BLOGGERS CHALLENGE #92 & BELLI CHALLENGE

Good Day! I finally have it up! This week's Belli Challenge was to create a BOOK MARK using something you have not used in a LONG time. I purchased these Rub Ons well over a year ago because they were SOOOOO pretty and I HAD to HAVE them. So I grabbed those - it helped being gone on my Scrapbook Retreat to have my extra stash out before me. If you have not gone to the Belli Challenge Blog be sure to head on over there! http://www.bellichallenge.blogspot.com/

This week's Bloggers Challenge is to use the Texture Plates or Die Cuts. I used the Nestibilities as my "die cuts" and for the sketch I used the Sketch Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers #221. I used my stamp set - His Eye Is On The Sparrow and colored it with my Copics.


Since my mom is sitting next to me this weekend, I made her participate in the Sketch Challenge and the Bloggers Challenge too! :) Here is her SUPER CUTE card!
Be sure to check out the other Blogger Challenge participants projects. You will enjoy looking at them and surely be inspired!

Each morning, while here I have been reading a devotional to my table. I thought I would share what we read today... This was taken from the Proverbs 31 Ministries -I have these devotionals mailed to my mailbox each day.

Under My Skin
27 Mar 2009 Lynn Cowell"
…and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of depair..." Isaiah 61:3a (NIV)

It wouldn't stop burning. Like a sunburn after hours at the beach, the heat on my hands stayed for hours. As a blessing to my family, I had made Aunt Carol's jalapeno peppers. With the sharp knife and chopping block, I transformed eighteen forest-green peppers into little boats of tasty fun. What I hadn't counted on was that ten minutes of exposure to the pepper's oil to my dry, cracked winter skin produced a burning that lasted for hours.

As I looked at my red, cracked hands, I was reminded of another part of me that looked dry and under-nourished not so long ago. In the heat of the summer months, my heart was in bad shape. It felt like a stone. When I would go to church, I sang the songs, but my heart was not truly singing praise to my Love, Jesus. I assumed it was the church. Surely, something had changed. We needed new music; something fresh.

Soon after something did change, and it was me. I re-discovered the oil of gladness and oil of joy by personally coming into the Lord's presence daily. Although I had never stopped reading my Bible and praying, I hadn't been taking the extra time and effort to come into His presence.

With the help of a prayer journal, I started beginning my time with the Lord each day by exposing myself to Him in praise. In her journal, Intimacy with God; Your Daily Guide to Prayer, Tara Furman suggests several ways to come before Him: repeating His attributes, calling out His names, and singing hymns or worship songs. My favorite is read ing out loud the Psalms. Just yesterday the repairman heard Psalm 103 coming loudly from my lips as he banged away on my wood floor.

Opening the day with praises to my King has transformed my heart. Now, when I go to church, I no longer wait to enter into His presence; my heart is already there. I have found that my outlook through the day is different. Like the oil from the peppers, the burning effect of His presence is felt in my heart many hours after the exposure.

Dear Lord, as it says in Psalm 100:4, help me to enter into Your gates with thanksgiving and into Your courts with praise. Help me to give thanks to You and praise Your name. You are good and You deserve my heartfelt worship each day. I love you! In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Hope you have a great day! I am still in Iowa until Sunday but will have more posts.