Grow in Grace

Many years ago a friend at church asked me to sing a duet with her. The song was new to me but the words have stuck so I want to share them with you because they kept playing through my mind as I made this card.

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase,
To added affliction He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

• His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
  His power no boundary known unto men,
  For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
  He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half-done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father's full giving is only begun.

I used the wonderful Frosted Designs Card Sketch 17 and Challenge #106 at Our Daily Bread Designs to use no designer paper but make your own background. Here's the sketch:

The challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ provided the inspiration to use something related to a tree. Their focus verse is "Those who trust in the Lord] shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:8

Here's my card with no designer paper.

For the background I brayered Garden Green ink on the embossing folder on the side with the leaves raised so that only the leaves would get the ink. I set the paper on the opposite side and closed it carefully so it wouldn't smear the ink and ran it through my Wizard. I used the debossed side that is inked. The middle strip was stamped with a leafy border stamp.

The stamps are from Our Daily Bread Designs. The dogwood image was stamped with Garden Green and colored with a blender pen that picked up ink from a Sweet Leaf ink pad. Then I used a black watercolor pencil to darken the wood and flower centers.

May you be aware of God's grace working in your life as you face the challenges of this week.

Challenges:
Frosted Designs Card Sketch #17
Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge #106 - No designer paper
Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #137 - use the image of something planted or the color green

5" x 6.5" Card Recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart Sweet Leaf, White Daisy, Black cardstock
Stamps - Our Daily Bread Designs "Grow in Grace"
Ink - CTMH Garden Green, Sweet Leaf; Memento Tuxedo Black
Other - Cuttlebug embossing folder; brayer; Martha Stewart border punch; CTMH black buttons, white organdy ribbon, Blending pen, black watercolor pencil; black crochet thread;

Multicolored Grace

This week the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge is to make a multi-colored card because of this scripture used in their lesson: 

1 Peter 4:10: “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” There is the word, manifold which translated means, multicolored. Many-colored grace. 

I personally believe He shows us each grace in many different ways, dealing with us as unique individuals, not as carbon copies. When my oldest daughter was just a toddler, we moved to a parsonage where someone had planted irises of every hue, all different, surrounding the yard. I was amazed that there could be so many different kinds of irises. That's when I realized my cranky, picky-eater two-year-old was different than the children whose parents kept giving me advice. If God made so many different kinds of irises, he surely made many kinds of people, all lovely in their own way.  I knew she was unique and needed to be dealt with individually, the same way God deals with us. That totally changed the way I taught other people's children in school, treating each as individuals.
I still had a very colorful piece of Basic Grey that I thought was a multi-colored candidate. Then I saw the Clearly Inspired Challenge #46 at the Clearly iStamp blog to make a card that was not square or rectangle. I had recently purchased one of their digital stamps with a butterfly and flower and I knew they were meant for the multi-colored card. And here's the result blending the two challenges. I used the same procedure for cutting this card using my Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge that I mentioned on my earlier post today.

I had chosen this verse to make a card for one of my grandkids who was baptised a couple of weeks ago. My grandkids like to come to our farm and explore with me. Nature has so many spiritual truths to teach us. I hope they all learn the lessons of the new life we have in Christ and relying on His power to remove old habits, old fears, old inadequacies as He makes us more like Him.

Thank you ladies for your beautiful challenges.

6.5" x 5.25" card recipe:
Paper - Basic Grey "Color Me Silly;" CTMH Colonial White, White, Black Cardstock
Digital Stamp - Clear Dollar Stamps - New Butterfly
Other - Copic markers;CTMH -  black marker, Opaques -pearl, mocha, and licorice; Wilton doily

Encouragement in Trouble

I've given away all of my sympathy/encouragement cards. I really like to have a lot of "Thinking of You" cards available to encourage someone when the need arises. This is the type of card that the Stampin' Sisters in Christ encouraged us to make. I'm also adding this card to their sister site- Word Art Wednesday. I love to use scripture and this Verve stamp is one of my favorites. This is also the Viva La Verve Challenge sketch for the first week of January, 2012.

I thought the color palette from Pals Paper Arts Challenge #126 was perfect for soft, gentle encouragement.

I used paper from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found collection and Prima. The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug, one that fits 5 x 7 cards. The ribbon, pearls, and darker Pacifica CS are from CTMH. Lacy Circle die is from Spellbinders.

Prince of Peace

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge 120 asked us to show an image or sentiment that gives the real meaning of Christmas. I chose this verse from Isaiah 9:6 that tells more about who is that Baby Jesus born in a manger. I used the sketch #124 from Pals Paper Arts for this card. The sentiment I wanted to use was a little too wide to put the circular feature on top, so naturally, it went under. The Colonial White paper I stamped it on was a little too plain, so I distressed it with Tim Holtz's Old Paper Distress Ink.

Supplies Used:

Paper - Recollections Naughty or Nice, CTMH Black and Colonial White

Stamps - CTMH Everlasting Life, A Holiday (holly border)

Ink - CTMH New England Ivy, tulip marker; Tim Holtz Old Paper, Memento Black

Accessories: 2.5" circle punch for wreath paper, Bow-Easy and red ribbon from Michaels



Vintage Angel Christmas Cards

On Sunday, I saw the challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ to make a card that had angels. This has been on my mind all week. When I saw the challenge at Little Red Wagon to make a vintage card, the two were wed, along with the beautiful color palette at Color Throwdown today.

My three angel stamps are either much too big, much too small, or lost. So I found fabulous FREE vintage angel files with a simple Google search. The one I selected for this card is from Angel-Guide in their section on Victorian angels. I knew this would work perfectly with my title and verse stamps from Close To My Heart.

My card is 6.5" x 5.25."  I must give credit to Viva La Verve for the design that I flipped horizontally from November's challenge. The background paper is a vineyard berry pattern from CTMH "Sweet Home"  (retired). The doily is from Little Yellow Bicycle. The olive patterned paper is from the Paper Studio pack "Faith." The sentiment on the strip reads: " May peace and happiness be yours . . ." inside it says, " throughout this sacred season." That comes from a CTMH stamp set called Festive Thoughts.  Under it inside I stamped a vintage looking Merry Christmas from "A Holiday."

I had looked for an angel that went with the title "Peace on Earth," which comes from a new CTMH stamp set called Glory to God. It includes this Bible verse that I stamped inside:

Glory to God in the

highest, and on earth peace,

good will toward men.

Luke 2:14

The angel in the vintage picture has the Latin for peace on earth written above her head. This is my hope for our world and my endeavor to make it happen in my own little corner of this world. Once I started on this little project I haven't wanted to stop! I have a feeling there will be more angel cards to come!