A Friend Loves ALL the Time

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

Proverbs 17:17

Friends are important, and a true friend is a gift from God. I'm so thankful for the friendships God has blessed me with - both new and old. They're the ones who stick with me through the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. A true friend loves all the time, no matter what. 💙

This page was not at all what I had in mind when I started, but it turned out so cute when it all came together! I first gessoed my page because I didn't want the distress oxides to bleed through and I wanted them to move around a bit on the page (see Colleen's video on gesso vs. non-gesso pages - it's a huge help!!). I splattered with water and dried the page, then stamped my phrase "a friend loves all the time" using the School Days and Bitty Minnie Alpha Stamp sets. On separate watercolor paper, I stamped, watercolored, and fussy cut the ephemera from the Winter Hugs stamp set and then taped to my page. I finished up with some embossed snowflakes and it was done! 😊

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps is having a HUGE Cyber Monday sale today only! Hop on over to their Facebook page to check out the Bundle Blitz and get FREE shipping on your order! 🙌

  

Have a blessed week!

Janelle

@journalingjoy

Refresh

When’s the last time you needed refreshing? Last year? Last month? Yesterday? If you’re like most people, it was perhaps even today.

We are such a go go go society, that we are often just worn out and exhausted, running on empty most of the time. We don’t know how to say the word “no”, or at the very least know how to pace ourselves.

Last week I had the sweet privilege of hosting a friend from out of town for a few days. We also had a couple of my local girlfriends join us for much of the week. We even face timed for a couple hours with another out of town friend.

My goal was to spend time with them, craft together, learn from each other, fellowship around the Word, talk about the Lord, and just overall encourage them.

We had the best time. We made #allthethings. We taught one another how to create felt flowers, work with watercolors, put napkins in our Bibles, make lots of clips and much more. We shared Bible verses. We prayed together. We poured our hearts out to one another. We did lots of listening...lots of talking...lots of giggling.

The end result? We all agreed we need another Patio Ponderings retreat soon! Time...quality time...with girlfriends is contagious. And filling. And rewarding.

Most of all, it’s refreshing. My cup is overflowing and my heart is full. My hope was to encourage and refresh my friends, instead, I was the one reaping all the benefits. Thank you, Lord!!

Take time out from the busyness of life and invest some quality time in others. You will certainly be glad you did.

“The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.”
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭11:25 ‭NLT‬‬




Art behind the story:

One of our projects last week was to start our own boxes of repurposed rolodex cards. They are a quick way to be creative, use up bits of paper pieces, and fun to make as gifts for happy mail.  Look up the hashtags #rolodexbiblecards, #memorydex, and #rolodexart on Instagram to see some great ideas.  

The Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps set Fill Me Up was a popular set last week among all my coffee drinking girlfriends! I stamped the large cup several times onto patterned journaling cards, fussy cut all the pieces apart, and paper pieced them all back together to get the various patterns. I stamped the words on the bottom right directly on to the card. This card was cut the normal rolodex size of 4” x 2.5”. On the back, I wrote the Proverbs 11:25 verse, a little note to each friend, and then signed and dated it. These cards will be sweet to remember our time together. 

Until next time,

Gayle
Patio Ponderings