Trying to Play Catch Up!

Good Monday crafty friends! I pray you all had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was again rushed and busy, so my mind has been in a constant state of catching up! I am blessed to still have my mother still here on this earth, however many years ago, she was diagnosed with MS, which is a disease of the central nervous system. She is totally wheelchair bound, but has been able to live on her own. As she has gotten older we have seen more frequent, what they call exacerbations, which is when she will have a period of "worsening" symptoms of the disease that doesn't make it possible for her to stay by herself. During those times my sisters and I have to trade out staying with her until we can get her in a rehab unit that will provide much needed rehabilitation so that she can get back to her prior state of living. It is, unfortunately, a stressful time for all involved, however as previously stated, I am so thankful she is still here with us! Those of you who love to pray, I would ask that you please keep her lifted up for a quick recovery! I am, therefore, WAY behind on ALL my projects and this week will be playing MAJOR catch up to get back on task!! :) LOL

As I shared last week, I am on board this year, through His Kingdom Come art community, to do a Take Me Deeper Challenge , which is a challenge involving a weekly devotional and Bible verse that will prompt me to spend time in His Word! Since that is one of my favorite places to be, that was right up my alley! For me I will be sharing my reflections through an art journal that I shared that you can find here. They are already on Week 2, and so I am behind and, as I said, will be playing catch up this week and hopefully sharing both! Until then, I will share a quick project that I did for my Take Me Deeper Journal.

On one of my craft store jaunts at the end of last year, I came across these dividers from Heidi Swapp that I believe go into Project Life journals. I don't participate in Project Life, but as they were in the bargain bin for next to nothing, I thought I would purchase them for my TMD Journal that I knew I would be doing. They had some sort of fabric on them that could be sprayed and so I thought that would be neat! 

It was challenging fun doing both of these as it was a trial by error because I wasn't familiar with working on fabric. On both I used the word(s) I had picked for my Logos365 Challenge over on His Kingdom Come, which are Liberty/Freedom. On the divider to the left I simply took Dylusions spray in Calypso Teal through a stencil and then used an old Prima floral stamp that I have with StazOn Midi Ink in Gothic Purple. I then took some old foam letters and painted them with some acrylic paint and then used that same paint through Rebekah Meier's Love Post Stencil, which is one of my favorite! I outlined a few of the patterns and then adhered the letters with Aleene's and then used my white gel pen to give a few highlights.

The divider on the right was more of a trial. Since I didn't know how the fabric would react to different kinds of mediums I decided to stamp on this one and see what happened! Lesson learned...it bleeds and so probably won't do that again! But it didn't look too bad. I started out spraying Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Chartreuse through Tim Holtz's Harlequin Layering Stencil and then Distressed the edges with Vintage Photo. I then stamped using a couple of different stamps in various colors. I used some of those same foam letters which I stamped with Versa Mark and then heat embossed with a black "sparkly" embossing powder. I like how it turned out. My sister gave me this great stamp from Santa Fe that is a Corn Maiden, which is one of my favorite symbols in many of the Native American Nation legends. I stamped it with StazOn in black and then further outlined it with a Faber Castell pen. Voila!

I have shared before that I don't believe in coincidences. I believe the stamp received from my sister was "meant" for my journal and is so appropriate for my mind set with my Logos365 word(s). I look on the Corn Maiden as a type and shadow for Christ! According to tradition the Corn Maidens were created in the palm of the right hand of the Great Spirit who guide the people of the earth. As the people of the earth were not always able to determine what plants and animals were good for them and nourish them as opposed to what would harm them, the Great Spirit sent the Corn Maidens to give the people a single seed of corn that if properly cared for, would feed and sustain them.


Likewise, our Father in Heaven sent His only Son, who sits at the right hand of the Father, to earth to become a man and live amongst us to teach us and show us how to live and walk on this earth. Because of our fallen nature, we had gotten to a point that we couldn't differentiate between what was good for us or bad for us, so the Father sent Jesus to plant that amazing seed, God's Word, into our hearts that if cared for, nurtured and tapped into daily, would feed and sustain us for Kingdom building here on this earth and eternal living in Heaven!!

It is only when we live in freedom and liberty through the shed blood of Christ that we allow God's eternal Word to sustain us for life here on this earth! Without freedom through Christ, anything else we choose to sustain us will fail! Are you hungry today? Do you feel like the diet of this world is lacking suitable nourishment for your daily living? I encourage you today to look to the cross! "And He is before ALL things, and in Him ALL THINGS hold together!" Colossians 1:17 He will fill your belly and your heart and sustain you that you may handle ANYTHING that may come your way on this earth!

Let the mighty seeds of His Word be sown in your heart today!

Blessings