“Do you do well to be angry?” -Jonah 4:4
How often are we thankful for God’s mercy? For me, I know that I am thankful every single day. I am so far from perfect, and I constantly make mistakes. I am thankful for God’s mercy in my life. However, I know there are times that I am appalled when I see others receive that mercy. I find myself judging the magnitude of other people’s sin and wishing that God would use a little more wrath and little less mercy. How short-sided I am in those cases! In the Book of Jonah, God calls out Jonah for the very same short-coming. Jonah is so angry that the Ninevites are the recipients of God’s mercy after they repent because he has been trained his whole life to look down on those people as sinners. God absolutely puts Jonah in his place and reminds us all that holding on to anger is against who we are called to be as Christians.
God’s mercy is sweet, and it should be shared with everyone we encounter, even when they rub us the wrong way. I took Day 9 of “When God Asks a Question” from By the Well 4 God as a chance to reflect on God’s mercy and chose a gorgeous stamp set from BTW4G to illustrate the theme.
The “Sweeter than Honey” stamp set is a gorgeous honey/bee themed set that is beautifully detailed. My typical stamping technique is to stamp in black and either paint or color in details. But, with all the details already built into this particular set, I chose to go a different root. I layered different colors of Distress ink directly onto the stamp before stamping it down on my page. This really achieved a lovely “sketched” look to the images on my page.
I will admit that after a few stamps on my page, I was unhappy with how the page was coming along. So unhappy in fact that I almost turned off the camera and called this a failed attempt for the day. But I do like to show how I work through those tough moments. I believe that any artwork can be “saved” if we just take a breath and consider how we can adapt our plan from that point forward. And, I am happy to say, that I am super pleased with the ending result!
The key for saving this page for me ended up being a few colored details. I pulled out my Prismacolor pencils and added some loose shading in a few places and brought out some details/contrast in a few other places. Once I added just a bit more definition, I was thoroughly please with the end result!
What do you do when you are frustrated with an entry that you are working on? I’d love to hear your techniques for “saving” pages in the comments below!
Keep it creative,
-The Scrappy Wife
Supplies: (Some of these are affiliate links…thanks in advance for supporting my blog!)