireland / Scotland.  3 months!  But yikes how to leave my family that long???

from worldatlas.com

Should probably add Win the Lottery (see above).

Scan in all family pictures.  I’ve been working this for years.  Many more to go.

Silver-streaked hair.  See gorgeous example: http://pinterest.com/pin/69031806757990809/  I’m getting there.  One more cut and all color should be just about gone.  It has been a bit scary.  The hardest part was the first few weeks.

Start planting a vegetable garden again.

Tonight:  Cozy up at home for dinner and a movie (chicken breasts, roasted Brussels sprouts and baked potatoes; and movie John Adams).

So, What are you doing New Year’s Eve?

And the rest of you life?

May it be blessed!