Block Christmas Card: Day 4 + NEW PAPER PACK!!

Hello friends!
Today I have a fun card for you that I will be sharing a tutorial on next month during our 12 Weeks of Christmas Card Tutorials that the Design Team and I will be sharing with you!  For today, I want to show you this Christmas Card that shares the Gospel with all who see it!  I am always certain to include a space for a family photo when I want the card displayed by the receiver (those never get thrown out!) and that is true for this card that shares the love of God in His gospel of Jesus Christ! 

The front of the card looks like this:

I used Inspired Stamps:  HYMN GIRLS: MARCH, CHRISTMAS POINSETTIA (for the phrase here, the holly/ivy, the word believe on the inside, and the 'Greetings from our home to yours), plus the gospel 1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-4 inside, and one of the stamps from the MADE BY... stamp set on the back.  I used a brand new BOBUNNY 6x6 PAPER PAD that will be in the online store starting THIS WEEKEND called CHRISTMAS COLLAGE!

Here's what the card looks like when you open it up:

 Notice you don't see the LOVE until you continue opening...

I used Inspired Stamps' most popular alphabet, ELEGANT DOTTY ALPHABET, for the word LOVE here!

Here's a photo of the left side:

Above is a close up of the right side where I will put a Christmas photo and have my family sign the part under the sentiment!

On the back of the card I was sure to use the MADE BY... stamp which reminds the recipient of this card that I made this just for them, and am praying for them, too!!  I will sign it right before I send it!

I hope you have enjoyed the start of our daily Christmas Cards Showcasing Inspired Stamps so far!!  I'll be back tomorrow with another card!

Blessings,
Antoinette
shipping most orders SAME DAY they are placed:  www.inspiredstamps.com

Easter Cards + Winner announced from New Stamp Release Post!

 Hello Friends,

It is TIME to begin making those Easter cards!  There are two times a year, in particular, where we get to share Jesus with those we love through a 'holiday card' and it's usually well-received, even by the most resistant to Jesus and Scripture that we know:  Christmas and Easter.  It is a time to get Scripture into cards because we know that 'faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of God', so join me in making cards with God's Word in them and sending them to those who love the Lord as encouragement and fellowship, and those who have yet to know Him!

I will start us off this week with a card I made that uses our brand new HYMN GIRLS: MARCH, who is holding a cross next to her heart.  I simply took some distress ink in tye dye and sponged the left and right side of her quickly to give her color (love these new Hymn Line stamps that are THAT easy to add color to and use!).  I also used Inspired Stamps: ELEGANT EASTER for the outside verse and the main sentiment inside.  I used BIND AND STITCH for a stitched look around the outside of the pieces.  I always add the Scripture that gives the gospel in a card to those who do not know Him...'for it is the power of God unto salvation' (Romans 1:16).  This stamp is one of the Single Scripture Stamps: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.  All of these stamps and more  can be found under the EASTER category on the online store by clicking here:
http://www.inspiredstamps.com/servlet/the-Easter/Categories

 In the piece at the inside top of my card I used Momento ink: London Fog and stamped one time on a piece of scratch paper and then the 2nd time without reinking to get the 'shadow' effect of the 3 crossed above the stamped Scripture (shown above)  I inked all my edges in this card with Distress Ink: Tye Dye.

 

This is the sentiment that comes on the ELEGANT EASTER stampset and I love using it!

Here are the other BEAUTIFUL Easter Cards made by the Design team this week:

 

Jamie starts us off with this beautiful Easter card using HYMN GIRLS: MARCH and one of our Single Scripture Stamps, John 14:6

Next up is Deneen, who used some beautiful patterned papers and then showed us how to add stamped embellishments to bring great color to it using elements from Spring Sketches and 1" Circle Sentiments:

 

Chere made a couple really lovely cards using HIS CROSS stamp set:

 

Belinda showed us HYMN GIRLS: MARCH also, with a very springy color choice!

 

And our newest design team artist, Shanta, used HIS CROSS stamp set as well for her Scripture in this lovely card:

 

Thank you all for your beautiful cards to inspire us to get started on our own and, the key being, mail them out :o)

We have drawn our winner from last week's new Stamp Release comments and the winner is...

Congratulations to Renee Atkinson who commented on our New Stamp Release Post and said she loves all the new Hymn Girls---so we are sending her one for free!  Email us with your mailing address by April 1st to CLAIM YOUR PRIZE!  You can either choose one of the Hymn Girls or we'll just surprise you!!

We will have the next installment of our 31 Days of March: Art Journaling Your Bible Study up later today!
Have a blessed day and be sure to stop by tomorrow for some exciting news!
Blessings,
Antoinette and the DT
www.inspiredstamps.com  (we are shipping most orders out SAME DAY they are placed!)

Day 1: GETTING STARTED in your ART JOURNAL!

 

 Hello friends...It's DAY 1!!!  Who is excited?  THIS GAL RIGHT HERE!!
I am very wordy...you've probably figured that out if you've been here any amount of time when I want to explain a Bible Study process.  BUT TODAY...I am determined to KISS--Keep It Simple!  If you have no clue what we are doing here, please click HERE to go to the information post on what you need and what we are doing!!

GETTING STARTED!
1.  You need to have chosen your study in the Bible.  If you are going along with your pastor's sermon or a bible study you attend, it will be easy.  If not, I recommend a gospel or psalm (I will have several posts from Psalm 119, so if you just can't decide, choose THAT!). I highly recommend a word-for-word translation: KJV, ESV, NASB are best since we are meditating on God's Words--others have much interpretation already within the wording.   I will be showing you what I am studying on each particular day, since I want to show as many areas as I can :o)

2. Get your journal out (so exciting to get a fresh journal out!!  better than the smell of new crayons!).  I am showing you two ways to do this today.  One is with a pencil and a composition book (no art supplies or talents needed) the other is paints and stamps galore(no talent needed here either!)!

3.  If you are doing an art journal with collage, paint, etc, now is when you prepare the background of your page (ADD COLOR) if you are doodling in your composition book with colored pencils, pencils or markers, you will do this AFTER you get the next part done.  This part I will call GET YOUR ART DONE and I am adding only photos to this to keep this post from being too large, BUT one thing I want to say is try to start this journal off with your UGLY PAGE MADE PRETTY.    What do I mean?  You are going to be worried about messing up a page by trying a bad color combo (IN MY CASE I ADDED TOO MUCH BLACK STENCIL (gone bad) and had to 'fix it' by putting a wash of white acrylic paint over it.  But you won't worry anymore if you see you can 'fix' what you hate :o):

 

** I glue the first page to the cardboard front so I start with a 2 page spread.  I also don't mind if my folder at the front gets ink on it when I spray or if my cover gets messy...I do those LAST!  Next add water and color and press pages together:

Next I dry this before adding my stencil:

Here's the part I do not like and tried to add white spray ink but it didn't mute it enough for my liking so I put some modeling paste on it with a craft spatula and stencil, then spray inked that:

too much black for me.  I like to journal in black so I can't have this much on the page.  HERE COMES THE WHITE ACRYLIC PAINT TO FIX it:

 add my spray inks and dab off with a paper towel:

 

 Then I used Inspired Stamps: BACKGROUND STAMPS to put the 'chicken wire' pieces randomly...loving this:

 

And some Distress ink around the edges and across the page brings out the dimension:

Time to add some paper pieces:  my Bible Verse, one of the brand new JOURNAL GIRL stamps that will be coming out next week in the Inspired Stamps online store, and Gospel is stamped using LABELMAKER ALPHABET:

 

4. WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING EACH DAY WITH YOUR BIBLE:
1.  You must read the whole book (or psalm if you are doing a single psalm).  So many people have God saying something He never said because they take a verse out of it's paragraph, chapter, and book and try to understand and interpret it by itself.  Read the chapter it's in:  What is happening in the CONTEXT that verse sits in?  Read the book:  What is happening in that book that verse sits in?

2.  Next, you will pick a verse or paragraph that stands out to you, that you don't want to forget, or where you learn something you hadn't known before (it can be something about God or His power, something that encourages you, something that convicts you).  THIS IS YOUR BIBLE VERSE TEXT.  Write it down or if it's on a stamp, you can stamp it, or type it out on the computer and print it out.  Here is the example of this part of both of the journals I'm sharing today, using 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:

 

 Day 1: WRITE OUT THE BIBLE VERSE in your composition book (I added VERY LITTLE art or symbols today so I help you to see you CAN DO THIS!)

 

Here is the art journal version of WRITING OUT THE BIBLE VERSE, I used a stamp.

2.  Step 2 is to write out TRUTHS FROM THE TEXT.  This is the HARDEST part for many people to do because you want to add your thoughts, words, or summarize themes.  DON'T DO THAT...What can you glean from this text ONLY USING GOD'S WORDS?  I do a lot of asking Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How in this part as shown best in this first example because I write out my 5Ws and H:

These are truths I want to remember.  These are straight from the TEXT I wrote out in step 1
3.  The last part will be the 'So What? What do I do with this? What's the application?' part I'm calling TRUTH APPLIED.

 

Yes, I'm going to have to change that tag cause even I cannot read the word 'embrace' I tried to fit in.  Here are the finished pages of both my penciled composition book (I will show you in future posts ways to artsy these pages up if you want to) and my art journal:

 

So once you finish your pages, you can see what you like and want to adjust for next time.  I will have stamps for the TFTT from now on, as I think it would tidy up the page.  If you are doing the composition journal, you could go doodle or add images (such as arrows, crosses, etc) to show some of the wording.

REVIEW:  HERE ARE THE STEPS:
1. Read the book of the Bible you plan to study (or psalm, if you are sticking with one)
2. Determine what VERSE(S) you want to art journal; we need to be meditating (thinking on) these verses and truths throughout the day!
3. Art Journals: ADD COLOR NOW
4. Journal:
 1. Write Bible Verse 2.  Truth From The Text (use God's Words, no summarizing here) 3. Truth Applied.
(we will talk about other additions as we go along (I love a good cross reference or word study) but for now let's get used to the basics!

I'd love to see what you are doing if you are joining us!  Leave a link to your blog below or post your Bible Study Art Journal on our Facebook page!  

Another post Sunday!
Blessings,
Antoinette

www.inspiredstamps.com