Good morning and a very happy Sunday to you. Today at Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenges, our verse is Philippians 3:13-14, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Just as I was typing that verse, it hit me like a ton of bricks. The world says to "forgive and forget," but I don't think that's what the above verses mean. They speak on a spiritual level, as does the rest of the Bible, which is way, way above worldly ways that always get us into trouble. If you fall down spiritually, you repent, and get yourself back up and right with God again and MOVE ON. If you don't truly repent, you'll be like a dog that eats its own vomit. Gross. But that is what we have a tendency to do. Only when you truly repent 100%, you will be able by God's power and strength to press toward the high calling. If we were to be honest with ourselves, most of the time we're only sorry for ourselves for getting caught with our hand in the cookie jar rather than having remorse for grieving the Holy Spirit. Some sins get us and get us good and hold us in bondage as well. You don't want to do something but do it anyway, and I do know what I'm talking about here. Only when I decided to be obedient, and trust me, it wasn't because of me, but of the Holy Spirit working in me and on me, that is when I was able to forget that what was now behind me and reach out and towards my calling. Jesus took away the sins of the world on the cross. His last words on the cross were, "It is finished." If you were to read the events leading up to his death on the cross in his human form, Jesus did not want to do this. He asked the Father in prayer not to have to die on the cross, but he did it out of obedience and his suffering is something we'll never even begin to comprehend. That was Jesus' high calling; to take away my sin and your sin. We all have our own calling in Christ. Do you know what yours is? We are all called to be like Jesus and let our light shine. While we go through different seasons in life and are called to do certain things during those seasons, our main calling is to be like Jesus, the light of the world.
Today's challenge is to make a project that will encourage another or offer an apology to another. I made an encouragement card. My design team sisters and I thank our faithful monthly sponsor of Simon Says Stamp, who is sponsoring our challenge today.
Please share with us what you make for today's challenge and link it back to the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge 51. We also encourage you to share with others your work and our challenge. If you upload your project to another online gallery, please use keyword SSCC51 so that we may find it as well and leave you some encouragement.
I also would like to invite you to our First Birthday Party Blog Hop on August 16. Please join us in celebrating! God bless you and have a wonderful day in the Lord.
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Pacific Point, Whisper White
Designer Paper: October Afternoon Detours
Ink: Stampin' Up! Old Olive, Pacific Point, Memento Tuxedo Black, Signo White Gel Pen
Accessories: Recollections rhinestones and faux pearls, Stampin' Up! Old Olive Library Clip, Stampin' Up! Pacific Point ribbon, Stampin' Up! scallop punch, 1-1/4” circle punch, 1-3/8” circle punch; Stampin' Up! Circle Ice Rhinestone Brad, Stampin' Up! Old Olive Flower Brad, Stampin' Up! Old Olive Brad
Size: 5-1/2 x 4-1/4
Challenge: Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge 51, Christian Paper Crafts Sketch Tuesday 68
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To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.
This week at Paper Maniac we are celebrating you! It's Customer Appreciation Week, and we'd like to thank all of you for making our first year a success! Our official anniversary is on September 1, but we're starting a month early to get you excited about what we have in store for you on our first anniversary! This week at the Paper Maniac Inspirations Blog, the entire design team will be making you a Thank You card for all that you do. Here is my card that I'd like to share with you and the list of products are below that you can find in the Paper Maniac store to go shopping with! We have a lot of new and fun products that arrive weekly and with CHA just ending, watch for all of the goodies to arrive from the SuperShow! I'll see you next Monday with a brand new Inspirations theme. God bless and have a great week.
Stamps: Unity Together We Bloom, Sew Cute
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Basic Black
Designer Paper: October Afternoon Thrift Shop
Ink: Copic markers, Stampin' Up! Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Embroidery thread, needle, and lace ribbon from craft supply
Technique: Machine stitching
Size: 5-1/2 x 4-1/4
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!
To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.
Good morning and I hope that it's the start of a great weekend for you. I have a great sketch from The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge 67 sponsored by Sweet 'N Sassy Stamps, that I'd like to share with you. Every Saturday, Korin gives us, The Sugar Babies (design team), a sketch to work with and we provide examples for you to inspire you to play along. We'd love to see you this week! Here's your sketch and below it is my card and a list of materials that I used to make it. I hope to see you and show us what you can do! Thank you so much for playing along with us. May the Lord richly bless your day!
Stamps: Unity Quiet Essence, Verve Relax
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Soft Suede, Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream
Designer Paper: My Mind's Eye Quite Contrary
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
Accessories: Stampin' Up! Soft Suede polka dot ribbon, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, Spellbinders Labels 13 Nestabilities, ProvoCraft Cuttlebug Swiss Dots A2 embossing folder, My Favorite Things Die-Namics Scalloped Scallop, KaiserCraft red faux pearls, Prima Say it in Pearls Siip Center Assorted 1
Technique: Dry embossing, die-cutting
Size: 5 x 5
Challenge: The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge 67
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!
To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.
A very happy Monday to you and I have a very cool and retro card to share with you for my Paper Maniac Inspirations design team assignment this week where we are celebrating Friendship Day on August 1. We're still in the middle of our Summer Spectacular Savings with products moving out as fast as new products are coming in. If you've had your eye on something, now is the time to pick it up at the Paper Maniac Store.
With my card today, I made my own designer paper by using one of the larger stamps from Unity's Going Retro stamp set. We have a large selection of Unity Stamps, including the exclusive store July Kit of the Month, past and present. Here is my card that I'd like to share with you today. Thank you for stopping by and God bless! Today's Treasure: John 15:13.
Stamps: Going Retro by Unity Stamps
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Recollections black gemstones, yellow faux pearl, Stampin' Up! 1/8" Daffodil Delight taffeta ribbon, Basic Black 5/8" satin ribbon
Size: 4-1/4 x 5-1/2
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!
To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.
Disclaimer: I have the worst sinus migraine so any coloring out of the lines or any other card faux pas is a casualty. How long does Sudafed take to work is today's question. So far, at least 2 hours and no relief in sight yet. Prayer is definitely appreciated. There's only two things that will bring me down, a toothache and a migraine.
Today's card is for CAS-tastic Wednesday Challenge 13, where you are to be inspired by summer. This card is summer to me because I live in a woodsy area and there's mushrooms all over the place, including my little garden by my pool where I hope to sleep today and shake this migraine off. There's not a cloud in the sky! I have allergies something wicked ever since I moved to Kentucky and can sneeze 22x in a row, which is my personal record. I finally got some antibiotics yesterday and took 2 the second I got them rather than one, so I'm a little green from that and add in a sinus migraine, ugh. Enough about me and my woes. This is a happy blog and it's going to stay that way, for the most part. Although on Monday, I encountered this woman who desperately needs prayers and Jesus, so please send some her way that she comes to know the real Christ and humbles herself before Him. God knows who she is and will hear your petitions. She definitely has an extremely rough road ahead of her that she'll be forced to face.
This card is also for Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge 25. I didn't make a circle shaped card, but used a circle for my image.
Let me know what you think and thank you for stopping by to see me. God bless and have a great day! Oh, and don't forget to get your Paper Creations Magazine Fall Edition! I have a few cards in there and for their Winter Edition, I think I either have 9 or 11 cards in there! How exciting and a blessing! This is what is inside the Fall Edition, and the Sunflower Thank U card is one of mine.
Stamps: Naturally You by Unity
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Early Expresso, Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream
Designer Paper: Cosmo Cricket Earth Love
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Copic markers
Accessories: Stampin' Up! 1/8" Early Expresso taffeta ribbon, Spellbinders Circle and Oval Circle Nestabilities
Technique: Die-cutting, dry embossing
Size: 4 x 4
Challenge: CAS-tastic Wednesday Challenge 13 (CWC013), Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge 25 (OCCSC25)
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!
To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.
Good morning! I hope that you all had a great weekend. I'd like to introduce to you a new theme we're having this week at the Paper Maniac Inspirations Blog. It's emboss resist. This is a technique that I don't use very often but enjoyed it and how it turned out. Unfortunately, I felt that it was necessary to goop up the rest of the card and cover the majority of it when I'm sure that a cute little piece of chipboard and a sentiment would have done just fine. This really goes against my clean style. I sponged on two different colors over my heat embossing and used different images. The products that I used to make this card can be found in the Paper Maniac Store! We just started Week 8 of our Summer Spectacular Savings that you don't want to miss! I'll see you next week with more fun Paper Maniac Inspirations!
Stamps: Material Girl by Unity Stamps
Card Stock: Stampin' Up! Garden Green, Very Vanilla
Designer Paper: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Stampin' Up! Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Copic markers, Versamark
Accessories: Stampin' Up! Clear Embossing Powder, Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Chipboard,
Technique: Emboss resist, sponging
Size: 4-1/4 x 5-1/2
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. Please become my friend through Google Friend Connect. I am always blessed by your support and comments!
To purchase Stampin' Up! products, please visit Stampin' Up! With Cindy.
