Hynmal Inserts

Affiliate links to stamps used in this project are below!

Hello everyone!
I'm thankful for this day.  I am.  I feel like these days come graciously in which I'm able to share a bit more about the Lord and His mercies!
There's a lot to share here, so I hope you'll bear with me as I present yet ANOTHER set of journaling cards.  This time I've called them "hymnal inserts." :D
These cards are stamped with sets from 2 different designers on the Sweet n Sassy Stamps team, and both of them are hymn related.  They're both full and beautiful sets, which is why I loved using them so, so much, and it's why I chose them to work with today.

These journaling cards have become a favorite of mine, and I believe I've found a niche when I sit down to create some.  They go, tucked away safely, into a Bible that I work through primarily to give away.  I've mentioned my passion at one time over this thing called "The Loved Bible Project."  As I dig deeper into the heart of this "ministry," I'm overwhelmed by the stories I hear revolving around precious truths in the lives of the lost.
On my Youtube channel, I have another video on how I made these sweet inserts, and the reason I continue to make so many.  I love them, but I also "love" Bibles with them. 
I've mentioned the "Loved Bible Project" before today, and I will have links to the website and Facebook page on this post, as well as in the description for my process video.  Please feel free to reach out and ask questions; I had to! 
I didn't know exactly how to wrap my brain around creating in a Bible, marking it up, tabbing it, underlining it, highlighting it, and then giving it away!  Giving it away??  But I've put so much time and creativity, thought and heart into this container of color and journaling!  How can I just give that away?
Good question.  It's one that each person needs to think through and process on her/his own.  Loving a Bible is something special; a unique opportunity and challenge to spread the Gospel to those to whom the Lord leads you.  If it makes you feel any better, I grappled, struggled and whined over this very thing until it became clear that this method of journaling has amazing potential and prosperity! 
God can use anything to further His gospel, and if He can use a Bible with notes of grace from Deeds, so be it!  I'd rather do what would bring souls to Him, and glory to His name, Amen!

I'll be honest, sometimes it's hard to know what to share on these bits of paper, but as I said before, it's because of the hymnal lyrics that I used those stamp sets!  Hymns are chalk-full of scripture doctrine, hard-pressed with statements derived from the Word of God!  It doesn't take much to even google the lyrics to find their origin and related scriptures.  Actually, I found it so much more enlightening and simple to use hymnal lyrics to express the Love and Hope of Christ on these cards. 

Statements like, "You can have this whole world, but give me Jesus," can be supported by verse like Matthew 16:16, Matthew 19:21, Matthew 6:19 and so forth.
For the phrase, "Those who trust Him wholly, find Him wholly true," are helped by verses like, Philippians 4:7, Jeremiah 17:7, or Psalm 40:4.

Truth from scripture is key. 
Being willing to journal hope from the Lord on a piece of paper can go farther than you think.  Using God's Word to win souls to Christ has a much higher productivity rate that anything I can muster!

I hope this was helpful and hopeful. 
I pray you'll let me know what you think,
and I pray that you'll try these out in a "loved" Bible of your own!
Who knows?  Only God!  And He is trustworthy!

Much love,
Deeds
IG: @mercies_journaled

Whimsy Bouquet

Timeless Hymns

Hymn Word Art



So many thanks to my friend, Korin Sutherland, for allowing me to use her gorgeous stamps and this platform to share in the mercies of God's being!  I love you sister!




The Loved Bible Project Website
The Loved Bible Project Facebook page
The Loved Bible Project Facebook group

Got Lemons???

John 16:33

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world." 

Hey all of you lovely readers! I'm finally back! :)

I took a little break from the blog after having our third precious baby girl. She's almost 2 months old now so things are still pretty crazy, but I missed journaling in my bible and spending time in the word and with this wonderful community. So, I'm easing my way back in slowly :)

Have you ever had a bible verse that just seems to pop up repeatedly during certain times in your life? Well I occasionally do, and John 16:33 has been one of those verses lately. It's almost like God keeps throwing it out there as a reminder for me...."Hey Stephanie, don't forget!" As some of you know, I unexpectedly lost my father back in January. Unexpectedly is an understatement. Receiving that news completely knocked the air out of my chest and the feet out from under me, literally. I couldn't believe it, and honestly, I'm still struggling to believe it almost 5 months later. 

I have never lost someone that close to me before, so learning to cope and heal has been difficult. So needless to say, that was a HUGE lemon I was handed this year, along with a few others. You know know that old saying, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!", well, I'm not really a huge fan of lemonade, so I prefer to add them to my sweet tea! I do live in the Carolinas after all! If you don't love tea, you aren't from around here. :) After my dad passed, I had a few people tell me that something good will come out of this. That's a really hard pill to swallow when you are overwhelmed with grief and honestly, I'm still having trouble seeing what good could possibly come from it. But, I haven't given up.

John 16:33 says:

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world." 

Right here, Jesus tells it like it is. No sugar coating it. We will have troubles, disappointment, heartbreak and struggles, He promises that. But he encourages us and tells us not to worry, because He has conquered the entire world, and we can be strong and conquer anything the world has to throw at us, through Him and Him alone. Jesus is our rock, and he wants us to lean on him when we are struggling and feel weak. He can restore our strength and build us up stronger than before. Now, I'm FAR from perfect, so I haven't mastered this concept in the slightest. But it does bring me comfort when I'm upset. 

Life has handed me some lemons this year, 

but I'm brewing some sweet tea and I'm throwing those lemons in there

 and trying to make the best of it!!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

IG: faith.and.creativity

Check out the fun stamp sets I used to create this page!

All In All

Life and Lemons

Whimsy Bouquet

God Knows It All....

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord 

"plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I don't know about you guys, but lately I have found myself asking why? a lot. So many things happen to us in the course of our lives that we don't understand, can't find a reason for, and don't have the answers to our questions. You ever feel like that? I'm sure many of you struggle with trying to control our own lives, make every decision about everything we do. And sometimes it's not until everything comes crashing down around us that we actually stop, and realize... wait a minute... I can't control everything, this just isn't working!

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God is the only one who knows the paths we are meant to take in life. He is all powerful and all knowing all the time! We may think we know want plan we have for ourselves, but you know what they say, "Tell God your plans and listen to him laugh." Have you ever tried to complete a puzzle when you couldn't see the picture on the front of the box?? Our lives are like a puzzle. We see all the different pieces of this massive puzzle and we are always struggling, trying to put the pieces together, but God is the only one that knows what the final picture is! We must seek his guidance in the decisions we make throughout our lives, and ask God what HIS plans are for us and what HE would like for us to do.

I currently have some recent events happen in my life that have left me asking God so many questions. I am trying to cope with the unexpected loss of my father almost 2 months ago. That is a huge concept in itself when it wasn't something anyone was expecting. So many unanswered questions that we will never have the answers to until we ourselves make it to heavens gates. I have been reminding myself that God's timing is perfect, even when I don't understand it and flat out don't like it, to be completely honest. Once again, only God knows the plans he has for us, only He can see the big picture. I have another life changing event coming up soon, the birth of our third daughter. We're excited and anxious to meet her, but next week I will be full term and my husband has to be out of town for the entire week. Why? Why now does he have to go? I'm very nervous that the baby may come and he won't be able to make it back in time. But... I am putting my faith in God and trusting in him knowing that He knows exactly what will happen and hopefully everything will be ok. I'm still not happy about my husband being gone, but trying to be calm and rest in the Lord about it, and praying it will all work out smoothly.

Romans 8:28

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose."

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

@faith.and.creativity

All in All

Whimsy Bouquet 

Bitty Minnie Alpha 

Incredibly Blessed

Be a Fruit Smoothie!

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Hi Friends!

This passage is probably familiar to you. We know that when we become believers, we are instantly indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This fruit of the Spirit is the result of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives. As we submit to Him, the Holy Spirit conforms us into His image, making us more like Christ. Of course, we will not be completely rid of our sinful natures here on earth. But, the goal is to progressively allow the Holy Spirit to produce more and more of His fruit in our lives. Through Him, it is possible! So, let's be a fruit smoothie! Blend the fruit throughout our lives and serve it to all we meet. When they see Him in us, they will be drawn to Him.

Page Details: I had such fun with new Sweet n Sassy Stamps set Fruits of the Spirit! There is so much versatility with it as you could use it with any verses talking about fruit or sweetness. I also used the following sets: Skinny Caps, Fill Me Up, and Whimsy Bouquet (the blueberries were a stamp from this set).

To make the smoothie glass, I masked off the top of the coffee cup from the Fill Me Up set. Then I drew in the smoothie line and the straw. I used watercolor crayons to color the page.

Have a blessed week my friends! Andrea

Grace, Mercy, & Peace

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. 2 John 3

Hello Friends!
The letters in the New Testament generally open with some sort of salutation to the person or people the writer is writing to. It's easy, when we're reading, to skim over these salutations and not really pay attention to what they say as we want to get to the "meat" of the letter. But this "grace, mercy, and peace" caught me. Who wouldn't want that? And what exactly does it signify? In my studying of what it meant, I came across a lesson on Bible.org that explained it well. B. F. Westcott said, "The succession 'grace, mercy, peace' marks the order from the first motion of God to the final satisfaction of man." Our relationship with God begins with His grace reaching down to us. Mercy points to God's compassion towards us. And finally, peace points to the result of salvation. Isn't that a beautiful, 3-word summary of what we have in Christ? Grace, mercy, peace. It will be with us no matter what as God will not abandon us. Rest in this truth, my friends.

Now for page details: I used some newly released Sweet n Sassy Stamps sets: Life in Jesus and Texture Tiles 3. Texture Tiles 3 is the Stamp of the Month that you can get for free with a $75 order. See the website for details.

I had previously journaled the backside of this page and used a set called Whimsy Bouquet. Here is the backside page.

There was ghosting from that on this page, so I decided to trace the images onto this side. So, I stamped the words first, then I traced the images and colored them in with watercolor crayons. I finished it off with the texture stamp. I like how it turned out, and this is a good option to use when ghosting or bleed through happens.

May His grace, mercy, and peace be with you this week and always. Andrea

Not a Mean Girl!

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 

1 Peter 2:1

Friends,

Mean girls are all around us. In fact, if I'm honest, I used to be one (and sometimes, still am one!) But God calls us to be better than that. He calls us to stop getting mired down in jealousy and anger and gossip and hypocrisy and comparing, and instead rise up and act in a way that draws others to Him. To shine His Light. We can't do this in our own strength, but only in His. So let's make an intentional effort every morning to be God's Light in this hurting world. Pray that He will work through us, even in spite of us, each day. We may not be able to fix the world, but we can impact where we live. We can be the kind girls. And that's pretty cool!

Now for page details, Sweet n Sassy Stamps released the Girl Power printables which I have fallen in love with! I loved the look of seeing the Scripture through the printables, but as a personal choice, I don't like to cover Scripture where I can't read it. So, I copied the Bible page I wanted to journal onto white card stock. I then placed the girls on top of the copy and cut around them to make a tip-in. I matched the words on the copy up with the words on the Bible page and used washi tape to adhere the tip in to the page. I got the look I wanted, but can fold the tip-in down so that I can still read the Scripture! Win-win!

I used the following Sweet n Sassy Stamps sets: Girl Power Printables, Skinny Minnie Alpha, Mini Grunge Type Alpha, and Whimsy Bouquet.

Have fun being the kind girl! Andrea

His Grace is sufficient.... and ALL that we need!

Hello everyone! I am so excited to share this page with you today! When I started it I really had no clue where I was going with it, but it's crazy what this page has turned into for me. A good friend of mine has been going through a particularly difficult season in her life and it's had it's ups and downs. She has handled everything so well, but recently has really struggled with the topic of grace! She felt like she wasn't giving herself enough grace and maybe others as well.

So one day I sat down to do something journaling and came across my "Choose Faith" stamp set and the word Grace jumped out at me. So I choose to journal one of my recent favorite bible verses.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. —2 Corinthians 12:9

So how awesome is that?! I mean just think about it! God basically told the apostle Paul,  I am the grace. All the grace you will ever need! So often we exhaust ourselves and try to fix everything on our own. Sometimes it's not until we have reached the end of our rope and we're weak and exhausted, that we seek His help, and His grace. 

The craziest thing about this page is I did all the flowers and the text and I thought it was finished. I thought yep I am loving it, this page is perfect, I'm done! Well, the very next day, I went to a women's conference with a couple friends titled "I am God's Masterpiece" and Nicole Unice was the speaker. And guys..... she talked sooooo much about grace. Like, smack you in the face, you can't possibly miss the points she made! And there was a particular phrase she said that jumped out at me. Nicole said, "Grace is the key to Courage". And I thought, ok God... I got it... my page isn't done yet. When I came home I immediately went upstairs to my craft room and made a sparkly gold key to attach to my page!

Honestly, I have struggled a little bit about what to write to go along with this page because after leaving that conference I felt like I had so much information to share I was a little overwhelmed about where exactly to start. While at the conference I also picked up one of Nicole's new books titled "Brave Enough", which is where she pulled a lot of her material for the conference. So I wanted to share a few excerpts from her book that really spoke to me on the topic of grace, since she can word it so much better than I can, lets me honest! 😄

"Acknowledging that we need grace is admitting that we have weaknesses that we can't fix. It's admitting that there are broken parts in us that are beyond our repair."

"Brave-enough women acknowledge that they've tried to fix themselves and yet that hasn't led to the change they seek. They understand that they need something outside of themselves to tell them who they really are, to actually set them free...... Grace was the key, and grace still is the key."

"God draws us to our failures and then seems to serve the ball into our court, giving us the opportunity to get brave enough to change. And sometimes when all we feel is broken, small, and powerless, God arrives right on time with the strength we need to believe in his powerful love and kindness. Sometimes we need courage to accept grace."

Ok... last quote.. promise 😉

"The difference between people who live free and those who just survive is their understanding of their daily need for God's grace."      - excerpts from "Brave Enough" by Nicole Unice

God said "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." That moment when we feel so overwhelmed and hopeless is the moment you are ready to hear God say, I'm all the grace you need! We need to stop being so hard on ourselves. Trying to be perfect, or trying to create the perfect picture of what we think our life should be. We can't do it all on our own. And it's ok that we aren't perfect! God didn't create us to be perfect or without flaws. His power is made perfect, and complete in our weaknesses!

I used 3 difference stamp sets to complete this page and I have linked them below.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, and I really hope it has touched your heart and helped remind you that His power is made perfect in our weaknesses. We just have to remember to rest in Him!

xoxo,

Stephanie Gammon

  

Whimsy Bouquet

Choose Faith

Mini Grunge Type Alpha