Don't Fight Naked

I may be dating myself by referencing this, but I remember a "Fight Naked" t-shirt trend.  I wouldn't go so far as to say they were popular, at least not among my high school crowd.  Neither me nor my friends would ever wear one--we thought they were more of a joke.  I'm not sure when or why the trend started.  Some clever person, however, took that theme and applied it to Ephesians 6, where the Bible talks about the armor of God, and make t-shirts with the phrase, "Don't fight naked!  Put on the Armor of God!"  Now that's a t-shirt I would wear!  So I knew I had to journal this phrase in my Bible using the Armor of God stamp set. 

We are fighting spiritual battles everyday, and unless we put on God's full armor--the Shoes of the gospel of peace, the Breastplate of righteousness, the Shield of faith, the Sword of the Spirit, the Helmet of salvation, and the Belt of truth--we are indeed fighting naked.  Without God's spiritual weapons to help us, we are powerless against Satan's flaming darts and wiles.  So get dressed, brothers and sisters!  Don't fight naked!

I created this collage page in my interleaved Bible with Distress oxides and stamps.  I began by stamping each of the images onto sticky notes and cutting them out to be used as masks.  I then used the colors Worn Lipstick, Tumbled Glass, and Mustard Seed to stamp the various images onto the page.  I masked each image as I sponged around them in varying colors, overlapping the colors in places.  Next, I stamped the words in the same colors.  I used some water on the background to give the distress oxides a distressed, layered effect, then dried it with my heat tool.  Black texture is always good to add, so I splattered some paint and used Texture Tiles 1 to stamp some grid texture.  I used Lowercase Chunky Alpha for the title, and added detailing with a white gel pen.  I finished by drawing lines around the edges of the page with a black pen, stamping the date, and journaling a prayer.  I also created a tag using the same process, that I could clip to the opposite page. 

Don't leave your house naked!  Make sure to dress yourself in the armor of God!  

God bless--

Julie

Dare to Stand Tall

Hello lovelies! Have you all been watching our social media channels to see the new June sets being released this month. Oh my goodness they are fabulous! You can run over and check them all out HERE. I was particularly drawn to the "Be a Flamingo" set....I love those big hibiscus flowers and fun tropical leaves. The verse that immediately came to my mind is the passage where we are told to put on the full armor of God so we can stand tall against all the evil schemes of the devil.

I started by stamping the large hibiscus and accidentally dropped my stamp and made a horrible blurry mess....cue panic and a couple tears. I decided to stamp the flower onto white cardstock. Watercolor and then fussy cut the flowers and attach them very strategically with a little double stick tape. I added a few leaves stamped directly onto the page to make the florals look even more three dimensional. After a little more stamping and journaling I am actually very pleased with how this page turned out and was excited to see that my mistake didn't ruin, but actually enhanced my page.

"Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore..." Ephesians 6:13-14a  

I have heard this verse and this portion of scripture so many times that often I hate to admit I tend to breeze through it, thinking I have heard this all before. This time around I was so drawn to the number of times stand is mentioned in just one verse. Standing isn't a particularly hard action to perform, however when life begins to seemingly crumble and people around you are sitting it can be hard to be the odd bird out. This flamingo looks so serene as if she knows God's got this...not only that but flamingos stand on one leg. I need to have that kind of confidence and faith in my God!  I know life is not easy, but if we dare to stand tall together we will be amazing ambassadors for Christ.

Father, thank you for giving me the courage to stand tall when life gets hard. You will never leave me and have already won this war. Let me stand firm and tall! amen!

Hugs and Prayers,

Jenn @creativegurl85