Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

We're into Challenge 2 of  Patter Cross' 2012 Hymn and Scripture Challenge.   The hymn this time is "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus".  If you go to Patter's blog post you will find Patter's devotional on the history and the scriptural truths behind the hymn. You can also listen to a beautiful version of the hymn by Selah.

Some food for thought from Patter's blog:

Where do you turn in times of trouble? Where do you turn in times of joy? How about distress, celebration, sadness, etc.? Can you say you keep your eyes fixed on Him in all things? Do others see Him in you? Is God your priority? Are you seeking His attention or others?

For my page, I choose a scripture from the book of Hebrews:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning it's shame, and sat dowm at the right hand of the throne of God.
                                                                                                              Hebrews 12:2

Supplies:
SEI patterened paper
Recollections Gems
Jolee's Boutique Flowers
Crossed Paths Cross Charm
Spellbinders Labels 18
Colorbox Chalk Ink

Thanks for stopping by.  Blessings to you.

Word Art Wednesday #12

Hi Everyone!!  It's time for a new Word Art Wednesday Challenge.  This week's word art comes from  1 Samuel 1:27.

Hannah, wife of Elkanah, was childless.  She desperately wanted children, but God had not given her any.  She wept and prayed, and prayed and wept, and she made a vow to the Lord...

"O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." 1 Samuel 1:11

The Lord remembered Hannah and in the course of time, she conceived and gave birth to a son whom she named Samuel. She stayed home and nursed him and after he was weaned she gave him to the Lord for his entire life.

How many times have we made promises to God... that if He answers our prayers, we would do _____ or perhaps not do ______ anymore??   And once God answers our prayers, do we follow through with our promises to Him (do we even remember what they were)????   Maybe we all (including me) could learn a thing or two from Hannah.  Just some food for thought....

Supplies:
Deja Views Patterned Paper
Bazzill Cardstock
Recollections Flower Gems
Prima Flowers
Queen & Co. Pearls
Lace - thanks Cassandra :)
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist
Tim Holtz Distress Ink
VersaFine Ink
Spellbinders Labels 10

I hope you join the Word Art Wednesday challenge this week. Check out the Word Art Wednesday Challenge Blog to see what the other design team members created with this week's art. Be sure to check out the challenge guidelines to find out how you can be eligible for the weekly prize drawing from this week's sponsor McMahon Five Designs.

Word Art Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!!!  It's time for this week's word art.  Today's art comes from
Joshua 1:9 ...

When I read this week's word art,  I immediately thought of  Numbers 13, where Moses sends out 12 men to explore the land of Canan and upon their return, all but 2 of them (Caleb and Joshua) give a bad report to Moses and the Israelites:

...The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof: and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.  And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. 
                                                                                            Numbers 13:32-33

But Caleb and Joshua knew that if the Lord was pleased with them (the Israelites) he would be with them and lead them safely through the land.  They were not to fear the "giants".

And so it is with my son TJ when he plays basketball.  I wonder if the other players look like "giants" to him.  If so, you'd never know it because he can hold his own with the tallest of them. He knows whose he is and he lives Joshua 1:9 out there on the court.

Supplies:
DCWV Patterned Paper
Martha Stewart Crafts Cardstock
Bazzill Cardstock
Spellbinders Labels 18
Lifestyle Crafts Arrow Die
7 Gypsies Label Sticker
Fiskars Corner Punch
Tim Holtz Distress Ink
Buttons, Ribbon

I hope you join the Word Art Wednesday challenge this week. Check out the Word Art Wednesday Challenge Blog to see what the other design team members created with this week's art. Be sure to check out the challenge guidelines to find out how you can be eligible for the weekly prize drawing from this week's sponsor Crop Stop.

Amazing Grace

This year I've decided to participate in Patter Cross' 2012 Hymn and Scripture Challenge.  It's sort of like a scrapbooking bible study.  Every other week we study the history and biblical truth behind a well loved hymn and then create a scrapbook page about it.  The first hymn of the challenge is Amazing Grace.

So what's so amazing about God's grace?  God's grace is getting something we don't deserve.  There's nothing we can do to earn it...no amount of volunteering, doing good deeds, being kind to others, etc...will get us God's grace.  God's grace is given freely to us. It it the gift of God.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.      Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV

For this challenge, I decided to create 5 X 7 pages.  This is a new format for me so we'll see how it goes.

Supplies:
Bo Bunny Enchanted patterned paper
Bazzill cardstock
ODBD Amazing Grace Hymn stamp
ODBD Scripture Series 2 stamp
Spellbinders Fancy Tags
Creative Imaginations Flower
Recollections Pearls
Brads, Lace
VersaFine and Tim Holtz Distress inks

Thanks for stopping by today.  Grow in grace.

Word Art Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!  To some it's Hump Day, but for me it's Word Art Wednesday!   This week's word art is from Genesis 2:24...

When I read this week's word art, I immediately thought of my parents.  They were married for 46 years before my mother's passing in 2001.  My mother was 22 and my dad was 26 when they got married in 1955.  I have a small snapshot of my parents with my dad's parents at their wedding that I scanned and enlarged to use on my page.



Supplies:
Webster's Pages patterned paper
DCWV & Bazzill cardstock
Webster's Pages Flower
Recollections Gem Swirl

I hope you join the Word Art Wednesday challenge this week. Check out the Word Art Wednesday Challenge Blog to see what the other design team members created with this week's art. Be sure to check out the challenge guidelines to find out how you can be eligible for the weekly prize drawing from this week's sponsor, Eclectic Anthology .

ODBD January Scrapbook Challenge

Hi Everyone!! We're into the second week of the January Our Daily Bread Designs Scrapbook Challenge. This month's challenge is a color challenge inspired by the beautiful colors of winter. Your challenge is to create a layout of any size and theme using Our Daily Bread Designs stamps and the colors of this photo as inspiration.

Isn't this a beautiful photo?  It was taken by ODBD Scrapbook Team Coordinator Patter Cross on a family trip to Hawaii.  The colors of the photo could work for any photos you have—winter, Christmas, July 4th, anything! Use any or all of the colors on your layout. Feel free to add basic colors such as brown, black or white and have fun with it!

For my layout I used a family photo that was taken on New Year's Day.  It's a tradition of ours to take photos on January 1 and the layout with those photos becomes the title page of my scrapbook for the year.  Even though I don't scrapbook chronologically,  I do store my layouts in chronological albums.  I used several shades of blue from the challenge photo plus a little bit of red. 

I used the ODBD Never Give Up  stamp set along with the Grunge Cross stamp and coordinating Grunge Cross Die.  I stamped the grungy cross image on my background paper and then adhered the die cut grunge cross image on top of the stamped image with pop dots for dimension.  I also added a brad to the middle of each cross.  The label was stamped with the ODBD Large Scrapbook Words set, then cut and embossed with a Spellbinders die.  The date and  scalloped border strip were cut with Quickutz dies.

Supplies:
My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose patterned paper
Bazzill Cardstock
ODBD Never Give Up, Grunge Cross, and Large Scrapbook Words stamps
ODBD Grunge Cross die
Spellbinders Label 22
Quickutz Dies
Brads, Ribbon
CTMH, VersaFine and Tim Holtz Distress Inks

To see all the challenge guidelines and how you can win a $15 gift certificate to the Our Daily Bread Designs store click here. The challenge runs through Tuesday January 31st, 6:00 PM EST.

I hope you decide to join in this challenge. I can't wait to see what you create.

January Gems of Inspiration

Happy Friday!!! It's time for the Gems of Inspiration scrapbook challenge on the Our Daily Bread Designs Forum.  Since it’s the beginning of a new year, this month’s Gem is all about goals and resolutions.  I’m not one to make resolutions, but I do set some goals for myself, for both crafting and life in general.

So for this month's challenge...create a layout that is inspired by one of your goals or resolutions for the year. Your layout doesn’t have to be about your goal, you just need to use your goal for inspiration.

One of my goals for this year (and every year) comes from Matthew 5…

You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.   Matthew 5:14-16

For my layout, I used a couple of photos that were taken last November at Sandy Cove Ministries, in Maryland.  

Supplies:

Club Scrap & EK Success Patterned Paper
Bazzill Cardstock

ODBD Light of the World Stamp Set
Recollections Rhinestone Swirls
Prima Flowers
Buttons, Floss

Spellbinders Labels 18
CTMH & Tim Holtz Distress Inks

I hope you get a chance to play along this month.  I’m looking forward to seeing what you create.

If you are using Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, you can upload your page to the Scrapbook Pages Category in the ODBD Gallery using keyword ODBDGI02.  If you aren't yet registered there, sign up only takes a couple of minutes. If you don't use ODBD stamps, you can post to your blog or another publicly viewable online gallery and be sure and to come back here and share a link so we can see your beautiful work!

Looking for more scrapbook challenges??? Check out the monthly Let Your Light Shine Scrapbook Challenge on the ODBD blog!

Word Art Wednesday

Welcome to the first Word Art Wednesday Challenge for 2012.  For those of you that aren't familiar with Word Art Wednesday,  it’s a weekly challenge to incorporate scripture or encouraging quotes in your art projects. Each Wednesday a scripture verse or encouraging quote is posted on the WAW Challenge blog and your challenge is to incorporate it into your art projects during the week. You can submit up to 2 projects each week to the challenge and at the end of the week there is a drawing for a prize from one of the blog’s wonderful sponsors. You can read all the details and challenge guidelines here.

This week's word art is inspired by Ruth 1:16, where Naomi is urging Ruth to go back to her people and Ruth is expressing her total commitment, loyalty and love to Naomi and to Naomi's God.  Makes you stop and think for a moment... who and what are we commiting to these days?  Are we sold out to the things of this world or are we totally sold out to God?

Here's my layout for this week.

Supplies:
SEI Dill Blossom Patterned Paper
DCWV and Coredinations Cardstock
Martha Stewart Date Tabs
Jillibean Soup Journaling Spot
K & Co Metal Studs
Making Memories Brads
Spellbinders Labels Ten die
EK Success and Fiskars Punches
Tim Holtz Distress Ink

I used a couple pieces of patterned paper from an SEI 4.5 x 6.5 paper stack along with several sheets of cardstock. I have tons of punches that I don't seem to use that often so I'm making an effort to use them more this year.  After I printed out the word art on white cardstock, I cut it out with a Spellbinders die, inked it up with some Tim Holtz distress ink and added some metal studs and brads.

I hope you join the challenge this week.  Check out the Word Art Wednesday Challenge Blog to see what the other design team members created with this week's art.  Be sure to check out the challenge guidelines to find out how you can be eligible for the weekly prize drawing from this week's sponsor, Whimsy Stamps.

I can't close this post without giving a shout out to my Dad.  Today is his 83rd birthday.   Happy Birthday Dad!!!!  I love you!!

Here's a photo of us taken in November 2011.  Can you believe he's 83?????  Looking good Dad :):)

Happy New Year

Happy 2012!!!!  A year ago today I started this blog and it has opened doors for me that I never dreamed of.  I've made new friendships, was selected for several design teams, and have spread my joy and love of the Lord to people in places all over the world.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in 2012 as I continue on my blogging journey.

Today is the 1st of the month and that means it's new release day at Our Daily Bread Designs.  This month's release is fantastic, especially for all of us that have photos of teens and preteens to scrap.  I am sharing a layout using the Never Give Up stamp set, but you can see the entire new release at Our Daily Bread Designs. 

Supplies:
ODBD Never Give Up Set and Grunge Cross Stamp
ODBD Grunge Cross Die
BoBunny Forever Fall 6x6 Paper Pad
Provo Craft Leather Paper
K & Co Metal Studs
Quickutz Haunted Font
Tattered Angels Gold Glimmer Mist
Staz On & Tim Holtz Distress Inks

I really love the coordinating Grunge Cross Stamp and Die that are made for the Never Give Up set.  I used them on the cross in the middle of the page to make it 3-D.  I also added some glimmer mist for a little sparkle. The patterned paper cross at the bottom of the layout was cut using the die without the stamped image. 

The ODBD new release blog hop runs until 8:00 PM EDT Jan 2.  Five blessed hoppers will win a $20 gift certificate for Our Daily Bread Designs Stamps!! To participate in the hop go to the Our Daily Bread Designs Blog for all the details.

I am looking forward to sharing with you throughout this year.  May you grow in grace and may the Lord shower you with His love during 2012.

Be Blessed.