Building Up Others with Kind Words

One of my goals in making cards is to encourage or build up others. When I hear of a prayer request they have, I've always tried to pray for them, but I've become even more concerned that the individual, not just God, hears my words to build them up. This morning my son called before work with a request for prayer about a job that their new company needed that seemed to be in limbo. I shared Jeremiah 29:11 with him that God knows the plans He has for them, plans to prosper them, not to harm them. I told him to go in to work today, look up the scripture on his computer and share it with the other young guys in his company. He called later to thank me that the job came through and that he had shared it with two other young men. God's Word is so powerful for building up others!

For my card I used the Colour Create Challenge #96 to use green, brown, white, and a touch of lavendar and purple. When I read that I envisioned flowering trees that recently bloomed in our area. The challenge this week at Stampin' Sisters in Christ used this verse with a wonderful devotional:

Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

The card challenge was to build up our card using layers, paper tole,  paper piecing, or stacking flowers, etc.  I made a get well card by using an embossing folder to make branches, embossing it again on brown and green to cut out branches and a few of the leaves to stack for even more dimension. I even overlapped two of those leaves over the ribbon. I stacked brown velvet ric rac on top of brown gingham ribbon. I stacked flowers putting white punched flowers on top of a lavendar ones and putting a lavendar brad in the middle. My verse from Jeremiah 30:17 was stamped with pansy purple ink and double matted with brown and lavendar. With the embossing, paper piecing, stacking and pop dots, my card also fits the challenge at Creative Card Crew for using Dimension, one of my favorite things to do.

 May God build you up and bless your heart each time you hear or read His word and may He use you to encourage others the same way!

Challenges:
Colour Create Challenge Blog: #96 Green, brown, white and a touch of lavendar or purple
Creative Card Crew #11 - use Dimension
Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #140: build up our card using layers, paper tole, paper piecing, or stacking flowers, etc

5" x 6.5" Get Well card recipe:
Paper - Bazzill brown cardstock; Close To My Heart Sweet Leaf, Amethyst, and White Daisy cardstock
Stamps - Our Daily Bread Designs "Get Well"
Ink - CTMH Pansy Purple
Accents - Cuttlebug embossing folder; CTMH Petal brads; flower punch; Offray gingham ribbon; velvet ric rac unknown from my stash

Christ takes us as we are . . .

After church on Mother's Daymy family and some friends and I are going to celebrate by going to a beautiful arboretum and botanical garden. One of my friends feels sad sometimes because she was a horrible mother when her kids were young. She improved at least in the ten years I've known her. She became a Christian and turned away from so many problems. Now she's a wonderful grandmother, so I want her to know the message of this card - that Christ takes us as we are, buries our sins in the deepest sea, and molds us into His image.

I used a little symbolism in the materials of this card. I used black hemp, a natural product, for me representing the natural man. I wrapped it around the paper on the left and wove it through the outer holes of the frame. Then below the text I used red sparkles, representing rubies, and white satin ribbon, symbolizing purity. Inside I'm including a portion of Proverbs 31 so that she can see how far she's really come. "Who can find a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies. . . "

I used a verse from Clear Dollar Stamps, from the digital set "Become New." The sketch was CPS #264. The idea for the hemp was from the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #138, to use something real or natural. I used the middle panel for the large sentiment so that it would be the focal point, as suggested by Challenge #10 at Creative Card Crew.  Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge to use Lacing deserves credit for that idea that I incorporated.

I'll add more details after our Mother's Day Celebrations!

Glittery Mother's Day Card

Whenever I make a card for a specific person, I like to think about them, pray for them as I create. This card made me think of my sweet Christian friend who never had children but took classes to become a foster mom and maybe even an adoptive mom. It seemed like she waited a long time. Then one week two little girls came into her life and changed it in the many ways she'd hoped for - and probably a few she didn't expect. I know she has challenges. Motherhood is demanding, but seems to fill a place in our hearts. She's a strong Christian, so I'm praying that she'll keep relying on His strength, wisdom, and leadership as she encounters each new situation. I can't wait to send her a card to celebrate her first Mother's Day!

This card was inspired using the fun color palette suggested by Colour Create Challenge #95 - Rose Pink, Kraft, and White. One of the pieces of paper I saw had the perfect design to go with Sketch #152 from Sweet Sketch Wednesday. I wanted it to be feminine, so it also goes with the challenge #47 at Really Reasonable Ribbon. Here's the inspiration from both sources.

The patterned paper I used on the top half was glittered, so I added some glitter gel to the flowers and the frame around the sentiment. I used thin white organdy ribbon to tie the frame over the stamped sentiment.

Challenges:

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #152

Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #47 - Mother's Day/Feminine plus ribbon

Colour Create Challenge #95 - Rose Pink, Kraft, White

Stamps - My Favorite Things "Sunflower Girl" (Pure Innocence); sentiment from Close To My Heart

Peaceful and Holy Easter Vintage Card

Colour Create Challenge #93 has this lovely photo inspiration to go with their challenge to use deep purple, bright green, and cream. This color comgination is one I've loved since I was six years old. Freshly Made Sketch Challenge #29 was perfect for adding a touch of color on the side and plenty of white space so that the image is the focus. Because the papers are from Basic Grey, I'm also entering this card in the Basic Grey Challenge #65 to make Easter cards.

The colors led me to use a vintage Easter card image that was surrounded by purple violets with their green leaves.  The angels are making music and in the background is a church.  All of those details together speak to my heart of the joys of Easter celebrating the gift of Christ's death and resurrection.

I used the bottom square on the right to place two violets. They had a little too much red in their color so I sponged some Pansy Purple ink on each petal so that they'd match the Pansy Purple cardstock I used to mat the image. They're darker in the photo than in real life. Here's a photo of that detail taken with flash.

The organdy is also Pansy Purple with a small charm that says "Love." The embossing folder that I used is rather architectural in design with goes with the church theme of the image.

May God bless your heart as you celebrate Easter tomorrow.

5" x 6.5" Easter Card Recipe:

Paper - Basic Grey "Indie Bloom;" CTMH Colonial White, Topiary, Pansy Purple cardstock

Ink - Close To My Heart Pansy Purple

Other - CTMH organdy; Cuttlebug embossing folder "Mary Ann;" charm and flowers unknown form stash

The Deconstructed Sketch #41 - On the Farm

A Day for Daisies has some adorable stamps for their latest release, On the Farm, and challenge #38 Dress It Up with Gingham. I'm using a stamp that reminds me of my blonde younger sister when we got a baby chick for Easter. I combined this challenge with the Colour Create Challenge to use yellow, gray, black and white and the sketch from the deconstructed sketch #41.

I used a square card that was embossed with flowers, masked the edges and sponged it with Sunny Yellow ink hoping to highlight the flowers. The image was colored with Copics and watercolor pencils. The flower has a white butterfly with a black design and the charm hanging from the bow says "Love."

5.5" Square Card Recipe:

Paper - Basic Grey (grey); CTMH black, white cardstock, yellow gingham (old retired)

Image - A Day for Daisies -"Pet Chick"

Ink - CTMH Sunny Yellow

Other - Copics (Y 11, E 00); CTMH watercolor pencils (black, Sunny yellow, honey), black gingham ribbon, Just Blooms Flutter Paper Shapes (butterfly); Sizzix double diamond embossing folder; Recollections gray flower; Martha Stewart border punch; charm unknown from stash

CPS Day 9 with Color Create #90 Palette

CPS (Card Positioning System) Card Sketches is celebrating their 5th Anniversary with a challenge to make card using the previous patterns they select over 15 days. This is the 9th sketch, CPS#5 fro 2007.

I saw the Colour Create Challenge #90 and fell in love with the combination of those colors: lilac, blue, kraft, and white, although the paper I found is more of an aqua blue. Even the ribbon from my stash is lilac and aqua. I placed a strip of lilac paper under the ribbon so the lilac color would show up better.

The paper was loose in my scraps so I don't remember its source. The stamped sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink scripture collection. It's one of my favorite verses that can be applied to so may situations in life. Under the scripture I stamped  with a CTMH background from Universal Backgrounds. The flowers are new ones I just got from CTMH that already have script printed on them. I added lavendar sparkles from their Red/Pink collection.