Grateful Heart Journaling Cards

Fall is in full swing here in the middle of the Mitten (aka Michigan 😉). The mornings are crisp and cool, and the leaves are turning all sorts of beautiful colors. Fall is my favorite season - I love the beautiful colors, the pumpkins, the apple cider, and especially the caramel apples. Yum!! 

The changing seasons reminds me of life's ever-changing seasons. Life never stays the same, it's always changing. But you know what never changes? God's love for YOU. He has said He will never leave you nor forsake you, and He is a God who keeps His promises. Fall is the perfect time to reflect on God's love for you with an open and grateful heart. 

If you've spent any amount of time on the Creative Worship blog or Facebook group, you've seen the wonderful journaling cards made by our very own Deirdre (@merciesjournaled). (You should totally check out her YouTube channel!) After returning from our CW Retreat this past week, I decided to make some journaling cards with the new Grateful Heart stamp set. I'm so thankful for all God has done and continues to do in my life, and I'm especially thankful for the new friendships I've gained because of this Bible Journaling Community. ♡

These cards are so fun and easy to make! I started with a blank piece of 9"x12" watercolor paper (simple cardstock works well too). I then splashed a couple different "autumn-ish" colored watercolors all over the page. There is no rhyme or reason to this madness, it really is just dabbing watercolor randomly all over the page. You can let dry, then do another layer of random color. I then splattered the page with some more autumnal colors. Once you have a good base color pattern, it's time to cut your journaling cards. I cut the sheet longways down the middle so I had two 4.5" sides. I then cut them into 3" cards. A 9"x12" sheet will give you eight 4.5"x3" cards. The perfect size!

I then stamped my images with my handy new MISTI Stamping Tool. This tool stamps images so quickly and cleanly, it only took me a couple minutes to stamp my cards. I just LOVE it!! 😍

These little cards are perfect to stick in your kiddo's lunchbox, give to a teacher to brighten her day, stick in an envelope with a card, or tape in your Bible as a little reminder for you. The possibilities are endless! Here is an example of a journaling card in my Bible. I wrote a short prayer on the back of this card, then paperclipped in my Bible. 💕 

I encourage you to take 20 minutes and create your own set of journaling cards, then hand them out to people who cross your path this week. Share a little bit of God's light and be a blessing to someone this week. 😉

Lots of love, 
Janelle
@journalingjoy

I used the Grateful Heart and Fall in Love with Jesus stamp sets in creating my journaling cards. The Grateful Heart stamp set is the Stamp of the Month from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and is FREE with a $75 order. 😍

 

Grateful Heart, Happy Heart

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. 

1 Chronicles 16:34

Hi Friends!

My heart is full. A week ago, I had just returned from the Creative Worship retreat in Georgia. I actually journaled this page at the retreat. It was such a sweet time worshiping Jesus and meeting, visiting with, and learning from ladies that I had before now only known through social media. I am so thankful God gave me the opportunity to attend the retreat. To be honest, even in my excitement to go, I was a little apprehensive. But, as our verse says, God is good. He knows what we need. And He grows us in our discomfort. Thanks You, Lord! And being thankful can help us with anxiety. By remembering what God has already done in our lives, it can help us be less anxious.

The Bible tells us over and over to be thankful. When we are thankful, it also helps us to be more content and at peace. A grateful heart truly does make a happy heart because when we are focusing on what we are thankful for, we don't have time to think about what we don't have. In the abundance that is the United States of America, it can be easy to take things for granted. But, we need to be thankful for the small as well as the large. I did a Bible study once that focused on thankfulness and one of the things we did was to write down at least 3 things each day we were thankful for. It opened my eyes to lots of things that I had been taking for granted... running water...grocery stores full of all types of food...the happy squeals of my children....my bookshelf that has numerous Bibles on it. So many things to be thankful for!

Giving thanks glorifies God. It is a form of worship. So, what do you have to be thankful for? Think about it, you probably have more to be grateful for than you realize. And then, thank Him, and thank Him again!

 Page Details: I used the October Stamp of the Month from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. It's called Grateful Heart. And, it's free with a $75 purchase in October! See the website for details. I started by using watercolor crayons for the background. Then I used a stencil and acrylic paint to do the dots. Stencils are a great option to add accents to pages!

Wishing you a week full of thankfulness! Andrea

Do not grow weary...

Hi friends,

Do you ever feel so overwhelmed by the size of a problem that you feel paralysed and useless? Do you freeze and wonder if it's worth doing anything because you can't see it making a difference?

I know I do! Whether it's poverty, climate change, division in the church or even trying to overcome personal weaknesses and sin, it can feel overwhelming and we can be tempted to quit. This feeling is not a new one for Christians, as we can see in Scripture. In 2 Thessalonians 3:13 Paul writes to the church exhorting them not to grow weary as they were doing good (he also writes the same encouragement to the Galatians).

It might not look like we're making much of a difference, but even our small acts of doing good - whether giving to the poor, making ethical shopping choices, choosing to listen with generosity rather than react with opinion, or saying 'no' to something we are tempted to say 'yes' to - all of these small acts of obedience make a difference to someone and they please our Heavenly Father.

I used the lovely new Stamp of the Month, Grateful Heart, on this page, stamping the images on watercolour card then watercolouring and cutting them out. The verse was stamped with a combination of alpha sets: Outline Alpha and School Days Alpha. I had already done some written journaling on this page back when I was using this Bible as a devotional reading Bible, so I decided to stamp around this so it is still visible. Here are the sets I used:

 

Let's not grow weary in doing the good that God has called us to in our own unique situations and circumstances. It makes a difference to others and it blesses God.

Be blessed...

x Amy x

Share the Good News ♥

Hello Friends! As we prepare for Thanksgiving I wanted to share a page with you that I created from my sermon notes from this past weekend. Our passage was 1 Thessalonians 5:12-18

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

And our pastor asked us, are we living a life that we are identified as sharing our faith, sharing our joy, sharing our hope we have in Christ? That's what sets us apart from others, and God will send people your way specifically for the reason of you being able to share the good news with them. So friends what are we focused on today? Are we focused on the one negative thing that happened today, because the devil is trying to throw us off? Or are we rejoicing with thanksgiving in our hearts the hope we have in our Lord Jesus Christ?

For this page I journaled Psalm 96:1-4

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth!

 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

he is to be feared above all gods. 

I decided to keep this page super simple I used 3 colors of pigmented inks I had from past Illustrated faith kits. and I used coordinating Faber-Castell big brush pens to highlight the verses. I used the Choose Faith stamp set for the entire page. I stamped everything in black archival ink first. Then went back and stamped with colored ink to fill in "Faith" "Hope" and "Joy" 

I then added some Illustrated Faith Washi with some cute little acorns on it, wordfetti, and a super cute page marker and I was done! My goal has been lately to keep my pages under 30 minutes, which sometimes can be a huge challenge to me, but this was proof that you can throw a simple page together in under 30 minutes! 

Hope y'all enjoyed my page and have an amazing holiday! Let us remember as we go out this season to live with Thanksgiving in our hearts!

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

Thankful Heart ♥

Hello Friends!  

It is officially the season of gratitude, So to keep on with the theme I wanted to document it in my hymnal. I took some step by step pictures, but pretty much this was done with the super easy card swiping paint technique!

I'm here sharing how I created this pretty page in my hymnal using the Sweet n Sassy "So Grateful" stamp set!

At the end I'll show the picture with all the paint and supplies I used. The first step was just swiping the paint. I statred with my darkest color orange, then used pink, gold and white. Since you put a really thin layer it dries pretty much before you even get to the next color. 

I then made some gold and white crosses using the paint card by just applying a little bit of paint at the end of the card and pressing to the page vertically, reapplying paint, then making the cross horizontally.

This gold color is gorgeous and I'll admit... I am a little bit obsessed currently!! LOL

I then placed my gold hearts, empherma I found from a craft store, and used my ranger archival ink to stamp "grateful heart" and "thankful heart".

I just love all the gold on this page! the pictures just do not do justice to the pretty shimmer!

I added a gold bow clip that I made and splattered a little bit of black paint, and I was finished!

Below is my finished page and all my supplies except for the black watercolor I used at the end to splatter. 

You can pick up the "So Grateful" stamp set here.

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