Seek His Wisdom

These two journal entries really go hand in hand, though I didn't create them at the same time. In Job 28:12-19, it describes in perfect visual imagery that the Lord's wisdom is certainly more precious than any jewels or gemstones. One thing I always want to strive for is to walk in His wisdom. As long as I seek His wisdom first and not try to do everything on my own, or my way, I will walk in His blessing.

In Daniel chapter 2, Daniel goes to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and asks them to help him pray for wisdom to help interpret the king Nabuchadnezzar's dream so that they may live. The focal point of my entry is the section of scripture that Daniel spends praising the Lord for giving him wisdom and thanking him. Even as I seek the Lord for wisdom in all things--I want to always praise and thank Him with equal passion and gratitude. God is faithful and He always looks out for the good of His children. When you seek after His wisdom, you will surely find it. Then, be sure to thank Him for it when you do.

Craft Room Makeover

This entry has been a long time coming....a year, in fact. A year ago, I set out to do a makeover of my craft room. Everything in it was just as it was when we moved into this house 7-1/2 years ago. At our old house, dear hubby built a craft desk for me, so when we moved in I asked him to build me a cabinet shelf and a small table to coordinate. The craft room was the last room on "our" list of things to do when we moved in, so while he built me the items I requested, they weren't exactly finished. I went 7 years without doors on my cabinet shelf. ;)

I knew I wanted to paint the walls a color that would brighten up the room and I definitely wanted to use a Stampin' Up! color. I chose Sahara Sand. I took my piece of card stock to Lowe's, and they matched it up perfectly! I'm obsessed with turquoise, and you can find it throughout my house. So it seemed like the obvious choice to paint the accent pieces of my furniture in the craft room. I bought some chalk paint and got busy painting the wood furniture pieces.

The wall décor was the hardest thing and is the whole reason that I'm a year late in sharing this makeover with you. I wanted to get it right. For Christmas, Mike bought me a scratch off travel map that I can scratch off the countries that I've visited. After I scratched off the 12 countries that I have traveled to, I purchased a frame and hung it on the wall. That set the tone for the rest of the wall. I purchased another map, this time a US map and decided to cut out photos of Mike and I for the States that we have visited together. This is still a work in progress, but I got enough of a start to hang that on the wall as well. While walking through Hobby Lobby (swoon!), I saw the PERFECT wall piece--it says "my happy place" with "happy" in gold font. I fell in love. ;)

We have now officially repainted/made over every room in the house, except the kitchen...and that will be a HUGE undertaking that won't happen any time soon. :)

Without further adieu, here is the makeover....needless to say, I'm super happy with how it turned out!

The Key to Perfect Peace

Did you know that the thoughts that you have are powerful? Thoughts you have about yourself, about others, about life...Isaiah 26:3 says, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." By fixing our thoughts on God, we allow His peace to come on us. It isn't always easy, especially when life is hard and we are going through struggles, but the more that we do that--focus our minds on God's goodness, on His love--the easier it will be to do that during those valley moments in our life.

I'm continuing to use my watercolors and Aqua Painter brushes and am really having a great time using this medium in my journal Bible.

Have a beautiful week--keep your thoughts on the good things, the positive, on God.

The Fight Within

Our Pastor just concluded a mini-series titled "The Fight Within." He explains: "The Fight Within" is about yielding and overcoming...yielding to the Holy Spirit as He leads your spiritual being and overcoming every opposition that holds you back from following through and doing what you know to do.

This Romans 7 passage has long since been a favorite of mine. How many times do we find ourselves struggling on the inside--knowing what is right and wanting desperately to do so, but instead we do the opposite? It can be a continuous battle for many. Isn't it encouraging to know that Christ can deliver us from that inner fight and help us to overcome the opposition that tries to get in our way!

Pursue a Heart of Integrity

"Few things are more infectious than a godly lifestyle. The people you rub shoulders with everyday need that kind of challenge. Not prudish. Not preachy. Just Cracker Jack clean living. Just honest to goodness, bone-deep, non-hypocritical integrity." -Chuck Swindoll

May we always strive to pursue a life with a heart of integrity.

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength

"It takes intentional change and obedience in the Spirit to learn to live in joy." Holly Gerth in "You're Going to Be Okay" This quote resonated with me the first time I read it. Sometimes joy requires action. We must fight for joy. We must remember that strength comes THROUGH joy, not after it. In other words, joy provides strength. It IS a choice. I choose JOY, don't you? What better way to live than with a joyous heart? May Nehemiah 8:10 be a reminder of that for you this week or the next time you are struggling to find joy amidst a storm of struggle.

My Hope Is In the Lord

It's been a year since I started Bible Journaling. What an awesome creative outlet it has been for me! I have really enjoyed this type of artful worship, and I can see that it is becoming more common.

I purchased a new set of water colors yesterday and had to try them out immediately. In this time when so many people are afraid for the future of our nation and the world, I rest in knowing that my hope comes from the Lord alone. Psalm 33:20-22 is an awesome reminder of that. Just like a caterpillar turns into a butterfly--with freedom to fly away, we have freedom in Christ knowing that He is our help and our shield when darkness tries to surround us.

Be encouraged, friend! And may you find hope in the Lord alone.

She Leaves a Little Sparkle Wherever She Goes

I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law who is due to give birth to a baby girl in August. I wanted to do a pink, black, and gold theme and was really excited to see the "Pop of Pink Specialty Designer Series Paper" coordinated perfectly! I started with her invitations and incorporated gold heat embossing on these. I used some retired Melon Mambo ribbon I had in my retired stash to run around the top.

Once I got the invites in the mail, I started focusing on the décor and dessert table. I used the adorable new "Popcorn Box Thinlit" die for the popcorn treat boxes, and the coordinating "Ready to Pop" stamp set (which I also used on the cupcake toppers that I heat embossed with gold powder).

The only other thing that took a little bit of time were the diaper gummy bear favor treat pouches that I made for each of the guests. You can find the full tutorial on how to make these super easy diapers here on a previous blog post.

Hello Sunshine

I'm having so much fun with the "Sunshine Wishes" thinlit! For this project, I also incorporated the new "Swirly Scribbles" thinlit as well. (I'm keeping my Big Shot busy!) These fun flower bursts on a white card stock background really make them pop! I used the water color technique on the "sunshine" cut out again for the ombre color. This simple, but bright card, would brighten anyone's day!

Happy Birthday Beth!

One of my zoo friends is having a birthday today, and over the weekend in my crafting free time I decided to make her a birthday card and coordinating 3D treat. The "Confetti Celebration" stamp set is such a fun birthday stamp set. It's been a while since I've really had a birthday stamp set that I'm excited to play with, but this one is so fun I had a lot of great ideas when I ordered it.

This shaker card is easy to make, but still gives off a fun "wow" factor for the recipient. To learn to make your own, check out Stampin' Up!'s official YouTube video tutorial. I took Stampin' Up!'s example from the catalog and added some Bermuda Bay to it and changed the ribbon to coordinate. Since I don't have the new Sprinkles punch, I improvised and punched stars from a retired small star punch.

No birthday card is complete without a coordinating 3D treat! I love the new Popcorn Box Thinlit. I bagged up some peanut M&M's for my friend to finish it off! Happy Birthday Beth!

Sending Sunshine and Hugs

I recently had a good amount of time to spend in my craft room, and new product lent itself nicely to new ideas and creativity. It's nice to get the juices flowing again, and not for any sort of agenda other than to be creative on my own pace. :)

One of the first things that I found in the new Stampin' Up! catalog that screamed "MUST HAVE" is the Sunshine Wishes Thinlits Dies and coordinating stamp set "Sunshine Sayings." I am in love with the word cut outs from the thinlit die, and took Stampin' Up!'s idea from the catalog and used the water color technique onto the "sunshine" cut out to add an "ombre" faded look to the word. In fact, this card is an example of a CASE (Copy and Share Everything)--I just tweaked the colors of their example, but it's basically the same thing.

A Flamingo Day

Stampin' Up! has a brand new catalog as of June 1, and it's jammed full of awesome new goodies! One stamp set that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine is "Pop of Paradise." I've been seeing flamingo stuff all around, and this stamp set lends itself to some really cute stamping projects.

These projects are what we created in my most recent stamp club night a few weeks ago. The French fry die cut was retiring so I wanted to get one more project in with it. To add a little cohesiveness to the envelope, I just added some of the "Playful Palette Designer Series Paper Stack" to the flap.

Bold as a Lion

Oil pastels have quickly become my favorite medium for Bible journaling. The richness of the color makes the images come to life. It's taken me a few entries to get my groove on the best tool to use for blending, and quite honestly I think I favor the good ole fashioned Q-tip the most.

For today's entry, I used Proverbs 28:1 as the basis for my drawing: "The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion." I've known since I got my journal Bible that I wanted to do an entry with a lion. There are so many wonderful passages that talk about lions, but this one was a favorite of mine for this image.

Rest.

For Mother's Day, we had a guest speaker at church. She talked about something that I struggle with a LOT: the busyness of life, and how we are constantly on call and never take time to rest. Rest is a word that has been ingrained in our lives as a dirty word--a curse word, if you will...so much so that if we try to do it, we are made to feel guilty. Our society has turned us into 24/7/365 working machines, never shutting off for a break. Even when we are taking a break, we are thinking of all of the things we should be doing and before you know it you are going at it again 90 to nothing.

Rest is something we all need. It's okay to rest and not feel guilty....there, I said it. I don't have to feel bad about not replying to your email at 11:00 at night, or answering your phone call when I'm trying to have dinner with my family. All of those things will still be there tomorrow. Taking a Sabbath, or a rest, is not only necessary for your body to stay healthy, but it's also scriptural.

It's okay, mother-of-three, to leave the dishes in the sink long enough for you to play with your children 30 minutes before tucking them in at night. It's okay, businessman, to enjoy dinner with your wife without checking in with the office. It's okay, teenager, to actually watch the entire movie without picking up your phone to see how many comments you have on Instagram. It's okay for you to rest. God will balance you out. If you don't take time to rest, He will force you to.

I Surrender

Last week's worship service inspired today's journal entry. I knew immediately I wanted to have a silhouette and a sunset and this was the end result. It has been so refreshing to have another creative outlet through artful worship. I hope that my Bible journal entries inspire you to look at Scripture in a new and refreshing way or to find other creative ways to build your relationship with Jesus.

For today's entry, I did a pencil outline of the silhouette and the "I Surrender," then used my Stampin' Up! ink pads and sponges to sponge the color. I punched a circle into some card stock for the sun and sponged it first, then added the other color after. After sponging the entire page, I went back over the pencil outline with my trusty Micron 08 pen. Before I sponged the page, I masked off the scripture for the page so it would stand out from the color on the page.

Last week's worship set list included:

Praise Goes On (Elevation Worship)

Fill This Place (Red Rocks Worship)

I Surrender (Hillsong)

I Will Exalt (Bethel)