Whatever you do...

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Colossians 3:17

We serve a creative God, and we, as creative people, tend to appreciate that more then some. But how much more creative is God. How awesome is He really? When you stop and think about who He is and who we are, what He has done and what we have done. How can we not fall to our knees and worship our God? I think many of us are a bit confused about what it means to worship. We tend to think it is a set of songs that we sing at the beginning of our church service. Ahh...but worship is so much more than that. A very wise person once told me that "worship is more the state of the heart then the state of our art." Worship isn't just music. Worship can be anything and everything. We, as Christians, are to cultivate a lifestyle of worship! WHATEVER we do, we should do it for the glory of God! Even card-making or scrapbooking. Our hobby, our art, can be done as worship to God. Do you believe that? Isn't it He that gave us our gift of creativity. Don't you think it gives Him pleasure to see us use it? Let us thank Him.

Here is a canvas project that I made to hang on the wall:

And I am going to share this with you, not because I am wanting to make myself look good, but because I want to encourage you. I spent the whole night doing this. I prayed, I worshiped, I worked, I even felt led to take a break and encourage others. I felt like I spent the whole night with God...and it was AWESOME! I haven't done that in quite awhile. :)

Supplies for Psalm 62:7 Canvas:

Paint--Making Memories, Papers, Flowers, stamp and pearls--Prima Marketing Inc., Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Screen--Tattered Angels, Chipboard Bird and Cage--Maya Road, Chipboard Letters--American Crafts and Prima Marketing, Letter Stickers--Scenic Route, Lace--Offray.

SSCC #28

Ok, the challenge this week at SSCC is a bit different, and it comes from me! It's just that God has specifically been placing this on my heart for awhile now.

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Colossians 3:17

We serve a creative God, and we, as creative people, tend to appreciate that more then some. But how much more creative is God. How awesome is He really? When you stop and think about who He is and who we are, what He has done and what we have done. How can we not fall to our knees and worship our God? I think many of us are a bit confused about what it means to worship. We tend to think it is a set of songs that we sing at the beginning of our church service. Ahh...but worship is so much more than that. A very wise person once told me that "worship is more the state of the heart then the state of our art." Worship isn't just music. Worship can be anything and everything. We, as Christians, are to cultivate a lifestyle of worship! WHATEVER we do, we should do it for the glory of God! Even card-making or scrapbooking. Our hobby, our art, can be done as worship to God. Do you believe that? Isn't it He that gave us our gift of creativity. Don't you think it gives Him pleasure to see us use it? Let us thank Him. This site often allows us to use a hobby in ways of serving our God. This week our challenge will be a bit different...it may be challenging and it may not.

Challenge:

You have free reign of what you want to do this week..card, layout, project...any theme, any colors, any style...whatever you want. But here's the deal: I want you to actively do this as an act of worship to our God. Before starting, pray. Thank God for your gift. While working, feel free to pray more, or perhaps sing out to Him. Put your focus on Him and remember that it is He who gave you your gift (however good or bad you think you are at this) and remember that it makes Him happy to see you at work. Do this challenge, as if you were doing it for Christ himself! This challenge will really be on an honor code...we have no way of knowing whether you really do this. BUT the only person missing out, would be you. Let this be a time with God. Thank Him. Worship Him. Serve him. He is so good!

Here is what I did for the challenge. It is a canvas project that I made to hang on the wall:

And I am going to share this with you, not because I am wanting to make myself look good, but because I want to encourage you with this challenge. I spent the whole night doing this. I prayed, I worshiped, I worked, I even felt led to take a break and comment on current challenge participants to encourage them. I felt like I spent the whole night with God...and it was AWESOME! I haven't done that in quite awhile. So I really do encourage you to take the challenge seriously and go for it! :)

Supplies for Psalm 62:7 Canvas:

Paint--Making Memories, Papers, Flowers, stamp and pearls--Prima Marketing Inc., Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Screen--Tattered Angels, Chipboard Bird and Cage--Maya Road, Chipboard Letters--American Crafts and Prima Marketing, Letter Stickers--Scenic Route, Lace--Offray.

Did someone say texture????

The challenge over at Scrap and Stamp is up. This week the challenge is to create a layout that has TEXTURE, and of course, uses stamping. :) I feel like my layouts always have texture...it's kind of my thing. But I made an extra effort to show it on this layout that I made for the challenge:

As far as texture, you will notice that row of 3D paint. I also stamped and embossed my images, and then added some gems to the one.

Then I just had a bit of fun with that circle. I cut a very imperfect circle out of patterned paper and layered it on cardstock. I had punch some holes in the paper to give it more texture and dimension. I then added stitching in circles and some gems, all around the cute felt cupcake.

Those papers are all from GCD Studios...more of the Homespun Chic line. And the stamps are from Unity Stamp Company, from the February Kit of the Month.

I do hope you join us for the challenge! :)

Have an awesome day today...Austin has a basketball game this morning and it is Parent's day. He has been doing a basketball camp and this is the last day, so we are off to watch.

Prima Secret????

Re-posting this from the Prima blog. :)

Prima has something really big coming your way….

( Click the purple curtain to reveal a secret)

...but we can’t reveal it just yet! We know you’re going to love it! And don’t worry-we promise to share the big news with you soon. It’s really hard not to spill the beans, but we are sworn to secrecy. So, in the meantime, we have an exciting opportunity for you to win BIG and it’s open to everyone! There are two fabulous prize baskets worth $100 up for grabs. Prima will choose one winner from the US and one International winner.

Here is what you need to do to be considered for the drawing:

-Post about our Big Secret on your blog and include a link to our blog
within the post.

-Add a comment here under this post with a link to your blog.

-You have until Sunday night to enter

If you have done all of the above-you will be eligible for the drawings.

The winners will be chosen and posted on Monday, March 1st!

Good luck!

Author of Reversals

These are not my words, but they come from Beth Moore. I was excited by them tonight and felt like sharing. :)

"Beloved, take these simple words to heart no matter how many times you've heard them: your God cares about you! He wants to show you what He can do with your life and your negative conditions, but He wants you to know without a doubt that He alone is the author of reversals. Wait like a watchman on the wall and when the first sign of reversal comes, don't dream of calling it coincidence. Raise the roof with praise and ask the One who has begun a good work in you to complete it! He is not only glorified through our suffering, He can also be supremely glorified through our celebrating."

(Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman by Beth Moore, page 197)

Guess which one is me! :)

So I don't know if you stopped by the My Little Shoebox blog lately, but they have been doing this "guess the baby" thing. One of the above babies is me...do you know which one? Then head on over to the MLS blog and guess! :) I was going to share a page I made with my baby pic...but duh, I can't do that yet, it would ruin the guessing game. :) So I will share that with you later. In the meantime, I will leave with you with some pictures of sweet Eryn enjoying her birthday cake last night. :)

Hope you have a fabulous Friday!

She's One!!!!

Yep, Eryn is one today...can you believe it? It's all gone so fast. And she is acting like she is one too...no longer my little baby. Happy birthday to my sweet sweet girl. :)

I made this layout for the Prima BAP February challenge:

Everything is from Prima. :) And I am really lovin' that paper that is already stitched for you!!!! Makes it all so easy.

Well we got a lot of errands to run today....so I'm off.

Have a fantastic Thursday!

I should have waited!

I should have waited to turn in my submission for the GCD Studios DT call. I emailed it in and the very next day I stopped in at Archivers and found the new Homespun Chic line from GCD Studios. Had I known, I would have played with it some before sending my submission in. Oh well, right. This line is FABULOUS!!!! I seriously LOVE it! Here are some layouts I made with it.

And several close up's:

And then this next layout I made for the challenge on the GCD Studios blog right now. But then I discovered that I didn't read the whole thing. The challenge is to use frames. Which I did. But the layout is also supposed to be about "what I've learned in 2009." You can find the challenge on their blog here. The deadline is Feb. 25th. Anyways...here's the layout that DOESN'T count. :)

And close up's:

So you know I had to make another layout...one that fits the guidelines of the challenge. Here is my real layout for the GCD Studios "Frame It" challenge, this time with the correct theme.

And the close up's:

Well that was a lot of pictures. :) I don't know if you have noticed, but I don't post on Wednesdays very often...they are a super busy day for me. But today I did, and I posted 3 layouts! :) Yeah for me...looks like I will have a post for every day this week.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Make it fabulous!

Sketch Week at AC

Over at the American Crafts blog they have been having sketch week. They have shared several sketches with us, and now we are challenged to use them and post by the 25th. I actually used two of their sketches. :)

Here's my first layout, based on the sketch by Elizabeth Carney:

Close up's:

And here is my second layout. It is actually based on a card sketch by Susan Weinroth...I thought it was so cute and wanted to make a layout based on it.

Close Up's:

To see the sketches I used, as well as their other ones, go to the American Crafts blog.

All of the papers and many of the embellishments are from the Dear Lizzy line. I was so thrilled when I saw it at Archivers the other day. The second layout also has that felt trim and some flowers from Prima.

Have a fantastic Tuesday! I got a lot that I want to get done. :)

Sketch 187

Here' s the new sketch for this week:

Digital element (tree) from kwilson (from "picnic" digital kit)

And here are some samples from the wonderful SC girls...

Annie made a two-pager, here's page 1--

And page 2--

Cathy--

Ilene--

Katrina--

Lydia--

Wendy--

And this one comes from our guest designer this month, Nahdrah--

If you do the sketch, leave us a link so we can check it out. OR for a chance at a prize, upload it to the Scrapbook Challenges gallery. :)

Have a fantastic Monday! :)