Twist of Faith #70 - New Beginnings, Anything Goes

It's hard to believe that this is the last day of 2013! When I was a child time seemed to crawl, but now as an adult, time seems to race by faster each year! I only wish the winter cold seemed to disappear as quickly. We enjoyed a white Christmas here this year. My husband and I keep reassuring ourselves that we've passed the winter solstice and the days will keep getting longer again.

Today at Twist of Faith we are switching things up a bit.  Usually we have a sponsor and offer a prize for a random winner from that sponsor.  But this week with our "anything goes" challenge, I will send a new acrylic stamp set to the winner. The prize is a Close To My Heart stamp set called "It's Your Day." I had purchased several of these to use as prizes for different events. I think this stamp set has lots of possibilities for cards and/or scrapbook pages.

Today's challenge, "New Beginnings, Anything Goes," was a perfect time for me to use a vintage digital image and make a New Year's card. I loved the image from Catnip Studio Collage, "Winter Bluebird" postcard. There was plenty of space on the top of the image for me to add a verse about our new life in Christ. The verse had been going through my mind all day. A new year is the perfect time to be reminded that when we believe and receive Christ as our Savior from sin, we truly begin a new life that will never end. We begin life with the sin nature that we're all born with. At salvation, we are re-born in the spirit, giving us a new nature and new desires, a new Helper who helps us reach new goals, as well as a new eternal destination.

I added the Scripture to the image using Photoshop. I printed the image twice so that I could cut out the bird and pop dot it.  The Happy New Year Sentiment is from a Close To My Heart retired stamp set, "In the Month of January," using Twilight ink. The aqua blue strip was embossed with Cuttlebug "Snow Dots" embossing folder then inked with Twilight ink. I mounted the image on metallic copper cardstock that was die cut with a Spellbinders Nestabilities "Romantic Rectangles." CTMH mocha pearls were added to match the copper. Here's a shiny close up:

Here is the verse I typed in case it would help you make a card. I saved the blue verse as a png file so that you can copy and paste it over an image like I did, resizing it to fit yours, or as a jpg if that's the only type of file you can use.

 

Thank you for visiting. I pray that 2014 will be a new year of blessings for you!

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Allsorts #238 - brown with blue, aqua or turquoise

Blogger's Challenge - Celebrations

Challenges 4 Everybody #36 - Anything Goes

Chocolate, Coffee & Cards #55 - New Beginnings

Cut It Up #35 - New Year's Celebrations (with die cuts)

Scribble & Scrap Challenge #8 - Anything Goes

Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge #9 - Vintage Sparkle (metallic copper cs)

That Craft Place - Anything Goes

The Squirrel and the Fox #60 - Anything Goes

Word Art Wednesday #112 - anything goes with scripture or uplifting/encouraging verse



 

 

 

Twist of Faith #69 - Your Favorite

Today where I live it's Christmas Eve. I want to wish you a Merry Christmas! I hope wherever you live, this is a joyful time for you. May Christ fill your heart with His love and joy so that you may share it with all those around you. This week's challenge at Twist of Faith is for you to create a card using the theme:

Your Favorite

AND a scripture, or uplifting verse/quote or positive words of healing, encouragment, or support

What does "Your Favorite" mean?  It can be using your favorite image or using your favorite technique.  It can be about your favorite event that happened in 2013 or about your favorite food or person.  It could represent your favorite toy as a child or your favorite color.  It can even include your favorite verse!

Our sponsor, Milk N Coffee Digital Stamps, will give our prize winner their choice of FIVE  Milk Coffee images!   I used their image called Decorating Christmas Tree. My favorite holiday has always been Christmas. After the tree was decorated when I was young, we would turn off the lights, sit on the floor by the tree, and look at the packages under the tree trying to guess what surprises were inside.  This card represents my journey from  tree and treasures to the real Treasure, the gift of Christ.

I used to love the decorations and gifts, both receiving and giving. But as I've gotten older my favorite aspect of Christmas is the fact that I can share the Christ of Christmas and His love and joy with so many friends and family at this time of year.  Since you are probably a card maker or giver, I imagine that you enjoy sharing love and joy at Christmas and all through the year like I do.

 

Using the colors of the ornament, I chose a piece of CTMH paper, Laughing Lola, for the background. I wanted it to look a little like a darkened room being lit with multi-colored lights on the Christmas tree. I colored this fun image with Copics using those ornament colors and added Stickles to the dots on the ornament and to the ornaments on the tree.  Here's a close-up.

 

 

 

 

I used this fun sketch from Mojo Monday this week, flipping it vertically 180 degrees. The heart on the sketch inspired me to use the Doodle Pantry heart-shaped ornament (Love's Ornament) as an embellishment and its accompanying sentiment.

 

  

 

Inside I used the Scripture from Word Art Wednesday #111 from last week.  I love the way Isaiah gives us many of the names of Christ which tell us what qualities He had, what He was like. I chose to emphasize His peace-giving quality for the world we live in today, so I added a Christmas Sentiment from Doodle Pantry at the end of the verse from Isaiah 9:6 that also speaks of peace.

 

 

May God bless your holiday and the coming year with His peace, love, and joy!

 

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

 

Anonymous Stamps - Anything goes

Challenges 4 Everybody #36 - Anything goes

Dream Valley Challenge #72 - Christmas

Kaboodle Doodles #203 - Christmas and the Upcoming New Year

MilkCoffee Challenge - Any Christmas Creation

Mojo Monday #325 - sketch

Scribble and Scrap #8 - Anything goes

Sentimental Sundays #186 - Anything Christmas

Whoopsi Daisy - Anything Christmas

Word Art Wednesday #111 - anything goes with Scripture, encouraging/uplifting sentiment

 

Christ Treasure Christmas Card

 Just a quick post to share today's Christmas card using Doodle Pantry's images from the "Christ Treasure" set. I loved using the Basic Grey "Nook and Pantry" peachy colored papers to coordinate with the holly.

This sentiment summarizes my feeling about Christmas: Christ came to be my Lord and Savior, now and forever.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Basic Grey #110 - Anything goes
Creative Card Crew #51 - Holly or Poinsettia
Deep Ocean #67 - Something Old (Basic Grey "Nook and Pantry")
MilkCoffee Challenge - Christmas with non-traditional colors
Papertake Weekly - last Christmas Card
Ribbon Carousel #88 - Anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown #176 - What Christmas means to you
Word Art Wednesday #111 - Anything goes with Scripture or encouraging/uplifting words

Twist of Faith #68 - Nativitiy

 



 This week at Twist of Faith our new challenge is:

Nativity

Our blog explains: "In the Book of Matthew & Luke we are told the story of the Nativity - the birth of the Savior. Many know & love this story, as they love the one who it is about: Jesus. It is an amazing story of love - of the love of God and His gift to mankind - Himself.

During the Chistmas season we often reach out to friends and family with this message of Hope and Love come in a manger.  We'd love you to share your beautiful cards made with the Nativity theme.  And don't forget that your card must include a scripture, uplifting quote/sentiment, or positive verse in order to be considered for our random prize."

Our sponsor for the week is Melonheadz, who has generously offered the Winner of this weeks challenge 1 image bundle of the winners choice! 

 

 

 

My card uses their image set called "2012 Nativity." I used Photoshop to lighten the images and recolored them with Copic markers to match my papers. The images in this set remind me of my days as a teacher when the kids would dress up and act out the nativity story. When my children were young they always wanted to act it out for us on Christmas morning, too. My greatest joy was that it wasn't just a story for them, but a focus on the Son of God who came to be the Savior that they now follow and live for as adults.

 

 

I used some Basic Grey snowy paper for the background after hearing that Jerusalem had 10 inches of snow this week. The stable image was cut using Cricut "Inspired Hearts" which was then embossed using the Cuttlebug "Branches" embossing folder. I tied the  bottom with Jute baker's twine. I cut out the star with the Inspired Hearts cartridge, trimmed it from the frame, edged it with a darker Copic marker, and added glitter and pop dots. The Scripture is a retired stamp from Close To My Heart.

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

C is for Challenge #12 - Traditional Christmas - our Nativity scenes and plays

Crafting from the Heart #2 - Anything Goes

Dream Valley #72 - Christmas

Exploring Cricut - Christmas - used Inspired Hearts cartridge for stable and star

Melonheadz Friends Challenge - Christmas

 

Through the Purple Haze - Here comes Christmas day

Whoopsi Daisy - Anything Christmas

Word Art Wednesday #110 - anything goes with Scripture or uplifting/encouraging words

 



 



Winter Critters Husky for Christmas

We live on a farm near a large metropolitan area. Homes are not close together, so you don't always know your neighbors. The only neighbor I really know is our closest one down the road. They are a dear, retired Christian couple that raise a beautiful vegetable garden, raise soybeans, and have a dog kennel for breeding huskies. Naturally, when I saw the Doodle Pantry image of the winter husky in the set called "Winter Critters," I knew this would make a great card for them.  I used this week's sketch from Mojo Monday to make this card with colors that are definitely not traditional.

The designer papers and sparkles are all from Close To My Heart (gold from retired Lucy; fuschia from "Laughing Lola," and gray houndstooth from "Sparkle and Shine." Silver ribbons are from CTMH and Michaels.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Crafty Ribbons (73 or 74?)- Anything goes with ribbon
Cute Card Thursday #299 - Christmas catch-up (for me, making several cards day to try to finish)
Delicious Doodles #66 - Hairy legs (for me, that's a dog)
Hanna and Friends #186 - Christmas (with digi stamped image of living animal)
Kaboodle Doodles #201 - non-traditional Christmas colors
Mojo Monday #323 - sketch
Totally Papercrafts #197 - Christmas using non-traditional colors
Whoopsi Daisy - Christmas using non-traditional colors


 

Scripture Display Album for 2013 - Part 2

Yesterday I posted photos of most of my Scripture Display Album. I had also posted five of the pages earlier in the year. Here is a link for four of them that I started last spring.

http://heartfulstamper.blogspot.com/2013/06/clearly-digi-stamps-june-release-framed.html

I love this first verse. When my children were young, we used to sing a song with the last part of the verse. It was a great encouragement that we are God's children and His Spirit living within us is our strength: "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4."

I chose this next verse because of the challenge to monitor what we do to be sure that everything we do brings glory to God: "Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

The page that I designed simply for November is part of a beautiful chapter that has many brief admonitions on the way we should live. The verse before it says we should pray continually. This verse means that we should be thankful in any circumstance we are in, not always easy to do: "In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18"

To see more, look at yesterday's post. Many of these pages, like the three pictured here, use Prima papers. The back side of each page has a solid background ready for a 4" x 6" photo or another verse. By using embellishments on each page, it does make the display album a little "fat."

 

Thank you for visiting. I hope that you will get some ideas of your own from this gift project. May God bless you with His love and His Word.

 

I'm sharing this project with the following challenges:

Emergency Crafters - anything goes but Christmas

Miriam's Crafting Blog 7th month - Homemade gifts

Word Art Wednesday #110 - anything goes with Scripture/uplifting sentiment

 

Scripture Display Album for 2013

I love God's Word and I know that it  helps us build Christ-like character in our lives, it encourages us when we are troubled, it helps us make wise decisions throughout our day, and much more. There are many ways that we can display God's Word in our homes. This is one of the crafts I've been making for gifts and for craft fairs that shows Scripture that is meant to be encouraging and uplifting.

Earlier in the year I posted five of the pages that I put in my Scripture Display Album that I'm making this year. Here's the cover and three more pages. The cover uses the same verse that I used last year, but it has different word art. The word art on most of these pages are from Word Art Wednesday and Papercraft Memories free word art that I saved the last couple of years. There are 12 pages inside. One can be displayed each month of the year - or whenever the encouragement of that verse is needed.

The cover says, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105"

The next one uses CTMH stamps and Laughing Lola papers, cuttlebug embossing folder, and a verse from Our Daily Bread Designs. It says "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. 2 Thessalonians 3:5"

The next verse has always meant a lot to me because I consider myself to have many kinds of weaknesses and always need God's strength to take control.  "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9"

The following verse is important to me because I know that God hears our prayers and sees what we're going through. "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 1 Peter 3:12"

I decided to make some of them with seasonal papers or themes, like the red, white and blue above for July and the December page below.

I will share the rest of the pages in a later post so that there aren't too many photos to upload in one post.

Thank you for visiting. I hope perhaps that this gives you crafters some ideas for your own projects. May God bless you through the reading of His Word.

I'm sharing this project with the following challenges:
All Crafts Challenge - anything but a card
Anything But a Card #30 - anything (the December page has Christmas theme)
Created with Love Challenge #70 - anything goes
Dream Valley Challenge #71 - anything but a card
Polka Doodles #49 - gift for Christmas
Ribbon Carousel Challenge #88 - anything goes with spooled item (2 have ribbon)
Try It On Tuesday - A handmade gift or tag (mine is a gift)
Word Art Wednesday #110 - anything goes with encouraging/uplifting verse or Scripture

Twist of Faith #67 - Traditional Christmas

 

Today we have a new challenge at Twist of Faith!  Our challenge encourages you to make a card with this twist: add a scripture, positive quote/verse, or uplifting quote.  We hope our cards will be an encouragement to the recipients and to those who visit our blogs.

This weeks new challenge:

TRADITIONS of CHRISTMAS

 "What does "Traditional Christmas" mean to you?  Is it a family tradition that you still keep after many, many years?  Is it an ornament that is on the tree every year?  Maybe making cookies with the kids using your grandmother's cookie cutters?  Or is it going Christmas Caroling with your friends?  This week we are asking you to make a card that represents that your Traditional Christmas is or what it means.  We'd also love to hear about your tradition when you write your post on your blog.  Who knows - your tradition might become one of ours!  And don't forget that your card must include a scripture, uplifting quote/sentiment, or positive verse in order to be considered for our random prize."

Our sponsor this week is Robyn's Fetish! I used their fun image, Christmas Scene 1. As I made my card, I tried to incorporate symbols of Christmas traditions that we've had in our family.

I flipped the image horizontally in Photoshop and fussy cut it to put on a glittery ornament, which represents the way we always decorated our homes. The image I chose represents the way each generation from my parents to my children as parents have tried to keep the emphasis on Christ as the center of Christmas.

My card uses music paper as a background. When I was a child, we always had Christmas programs at church. We would sing carols and re-enact the story of Christ's birth. When I became a teacher, I led the same type of Christmas programs, either in our church or our Christian school. Now our grandchildren are putting on programs for us at their own Christian school. I made this card to give the "other grandma" that I'll see tomorrow night when we sit together to watch the younger children sing carols and the older ones put on a play. They have amazing teachers who bring out their talents. The plays now are definitely modern, but have a message about the true gift of Christmas- Jesus, God's Son, who came not only as a baby, but as one who came to show us how to live and then to die as the perfect, sinless, sacrifice, paying for our sins.


Another tradition I've always had is to give handmade gifts to family or friends. When my kids were young, I would sew clothes or toys for them. So I used the sewing machine to stitch along the edges, not in my comfort zone with paper. I also chose that gingham ribbon to represent the homespun idea.

The front sentiment I printed from Doodle Pantry's "Holiday Greetings."  I don't remember the inside sentiment because it was a part of a group I printed ahead:

Thinking about our families' traditions have certainly given me a nostalgic walk down memory lane! I hope you'll share your own with our Twist of Faith challenge.

I'm also sharing this card with the following challenges:
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - use a previous challenge - #18 Christmas Ornaments
A Creative Romance- Sparkle at Christmas
Creative Corner - Traditional Christmas
Cupcake Inspirations #240 - I used the colors - red, green, golden
Great Impressions December Challenge - Glitter (and/or sequins)
Paper Crafting Journey - It's Christmas Time
Robyn's Fetish Challenge #189 - Must have a bow
That Craft Place - Christmas
The Ribbon Girls - Ho, Ho, Ho Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #109- anything goes with Scripture or encouraging verse
 

Blessed Christmas

I haven't posted for a week while I was working on preparations for my last craft fair this year. I hope to post some of the craft items later this week. I did finally get an extra printer to use in case I have another printer emergency at the last minute like I did last week. Now it's time to get really serious about more Christmas cards for my husband and I to send and more for my elderly mother-in-law to send. I have a strong conviction that I want to keep Christ in Christmas, even though the media and stores want me to focus on gift-buying, parties and decorations.

This Christmas card was inspired by the image at Doodle Pantry, "Blessed Christmas." I printed the image of the Christ child, then printed again adding the beautiful sentiment Scripture above the image. I wanted to keep it simple to draw the attention to the image and sentiment.

I used two types of glitter details on this card: the red glittery patterned paper and the glitter gems in the corner of the Spellbinder's mat. Here's a close-up:

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Creative Knockouts #14 - Christmas Splendor
Cupcake Inspirations #240 - red, green, gold color inspiration
Delightful challenge - You're a Gem ( added glitter gems)
Happy Campers #24 - Glitter It
My Heart Pieces - Sparkle
Paper Pretties #287 - Looking like Christmas
Scribble and Scrap Challenge #7 - anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #109 - anything goes with Scripture or uplifting verse

Twist of Faith #66 - Baubles and Bells Card

Our new challenge at Twist of Faith is great for those of us who need to make more cards to share for Christmas:

Challenge #63 is:

Baubles & Bells

Make a card creation with scripture, or uplifting verse or quotes

Here is the scripture verse we're sharing with you!

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins"
Matthew 1:21

Our sponsor is Digi Darla Designs...
who has generously offered one lucky winner 5 digis of their choice!

 

I chose to use their digi called Christmas Bells. When I printed it I kept singing the song: Ring the Bells, ring the bells, Let the whole world know. . . so I made my gold background paper for this layout by printing the French Script lyrics, copying and pasting it repeatedly in Word with no spaces between rows. I did this to emphasize the important message of the bells in this song: that Christ the Lord was not only born, but that He was God's Son who came to take the punishment for our sins so we wouldn't have to if we believed in Him. There's no greater story of love than this! It's worth ringing the bells and telling the whole world!

 

 

Here's a close-up of the glitter details:

 

 

 

I used the Mojo Monday sketch #322 for this week:

 

 

The fun image was colored with Copic markers, fussy cut and pop dotted. I used three types of glittery details, the holly berries on the green patterned paper were already glittered. I added a CTMH green glitter paper strip and some glittery details tracing over the lines of bell with a Sakura glitter gel pen. The red cardstock was embossed with holly using The Paper Studio embossing folder. Three jingle bells were tied on the red organdy ribbon.

 

I was starting to print the verse of the song and an inside sentiment when my printer quit working. After a couple of hours, we still couldn't get it to print, so I'll show you the files that I plan to add to the card when the printer starts working.

 

Ring the Bells, ring the bells.
Let the whole world know

Christ was born in Bethlehem many years ago.

Born to die that man might live,

Came to earth new life to give,
Born of Mary, born so low many years ago.

God the Father gave His Son,

Gave His own Beloved One
To this wicked, sinful earth

To bring man kind His love new birth

Ring the bells, ring the bells,
Let the whole world know

Christ the Savior lives today
As He did so long ago!

 

On the right side the verse is:

 

 

 

May the Story and songs of Christmas

fill your heart with the love of Christ.

May you share His story and His love

for all of those in your world to be filled

with the love, peace and joy

that comes from knowing Christ

as their Savior.

Now I'm praying that I can get the printer working again tomorrow! Thank you for visiting and may God bless you as you share love with your cards this Christmas!

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

ABC Challenge - A = Almost Christmas

Cards Galore December Challenge - Christmas

Glitter 'n' Sparkle #61 - add some glitter and sparkle

Ladybug Crafts - Christmas/Winter

Mojo Monday #322 -  sketch

Sentimental Sundays #183 - traditional Christmas colors (red, green, gold with sentiment printed on background paper)

Word Art Wednesday #108 - anything goes with Scripture, uplifting, or encouraging  verse

 

Doodle Pantry Encouraging Words

I must admit, I'm a collector of encouraging sentiments and have been since high school. I jumped at a chance to use this set of digis just released by Doodle Pantry with great "Encouraging Words." I picked two of them for today's cards and one of their new Winter Birthday images that I thought worked well with these sentiments. I imaged that the cute penguin accidentally took flight with some helium balloons, quite a mistake, quite a problem.

 

 

I'm sharing the first card with the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments Challenge #94 - Any sentiment - love this Einstein quote!

Crafty Ribbons #72 - Anything goes with ribbon

Cute Card Thursday #297 - Anything Goes

Sister Act Card Challenge #35 - Anything Goes

Wags 'n' Whiskers #118 - Things With Wings



 

 

 

 

I hope you'll check out the rest of the encouraging sentiments in this set: