Jump for Joy

 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. Luke 6:23

When you were a kid, did you jump in piles of leaves? If you did, do you remember the simple joy it brought? When we follow Jesus, our reward is joy. Joy to help us through the hardest of days. It's not a joy that comes and goes, the joy from Jesus is one that is ever present. It doesn't mean we never feel sad or hurt or angry or defeated. It means that no matter what we feel, we have hope in Jesus. And that hope brings joy. We can rejoice no matter what because our God is sovereign over all. He works everything for the good of those who love Him. There is purpose in every situation and circumstance we find ourselves in. Let Jesus' joy get you through the good and the bad.

Page details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Happy Scarecrow, Falling Leaves, and Playful Alpha. Falling Leaves is FREE with a $65 order in September! And Happy Scarecrow has a die set available. I used watercolor crayons to color the scarecrow.

Have a joy-filled week! Andrea

Tiny acorn to Mighty Oak

Hello! November is here! This month at Sweet N Sassy stamps there is a party going on...this month we turn 11! Giveaways, great deals and fun live events are going to be going on all month long over on our facebook and instagram accounts. Today I am sharing a page to kick off gratitude documented as well as continuing through my 100 days of Bible promises book.

This page was such a joy to create...I started with the give him glory stamp and then stamped leaves, pinecones and acorns from the incredibly blessed stamp set. I also drew in a couple large acorns as I wanted them to be more visible on the page. Using my watercolors I dropped in fall colors letting them mingle and mix on the page. The journaling came next followed by a tab party at the top of the page and some wordfetti, puffy hearts and red jute bow.

Psalm 37:3-4 "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Reading this made me remember a sweet story I read to my children about a tiny acorn who was very sad because he was small and overlooked. I loved this analogy of how God takes our tiny acorn lives and grows them into tall mighty oak trees that bring glory to God as they reach up to point to the creator of all.
Father, plant your seeds of desire for your purpose, your dreams and your callings. I am filled with joy when I consider the possibilities! Amen!

Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to share my heart. Stay tuned and up to date with all the fun and festivities over at Sweet N Sassy stamps on Facebook and Instagram.

Love and prayers,
Jenn @creativegurl 85

Praise Him Always

Psalm 34:1-3

"I will bless the Lord at all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, 

and let us exalt his name together!"

So this was a really fun page to create! I am still resonating on the topic of Praise that we soaked up while on our Creative Worship Retreat a few weeks ago. An amazing time spent in the word with wonderful ladies will stick with you for a while! One of the verses we referenced was the one above, Psalm 34:1-3. We are called to Praise Him Always! Sure, it's easy to praise him when life is going good and everything falls into place just perfectly. But it's in those more difficult times in life that we may find it harder to praise him. Our God is good, so good. There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for and to praise him. Sometimes, it may seem as simple as praising him for waking up in the morning, and being able to get out of bed! But if life is really hard at that moment, sometimes that may be all that you can find to praise him for...... and that's ok, but it is worth praising!! 

This page just makes me smile and feel good! I was so relaxed and care free at the moments I was working on it. I wasn't overthinking how I was going to do it exactly. I just resonated on the scripture and played with my materials. This page features a couple of our new items this month. We have a new printable set called Starry Sanctuary which is where I pulled the beautiful blues and yellows from for my background. I used my distress oxides to create a watercolor-like background and embossed some gold "stars" using my Falling Leaves Stamp! A fun new way to jazz up one of our older stamp sets! This page also features our new Women of Praise stamp set which we created for our recent retreat. So much of God's word and colorful goodness packed into this page and I just love how it turned out!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

Starry Sanctuary Printable Bundle 

Women of Praise

Falling Leaves

Bitty Minnie Alpha 

Chunky Lowercase Alpha 

Thankful For My Tribe!

Matthew 18:20

"Where two or three are gathered in my name, 

there am I among them."

As some of you may already know, Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps hosted their very first retreat this past weekend in Savannah, Georgia. This was the first bible journaling retreat I have ever attended and it was nothing short of an amazing weekend! To see such a wonderful group of God fearing women come from all OVER the country, to one place to share their love of art and God together was truly awesome! For me, this retreat was not only a chance to spend lots of time in God's word, but to meet some of the women I have become friends with online for over a year face to face! This weekend was truly an example of just how good God really is.

Verse Matthew 18:20 says,"Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." God was present with us at the retreat all weekend. You could see Him through our artwork, our sweet conversations, testimonies, our worship songs each morning, and through all the wonderful fellowship! We gathered in His name and you could feel him all around us and see Him as some had tears of joy in their eyes. If you have never attended a christian or bible journaling retreat, I highly recommend it! I am already praying I will be able to attend the next one we are talking about hosting next year! You won't regret it. Each lady at the retreat left with their hearts overflowing and truly blessed! I am incredibly thankful for my tribe of ladies and to call you sisters in Christ! 

Creative Details:

This page features a few fun fall items. The background is actually one of our older stamps called Falling Leaves and it made such a fun and subtle background. I stamped a few different colors of Distress Oxides on the leaves to create a varied, natural look. The pumpkins are pieces from a super quick printable called Sunflowers and Pumpkins. See the images below for a list of all of the stamps I used on this page.

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

Sunflowers and Pumpkins Printable 

Falling Leaves

So Incredibly Blessed

Love Your Neighbor

Classy Script Alpha 

Thankful Grateful Blessed

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

I really love fall, sweaters, and boots... the beauty of the scenery changing, the season of thankfulness that begins.... I know we should be thankful every day but I love the idea of devoting a whole month just to reflecting all the reasons we have to be thankful! Everything we have to be thankful for is a gift from God, to him be the glory!

I used 2 stamp sets from Sweet N Sassy to create this page. Lynzee's Script and Falling Leaves.

I started by stamping the leaves on the background with yellow orange and red pigment ink. I applied yellow to the entire stamps then added the red right on top in spots to get it to almost fade in. 

Once I had the background done I used the Lynzee script to stamp "Thankful Grateful Blessed"

I added the date stamp and some fall washi to complete the page.

Hope y'all enjoyed my page, for more inspiration you can follow me on Instagram @my.creative.worship and Sweet N Sassy @sweetnsassystamps 

Make sure to hashtag us #sweetnsassystamps on FB and IG so we can see how you 've been inspired & inspire us! 

Until next time! God Bless!♥Maria

Stamps Used: