Making Art Together is the New Quality Time

You can create art.

Even if you draw a line and a circle on a piece of paper, that's art.

What makes that line and circle even more special is creating those shapes with your child or any loved one right next to you.

That line and circle become a precious memory when it's done with someone you love.

The beauty of making art is making art with someone you love.

I recently bought one of those adult coloring books with flowers.

I bought it to learn how to draw flowers.

So one evening my youngest daughter and I were watercoloring.  I looked over at her watercoloring and thought hey why don't I do the same thing (that she is doing).

She simply made watercolored lines.  I loved it.

My lines ended up more of a blotch.

We let the watercoloring pictures dry overnight.

The next day I used a sharpie and drew a poppy over the dried watercolor blotch that I made.

Turned out to be pretty unique.

I used PicMonkey to add a little more uniqueness to it!

What have you made lately?

Let me know in the comment section below.

Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

What's that in your hand?

What's that in your hand Moses?

I said "what's that in your hand Moses?"

Those two sentences (questions) come from a song that my aunt used to sing all the time.

After singing the song, she would look at me and say "What's that in your hand Tonya?"

Fast forward a few years later and I am sitting in church.

The preacher says something like "God can use whatever you have in your hand. What's in your hand?"

When he said those words, I was holding a red pen.  I thought "What can God do with that?"

Shortly after I heard that sermon, I started teaching PreK and creating all kinds of art for bulletin boards and day to day activities for my children in class.

Sometimes, I would think back on that sermon and the red pen and say to myself "Wow, God used the red pen."

That red pen symbolized using ink and paper to me.

Fast forward a few more years and here I am blogging about all things that involve using your hands creatively with pen, paper and paint.

Who knew?

I never would have imagined.

What's in your hand dear reader?

Whatever it is someone needs your gift to help lighten the heavy load of life.


And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. -Exodus 4:1-2


Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox! Be sure to confirm subscription.

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Making art together is the new quality time

You can create art.

Even if you draw a line and a circle on a piece of paper, that's art.

What makes that line and circle even more special is creating those shapes with your child or any loved one right next to you.

That line and circle become a precious memory when it's done with someone you love.

The beauty of making art is making art with someone you love.

I recently bought one of those adult coloring books with flowers.

I bought it to learn how to draw flowers.

So one evening my youngest daughter and I were watercoloring.  I looked over at her watercoloring and thought hey why don't I do the same thing (that she is doing).

She simply made watercolored lines.  I loved it.

My lines ended up more of a blotch.

We let the watercoloring pictures dry overnight.

The next day I used a sharpie and drew a poppy over the dried watercolor blotch that I made.

Turned out to be pretty unique.

I used PicMonkey to add a little more uniqueness to it!

What have you made lately?

Let me know in the comment section below.

Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Never Miss A Post! Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Do you ever notice the art on the wall at a restaurant?

Do you eat out sometimes?

From time to time, my family and I will eat out.

...sometimes through the drive-thru and sometimes we will go to a nice sit down restaurant.

A few days ago, we went to a really cool place along the Atlantic Ocean.

Yeah, I thought it was very cool too.

Since I started blogging about "art", I try to look around and notice the art around me.

When I go to restaurants now, I always scan their walls and see what they have up ...or not have up.

This particular place had so much cool art with a beach life theme.

My phone was just about ready to die but I was able to capture a couple of photos on their walls.

Have you noticed the art on the walls at a place that you frequent?

Even some fast food restaurants have really cool stuff on their walls too.

Take a look around and let me know what you have seen lately?

Genesis 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

If you are reading this as an email subscriber, keep scrolling to read the latest updates on My Natural Hair Journey!

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

After Church Activity: Watercoloring My View

Hey Everyone!

Can you believe tomorrow is September?

Time waits for no one.

...and time has flown by this year.

Today for this post, I want to share with you one of the activities that I sometimes do after church.

One of the things that I used to do with my daughters after church when they were younger was to bring their little sketch pads and colored pencils to a local park.  We would sit on a blanket and draw whatever we saw in nature.

And recently, we took our youngest (the last in the nest) to a nearby lake after church and we water colored.

Yep, we water colored our view.

Just a little simple relaxation thing that we do after church sometimes.

Do you have any after church activities that you do or that you do with your family and children?

Let me know in the comment section below!

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Psalm 97:6 The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.  

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Bible Art Daily!

Every now and then, take a few minutes to make some Bible Art!

Not only is it fun, but it will help you to remember more scriptures.

After you finish you will have a piece of artwork that you can hang around the house!

And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. - Deuteronomy 6: 9

You can follow Bible Art Daily here

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

3 Very Basics of an Art Supply List for Your Artful Child at Home

First on the list is a box of crayons.

I have given a box of crayons as part of an artful gift.  I pair the crayons with some great coloring books and books and wrap nicely.

I love crayons.  Don't you?'

And owning a box of crayons teaches children so much about decision making and choices.

I mean think about it for a minute...

If your child is coloring an animal, he or she has to decide what color will the animal be. What color will the eyes of this animal be?

Your child has to decide if he or she will add colors and drawings that are not on the picture.  ...like adding clouds to a cloudless picture.

Crayons teach without ever saying a word.

And after all that decision making, your child gets to sit back and enjoy all his or her labor that went into making that picture pretty.

The next art supply for your artful home is Black Sharpies.

Black Sharpie's are the business.  really.


You can take a black sharpie and create your own coloring books for your child.

You can use a black Sharpie to write out sentences, words or pictures.

Every artful home should have a few Black Sharpie's.

And lastly, a ream of white paper .

If you have a printer at home, printing paper can be used for creating art as well as creating reading books.


This is a very basic beginning to building a Home art supply arsenal.

What other art supplies do you keep on hand?

But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. -Isaiah 64:8

But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. -Psalm 3:3

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Handlettering

One of the easiest ways to hand letter anything is to outline the downward stroke.

I watched a YouTube video to see how

...meanwhile on Instagram

From time to time, I post some of my art doodles and my daughter's artwork on Instagram.

But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works. -Psalm 73:28

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Tips for using Colored Pencils

1. Use various shades of colored pencils on a picture.  You can overlap colored pencils when coloring.

 

2. After coloring your picture with a colored pencils, take a q-tip and add a little baby oil and gently go over your colored pencil art. This gives a further blended look.

 

3. Keep colored pencils sharpened.

 

4. Use lighter colored pencils on the inside of a drawing and use the darker colored pencil (in that color family) on the outside.

 

5. Color in the same direction when using colored pencils.

 

6. Don't be afraid of using a white colored pencil to overlap your artwork.

7. You can use a white colored pencil to color over mistakes that you may make on your artwork as well.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. -James 4:8

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Summer Fun: Art and Literature

How is your summer going?

I hope that it's going well.

One of the fun things that my daughter and I are doing this summer is "Drawing that Bible Story"!  What we do is read a Bible story then draw, paint or color a picture when done.

Since the book we used had a very colorful picture of Naaman and his servant at the Jordan, that is the picture we chose to draw.

Do you know the story of Naaman?

Naaman was a Captain of the host of the king of Syria.  The Bible says that he was:

-a great man
-honourable
-mighty man of valor

But even with all those wonderful characteristics, Naaman was a leper.  -2 Kings 5:1

Any kind of disease is awful, but having leprosy was like being dealt a death sentence.

Naaman's wife had a little maid that worshiped the living God.  Here is what verse 3 of 2 Kings says that the little maid said to Naaman's wife:

And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

Naaman went to visit Elisha the prophet.

And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. -kjv

But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. -kjv

Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. -kjv

And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? -kjv

Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

That is the story of Naaman.

You can find the entire story of Naaman here.

So when we finished reading the story we decided to draw out a picture using Crayola Crayons .

I wasn't sure how this picture would turn out but I kinda like it!

There is a big window in our art room slash homeschool room slash my office that let's in lots of sunshine.  So while we reading (and afterwards) we had the added bonus of summer sunlight shining through the window!

So that's a win.

And since we both love creating - making art, it was like summer fun art!

...and time spent with my youngest daughter is another win!

I love having little Bible reminders around the house.  ...and this one is sitting on the mantle at the moment.

Are you making any art with your children this summer?  It is actually a very relaxing and refreshing activity. 

And of course, you have the bonding thing going on too!  So that's another win with creating art with your children.

I am trying to make sure that my daughter is creating something daily.

...either with a pen, marker or the ipad.  

And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. -Luke 4:27

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

How to make a Book Marker

It happens like every morning.

The same thing.

I am reading my Bible and decide that I will read 'this' book of the Bible.

And then I will fold some paper together and make a little book marker.

I will use that folded piece of paper for awhile and for some reason or another that paper will disappear.

...probably from my Bible traveling from my purse to the church to back to my purse.

And then the process starts all over again.

...I will need another book marker.

The other day I decided to make a few book markers for an event coming up on Sunday.

Since I started this Good Artbox blog, I have accumulated my share of markers and various kinds of paper.

One type of paper that I have is cardstock paper.

I use cardstock paper to make cards that I give to my family for different holidays.

You can use any type of paper that you want but I chose to go with cardstock paper because it is a bit heavier than regular paper.

What you will need to make a super simple book marker of your own is:

Paper (cardstock paper)
Scissors
Clear Packaging Tape
Markers
Ruler

I used copic markers because I love them.

Decide what size that you want your book marker.

Using a ruler and pencil, trace the size that you want.

Cut.

Decorate with markers.

Use the packaging tape to cover the book marker.  This is like laminating without the big machine.

Cut the loose ends of the tape.

Be sure to put tape on the back of the book marker to ensure your entire book marker is "laminated".

Voila!

Your very own unique book marker.

 

Do you have a lot of book markers on hand?

Have you ever created your own book marker?

Let me know in the comment section below!

This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;  -Genesis 5:1

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!   Be sure to check your email and verify subscription!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Painting Pears in the evening time

My second daughter left her acrylic paints behind so I figured this would be a great opportunity for my youngest daughter to delve into some fun colors and paint!

So yesterday evening my youngest daughter and I did some painting.

We used the acrylics as well as watercolor paints.

One of the acrylic paint colors was kiwi.  It is such a pretty green.

I decided to paint a "kiwi green" pear.

I like it!

Simple little kiwi green pear painting in the evening time.

Painting is a great way to spend a little quality time with your family.

I am on a little quest to find creative things to do in the evening time.

Do you create artful stuff with your children in the evenings?

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. -Psalm 127:3

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Volcano Art

Sometimes I draw pictures for my daughter to color because she is interested in a particular subject.

Volcanoes has been her interest lately.  I am not sure how that came about but it has been a very interesting subject.

Here are some interesting facts about volcanoes:

1. A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth. 

2. An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, mudflows and rockfalls.

When pressure builds up, eruptions occur. 

3. In an eruption, gases and rock shoot up through the opening and spill over or fill the air with lava fragments. 

4. Eruptions can cause lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods. 

5. Fresh volcanic ash, made of pulverized rock, can be harsh, acidic, gritty, glassy and smelly. 

6. The ash can cause damage to the lungs of older people, babies and people with respiratory problems. 

7. Active volcanoes in the U.S. are found mainly in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington, but the greatest chance of eruptions near areas where many people live is in Hawaii and Alaska.

You can find more interesting facts about Volcanoes here.

The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge. -Proverbs 18:15

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Life as a Vegetarian

I have been a vegetarian for a long time now. 

It all started when my mom rejoined the church that she grew up in.  That church is the Seventh-day Adventist church.

After she joined, her diet changed from a meat-eating lifestyle to a non-meat lifestyle.

She began cooking vegetarian meals back in the early '80s.  

I joined the Seventh-day Adventist church in the mid '80s and became a vegetarian as well.

One of the beautiful things about this wonderful denomination is their health message.  The message is simply your body is the temple of God and the best diet for you is one that is filled with fruits, veggies and little to no meat. ...and get exercise, fresh air and rest and trust the Lord.

One of the JOYS of being a vegetarian is eating out!

One of the places that my family likes to eat is Willy's Mexicana Grill.

It's like a burrito amplified.

I always get a "Tofu Burrito" and load it up with as much yummyness as I can.

That yummyness includes:

Rice

Black Beans

Tofu

Onions

Bell Peppers

Cilantro

Corn Salsa

Pico de Gallo

Mushrooms

Coleslaw

Cucumbers

Red Peppers

Onions

Lime

Jalepenos

Green Sauce

This post is for that one person who has ever wondered "What does a vegetarian eat when she goes out?"

Well, a Tofu Burrito from Willy's is a good place to start.

So what about you?

Are you a vegetarian?

Have you ever tried meatless meals?  If so tell me about it in the comment section.

Do you have any questions about a vegetarian lifestyle?  If so, send me a message via the contact form in the sidebar!

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. -1Corinthians 10:31

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Please note that I mentioned nothing about anyone being perfect in this post.

Draw your Day

Had a dentist appointment today with my oldest daughter.

It was raining very hard as we drove to the dentist.

I told her to check the weather and see what was going on with this weather.

She checked and lo and behold there was a thunderstorm in effect until 8pm.

We prayed for safe travel.

We made it safely to the dentist.

Then it was time to leave the dentist.

We prayed again for safety home.

We made it home safely.

God is good.

This will be the first of a little series entitled "Draw Your Day".  From time to time, I will draw something from my day.

Do you like to draw?   Drawing can be very therapeutic.

Some time back I came across this verse in the Bible:

Ezekiel 4:1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

I was blown away because for one thing I had never seen this verse before.

And another thing is it pertains to drawing.  And I can relate to things that pertain to drawing.

And for those who are very deep into art, it pertains to drawing on tile.

How about that?

Very cool.

Now I don't remember nor know what all else is in that chapter of the Bible, but this one verse just speaks to me.

Ezekiel 4:1 Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

The Source of All Joy

Yesterday my third daughter graduated from High School! Yay!

We had a great time with family and friends and festivities!

This morning I was reading the book, The Desire of Ages and came across the words in the photo above.

Why did I like this quote so much?

Because Christ is my joy!  everyday. all day.

And the beauty of Christ is His love and His joy is available to you too!

Luke 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Rest

 Exodus 34:6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Mercy and Truth

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
-Psalm 25:10

Just kinda doodled out this verse when I saw it in the Bible.

Remember in this post, I said that when drawing out a Bible verse, start with what you can see first. The fist thing I saw was a path.

I really didn't know this verse until yesterday.

I am glad to have discovered it because it helps to make plain certain choices and situations in my own life.  You know how sometimes you want to know if the Lord is leading.  Well, this verse kinda helps me to see how He would lead.


Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Coloring Challenge 01

I was on Instagram last week and found a 30 Day Coloring Challenge.  I decided to join in and include my daughter in it as well.  For me, it will also be a drawing challenge.

I figured I might as well draw some things for my daughter to color and work on my drawing skills.

So, here is our Entry 1 of that challenge.  The folks already in the challenge are on Day 20.
But for us this will be a 10 Day Challenge.
For the next 10 days we will color something...and I will draw something!  Should be fun!

I love my daughter's coloring!

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? -Matthew 6:26-27

Become a subscriber to the Good Artbox!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner