Thursday, January 15, 2015

Matters of the Heart

Good Thursday all my crafty friends! I hope your week has been going well and you are making plans for a fabulous weekend! I am still playing catch up and I hope after today, I will be right as rain!!

Today, I want to share a journal page that I have done as part of my weekly Take Me Deeper Challenge over on His Kingdom Come.  I am also doing this as a part of Sunday Sentiments over on Inky Dinky Doodle blogspot! The month of January's theme for Take Me Deeper is "Transformation" and Week 2's Bible verse is from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, "Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." There is SO much in these verses but the first thing that jumped out to me regarding these verses is that this is the very depiction of the servant of Christ!

One of the main revelations as a believer is that the flesh is weak and susceptible of being ensnared by the enemies tactics of "boasting or taking pride ownership of the very things God reveals to us! We can do NOTHING outside the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit, lest He reveal it to us! Paul's story here shows us that even after a revelation, Paul is allowed to suffer what he calls "thorns in the flesh" that he many KNOW the power of the "blood of Christ!" Therefore, the fruit of our trials or "thorns in the flesh" should produce the fruit of humility, obedience and exaltation as we give glory to God!
You can't give glory to God unless you have been transformed and you can't be transformed unless your heart is laid bare and broken before Him, ready to do His perfect will with the mind of Christ, the ultimate Servant! Transformation is a matter of the heart! As we transform from glory to glory His grace, in the midst of those trials or thorns, is sufficient because it is in "that place," our very weakness, that His power is made perfect allowing you to rise above ANYTHING that would try to exalt itself against Him!! Satan's tactics are old and ALWAYS the same with one purpose in mind - to hinder you from the work of the Lord! Our God is greater! God will use the thorns to keep us humble and the focus on Jesus!! 

I want to continually be in a place where my hearts desire is to do what pleases Him! Here I am Lord!

This journal page used ALL kinds of goodness that came to me as Christmas gifts this past year! I have been chomping at the bit to have some of Finnabair's new products, so because of the love of dear family members, I was able to do that for myself this past Christmas! Yay me! LOL

I started this page by putting some of Fin's Texture Past in Copper Crackle through Tim Holtz's Harlequin Layering Stencil and as I am too impatient, I heat set it. My understanding is the crackle will be MORE evident if you let it dry naturally. I then sprayed Lindy's Stamp Gang Starbust Sprays first in Tibetan Poppy Teal and then in Autumn Maple Crimson! Those colors are the ULTIMATE yumminess to me! I love Lindy's sprays! I sprayed a matte fixative over at this point because I knew I would be putting things on top. I then drew my girl figure on book page and adhered with Aleene's and then pulled out those yummy Gelatos and painted her with Peach and Butterscotch.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on Finnabair's Art Ingredients products and so I mixed her Glass Glitter in Gold Rush with Liquitex Gloss Gel Medium and added to the bottom surrounding her. I guess I was trying to go for an "ethereal" look, but I really liked it! It's so hard to see how beautiful that product is through my terrible photography, but trust me it is! I had some left over so I skirted it around the page a little as well.  I then placed some of her Glass Beads in Plum around here and there just for some extra texture. I wanted her skirt to pop out and played around with several things but just ended up using this yarn that I had that I love and then took some pieces of lace that I had left over from some Christmas project and added to her waste. Lastly was the "heart" and the message that were both colored with the Lindy's in Autumn Maple Crimson, shaded with Faber Castell Big Brush Pen in Magenta and then outlined with a Faber Castell black pen.  I also added Distress Vintage Photo to the edges for a little extra shading. I really liked the finished product!

God's desire is that you would be a child after His own heart! Seek Him today that you could be changed from glory to glory!

Be blessed!

6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful journal page Felicia, I love the colours, you know I love Finnabair's texture pastes, I use them always, and glass glitter is fantastic, you know that there are new microbeads on the way ;-) the yarn is a perfect skirt! Very well done my friend!

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    1. Oh Ruth, no you didnt! NOW I will HAVE to have them!! LOL Isn't that terrible! LOL I have to STOP wanting EVERYTHING! LOL Thanks for you sweet comment! You are always my encourager! Blessings my friend! :)

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  2. As usual Felicia, your journal page is just gorgeous!!! You have such a artistic appeal to your work, I love it!!!!!!!

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    1. Penny, my friend, you are just the sweetest and you made my morning! :) Thank you, AS ALWAYS, for the sweetest comments and encouragement! You know, I am so blessed to have gotten to know you and all of my online friends that keep me going with thoughts and inspiration! Whenever I "try" to do a card, I always think of you and your gorgeous work! So, THANK YOU, for your inspiration!! Blessings to you today and for a wonderful weekend! :)

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  3. This is super creative, Felicia with all those dimensional textures! Love the stenciling in copper and the textures in her skirt. The title speaks to me as well! The whole page is super duper! Thanks for linking this to Sunday Sentiments!

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    1. Zsuzsa, YOU are the creative one my friend! I'm trying to keep up with your first of the year blowouts! You AND Ruth are on fire my friend! That copper paste is to die for! I love it! Can't wait to see what else I can do with it! ALLL of Fin's stuff is so yummy to me! I think I am finally catching up from the holidays and Sunday Sentiments was one of things I wanted to make sure I did! I love that you do that Zsuzsa! Thanks for the opportunity to share! :) Blessings my friend!

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