Beige

The set of pictures I'm working on just now consist of: rocks, sand, dried grass, dead bushes, bread, sticks, stone walls, and mud plaster; and characters with olive skin, brown hair or black hair, wearing dull black clothes, haircloth and leather.

Just as well there's some sea, sky, and a beautiful Phoenician glass jug* to break the monotony a little.

*slightly incongruous in the poverty-stricken setting, but I want to draw it so I've decided it's a family heirloom they couldn't sell :-)

Grace

"Grace doesn't have to, but it does."

Quote from the video we're using in my Bible study group

Books set on a rock

Just finished the Lord of the Rings (umpteenth re-reading), and I was thinking; there's something about fantasy written by Christians that you don't get in other books.

Concurrently, I've been reading other books, as is my wont; a bunch of Dick Francis and other things, but also some fantasy such as George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin*, and Philip Reeves' Scrivener's Moon.

The latter is set in a fascinating and very well realised world, with a lot of interesting ideas. But although there are a lot of good SF & fantasy books, what Tolkien and MacDonald have is something solid underneath. Neither book is explicitly Christian - nor would I agree with all of the writers' theology. But (and I'm probably misquoting C.S. Lewis here) the message of a story comes from the whole cast of the author's mind - they don't have a 'moral' but truth and wisdom permeates them. And you discover more each time you read them.

Of course, that's not to say that non- Christian authors can't write truth or wisdom, and many of my favourite books are written by non-christians, but at the end of the day, anything without an eternal perspective falls short. Nor is it, alas, to deny that there's a lot of shallow drivel written by Christians!

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*Which is not a patch on its  sequel, The Princess and Curdie.

Etsy

Third post of the day!

I have also just opened an Etsy shop called Kirsty's Stuff. I thought that was nice and vague, as I can then sell anything I like.

At present, what I'm selling is cutouts like these for cardmaking / kids' crafts:

Getting things finished

I've listened to a couple of podcasts recently which encouraged you to start a project and finish it.

This is not something I'm very good at. I'm full of ideas, and I've got loads of just started, or partly finished, or nearly there projects.

But this week I finally got finished a game I've been working on. Getting something finished really helps psychologically. It's not hanging over you, and you can now get on with the next thing.

I made it originally for my Sunday School class, to go with the Joseph in Egypt/prison story - but put a lot more work into it than I would usually put into a SS activity, because I thought it was the sort of thing others might like to buy. Certainly my wee ones enjoyed it - we'll be playing it again.

I've put it up for sale as a download on Teachers Pay Teachers. As it's an American site I did both a UK and a US version. That was interesting - different paper size, different instructions ('cardstock' instead of 'card'), different words ('back yard' instead of 'garden') and a few different pictures (no school uniform, red barn instead of highland cottage).

 

The blurb:

Where is God? Is he in church? In your bedroom? Under the sea? At school? In space?

This game shows that God is everywhere!

Players move about a grid, turning over cards. The player who turns over the "God is everywhere!" card is the winner.


For two or more players.
Age 4-11 – can be played with different levels of complexity.
Takes about 5 minutes, but can be played over and over. Can be used as a time filler or for a main activity.


Included are:

• 42 full colour location cards
• A numbered spinner (or use a dice)
• 24 playing pieces (or use toy figures or plastic/wood pieces)
• 2 optional compass spinners for older children
• Full instructions

5 years ago...

5 years ago today, a friend emailed me asking if I knew of anywhere she could find clipart of Bible stories. She was trying to make PowerPoints for school assemblies, and was searching for suitable illustrations with little success.

I gave a couple of suggestions, but they weren’t what she was looking for.
It seemed like there was a gap in the market, and I said that maybe one day I’d do something about it… Later in the month, I realised that, if there really was a gap in the market, I could do something about it. If I drew the pictures she was needing, I could also sell them to other people. I suggested a simple style, as that would be quick, and she was thrilled.

So she gave me her rota, and I got to work. The first ever lesson, for the start of the new term in January, was The Boy Jesus. I was enjoying the freedom of illustrating for PowerPoint (where you have unlimited pages, unlike print) so much that I drew 14 illustrations! I have to say I didn’t keep that up :-)

It wasn’t until mid 2013 that I felt I had enough illustrations to start a website, and I made my first sale in November of that year.

But 6th Nov 2010 is when the Lamp Bible Pictures story really started.

So, to celebrate, I’m offering my very first PowerPoint presentation, The Boy Jesus at half price until the end of December this year.

Colours II

I've managed to make an animated gif to go with my post about colours:

(It seems to have tweaked all the colours slightly, but it's fairly close)