This is a great book Captivating, so insightful and helpful to refocus me and to provide healing in those areas where my pain is a deterent to my walk with Christ. We are part of a large group on Facebook that is doing an online journaling class led by Patti Hale.
I am leading a small local group here in Northern VA and we meet weekly to discuss the chapters and to work on our art journals. Here are some pictures of my group ( missing Michelle) God is binding us together in a deeper way and we are drawing closer to Him.
Here are some pictures of my pages and my cover. I worked for about 3 days on the cover. I had inspiration from Anna ( from Poland) and this is my version.
First I collage a lot of papers onto the cardboard covers. Sprayed with Adirondack inks and Glimmer mist inks. Added some creme color paint to tone it down, and then sprayed a gloss varnish over it all.
The embellishments: I wanted to create a "cross" of embellishments that would signify the love of God in my life. I cut up a old frame and used them on the right and left side, then added wooden cut out designs ( I found at Michaels a long time ago) as the top and bottom of the cross. I used alcohol inks on the plastic letters. I included a pearl heart as the inside of the flower. Added lost of other metal embellishments and glued them with a hot glue gun. Masked off the rest of the cover and used Glimmer mist spray on the embellishment. I wanted to stitch on the outside edges, but I used really think cardboard ( the covers from my watercolor pads) so used my Tim Holtz stitching stamp instead.
Here is the back of th e front cover and the inside and outside of the back cover. I am planning on connecting my book with wire bound using my Cinch.
I can't believe that I missed posting this great class!
The class was called Inspiration Showcase with Jennifer McGuire. Even though the class is over, you can still take the class at your own pace. I highly recomend it! It is a great technique class. Here is the link. She also has a new Christmas Card class starting soon.
Here is the canvas I made. I loved doing each heart technique.
I took some individual row pictures too. Enjoy!
Today is a glorious day! The weather is wonderful, I feel free, light and proud.
Last night Vera and I were invited to attend a reception for the new Ukraine Deputy Director of the SDA ( which is the government adoption agency). She is here with 2 other officials meeting US government contacts and adoptive families learning more about Ukraine and USA adoption practices. It was an honor to meet her and to share a little bit of our adoption story.
My pride comes from my 17 year old daughter Vera. She was able to speak Russian and some Ukrainian to the Director and her team. Not only speak with them, but she ended up translating for the other families who don't speak Russian! Now most of you don't understand the context of that accomplishment, so let me share why this is a key milestone in Vera's life.
Vera was 11 years old when she came to America 5 years ago and only spoke Ukrainian, If you are over 40 in Ukraine, you speak Russian and under 40 speak Ukrainian. Vera was illiterate when she came to America just 5 years ago, meaning she had a working vocabulary of Ukrainian ( approximately 100 words) but no grammer or written education. We placed her in public school for the first year (6th grade). I determined that she was so lacking in the basic skills, and public school just doesn't have the ability to teach older children elementary level work, so we needed to go back to the beginning with her education. I homeschooled her starting with 2nd grade level work. In 18 months she went through 2-6 grade and then in Feb of 2010 went back to public school in 9th grade. She finished the 2nd semester of 9th grade, took summer school last year for Algebra and then in the fall of 2010 was a rising 10th grader. She signed up for Russian, not ever having Russian language skills. Within a few months the Russian teacher moved her from level 1 to level 2 and made her the class assistant for the level 2 students! She was asked to perform in the Olympiadia in the spring of this year, and not only passed the 3nd level but was awarded the top student in the state of VA for Russian level 3! She is considered a heritage speaker and that is why she had to compete at level 3.
Last night, she demonstrated a maturity and confidence that was a remarkable accomplishment!
God reminded me how he had a plan for my life and for Vera and how when I listened to Him and followed Him, His plans come to fruition! Jeremiah 29:11-14 says
" For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
He rescued me from my captivity of self that I lived in for most of my life. His goodness, His mercy and his love were given to me as I did what he gave me a mission to do- adopt 3 girls from Ukraine, teach them, support them, love them and give them a hope and a future. He did that for them through me. It makes all the difficulties, challenges and tears worthwhile when I see my daughter blossom and shine for God.
I am a blessed woman!
Sorry for the delay, taught a new class last night to 8 wonderful ladies, and had to create the video today for Technique Tuesday.
Mini Albums are a great way to start scrapbooking and a good gift. They are small, so you can create one quickly. They keep you focused- there is a beginning and an end. Great way to use up left over papers, and photos!
Have you ever made an accordion/exploding scrapbook? They are such a fun project and a gret gift for someone.
To learn how to make this accordion exploding scrapbook watch the 2 part video.
HEre is the instruction/supply sheet to download. Download Accordion Exploding Mini Album
Would love to see your projects!
And here is part 2
Welcome to another special Faith Blog Hop sponsored by Paper Tree House Studio! You should have arrived here from Carolyn http://messmuddleandfun.blogspot.com/ if you are following the hop. If you just happen to have fallen here go to the beginning of the hop over at paper Tree House Studio. Paper Tree House Studio: www.mypapertreehouse.com
At the end of every month a group of bold women gather to give Glory to God with the talents He has given us in a very loud way... :) Our prayer is that through the projects we have created you Will be able to see Him in all of His Glory! May He touch you today as we look at the theme of the Proverbs 31 woman, and may you find that you are indeed everything He designed you to be.
This is how the hop works:
There are many beautiful and brave women that are ready to show their weaknesses in order that you may see His strength. :) Follow the line-up and please leave some love throughout the way. Allow yourself to cry, laugh, smile, along with any other emotion the Lord may bring your way. You will find that there are many prizes throughout the hop. In order to qualify to receive them you must be a follower of the blog and you must leave a comment. Know that if you are announced as the winner of a prize you are responsible for contacting us in order for us to make the prize go your way.
Here are our sponsors:
Paper Tree House Studio: Scrapbooking Kit (valued at $45)
Tombow: Amazing Adhesive Pack
Scrapbook News and Review: 1 year subscription to their magazine.
Punky Sprouts: Sweetie Album
Sweet Stamper: Stampin' Up Stamp Set
Now let's get the hop started! :)
The woman described in Proverbs 31 seems to be perfect! She works hard for her family, keeps up with the house, makes sure that the entire family is fed, is respected by others and her husband, and the list goes on... It can be very overwhelming to try to attain her status- which leaves many of us feeling as though we do not amount to God's standards. If you are anything like me, you too have felt as though there is always something that is just not right in your womanhood. Maybe you are not sweet enough, or neat enough, or submissive enough, or clean enough... Whatever label you do not amount to it can leave you feeling overwhelmed and discouraged.
God did not put this part of Scripture in the Bible so that we would draw away from Him filled with shame due to our incapacity to do what He expects of us. On the contrary, I have become every day more certain that He inspired these words because He wants to show us His Grace. The truth is: we all fall short of the Glory of God and there is not even one that is good amongst us. He KNEW this when He made us and when He decided to save us- and in this He loved us.
The proverbs 31 woman is meant to be a reminder of how much we need Christ! God desires that we would be women like the one portrayed there, and He knew that these areas would be our weaknesses, so He gave us this map of virtues so that we would not conform to the world but allow Him to transform us. The Bible teaches that in our weaknesses He is strong! My prayer is that you would allow the Lord to show you those areas where you indeed fail so that in turn you would learn to be mesmerized by His great strength. You will be doing things you never imagined when you fully rely on Him. In Him you already are the Proverbs 31 Woman you so desire to be. May He show you that truth today as He heals you from all insecurities.
My project is "a woman who fears the Lord". I was captured by the 30th verse in Proverbs 31.
"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."
Fearing the Lord sounds so bad! What does it actually mean? I looked up fear in my Bible dictionary. fear: " a feeling of reverence, awe, and respect or an unpleasant emotion caused by a sense of danger. Fear may be directed toward God or man, and it may be either be healthy or harmful."
I guess that I only understood the harmful fear, not the healthy fear. So, when I fear the Lord I am offering reverence, respect and awe of Him. I feel the awe when I raise my hands to Him and offer him my heart. So my tag shows a woman in awe of the God who created her and loves her.
Technique & Supplies:
manilla tag- #8 (3 1/8 x 6 1/8")
Sizzix embossing plate "Rays"- emboss half the tag
Distress Inks: spiced marmalade, dried marigold, rusty hings, vintage photo
Glimmer mist: sugar maple
Emboss 1/2 of the tag, add script writing beneath the embossing, use a corner stamp in the same color ink. Using distress ink (rusty hinge) I added the woman with hands lifted in praise as a stencil. ( this is fron a picture I found in a Discipleship journal that I copied and reduced and then cut out). Direct to paper technique for adding the color to the rays. Edged the tag with vintage photo ink, distressed the edges, type from my computer with the verse. Added lace that I sprayed with glimmer mist to match the color scheme and a string of 1/2 pearls ( from a fabric store). I added some gold Pearl Ex on top of the orange rays to give it shimmer. You could use glimmer mist on top as well.
Thanks for stopping by on the blog hop. May God bless you and keep you!
Your next stop is Karel www.kareljcreations.com . Remember to leave a comment on this post if you want to be considered for one of the Grand Prizes. :)
I love to create topical scrapbooks. I am always on the look out for a unique vehicle to use. You know those pocket folders that you have to have for school? In the fall they go on sale for 10 to15cents each. Pick up some of them and use them when you have a short topic you want to cover.
A few years ago my pastor Rusty gave a message about how we use our time. The time we have left. It was titled Life's Too Short. If I live to 80, that sounds so far away, but it was only 8,566 days left!!! That is so not enough for me to live out His plans for me.
I used 4-5 coordinating papers, covered the front, back and insides of the folder with the papers. I cut up the message notes and inserted some of the wording and picture ( a giant clock).
I like to type a lot of bible verses and headings on my computer. A nifty way to add them to a scrapbook or journal is to make your own stickers. Print on Avery Full Sheet labels ( 8 1/2 x 11 clear). I have lots of fonts and create files with my bible verses and words, titles and print them and make my own stickers.
The pocket file folders are great for adding notes to myself, or papers I want to keep from a message at church, notes from a friend, or a seminar, or special pages from my children.
Keep you mind open to the possibilities!
Here is another folder project. Romans 8. This one I created mini folders and added them. Created lots more workspace.
Since this is difficult to photograph, I created a short video to walk you through the mini books and journaling.
Enjoy!
Next stop Ukraine!
Zach and I arrived in Ukraine summer of 2005. We made our way via a 6 hour bus ride to Rivne, where our mission team works in the orphanages. After a lot of calling and negotiating, we were able to find Vera - she was not at the orphanage, but at a summer camp.
So we went there and surprised her! Seeing Vera again was such a moment to remember! These are the first pictures of our meeting her and Natalya. She was so excited to see me and Zach again, and her sister Natalya was with her at a camp too. The hope in her eyes was worth everything I had been through so far and confirmed that this was the right thing to do. God intervened and allowed us to take Vera and Natalya out of the camp and stay with us for the entire week we were in Rivne in our hotel. It was so precious to see them together- all three of them were in separate orphanages and did not get to see each other. Each morning we went to Deanna’s orphanage to work with the mission team and Vera and Natalya came with us.
The worst hour of my life was when we had to take them back to the camp on Friday morning and say goodbye. How do you say goodbye and not promise something you may not be able to deliver? I did not know at that point if I would be approved for adoption, and if I would ever see them again. So, we had to say goodbye by saying I would TRY to come back !
Trying was not in my vocabulary, remember I am a doer. But I was cautious and did not want to hurt the girls. We shed so many tears and with sad hearts we left and came back to America. I received 2 letters from the girls a few weeks later, while I was doing all the paperwork, but they did not know that I was trying to come and adopt them and I had no way of contacting them to give them updates.
So while I was proceeding with this complicated adoption process, God was teaching me to demonstrate my faith and trust in HIM and my dependence on HIM alone. The first day back home in America I found out that my company was doing a reorganization and I may lose my position. Wow, another chance for God to reveal HIS plan for me and for me to depend and trust him.! This really scared me as I had already committed to pursuing the adoption. This company had a adoption reimbursement policy of $5000 per child that you adopt, which I had planned to cover the expenses.
I did lose my position, but one of the vendors I worked with offered me a great position at more money and I accepted it. He also promised me $ for the adoption, so it seemed all was back on track. I went ahead and took out a loan against my 401k and was prepared and waiting for the date to go to Ukraine. We spent the next few months remodeling our rental home to create another bedroom and waiting. Waiting- it was getting comfortable now.
Christmas 2005 came, my son Andrew was delivered safely home from Iraq. Praise the Lord! I was waiting ( had been for 4 months) for my appointment date. Then 2 weeks in to January the very small company I worked for reorganized and laid me off with a 1 week severance package. At first, I though life seemed to be conspiring against me to complete this adoption. But I soon understood that all of this was just God showing me that HE was in control, not me, and that it would be evidence that he made all these things happen for his glory and honor, and nobody could say – wow Diane is so great, look what she is doing on her own!
So, now I had no job, no funds to do the adoption, no car (because I had a company car) and what do I do now? Was the devil making this happen, was I supposed to not do this????
I did something I had never done before in my life. Instead of giving up, or getting depressed, or going blindly ahead, I asked a small group of people from church to come to a prayer vigil at my house. I asked them to listen to all the information and give me wise counsel on what they thought I should do.
They believed that God was in control, he had asked me to follow him and do this and his plan would come to fruition if I trusted him totally. We came up with a plan for me to ask my company to honor their commitment to provide the money for the adoption and I went and humbly asked. It was uncomfortable for me because I hate to not be in a position of power, but I went and asked sincerely and with no malice. A week later they called me and told me to come and pick up a check for $10,000.
God was in control! This provided me the money to live on and then all I needed to do was get the funds to complete the adoption. I was blessed by New Hope when a generous family offered me a used car. I had borrowed the money from my 401k plan, but when you leave a company you have to pay it back or take a 50% penalty in taxes. There was one other option, return the borrowed funds to my 401k plan, and get it whole, and borrow the money from someone else, until I could get a new job, take a new loan out and return the money.
Now, here is where God works miracles! My son Andrew had saved all of his army money and he had $39,000 in the bank. He offered to loan me the $20,000 I needed to go and complete the adoption! God had provided again, his way in his time. God had sent my son to Iraq, had protected him, and softened his heart to participate in HIS plan for our lives.
I love reading this, and remembering God's provision in my life. It was good that I wrote all this down a few years ago so that all the little details and intricacies that were woven together would not be forgotten.
Next week, going to Ukraine to adopt my three daughters~
I love little gifts that I can make and keep on hand to give to that special someone. You will love today's technique! This is Vera's first technique video.
We call them "Mini-Marvels". They are made from a sheet of 12x12 double sided scrapbook paper.
If you have a scorboard tool, it makes it really easy to make them. I got mine from AC Moore with a 40% off coupon.
The mini book has 8 pockets inside- we love to add bible verses for our friends. You could crop some pictures and keep it as a little picture book in your purse or write little notes to your friend with pictures.
What will you put inside your mini marvel?
Join me as I share my journey with God on testimony Thursday's.
He has taken me down a path and pruned, pushed, led, pulled and changed me. He has strengthened my character, given me a special ministry, given me a testimony and created a new family which changed the lives of 3 little girls. The Lord wanted to work in my life and as soon as I got out of His way and surrendered to Him, His blessings and unmistakable mark was on my life.
Discovering His will is a daily process of trust. His word has provided the comprehensive guide for my life the past 11 years. I have discovered His desired will through circumstances and prayer. He was actively guiding every incident of my life in order to stitch the in-congruent "threads" together for my good.
"And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
A sense of peace always accompanied my obeying His will even when I did not know how things were going to go. I had to surrender my body, mind, soul , self-control and money. The miracles I experienced have been confirmation that His ways always reveal a way for Him to get the glory and honor.
Observer the path I have walked with God from my first mission trip i 2004, bringing Vera to America, my son going to war in Iraq, losing 2 jobs within 7 months, and 12 months of waiting to adopt. God revealed His plan for my life little by little and only gave me enough information that I needed for the moment. Later I could see His hand and how everything worked together to bless me and my family and bring Him glory.
May God use my testimony to touch your heart and to understand His ways.
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