A Very Special Book

Wow, how did so much time pass since I last posted! As with many of you, life is just plain busy. One of the fun and rewarding things I’ve been doing is being involved in a Care Cards Ministry at my church. We have a group of women who come together once a month to make greeting cards to send to those in need in our church family. The need may be for illness, hospital stay, cheering up, encouragement, sympathy, thank you, or maybe just a thinking of you card. I’ve been busy designing the cards and making up packets of the materials needed to make the cards. How thankful I am that God gifted me with a bit of artistic talent and a love for card making. And then on top of that, He blessed me with a way for me to use this talent in a ministry for His glory. My God is truly an awesome God!

Our group is taking a break through the summer, so we made our last meeting a really special event by doing a take-home project, followed by a great time over lunch -- lots of fun and laughter. Our project was a 4”x6” Prayer Book which has7 sections, one for each day of the week, with suggestions for who to pray for on each day. It also has a section called Stones (short for Jordan River Stones) where we can write down the spiritual markers in our lives. We used pretty scrapbook paper to cover the chipboard covers, ribbons and lots of bling for decoration, and the Zutter Bind-It-All to hold it all together. I’ve posted several pictures below so you can see what it looks like outside and in. But first, I’d like to share with you why prayer is so important.

God speaks to us through His Word, and He asks us to speak to Him through prayer. Prayer gives us access to our heavenly Father who knows what we need even before we express that need to Him. Jesus said, "Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him, " (Matthew 6:8). Prayer communication is a two way street. We talk to God and He talks to us. We don’t just bring our cares, worries, and frustrations to Him. We also offer our praise and worship to Him, the One True God who deserves all praise. In order to keep your relationship with God unbroken and fresh, it is important to put aside time for both prayer and active listening for His answer. The more time you spend with Him, the more you will learn about Him, and the deeper your relationship with Him will grow. God wants each of us to be His special friend. If you haven’t already done so, my prayer for you is that you will reach out to our Heavenly Father today, trust Him, and ask Him to be your special friend. Annie



This is the prayer book cover and the first page.


Here is what each of the divider pages looks like. The borders are made with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I've put pictures of my son and daughter-in-law, granddaughters, great-grandkids, and sisters on this page, for Thursday prayers. On other pages, I've added small pictures of ones I pray for, including my hubby, friends, church elders and leaders, missionaries from our church. I use Post-It Notes to list names and special prayer requests; then when the prayer is answered or the situation is resolved, I can just remove them. These little books would make great gifts, also.

Wait . . . I'm Not Ready for 2010!

Out with the old and in with the new, as the saying goes. But I'm not quite ready to put away my Christmas stamps. I still have some ideas for Christmas cards that I might forget if I wait until next year. So I'm just going to continue making a few samples using those ideas.

One project that I want to make more of is this 25 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar which is shown here. You can see both the front and back sides.

Didn't have time to make more of them for gifts this year, so I figure starting now is my best bet in order to have them ready before December 2010. The holder is a 12x12" picture frame with a sheet of black card stock covering the glass. I marked off the sections using strips of black chipboard. The picture and the back side are from a scrapbook collection from Graphic 45, Christmas Past. I trimmed the picture down to 10x10" and then cut it into 5 across and 5 down 2x2" sections. Each section of the picture was adhered to a 2x2" piece of chipboard, with the edges painted black with a black Marvy Marker. The dates on the back side of the pieces are diecuts from my Cuttlebug. Since all the pieces are totally removable, I'm going to make another set of calendar pieces using the angel page from the Christmas Past collection (pictured here).

Then, I can alternate the sets over the years. Oooh, fun!

Speaking of the future, I wonder what God has in store for me in the coming new year. In what ways will He reveal Himself to me? How will He involve me in His work? Who will He bring across my path and ask me to minister to them? Well, it's okay that I don't know the answers to these questions, for I shall be living in faith and joyful anticipation for whatever comes my way. As Paul said in Philipians 4:11, ". . . for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content . . ."

The light of God surrounds me,

The love of God enfolds me,

The power of God protects me,

And the presence of God watches over me;

Wherever I am, God is.

Wishing you many blessings in the coming New Year.

Annie

Butterflies -- God's Flying Flowers

Oh boy, do I love butterflies! They truly are like flying flowers. When I saw the cover of the October issue of Scrap & Stamp I just fell in love with the 3D butterfly wall art. It was just one of those "gotta have it" things so I spent a morning stamping and cutting out butterflies to make my own wall art. Mine is smaller than the one I saw in the magazine, only 8x8", but I'm thrilled with the finished project. Um mm, but now where am I going to hang it? The base is actually a canvas for oil painting which I covered with scrapbook paper. Using 12 colors of card stock, I stamped a small, medium, and large butterfly on each color with a set of Basic Grey clear stamps, using black dye ink. Yes -- I did cut out 36 butterflies! But since I didn't use all 36, I have several left over for another project. The edges of the butterflies were inked with coordinating colors of Tim Holtz distress inks. To give them a 3D look, several different thicknesses of pop dots and mounting tape were used to get the desired effect. I don't know how anything so pretty could be so easy to make. If you decide to make one, let me know if you need some help or have any questions.

Butterflies are one of God's especially beautiful creations. That butterfly eggs hatch into little caterpillars is strange, amazing, miraculous, and wonderful. Why don't they hatch into baby butterflies? Anything you plant from seed comes up like the plant it came from. Fish eggs hatch into little fish. Human eggs develop into baby humans. Yet it pleased our Creator to make butterfly eggs hatch into caterpillars. The Caterpillar grows, sheds it skin a couple of time, takes a week or two nap, and finally wakes up as a butterfly. Did I already say strange, amazing, miraculous, and wonderful!!!

I think we are like butterflies -- every shape and size, different colored, unique, and beautiful to God. When we invite God into our lives, He changes us, we emerge, spread our wings . . . and fly. The minute we know that God is within us, there is nothing that can hold us back from living the life that He wants us to live, according to His plan. If you are living a life that doesn't feel right, you are like a butterfly that cannot spread it's wings. If you feel something holding you back, pray, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and lead you to the path that God meant for you to walk. So think of yourself as a butterfly that God created. Isn't it wonderful to know that there is no other butterfly on this earth just like YOU.

God bless and keep you as you find your way and spread your beautiful wings and fly!

Annie