Friday, April 29, 2011

Fruit of the Spirit Blog Hop

I am honored to be in this blog hop that Nana and My Paper Treehouse are putting on.  I hope you'll take some time to visit the other blogs as well!

Welcome to another Faith Blog Hop presented to you by Paper Tree House Studio!  If you have been following the hop then you should be arriving here from Nana’s blog.  If you just came across this hop, then go to Paper Tree House to catch the beginning of the hop.

Every month a group of bold women gathers to make the Name of the Lord famous and to share the talents we have been given by Him.  We also like to share a little bit of Truth that we have learned from the Bible and/or a bit about how He has impacted our lives.  This month the theme is “The Fruit of the Spirit”.

As Christians we are expected to demonstrate the Fruit of the Spirit because the Spirit of God abides in us.  In Galatians 5:22-23 we find the following definition: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  There are many misconceptions about this fruit.  People look at the list of attributes and they are convinced that God has not given them one of the “fruits”, and so they live with remaining sin and a sense of defeat in certain areas of their lives.
If you look at the passage again you will notice that the word FRUIT is NOT plural.  It is only ONE fruit, so if the Spirit of the Lord abides in you, then the attributes that characterize the Spirit live there as well.  If you are not experiencing one of the characteristic of His Spirit in your life, pray that the Lord would cleanse you and purify you.  He is into the business of completing those He saves.  My prayer is that you would draw near to the Lord and that He in turn will draw near to you…

The same way that the Lord blesses those He loves we want to bless you.  We have found an amazing line-up of sponsors and we want to share with you what you could win by hopping around with us:

Paper Tree House Studio: Cricut Create
Scrapbook News & Review Magazine: One year subscription to their online magazine.
Zutter: Distrezz-it-All
Scrapbooks & Stuff: Seasonal Cartridge
Papperie: Yummy Goody Bag
Bonita Rose: One spot to her AMAZING class on color.
Shimmerz: Yummy Goody Bag

Now in order to win one of these Grand Prizes you will have like us on Facebook, leave a comment on this post, and become a follower on our blog.  Then you have to follow the hop order as you follow and leave messages in the posts of all the amazing and talented women that are part of the lineup.  All throughout the hop you will find RAK’s and special giveaways, so make sure that you complete the entire hop!


When I saw that the theme for this month's hop was Fruit of the Spirit, I knew just what I wanted to do!  My kids LOVE the Music Machine CD and it plays constantly in our car!  I am glad that they know what the Fruits are but I would like my 7 year old to learn some of the verses that address the Fruits.  I made this little book so that he (and eventually the 4 year old!) can start to read these verses and memorize them.  I used a Punky Sprouts Sweetie Sprout album and some of the new Stella and Rose paper from MME.  It was so fun to put together this album!







I am having a RAK in honor of this blog hop.  All you have to do is leave a comments on this post.  If you let me know you became (or already were) a follower in another comment, you'll be entered twice!
What am I giving away you ask?  How about one of the Sweetie Sprouts like you see above?  I'll also throw in a 6 x 6 paper pad of Crate Paper's Restoration plus some of their chipboard embellishments!

Now for some more fun!  Hop on over to Kristal's blog to be inspired!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Waiting for Summer!

The weather here in Oregon has been the pits this spring!  At one point we had had 3 days 60 degrees or above and the average was 17!  It has been cold and rainy!  Today the HIGH is supposed to only hit 55 and tomorrow 50!  Brrrrrr!
This is what I am dreaming about these days!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Boy Next Door

Recently I went to the beach with a couple friends for a little scrapbooking retreat!  I think it was my most productive scrapbooking weekend ever!  I got 4 layouts completed, 2 done except for some little touches, 3 cards done, 3 ATCs ready to send and an entire Punky album done too!  May not sound like much in a whole weekend, but that's pretty good for me! 
I took a lot of sketches and challenges in the hopes that they would keep me motivated and without scrapper's block!  This sketch from Sassafras was so fun to do!  It was the first layout of the weekend that I completed! 

Their sketch:

My layout:

Friday, April 15, 2011

Final Scrapdango Reveal

I am sad to say that this is my final reveal for Scrapdango.  I have been the dt coordinator there for about a year and a half and it has been wonderful!  But I felt it was time for a change both for me and them!  And while it is sad to be stepping down...I can't wait to play along with their challenges!  I loved them even before I was on the dt!  Here are my April creations with the Sugar kit!

It's been awhile since I did a layout of the dog!  This is using the April sketch at CocoaDaisy.

While I had the sewing machine out, I had some fun with different stitches!

A bookmark I made for myself!

A card a bit more on the masculine side even though I used the sugar kit!
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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

April Showers

They say that April showers bring May flowers...I certainly hope that is true as we have had plenty of April (and March, February and January!) showers here!  When I saw the My Mind's Eye card sketch challenge's theme this month was, you guessed it, April showers, I just had to play along!  Nothing like playing with some bright and cheery MME paper to chase the blues (and grays) away!  I used the papers from the Fine and Dandy line and made 2 other cards as well but will save those for another day!

Here's their sketch:
And my card:

 I cut out a sun and cloud from another section of the paper and popped it up right where it was on the piece I had on the card.  Love this effect.  The umbrella is traced and cut out from a MME diecut that was from another collection and didn't match!
I wanted to show my "new toy" that I got at CKC Portland last month.  Nothing expensive, in fact, super cheap!  I bought a Sakura clear glitter gel pen.  I used it here on random dots on the umbrella.  So easy to add a special little touch!
 

Friday, April 1, 2011

Jillibean Soup

Unfortunately, it is no April Fool's Day joke that I didn't make the Jillibean Soup design team.  I did however love all the projects that I made in the trying out process!  Thought I'd show you the ones that I hadn't already.  I look forward to trying again next year!




And, although I've shown this one before...I can't resist reposting it today for April Fool's Day! :)