My Brother's Birthday

Morning all! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Ours was pretty good here but yesterday was more exciting...Todd got the new flooring (same as my craft room) put down in the hallway to the kitchen/Kyler's room. My word it looks fabulous! I think this is the last of the work before our Memorial Day party/Jon's graduation festivities. I didn't work nearly as hard as Todd did so I know he's tired!

So, I needed to make a card for my brother's birthday. I remembered the old Chevy stamps I had gotten awhile back so I grabbed this one out. It isn't exactly what he would favor as far as cars go but I think he will like it anyway. How fun is that paper and those brads? They all fit so perfectly, huh? This is for CardPatterns: Sketch 65. You should go check it out as there is a wonderful prize for the person that wins the sketch challenge!

I haven't posted a How To Pray For Your Children in a couple of weeks so here you go!
1. Pray that they will know Christ as Savior early in life.
2. Pray that they will have a hatred for sin.
3. Pray that they will be caught when guilty.
4. Pray that they will be protected form the evil one in each area of their lives: Spiritual, Emotional, and Physical.
5. Pray that they will have a responsible attitude in all their inter-personal relationships.
6. Pray that they will respect authority over them.
7. Pray that they will desire the right kinds of friends and be protected from the wrong friends. (Proverbs 1:10-11) It seems so obvious that we want our children to not have friends that do drugs, drink, or have sex right? But what about the other side of that? We want our children to have friends that on purpose stay away from those things...turn their heads when something comes on television that isn't appropriate for them...not swear...I could add so many things to this list. The fact that our kids friends have more of an influence on our kids (at least in their pre-teen and teen years) then we do should take you to your knees in prayer about this often.
Well, ladies...I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Guest Artist - Gwen

Morning everyone! I trust your Monday went well. I'm making progress on my craft room but it is pretty overwhelmingly messy right now!

Today I'm featuring my blogging buddy, Gwen. I get to show you a wonderful vintage scrapbook page. Gwen used several items from the new Summer Mini catalog such as the new set called Elements of Style along with some of the wonderful Smooch spray that is offered in the mini. Head on over to Gwen's blog HERE to see more of her crafting. Her super cute new blog look is making me think I might want a new blog look....again.

And onto this week's How To Pray For Your Children:
1. Pray that they will know Christ as Savior early in life.
2. Pray that they will have a hatred for sin.
3. Pray that they will be caught when guilty.
4. Pray that they will be protected from the evil one in each area of their lives.
5. Pray that they will have a responsible attitude in all their inter-personal relations.
6. Pray that they will respect authority over them. Romans 13:1 Well, this one is hard. Why? Because we as adults have a hard time with respect for those with authority over us, so why would it not be difficult for children? Romans 13:1 says...Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. It is easy to think that this is just talking about government, right? With our children though this is referring to you as parents, teachers at school, church leaders, and frankly adults in general. You know when you read the phrase "teenagers now a days" and it isn't referring to something good? This is what this scripture is talking about. Our boys say yes, mom and yes, dad when in response to something we say to them or ask them to do. They are polite most of the time (at least they better be...lol) and we connect this behavior to the fact that God tells us to act this way by being respectful of our authorities as well. Have no doubt...we often fail and so will our kids. Thankfully that is what grace is for!

I hope you enjoyed Gwen's scrapbook page and that today's How To Pray For Your Children will encourage you in your prayer time!

Happy Grad

Well, we made it safely past Monday and have landed at Tuesday. Today, I hope, will be a day of work in my craft room. Hopefully we'll be putting down some flooring...yay! We'll see if it actually happens though...lol!

Today's card is made with a new SU! single stamp called Happy Grad (go figure!). Obviously, I felt the need to have it since Jon will be graduation in just a couple of months. This was my swap card for stamp club. It is kinda funny because I always tend to go clean and simple with my swap cards...I think it is because I run out of time to get them done though! Anyway, the patterned paper is from To The Nines and I just added a punched star/circle/brad to spruce it up a bit. Easy, but I would definitely send these out and probably will with Jon's friends graduating too.

Today is Tuesday so that means it's How To Pray For Your Children day. We are on week five, so here you go:

1. Pray that they will know Christ as Savior early in Live.
2. Pray that they will have a hatred for sin.
3. Pray that they will be caught when guilty.
4. Pray that they will be protected from the evil one in each area of their lives: Spiritual, Emotional, and Physical.
5. Pray that they will have a responsible attitude in all their interpersonal relationships. (Daniel 6:3) What this one is saying is pray that our children will take their responsibilities and relationships seriously. This is about character. And, I must say that this is a hard one to teach. I believe this is caught not taught, meaning they will see and do what I model. I will personally be praying over the next week that I am a good example in this area of my kids lives so that they can see what it is to have a responsible attitude in their interpersonal relationships.

Well, that is it for the day everyone! So now I want you all to and have a wonderful day!

How To Pray For Your Children

Well, everyone, we made it past Monday! Woohoo! I had a day filled with lots of different things and several of them were quite frustrating so I'm happy to be onto a fresh, new day!

As promised I have a fun boys card for you today. We made this card at stamp club last week, too. And, it is actually modeled after Kyler's birthday card from earlier this month. The main image is Extreme Skateboard stamped off a couple of times at an angle. I just used the "happy birthday" sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes as kind of a skateboard rail to infer movement. The paper is Chocolate Chip and To The Nines DSP. I love the Chocolate Chip buttons but rarely use them so I had to use two different sizes on this card. This is so perfect for the pre-teen or teen in your life!

Sorry about missing How To Pray For Your Children last week. Lets recap and then go over this week's scripture...

1. Pray that they will know Christ as Savior early in life.
2. Pray that they will have a hatred for sin.
3. Pray that they will be caught when guilty.

4. Pray that they will be protected from the evil one in each area of their lives: Spiritual, emotional, and physical. (John 17:15) It is important that our children (as well as ourselves) have a relationship with Jesus in every aspect of their lives...spiritual, emotional, and physical. I believe this prayer focus goes back to the old saying, "walk the walk not just talk the talk." If you have any thoughts on this please go ahead and leave them in the comments. I hope you'll take the time to pray for your children this week!

As you know I'm working on putting together my brand new stamp room. Well, we painted the walls over the last couple of days and I have to tell you that I didn't love the color to begin with. It is not the shade on the paint chip (too blue) but I think once the trim is painted, flooring down, and my stuff in the room it should be good.

I'm working on something that I will be offering as a class for my local customers in May and I can't wait to show it to you! I know you will all be excited!

But, for now...I hope you have a wonderful day filled with God's love for you!

Easter Baskets

Happy Tuesday everyone! I had a fun day yesterday. We went shopping for the new flooring and light fixture for my soon to be craft room. We came home with some flooring but couldn't get the light fixture from the Lowe's in our neighboring town. I can't seem to purchase it online either so I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point. Such a tough life I have, huh? Teehee!

I just thought I'd share with you the Easter baskets that I made for Jon and Kyler this Easter. They were super simple, origami folded baskets. I found the directions for it HERE. The super cute bunny behind is from the same blog and you can find the directions HERE. I bought the super fun basket and egg punch online. I honestly didn't think I'd use it this year due to the fact fact that I just received the punch a couple of days prior to Easter but I think it looks like the bunny just dropped the basket and is leaving. The approximate size of the baskets is 4"x4". Not too much candy and not too little...perfect!

Anyway, I used a full sheet of 12x12 Close to Cocoa cardstock for the basket. The patterned paper is From The Nines (I think). Both the boys really liked them but I suppose that could have been the candy inside too.

So, onto the How To Pray For Your Children for today. I want to mention that I think I'll do these once a week, on Tuesday, from this point forward. This way you can take that entire week to pray specifically in the way that I've told you about for your children. I hope you are all enjoying this little series. I'll re-cap first and then tell you about this week's prayer focus...

How To Pray For Your Children. Week 4 of 12...
1. Pray that they will know Christ as Savior early in life.
2. Pray that they will have a hatred for sin.
3. Pray that they will be caught when guilty.
4. Pray that they will be protected from the evil one in each area of their lives: Spiritual, Emotional, and Physical. (John 17:15) I hope that you will take a quick moment to read the John scripture I linked you to because it really is excellent. I often pray that my children will have a good sense of humor. We all know that kids are up against so many bad, evil if you will, things and for them to be able to see the humor in situations is a wonderful character for them to have.

Alright everyone...I hope that you will have a super wonderful Tuesday!

Good Friday

Morning everyone. Today is the day the world changed, did ya know that? Oh, yes...it is Good Friday. The day Jesus died for our sins. An incredible sacrifice. I just want you to know that if you read my blog and don't understand my belief I would love to talk with you about it. Just send me an e-mail and we'll chat.

Today's project is just a cute little box that I'll use to give a friend a little gift on Easter. She gave up sugar for Lent. I thought I'd give her some yummy sweets on Sunday...this box will work perfectly! I was, literally, just thinking that I have another friend that gave up desserts so I think I'll make another box for her, too. I just used So Saffron Cardstock with some patterned paper from the Pawsitively Prints designer series paper pack. The sentiment is from the stamp set, Well Scripted. A couple of punches gave me the "flower" in the center. Very easy and honestly I really liked putting together this box...it was fun and isn't that a key in stamping? Having fun?

Alright, onto day 2 of How To Pray For Your Children.

#1 was Pray that they will know Christ as Savior early in life.

#2 is pray that they will have a hatred for sin. (Psalm 97:10). More than just a hatred for sin but a recognition of sin. We are always teaching our children to say please and thank you and to be kind to others. Might I suggest that we also teach them to guard themselves from sin before it happens. Yes, this concept is difficult for little children but as they grow you can start teaching them to recognize sin and to make the decision to remove themselves from the situation before they are engaged in the activity or thought. More than just talking with them about this, model the behavior you wish to see. For example I was watching a couple of TV shows that I found I was obsessing about and really, they were not the type of thing I should be watching (not much is now a days) so I completely stopped watching them. When my boys bring it up I just tell them that those shows were not appropriate (I had to send my youngest away from the room while I watched it...that should have been a clue) and I was placing too much value on watching them so, I was done with them. I don't know that the kids get the idea right now but I believe they will in the future.

Anyway, many blessing to you on Good Friday!

Two-Step Bird Punch

Woop! It is Thursday! Tonight Todd and I will be attending our church's Maundy Thursday service. It is a service that commemorates Jesus' Last Supper. We've never attended before so I'm not sure what to expect but I do know that we will receive Communion (Eucharist). I'm am very interested in what our Pastor's sermon will be about.

Before that, however, I'll be at Care Net and I hope to find some time to dye eggs with Kyler between Care Net and the service. I hope I'm not over planning!

Today's card was made with Techno Stamper's sketch challenge from this week. I'm not sure why but when I first saw the sketch I knew I would want to make a card with it. In fact, I've had it up on my computer each day so far this week so I would remember to make a card.

Anyway, I used the Two Step Bird Punch from the Occasions Mini Catalog along with Sweet Pea Paper from the same mini. I think the splash of Taken With Teal really is striking and makes the bird/branch really pop. What do you guys think? I was happy to find a sentiment to fit in the middle square. We all need more thank you sentiments, right?

I received a wonderful list of scripture from a friend of mine titled How To Pray For Your Children and I thought I would share one each day over the next couple of weeks. I hope you will enjoy it. Feel free to leave any comments about this feature!

Pray that they will know Christ as Savior early in life. (Psalm 63:1 and 1 Timothy 3:15). I would suggest that you pray that not only will they trust Christ as their Savior early in life but for their own savior, not because you trust in Christ or tell them they should but because they trust that Jesus died and then rose again for them. This may seem like a no brainer but if you are anything like me sometimes a friend has to ask...have you prayed about that before it even occurs to me to do so. Remember God wants to hear all of our prayers...big or small. And really...this is big.

Well, I hope that you see all of God's little miracles today!