God Leads Us All the Way!

Reading scripture in context is always a good thing.  The scripture on this card comes as part of an exhortation from God to the Israelites when they have reached the promised land. The verse reads in its entirety: "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands." Leading us that we would be humbled and tested?  That can be enough to run from the Lord's leading!  And yet, reflecting on the parting of the waters, the provision of manna, and the provision of the law that would one day lead us to the knowledge of our need for grace in Christ, we see that his leading involves beautiful, wonderful things, that he is faithful to provide for us even as he teaches us.  What a wonderful God we serve!

I love taking a single stamp or embossing folder and see how many ways I can work with it.  This background was made with a Darice leaf folder and Tim Holtz' Craft Core paper.  I accidentally embossed it on the wrong side.  (Actually, to my disgust, I embossed several sheets of it backwards, ugh!!!).  Hmmm... what to do?  The other side looked nice, but of course I couldn't sand it down to reveal the paper underneath.   So I used a roller to ink the "correct" side, then ran it through my Cuttlebug underneath the folder to flatten it just a bit, then put it into the embossing folder on the correct side.  I then ran it through the cuttlebug again, and then rolled green ink over the newly embossed panel.  I tried various other ideas on the other goofed pieces; it was so much fun!  Alas, I ran out of time to make any more cards with those panels!

I am entering this into the Our Daily Bread Designs Background Challenge and Word Art Wednesday's Anything Goes Challenge, and Verve Autumn Lovelies Challenge.

Layerless Scripture Card

My husband writes to a friend, John, in prison.  Layered cards are not permitted; if sent, they are torn apart before being given to the recipient.  So, I've been trying to create cards with no layers or embellishments of any kind.

I forgot to retake the picture ... this one was taken in the evening in poor lighting, so looks a bit blue and washed out.  It actually turned out really well.  I stamped the background image in gray, then stamped the scripture.  I then put an oval mask over the verse, and restamped the background in black, and chalked it in.

Our Daily Bread Designs has an "Anything Goes with Scripture" challenge going right now. They have lovely designs that work well on layerless cards, so for  my husband's friend, I'm going to submit this and maybe another card or two in hopes of winning a $15 gift certificate that will go toward making the next card for him!

I hope this will inspire anyone who has a friend or relative in jail to get creative and be a blessing to someone who could truly use one!

A Month of Sundays ... A Stamped Journal for Sermon Notes

For probably ten years I have wanted to do this project for my pastor's wife, but there never has been the time.  There wasn't time this year either, but they're of an age where retirement could come soon, so I wanted to get this DONE!  I had a lot of ideas that there just was not time for, so many of the stamped pages are sadly simple, and a few of the pages were "card parts" I had never used ... I'm so glad I save those!  My goal was to create a journal that could take care of anything coming up on a Sunday.  For each month there was a prayer request page, and six lined pages for note-taking (one per week, with an extra page or two just in case!), and a calendar.  I used cardstock for the stamped pages.  The back cover had a ribbon to mark her place. I had no time to design a cover, so used one I had already made into a basic journal.

Prayer

What a great scripture! Come BOLDLY to the Lord! Yes!

I don't know why I didn't just sponge green on the edge of the folded hands image; the card front is a bit too thick as the patterned cardstock is thick.

Names of Jesus

I made this set of notecards (my notecard sets are all non-layered cards without embellishments) last fall.


As I do more frequently than I care to admit, I stamped a couple of the card fronts crookedly. But, that just meant I had panels for another cards, such as this.