Abiding in the True Vine

As promised, here are some more of the mixed media calligraphed Christmas gifts I gave to Joey and the older kids. These were on a significantly smaller scale than the two I previously posted. I used the same scrapbook papers, stencils, acrylic paints, inks and stamps and rub-ons (oops, I think I forgot to mention those last three in the previous post), etc. that I used in the larger pieces. First, Tim’s:

I calligraphed his verse with my calligraphy pen in Roman miniscule and capital letters.

One serendipitous event was discovering (while I was trying to “tone down” the yellow in Amelia and Stephen’s piece) that gesso and acrylic paint mixed and applied thinly gave a texture with a nice “bite” for calligraphing. Otherwise the mod podge I used for creating the backgrounds would have been too slick for my calligraphy ink. I needed that texture for Margaret’s:

This piece is calligraphed in Uncial (which, as you probably know, was the script of the early Christian texts–cool, eh?). I probably need to be sealing this one soon, too.

Okay, this one is Eleanor’s:

It is calligraphed in Copperplate (English roundhand) which I adore as a font.

I’ll save Joey’s and Peter’s for another post. PLUS, Clara and Levi’s was a different technique…oh, the suspense.

I had an inspirational time this past Christmas since I was creating gifts with what I had on hand. I calligraphed favorite Bible verses for the older kids (and Joey) on a wide variety of backgrounds that happened to be hanging around my craft room. For example, I made this for Amelia and Stephen:

I loved using the techniques I learned in Christy Tomlinson’s online SheArt workshop I completed last year.

The canvas for this piece started out as a very ugly still life oil painting that I bought for 75 cents at a thrift store. With some scrapbook papers, stencils, acrylic paints, mod podge and gesso, I was able to get a background that (I think) perfectly reflects the decorative scheme of Amelia and Steve’s house.

I then used acrylic paint to form the lettering (Proto-gothic miniscule and Gothic capitals, for those who love fonts as much as I do). I had never painted lettering quite like that before, but I would do it again because I like the way it turned out.

I used a similar mixed media technique for Jacob’s gift’s background.

But his started out as a dry-erase board paired up with a cork board (that Joey had bought at the semi-annual hospital rummage sale). I just took the dry-erase board out of the frame and flipped it over to have a more porous surface on which to work.

I didn’t paint the letters, though, I actually got out my good old calligraphy pen to form the (Art nouveau) letters.

I might need to seal this eventually, but I was happy with it, too.

It was a fun challenge to transform these surfaces and experiment with calligraphy again. The other pieces that I completed using mixed media were much smaller that these two. I’ll stick some of them in a second post…so, as usual, stay tuned.