Salt Challenge: JOY

I have absolutely loved participating in the bi-weekly Salt Challenge, but this fall was so intensely busy, I spent almost no time on any blogs at all, and completely forgot about Salt. I "rediscovered" it last week. "Joy" is a wonderful challenge theme, and if there is any stamp I have multiples of, it's ones that express Joy. How perfect to find that to be the word selected on Salt. Problem: I have a brand new Joy stamp I wanted to use for this challenge, but I just could not make it "work" on a card. So instead, here's a card that I haven't posted yet that still "qualifies"!



I used a joy stamp on this ministry card because I think it's easy in ministry to be overwhelmed by the responsibility of it all, and forget that God desires us to be joyful.

We're studying Hebrews in a church class our pastor teaches, and I've been thinking about this joy-related scripture about Jesus:

"...therefore God, your God, has set you above your
companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."

This is speaking of Christ's superiority over angels ... and one of those ways is that He has been annointed with the oil of joy. Isn't that fascinating?

The Community of Faith - Salt challenge

I haven't managed to participate in a challenge at the Salt/Faith blog in awhile; I've missed it!

This is the current Salt Challenge:
For the next challenge I (Lythan) wanted something that followed in some way from the last one - the work of the Holy Spirit. So I have chosen to focus on one element of the Spirit's work - the community of faith. In Acts 2:42-47 Luke describes the amazing first congregation and how they share their lives together totally. It is quite something to try and live up to. How do we become Acts 2 communities today?

I also thought about Matthew 18:20 (where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them). Being a Minister I feel I have to point out that this reading is not just a reminder of Jesus being with us when there are just a few of us there, but that the context is actually when people are falling out and how to deal with it - but that is part of being a community of faith too.

Community of faith could be a church, a group, your family, your area. You may want to focus on the highs or lows of trying to be the people together that Jesus has called us to be. I'll leave it to you and the Spirit to mull over as you create.

I chose to post this card, with the focus on serving those in our faith communities. I've been blessed to be part of a church body that is strong in this area. In a culture that trains us to think "It's all about me," to look for churches that will best meet our desires, it's easy to forget that we are called to be servants, to seek to be a blessing, not just receive blessing. :-)

Salt challenge: Mercy

My favorite part of stamping is probably the cardstock & papers! The richness of colors, the variety of prints, etc, absolutely amazes me. I don't want to refer to the print on this as being "background paper," because as you see, it's the print I wanted to feature. The colors are wonderfull, and the black is actually a velour or some similar type material, it's really wonderful! I thought about ribbon, I thought about other embellishments, I thought about layering the text, but I was loath to cover any of this beautiful paper. So while the text is the focal point - I love this scripture! - I made it narrow, and refrained from adding anything else. :-)

I'd love to see more participation on the Salt challenge blog; the women there really take a devotional approach to their challenges, and it's great to have scripture and other aspects of Christian living to focus on while card making! Come visit!

Think on these things...

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Philippians 4:8

This was the scripture for the SALT challenge, and a challenging one for me to apply just now. It's an important instruction, but sometimes life presents us stuff that makes it difficult to remember what is true, noble, right, pure, etc. People can wound and betray us, job situations can demoralize us, difficult family situations can overwhelm us, sometimes it can even seem as if God has forgotten us. And sometimes it's not about trauma and tragedy, it just seems like the path from A to B is through the sewer, and it's hard to think about anything besides the smell!

But I am reminded that just a few verses later, in the same chapter, we are told that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. He can help us to put our focus where it needs to be. And maybe, even in the sewer, we can catch the scent of a Rose.

SALT challenge

I have not been able to get to the SALT challenge in ages, and I can't say that I was inspired for this one, which is sad, because I'm so happy to be able to do them again! But life continues to be amazingly busy, and I'm afraid I just won't get to it if I don't finish today ... three weekends in a row with company, and my son just asked if he could bring a bunch of camp staff up Saturday for an end-of-the-summer party. Three of the staff, siblings, are really family to us, and they and their parents moved two hours away last year, so this would be our last chance to see them for awhile. Not to mention since Stephen joins the military (we think) in January, opportunities to do stuff like this for him are waning. Next week we retrieve our oldest daughter from the airport after having spent the summer in Bosnia. Then a visit to my inlaws, then college ... wow!

Anyway, I wanted to have a better text, but I ruined the stamped panel! So I just did the first thing that came to mind for a text (I didn't know what direction I was going when I chose the earth picture), and threw it together. I did some editing to the scan to make it look better, but even the scan itself made things look worse, lol! That purple panel is actually blue!!!) I definitely will take the card apart for other use ... not the first time I've done so with the SALT challenge. :-/

Perhaps I will be better inspired if I have time later this week, and will replace this card, lol!

Meanwhile, I will tell you what's behind the text: a couple of years ago a daughter brought her Geology prof to our house (with some students and another teacher) for dinner, as they had been in town to see the local GPS system. The conversation turned to global warming. The professor, whose career (she was just an adjunct for a semester to accommodate her dh's career move) was in this area, said that while she was completely convinced that global warming was real, she, and all the scientists that she has worked with, believe that the earth is probably able to handle it. She said the big scare is because it's very difficult to get funding for something like this unless scare tactics are used. She was not condoning that, in fact, she and her colleagues get very frustrated with it all. Very interesting! At any rate, whether global warming is a geniune issue or not, I know what God has made is good. The world turns by His command...

Fatal Flaw(s)!

This week's Salt challenge: "His Presence" was a difficult challenge for me because I knew right away I wanted to use Psalm 139 ("Where can I go from your presence...."). I plan to design stamps from this psalm, so it's hard to find myself using a computer generated text for something I want to have my own stamps for! Note I said "stamps," not stamp ... the Psalm is too long for a single stamp!

I decided to focus on those verses in the Psalm that deal with the Lord's presence in our lives. It still was rather too long, but I just managed to make it fit onto an A2 card. As I was continuing to design it (the pink vellum in the middle seemed like a neat concept, but as you can see, it made the text just a bit too blurry), I realized I had not proof-read as thoroughly as I had thought, can you find the error? At this point, I'm not going to have time (or the heart, lol!) to redo the challenge, so I'll leave it as it is. :-)

I encourage each of you to read the full Psalm, it is a beautiful statement of the amazing love of God for us. Sometimes I find it's easier to accept God's amazing love and grace for someone else, than for myself. Knowing I'm probably not unusual in that way, I like to send a personalized version of this Psalm out to others so that they can see that God has these same thoughts toward them, and not just David. ("Oh Lord, you have searched Carol and you know Carol. You know when she sits and when she rises....").

Salt Challenge

I nearly forgot to do this week's challenge, and I had been so glad when it was announced because I had both the scripture and a "Believe" stamp.

I had in mind an old-world, elegant design, something appropriate for upcoming graduations, etc. But that was before I realized the believe stamp was definitely neither old world nor elegant! I suppose I could have used computer text, but with time running out, I just went for a different look. Well, it's different all right, lol! The fringe might seem over the top, but I really wanted to communicate to the receiver a sense of "lightness" about the idea of God's plan ... it's so easy to be overly intense about this subject.

Scripture is from Biblical Impressions, text is from SU.

SALT challenge: Lent

Wow, this was a creative idea from Lythan at SALT! And I headed several different directions before I settled with this one. I did not actually make a card from it; if I keep it, it will be for my own personal reminder that I need to daily surrender my life to the Lord.

I looked up scriptures on sacrifice for this challenge, that was my original idea. But the song "I surrender all" just kept coming to my mind.

Genuine, Godly sacrifice, as Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for us, is a wonderful thing. But I think our culture has "flattened" the meaning of the word a bit. When we know we've sacrificed for something, we can perhaps feel a little self righteous. And remember Saul? He disobeyed God, and thought offering great sacrifices would cover it. But God desired obedience more than sacrifice from Him. From us.

Surrender, to me, has a sense of humility about it; I'm not trying to impress God by sacrificing something (though certainly I have had times in my life, including specifically during the Lenten season, where I have felt led to). But in surrendering, I am saying, "Not what I want, but what You want, Lord."

In sacrifice, I am in control, in surrender, He is.

That's my thoughts for right now, anyway. Subject to change upon further thought or revelation! :-)

Salt Challenge:

This SALT challenge, "For where your treasure is, so will your heart be also," was very difficult for me; I knew I wanted to use a treasure chest, but did not have one, and did not want to attempt to create one. I saw this one at Kmart last week, but did not even want to spend $2.50 on it, which was the current clearance price. It's very cheaply made, wobbly, etc, and the gold paint is a bit much! However, today it was down to $1.24, and I hadn't come up with any other ideas, so I decided at that price I'd give it a try! (I saved the bath supplies that came with it for next year's stocking stuffers.)

I had a number of ideas for this chest, but all would just have been too time consuming, if I could even have carried them out, and I'm on a bit of a time crunch right now. I decided I'd give myself just a couple of hours tonight to figure it out, and if I couldn't, I'd just not do this particular challenge. The result was not particularly successful, but as I am always doing cards or journals, I thought it would be good for me to step outside the box a bit.

Anyway, I got an idea (finally!) of making coins, and I wanted what was on the coins to represent the treasure I seek, which is to be like Christ. I started out with Fruit of the Spirit stamps. However, only love, joy, and peace could fit on the coins I punched! Hmmm... I looked through my scripture and encouragement stamps, and found a few more "character treasures" contained within verses. Then I actually stamped and punched portions of scripture that encourage me, and finally, some symbols of the Greatest Treasure, Jesus Himself. I found a lamb, a Bible, and a dove for the Holy Spirit.

The cardstock I used really does shimmer like gold and like silver, so I was happy with the coins, but definitely am not really happy with the project overall. So, why am I posting? Because I spent $1.26 on that chest and wanted something to show for it!!! :-)

John 3:16

The Salt challenge for this week is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life." I immediately knew that this was going to be a light, fun card - I love my "I'm a whosoever" stamp!

Salt Challenge: Light

I love these challenges! I knew just the scripture I wanted to use, and was so glad I had a full sheet of stamps from Biblical Impressions that included it. It's one of the prophetic scriptures from Isaiah.

I used opalite inks, which are wonderful interference inks. I have the refill bottles as well, which are great for painting in designs on dark colors, or just to swirl in unique designs. They take a bit of time to dry, so I usually heat set. If used on glossy, opalite ink needs to be embossed with clear embossing. Even then, if it is put on too thick, it will be very easy to smear, so be careful how much you use.

The circle is actually raised, and more gold in color than the scan shows it to be.

Note: I used this stamp, and two other stained glass style stamps I own to create a personal coloring book for a young friend. I embossed each image several times in gold, silver, and copper. I stamped them on index cards (really inexpensive cardstock!), created a simple cover, calling it "Gracie's book" or something like that so it was very personal for her, and used my bind it all to assemble it. Having the images embossed seems to me something children would really enjoy, and for those that have more trouble staying inside the lines when they color, this makes things easier and neater! (I still remember the humiliation of not being able to do that! That's probably why I hated art for decades, lol!)