More of This Past Week's Crafts

I'm feeling better now, thank God.  Viruses are horrible---colds are bad, but viruses...I'll take a 2-week cold over a 48-hour virus any day!  This was the sickest I've been since before our son was born, and we only remember last time because I had to go to the emergency room.  

Anyway, a few notes to add about this post and the previous one: none of the wall art is actually hung up on the wall, which makes for weird perspectives in pictures.  I also did not edit any pictures in the previous post, so pay no attention to dirty carpet, random cat sightings or other "odd-ness" in the backgrounds, lol.

"Consider the Lilies"

This was inspired by a piece from Red Letter Words (a company I have immense respect for, so check it out and have a look around.)  The phrase "Consider the lilies" is from Scripture from a section in Luke 12:22-44 entitled "Do Not Worry."  

I worry constantly, about everything, and the only words I ever noticed in this passage were the subtitle of "Do Not Worry."  Since that was all I saw, I skipped over the passage until I was shown its Truth by Red Letter Word's version (and I only noticed it then because of my flower obsession, and their version has these cute Pottery Barn-looking flowers on it.)  Specifically, verses 27-28 in the NIV:  

27“Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 

I was so moved by this, that I had to make my own version of the passage to remind myself of it.  I mean, the idea that God thought to put beauty in what is essentially the ashes of yesterday's fire, yet He loves us so much He made us in the image of Him--we're so much more than we give ourselves credit for!  So, I had no real plan of how to incorporate "Consider the Lilies" into an art piece but I'm so pleased with the result!!

These things are red rose petals, a bag of 300 from the Dollar Tree's bridal section.  I didn't like them for several reasons, but I thought I could create something beautiful with them, and for a dollar, I thought it was worth the risk....  

So, using craft paint, I painted each petal, usually both sides since I was using a cake pan and the paint soaked through the thin petals a little (aren't I such a glam crafter? Using a cake pan to paint and hold supplies, and a Crayola brush to paint with!  True story: hubby saw me using this pan and said "So that's where my cornbread pan went."  I said "what?  I didn't think anyone used this" since I don't eat cornbread and I don't cook really either. "Yes, and I've been looking for it for several weeks now!" Oops!!)  

Anyway, I let the petals dry, did a 2nd coat, and then made a flower.  It was not a pretty flower--so bad in fact that I tore it apart pretty quickly hoping to salvage some of the petals.  I made a 2nd one I was happier about, but when I made the 3rd one is when I hit the perfect arrangement and so made a 4th to match exactly.  

Kind of hard to tell, but it's a really pretty flower, I promise

I knew I needed 2 full and pretty matching flowers for this project, because I had a matched set of frames, 2 squares and one rectangle.

I'm not an ornate gold frame kind of person, so here's two of the frames in the middle of the project, one painted black and the other in the original form.

But, this set is still not on my walls, because I've been very, very inspired lately.  Look for more posts, because Blogger and I are not getting along very well at the moment....