{Faith Journaling} Challenge #24

A lot of churches are beginning their VBS sign-ups. I know it's something my girls and I look forward to each summer!! So today, I thought it would be fun to share:

**Do you volunteer in your church? What do you do currently? What have you done in the past?

2 Chronicles 17:16 "next, Amasiah son of Zicri, who volunteered himself for the service of the LORD. . ."

Enjoy your journaling time, and remember, all previous journaling prompts can be found in this post here. Joyfully in Jesus,

{Scripture Challenge 2} Challenge Word #9, Quiet

Challenge Word #9: Quiet

Do you still have kids at home? Do you work and have a very demanding schedule? Maybe you have a house full of extended family or have guests often. Maybe you have all of this! How often in your busy life do you truly get a moment of quiet? And when you do get that rare moment, how do you spend it? Do you spend it with the Lord?

We need to have a moment of quiet each day, and we need to spend quiet time with the Lord each day. Charles Stanley describes a quiet time as “giving God your undivided attention for a predetermined amount of time for the purpose of talking to and hearing from Him.” As Christians, we need to have a daily time with Him and not just for the purpose of laying our requests at His feet. We don’t want to just talk, we need to listen too. Relationships don’t grow and we don’t learn if we are always the one talking. Make a daily appointment with Him. He is waiting like the patient Father He is!

Think of how busy Jesus was and how the crowds seemed to always follow Him. Yet, as our perfect example, He always withdrew to pray. Luke 5:16 says “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Charles Stanley said “Jesus knew that time alone with the heavenly Father was essential. He could not—would not—go without it. By escaping the noise of His day, Jesus established a discipline all believers should follow. After all, if it was necessary for Jesus, it is vital for those who profess to follow Him.”

For the past few years, my quiet time has been at either 7 or 7:30 a.m. Recently, I have found that time slipping away from me. Then as I would miss the time, I would be upset with myself. How could I miss an appointment with God? So, I decided it was time for a change. Now before turning on my laptop, before doing anything else each morning, I have my quiet time. It’s still dark out, the family is still asleep, and it is becoming a precious time to me each day! I am finding I love this time much better than my “old quiet time.” Sometimes we just need to change things up a little. Maybe you need to change your quiet time—study a new book of the Bible, journal your thoughts and prayers, start a new devotional, move your quiet time to a new place in your home. Change it up a bit. Don’t stop because you are in a rut; you just might need a change.

For my page this week as I thought about “quiet,” I thought about things that are peaceful—a warm quilt (thus my quilted paper), Spring butterflies, flowers, sun, etc. I tried to bring that quiet and peacefulness to my page. And then I used the clock so that I remember and think about the time I have alone with the Lord each day. I also used three amazing stamp sets from Layers of Color—Butterfly Collector, Flutterescent, and Merci Bouquet. Can you find all 3 sets on my page? :) :)
Papers: Basic Grey Kioshi, Paper Trey Ink, Aquarelle watercolor paper
Stamps: Layers of Color Butterfly Collector, Layers of Color Flutterescent, Layers of Color Merci Bouquet
Stamp Ink: Versafine onyx black, Ranger clear ep, SU creamy caramel
Embellishments: Heidi Swapp XL clock ghost shape, American Crafts ribbon, Basic Grey micro-chip alpha stickers, Jolee's flowers, Prima flowers, Spellbinders Labels Twelve, Derwent watercolor pencils

The verse I chose was the Luke verse I mentioned above. I did find several verses with the word "quiet" that I loved too but this verse seemed to fit what I was looking for best.

Remember to use Keyword SCRC210 when posting in galleries. Also, feel free to leave a link here using our new link system by Inlinkz! This will show a thumbnail of your creation along with your name and the link for everyone to follow to leave comments in your gallery or on your blog. We use this at Our Daily Bread Designs, and I think I like it a lot better than Mister Linky. We will try it this time and see how everyone likes it. Please let me know what ya think! :)

So, do you have a quiet time with the Lord? If you don’t, now is the perfect time to start. And if your quiet time is becoming dull, make a change but don’t give it up. Will you commit to spending time with Him daily this week? For those of you new to a quiet time, start small. Soon you will find you desire more time with Him each day. Enjoy your quiet moments with the Lord, and remember to see all of our previous lessons, visit this post here. I will be back with another study on May 9th. Blessings to each of you,

Our Daily Bread Designs {Challenge 11}

Agh, the perfect challenge. I had one more Mother's Day card to make, and this was the challenge I needed to get it done. Our challenge this week is to create a Mother's Day card or gift. This challenge will last 2 weeks since next Saturday will be our new release blog hop!

So, for my card today, I created this card is for my mother-in-law. She is an avid seamstress so I used Basic Grey Blush fabric along with the new ODBD set called "Mom." This fabric is also what I am going to use for my new curtains in my new craft room/office. :) Papers: Memory Box pool notecard, Aquarelle watercolor paper
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Mom
Stamp Ink: Versafine toffee, Ranger clear ep, SU creamy caramel
Embellishments: Distress Stickles scattered straw and fire brick, Basic Grey Blush fabric, sewing machine, KaiserCraft red pearls, misc. ribbon, Spellbinders Large Labels

So, if you still need to make any Mother's Day cards and need a little more inspiration, check out the other ODBD Challenge Team cards:

America Kuhn
Chris Olsen
Christine Okken
Francie Gumprecht
Natalie Dever
Sabrina Jackson

To see all of the details and prizes for this week's challenge, see the ODBD blog post here. Also don't forget to upload your creations to Mister Linky in the same post by May 6th at 8 p.m. EST! And remember to use Keyword ODBDSLC11 when posting to online galleries. Blessings to each of you!

Organizational {Friday} Refining Spellbinder Storage

In 2008, I shared how I store my Spellbinder Nestabilities and Quickutz Cookie Cutter dies in the Quickutz magnetic binders. You can see that very old post here. I still store them the same way but I have refined my storage a bit as my collection has grown over the past 2 years. I used to have a couple of binders; now I have 11 full binders and the collection continues to grow. See the 3 new binders on the left waiting to be used. Eeek! :) As I started getting more of these dies, I found it was very hard to find the dies I wanted to use because I had too many binders to flip through. So, first I labeled the spine of each binder with my trusty labeler. Then I cut the front off of each Spellbinders card that comes in the packaging. I hole punched each card, sorted them in alphabetical order, and put them in my index binder that also contains all of my ink color samples, my Stickles color samples, etc. You can see more information on that here and here. Then I used my Sharpie to label each card with the binder number where the dies are stored.

**Edited to add that my dear friend Stephanie mentioned she threw away these cards that come in the packaging. I told her to go to the Spellbinders site and just print the pictures out and make her binder that way. Be sure to read the comment section for more details if you don't know how to do that. :) All is not lost; you still can create a notebook!I also typed the name of each set into an Excel worksheet and inclued the binder number there also. I keep a printout of this at the front of my die section of the notebook. If I happen to know the name of the set I am looking for, I can find the binder number faster on the printout.Now inside the binders I continue to label each set. I include the set name, item number, and number of dies the set contains.This is working very well for me. I can easily find the dies I am looking for now instead of looking through 11 Quickutz binders. I hope you find this helpful. Have a blessed Friday!

Welcome to our New LOC Designer!

There is such exciting news going on over at Layers of Color Art Stamps! We have a new designer joining us--Grace Nywening! Many of you know Grace and have seen her on other teams. I now work with her on two teams! What a blessing! Grace is a sweetheart, an amazing Christian woman, and she creates stunning papercrafts! You can see Grace's LOC gallery here and her gorgeous fan here in Laura's blog post. Be sure to visit her blog here to congratulate her too! I am sure she would be blessed by your comments! Welcome to the LOC Team, Grace! We are blessed to have you!

ODBD Stamping in Time!

I am so excited to be participating in the Our Daily Bread Designs Stamping in Time Challenge for the first time! Yeah! Our challenge hostess this week is Marcelle Schauer. Marcelle is giving us two challenge choices! We can choose either to use brads or colored pencils. Now, if you are feeling a little adventurous, you can do both! You must also use ODBD stamps on your creation! Sounds fun, huh? :) For my card, I chose to only use brads as I have been using my colored pencils a LOT lately. So, I decided to take a break and just go for the brads. :) I used the ODBD stamp set called "Scripture Collection 3."Papers: Bazzill cs, Webster's Pages Seaside Retreat & Garden Gala pack
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Scripture Collection 3
Stamp Ink: SU creamy caramel, Adirondack espresso
Embellishments: misc. charm, misc. twill, American Crafts brads, EK Success scalloped scallop border punch , sewing machine, Paper Trey Ink twine

I created this card after being inspired by a card in the Paper Crafts Card a Day Idea Book! I will have an article published about that idea book next month. It's a great book. If you don't have it, I definitely recommend it!

For more inspiration, please check out the other designer’s blogs to see what they created with the brads or pencil choice challenge!

Connie
Debi
Sabrina
Francie
Patter (that's me)
Angie
Betty

I hope you will play along. This is a fun one to join in on! For complete details, see this post here. And be sure to use Keyword SNTODBD8 when posting to online galleries! Have a blessed day everyone, and thank you for stopping by!!

{Faith Journaling} Challenge #23

Today is Earth Day. I thought we should look at gardening. Did you know that in the NIV version of the Bible, there are 60 references to "garden"? Adam was placed in a garden (Genesis 2:15) and Jesus was laid in a tomb in a garden (John 19:41).

**How have you or have you not been blessed with the gift of gardening?

Ecclesiastes 2:5 "I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them."
Jeremiah 29:5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce."

Enjoy, and for those of you that are blessed with the gift of gardening, enjoy your time working with His precious earth! Many blessings,

Tuesday's {Tip} Technique & Tutorial Day

I know a few of you subscribe to my Memory Box DT blog. Usually I will share my creations over here too but I haven't in a while. Today, I thought I would share a couple of the techniques and tutorials I posted lately on that blog. They are fun, and I hope you will try them out!

Card #1: Embossing & Sponging
Create this card using the embossing and sponging technique I shared here. To see the details on the finished card, see this post here.

Card #2: Sponging and Bow Tying
Create this card using another sponging technique you can see here. And to create the tied bow on this card, see this tutorial here. It's a fun trick that I LOVE to use!

Card #3: Paper Flower
You can learn to create this fun paper flower by seeing my tutorial here. And to see the details on this finished card, see my post here.

Wow, and I had no idea I had created with so much green until posting these cards all together. How funny! Anyway, I hope you have fun with these! If you stop by my Memory Box blog later this week, I will share another card using the same sponging technique in the first card along with adding some Flower Soft! Thank you all for stopping by. Have a blessed Tuesday!

Our Daily Bread Designs {Challenge 10}

Can you believe this is our 10th challenge already? How fun! This week the ODBD Challenge Team is challenging you to "Recycle." Since April 22nd is Earth Day, the team thought we would challenge you to recycle. You can use a recycled item on your creation (sponging bubble wrap, foil embossing) or use it for a technique to create your creation. Be creative and have fun with it!

For my "recycled" card, I decided to recycle some string that was tied around some fabric I purchased, and I recycled a piece of the box. :) These two items were perfect for a masculine card! I used the new ODBD set called "Happy Father's Day" for my card. I just love this set! It's hard to find masculine stamps, and this set is amazing!
Papers: Memory Box licorice notecard, Aquarelle watercolor paper
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Happy Father's Day
Stamp Ink: VersaFine onyx black, Adirondack espresso EP, VersaMark
Embellishments: string and cardboard from packaging, Derwent watercolor pencils, misc. eyelets, sewing machine

I hope you will join us in the "recycling" challenge! Be sure to see what the other challenge team members recycled. You can see their creations here:

America Kuhn
Chris Olsen
Christine Okken
Francie Gumprecht
Natalie Dever
Sabrina Jackson

To see all of the details and prizes for this week's challenge, see the ODBD blog post here. Also don't forget to upload your creations to Mister Linky in the same post by April 22nd at 8 p.m. EST! And remember to use Keyword ODBDSLC10 when posting to online galleries. Blessings to each of you!

{Faith Journaling} Challenge #22

Last week we looked at when we feel closest to God. This week, let's:

**Describe a time when you felt alone and without God.

Matthew 28:20b ". . . And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Blessings to you as you leave this written legacy for the generations to come!

Tuesday's {Tip} Be Safe!

Okay, this is going to be WAY off the topic of papercrafting today; however, I feel it is important to share with my readers.

On Thursday, I told my husband I thought something was wrong with the stove because when we turned it on I could smell gas elsewhere in the house. I asked him not to cook eggs Saturday morning while I was off teaching a Homiletics class. When I got home, I called the gas company . They considered it an emergency and sent someone right over. Your house can explode at a 5% gas leak. We found out that we had a 3% leak from our water heater and a 1% leak from the stove!!!!! The gas was shut off, and I opened the windows as instructed by the man from the gas company. We just got a new water heater installed yesterday, and I am still without a cooktop.

Anyway, the man from the gas company was the NICEST man!! I told him “Praise God for protecting us.” And he replied “Yes, He surely did protect you.” I also told him that I wish they made gas detectors just like they do smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. He said "They do!!" I couldn't believe it! Why don't all homes with gas come with a gas detector? I had NO idea they make those. I have a carbon monoxide detector but not a gas one. The man said if we would have had one, it would have detected the leak earlier. WOW! Anyway, I just want to share in my praise of our precious Lord as He completely protected our family through this “blind gas” leak!!!!! I still cannot believe our precious parrots--Kiwi and Sugar--did not die! I talked to some people on the "bird board," and one woman lost 7 of her birds due to the SAME problem we had!!! Oh what would I have done without my feathered "girls"?

I want to share today because I pray if you have gas in your home that you will go out and buy a gas detector!!!! I now leave you with my new "siggie" of my girls.
I pray you all stay safe in those gas homes! Blessings,

{Scripture Challenge 2} Challenge Word #8, Hymn

Challenge Word #8: Hymn

Do you like to sing? Notice I didn’t ask if you can sing. We are not all blessed with voices that we want to share with others but singing hymns to our precious Lord and praising Him can be done and should be done by all believers. Where is your heart when you sing? Are you truly praising Him and worshipping Him or worried about what everyone thinks about your singing? Our greatest privilege is to know God, worship Him, fellowship with Him, and to give Him the glory in all things. We can certainly get so many truths about our Lord through hymns, and it is just an amazing way to worship Him!

What exactly is a hymn? Dictionary.com says “a song or ode in praise or honor of God.” And a song is “a short metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, esp. one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad.” I prefer the word hymn because as I sing I want to give praise and honor to my precious Lord not just sing a song!

As I studied the Gospel of Matthew this week, I was struck by this verse:

Matthew 26:30 “When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."

How had I missed this before? I don’t ever remember seeing that Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn before they went out to the Mount of Olives. Can you just imagine Jesus singing a hymn with His precious disciples? I wonder what hymn they sang? Wow! Jesus and the disciples are an example to us. We too should be singing our hymns and praises to our Lord.

What music do you align yourself with? What do your children listen to? I will be the first to admit I love music of all kinds—country, good ‘ol rock from the 1970’s, old hymns, contemporary Christian, instrumental, etc. But as a Christian, I need to make sure that I listen to things that will help me live by God’s standards, and I need to stay clear of the music that could steer me wrong. We also need to be that same example to our children. I don’t know about you but when I listen to good Christ-filled music, I am filled with such joy, such happiness, such excitement for the Lord, and my focus remains on Him not the sinful things that I could so easily be swayed to take part in.

For my page this week, I used the new Layers of Color set called “Joyful Noise.” It is a perfect stamp set for my page! Papers: Basic Grey Kioshi, Paper Trey Ink
Stamps: Layers of Color Joyful Noise
Stamp Ink: Adirondack espresso
Embellishments: misc. ribbon, Basic Grey micro-chip alpha stickers, Distress Stickles walnut stain and firebrick red, SEI rhinestone brad, Prima flowers, Martha Stewart double scallop border punch

The scripture I chose was Psalm 40:3a “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. . .”

I pray that you will go out this week and think about how you are representing the Lord by the music you listen to and how it affects your mood and your thoughts.

When searching for your scripture this week, you may also want to search on the word “song.” If you search the NIV version, you will find only 8 verses in the Bible with the word “hymn” in it but I found 115 verses with the word “song.” Search and find the verse(s) that speak to you.

Remember to use Keyword SCRC210 when posting in galleries. Also, feel free to leave a link here for others to see using Mister Linky. I pray you all are still enjoying the study. I don't hear much so I am not sure what my bloggers are feeling about the study. :) Thank you to those that send e-mails and leave your comments. They truly are a blessing to me. Enjoy your time of study, and remember to see all of our previous lessons, visit this post here. I will be back with another study on April 25th. Blessings to each of you,

Our Daily Bread Designs {Challenge 9}

**Okay, so this week, if you are my precious sister--close your browser. You cannot read today's post. :) Love you!!! **

Whew, that's two weeks in a row now that I have had to ask family members to not read my blog. LOL! Anyway, for today's ODBD challenge, we have this great sketch for you:I decided to make a 5x5 card instead of a rectangular card. I also changed the center circle on the sketch to a square and rounded my corners. Here is my take on the sketch: Papers: Paper Trey Ink cs, Basic Grey Kioshi, Aquarelle watercolor paper
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Happy Mother's Day, Our Daily Bread Designs Mom
Stamp Ink: VersaFine vintage sepia, Ranger clear ep, SU creamy caramel
Embellishments: Ribbon Retreat satin ribbon, sewing machine, Stickles pink, Derwent watercolor pencils

Yes, this card is for my sister for Mother's Day. I pray she likes it! I also used two of the newest sets from ODBD: the "Happy Mother's Day" set for the sentiment and the "Mom" set for the gorgeous flower bouquet. I then used a scripture from the "Mom" set on the inside of the card. The stunning designer papers are the newest Basic Grey papers called "Kioshi," and Kelley also has it available in the store here. :)

Now be sure to see what the rest of the team has done with the sketch!

America Kuhn
Chris Olsen
Christine Okken
Francie Gumprecht
Natalie Dever
Sabrina Jackson

I hope you will join us in today's challenge. To see all of the details and prizes for this week's challenge, see the ODBD blog post here. Also don't forget to upload your creations to Mister Linky in the same post by April 15th at 8 p.m. EST! And remember to use Keyword ODBDSLC9 when posting to online galleries. I hope to see your creations this week! Blessings to each of you!

{Faith Journaling} Challenge #21

There are times in our walk with the Lord that we feel closer to Him than others. Today let's look at:

**When do you feel closest to God?

And I love this passage from Exodus when Moses approaches the burning bush:
Exodus 3:5 "'Do not come any closer,' God said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is Holy ground.'"

Enjoy, and we don't have to see a burning bush to feel close to God. He is in the small things as well as the big things. :) Enjoy your journaling time!

Tuesday's {Tip} Crinkled Seam Binding

Oh my, for those of you that haven't ever followed Tammy Tutterow, you need to check out this video of hers! She is an amazing artist, and in this video she shows you how to create different colored "ribbons" with Glimmer Mist and how to crinkle it. It is amazing, and looks SO fun. I haven't tried it yet but I am going to give it a try when I buy some seam binding!

Here is the link to her video. Scroll down past her profile to see it. It is only 5 minutes long, and you won't regret watching it! Enjoy, and be sure to let her know how you enjoyed it! Have a blessed Tuesday!

Our Daily Bread Designs {Challenge 8}

**First, Mom, please close this post. You are not allowed to read today. Sorry. :) I love you!**

Okay, now that Mom has gone, I can share our challenge and my creation with you! :) This week we turned our calendars to the month of April, and April 1st always brings "April Fools.” So for our challenge this week, we want to see a creation with either stitching or faux stitching. How fun is that?

For my stitched card, I decided to use the new set from Our Daily Bread Designs called "Happy Mother's Day." Now you can see why I didn't want Mom to see her card. :) For her card, I stamped both the floral border and verse in VersaMark ink. I embossed the border with white embossing powder and the verse in clear embossing powder. Then I added pearls and jewels to the image. The three green jewels represent Mom's three children, and the eight pearls represent her eight grandchildren. Do you think she will like it? I also stitched leaves around the floral paper and a straight stitch around the green cardstock. I also used the new Basic Grey Kioshi papers that are available here in the ODBD store. :) Papers: Paper Trey Ink cs, Basic Grey Kioshi
Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Happy Mother's Day
Stamp Ink: VersaMark, Ranger clear ep, Ranger seafoam white ep
Embellishments: Ribbon Retreat satin ribbon, sewing machine, My Mind's Eye Backyard green gems, KaiserCraft pearls

Now be sure to see what other "stitching" creations the Challenge Team has made.

America Kuhn
Chris Olsen
Christine Okken
Francie Gumprecht
Natalie Dever
Sabrina Jackson

I hope you will join us in today's challenge. To see all of the details and prizes for this week's challenge, see the ODBD blog post here. Also don't forget to upload your creations to Mister Linky in the same post by April 8th at 8 p.m. EST! And remember to use Keyword ODBDSLC8 when posting to online galleries. I hope to see your creations this week! Have fun, and have a blessed Easter weekend,

{Faith Journaling} Challenge #20

As we approach Good Friday tomorrow and Easter on Sunday, I thought we should share this in our journals today:

**How do you traditionally celebrate Easter? Are you doing anything different or new this year?

Matthew 27:50-51 "And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split."

Matthew 28:5-7 "The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you.'"

May you enjoy your time of journaling and focus on what Christ has done for you! Blessings, and Alleluia, He lives!