It is well with my soul

In John 3:2 John is praying for his friend Gaius. "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well."  It made me think of the hymn "It is well"  We often pray for healing and good health for our friends. What I think we also should do is to pray for their souls to get along well. If you would like me to pray for your health or your soul, leave me a comment and I will add you to my prayer list.

Beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit - 1 Peter 3 :3-4

 With Thanksgiving, Turkeys are usually the birds you think about, but today I am thankful and my project has a beautiful peacock on it. Thankful for my friend Tiffany who sent me this gorgeous peacock napkin and thankful for my friend Lee Ann, who video crafted with me today as we both used this napkin to journal in our bibles.  When I saw the peacock, I thought I would do a scripture on not being proud. Tiffany had suggested 1 Peter 3:3-4 which encourages women to not spend time worrying about outward beauty but to focus on inward beauty. A Gentle and Quiet Spirit. I cut the napkin to fit in my interleaved New Testament bible. I glued it down by putting Aleene's Tacky Glue on the page. I smoothed the glue out with my finger and placed the napkin down. I used Nuvo Aqua Shimmer to add sparkle to the eyes of the feathers and the head and neck of the peacock. I used Nuvo crystal glaze over the eye and the little feathers on his head. I knew I wanted to bring part of the scripture onto the napkin page. I decided to take a brown plain paper bag. I wrote the sentiment and tore around the edges. I choose the plainness intentionally to contrast with the outward beauty of the peacock.

I usually just underline the scripture that I'm focusing on with my art page. Today I decided to do something out of my comfort zone. I decided to take blue water color and highlight the scripture.

777 sketch card

Today was Splitcoast Stampers 777 sketch. Wow how did it get such a high number. I of course had to play along and in my usual fashion I just used the sketch as inspiration. I had to make a few tweaks to make it work for what I had in mind.  I cut up a negative and  a positive monotype print made with ARTplorations Peacock Feathers Stencil

What you couldn't see in the first photo is how sparkly the feathers and sentiment are. I went over the feathers and sentiment with NUVO Aqua Shimmer. This next photo sort of shows it.

Worship Wednesday - Acts 2:44-47

Worship Wednesday - We Gather Together. 

For my bible journaling today I went with this week's bible journaling challenge in the facebook group, Creative Worship Bible Journaling. That challenge is to add drips. I did my drips with watercolors. This last Sunday, our community had a service where the churches in our area met together at the local elementary school gym. We had a wonderful service. It seemed especially wonderful to me that people who are different could come TOGETHER to thank God for our blessings and to proclaim the name of Christ. Satan doesn't like peace and getting along. I believe that he is behind the negativity, hatred and mistrust in our country between people who are different from eachother. At our community service in the programs was a print out of the hymn "We Gather Together." I used that print out for my project. After I did the drips with watercolors, I cut it and glued it to my bible in the book of Acts. 

I wrote a quick prayer at the bottom. I wrote it to remind myself to be thankful for every time that I can meet together with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I don't want to take that blessing for granted. I also wrote this prayer to remember the persecuted church. I can't imagine having to worship in hiding because of fear of death from those in power. I pray for their protection and that someday they will have the freedom to worship openly.

This hymn was a poem written in 1597 by Dutch poet Adrianus Valerius. At the time the Dutch were at war with Spain. Spain under a Catholic King's control made it illegal for Protestant Dutch to gather for worship.

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing

He chastens and hastens His will to make known. 

The wicked oppressing, now cease from distressing. 

Sing praises to His name. He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us our God with us joining. 

Ordaining maintaining His kingdom divine.

So from the beginning the fight we were winning.

Thou, Lord, wast at our side, all glory be Thine.

We all do extol Thou Leader triumphant.

And pray that Thou still our Defender wilt be.

Let Thy congregation escape tribulation.

Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free.

Thankfulness and Contentment

I have 2 projects to share that go along with my these this week of thankfulness and contentment. 

THANKFULNESS PROJECT 

About a week ago I shared the little gratitude boxes that I made for the mixed media challenge on Splitcoast Stampers. On Monday afternoons during the school year, I do arts and crafts and bible journaling with a group of kids. It is part of our church program for youths. We have about 40 kids from kindergarten to 6th grades. Every week we have snacks, music, bible story, games, and crafts/ bible journaling with the kids. Our youth pastor asked if I could have the kids help me thank the ladies who provide the delicious snacks every week. I knew I wanted to do GRATITUDE BOXES. I had the kids do ink spray smash technique onto half a piece of cardstock. The cardstock was also scored into 8 sections. They signed each section. The kids had such a blast making these. Today after letting them all dry I cut them apart and put them into 8 stacks. I tied the stacks with twine and a stick. I made little boxes to hold the stack. 

To make the boxes, I laid one of the cards out and added 1/2 inch on all sides. I scored each side at 1/2 inch. At each corner I cut a slit up to the fold mark. I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to hold the boxes together. I like Aleene's Tacky Glue because it takes hold quickly. I only had to hold the the corners together for about 15 seconds and it held. I like that it dries clear. 

Didn't these turn out so cute? I think the ladies are going to love receiving these. 

CONTENTMENT PROJECT

I thought I would let you see the project first before I told you about it. You are probably thinking, what does a dragon have to do with being content. I will tell you. Last week I tried to sign up for being a Growing in Unity gal. I really wanted to do it because, who doesn't want the chance to have $50 worth of stamps that you don't have to pay for. Well, I didn't win that chance. For a second or two I started to feel sad then I quickly snapped out of it. I chose to think about all the wonderful stamps that I already have. I purposely chose to be content. I chose to use a stamp that I have had for 6 years. I used it to make a card for a little boy who was hit by a car and was severely injured. His mother has requested cards to cheer him up.

 Jacob Dill

601 Summit Avenue

Johnstown PA 15905

Is there someone you need to thank? Can you think of one thing to be content with?

I do have one more thing to do. I have been meaning to do it for awhile and today is the day. I have 2 followers who are the most amazing ladies filled with the gift of encouragement. Verna and Maxine. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments. I read and treasure each and everyone. Everyone needs a Verna and a Maxine in their lives. I am glad that you are in mine.

Contentment - word study in mini bible journal

I did a word study today on "CONTENTMENT". When doing a word study you  find a biblical definition of the word, meaning in Hebrew and Greek and then you find synonyms and verses that go along with the synonyms. I added a beloved hymn. "It is well." Because it is a song about contentment, even if it doesn't use the word contentment in its lyrics. 

Here is how my little mini bible journal is looking.

Thanksgiving and being Content

What a blessing to have a day this week that we can join our families friends and neighbors and set aside a day to be thankful. It does make me a little sad that after a day we are "thankful" we start a season of "got to get more." I know that in past years people have fought eachother to get those Black Friday bargains. What would this world look like if we were thankful everyday and practiced being content? I was inspired today by a sermon by preacher Jack Sumption. His sermon was on being content. I decided to do a study on "content" I decided to do it as an acrostic. The photos I share are of the front and back of each page except for the last one which I only show the front; I hope that these inspire and encourage you.

New life- Mini Journal

Happy Friday. I saw this challenge for The House That Stamps Built - Inspiration pallet

I fell in love with the colors. I decided to try and capture those colors with water color. I randomly painted them and splattered them to a piece of cardstock.  Then I cut that piece up to make pages for my mini bible journal. 

I decided tonight to do a study on NEW LIFE. Especially the new life we can have in Christ. 

I handwrote the study title on the first card. 

This photo shows how I sketched out the letters with a pencil and then went over them with a black sharpie. I then added highlights with a gel pen. 

Three of the pages in this study I simply stamped this fabulous butterfly stamp:

STAMPlorations Butterfly Row.

I painted the butterflies. I added Nuvo Aqua Shimmer to the wings and Nuvo Crystal Glaze for the bodies. 

I tried to do different fonts. The more I practice them the easier they are getting. 

If you would like to order anything from the fabulous selection of products at STAMPlorations you can you my discount code to get 20% off your purchase.