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 

Praise God in His Starry Sanctuary!

Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens. 

Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.

 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Psalm 150: 1-2, 6 

How can we not praise the Lord?  All of creation testifies to the greatness of our God.  Psalm 19:1 and Psalm 66:4 verify this declaration...

   

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name. Selah 

A current and popular song by Hillsong, So Will I, certainly inspires the praises of many.  I love the lyrics from the song that speak the the grandeur of creation as it declares by its nature the praise of God. 

If the stars were made to worship so will I
If the mountains bow in reverence so will I
If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I
For if everything exists to lift You high so will I 

So Will I, Hillsong United 

When I created the printable, Starry Sanctuary, it was with all these inspirations in mind.  There have been so many times in my life, I find my most meaningful worship time with God at night.  I speak to that in the devotion contained in the printable.  There is something about a starry night, the sanctuary God provides with His night sky, that elicits my praises.  Looking at the stars absolutely shows the power and majesty of God.  I think about all God has done in my life...and I'm immensely grateful for all of it.  And I praise Him for it.  But I would praise Him anyway...because of who He is.  

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Design Details:  

This may be one of my favorite printables so far.  I love the colors and the theme of it all.  It was a worship experience in putting it together and thinking of ways to depict praising God day and night.

 

I used cut outs from the printable for all the images.  But these would be amazing on clear sticker paper too.   The background is just an easy acrylic scraping, with a few black splatters for texture.   

Don't forget that the printable bundles at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps include digital images as well, making our printable unique and so versatile. 

God's Voice

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes deer give birth and strips the forest bare, and in His temple all cry, "Glory!" The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as King forever. May the Lord give strength to His people! May the Lord bless His people with peace! Psalm 29:1-11 (emphasis mine)

Dear Friends,

As I write, Hurricane Michael is pummeling the southeast coast. I'm praying for all those affected.

Psalm 29 is a poetic hymn about a storm, and how God is present in the storm. Storms can be scary and destructive. But God is there in the middle of storms to sustain and help us. The world was created just by Him speaking it into existence. There is such power in His voice. And, of course, one of Jesus' names is the Word of God. Jesus IS the Word of God. This psalm begins with a call to praise. It then describes God's power over nature and people. It ends with a prayer of strength and peace to be given to His people. I think this psalm is beautiful. And God's power just resonates throughout it. He is more powerful than any storm. And He will work His purpose through any storm's destruction. We live in a fallen world. But our God is supreme; and He is good.

For the page, I used a new Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps set called Thrill of Hope. This set was just perfect to make a landscape that represents the trees, water and deer spoken of in the psalm. I also used three alpha sets: Shake It Off Caps, Shake It Off Lowercase, and Bitty Minnie Alpha. The background and images were done with distress inks. You can get these inks on the SNSS website as well as the sponge daubers I used to apply the background ink! I used a white pen to detail the letters.

May you experience God's strength and peace, my friends. Andrea

Bring a Gift of Laughter

When you think of birthdays, what comes to mind? Do you have a favorite memory from childhood? Did you have special parties with lots of friends, or celebrate with family?

Growing up, because my dad was in the Air Force, we were often away from family when birthdays rolled around. But, that didn’t mean we were without birthday fun!

Momma always baked a cake...either a carrot cake or our family favorite, a Sam Houston cake. Daddy would grill burgers and hot dogs for us. We had an old fold up metal table that was about 6 foot long. It was blue in case you were wondering.

In the middle of the living room was that long table filed to the brim with all the fixings and surrounding the table would be neighborhood friends and my family. I can still hear the giggles, smell the food, and taste that cake!

What a precious gift my parents would give me...they were creating memories for me. Nearly 50 years later, I still remember this one particular party. I couldn’t tell you what any of the gifts were, but I can sure recall the love that was in our home that day.

I used to always curl up next to Momma and Daddy and tell them how happy the day made me. Even then, I was a people person and got my batteries charged by being with everyone. I’m sure that my parents hearts were full hearing that my heart was full. 

In Psalm 100, we are told “On your feet now—applaud GOD! Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭100:1-2‬ ‭MSG‬

Imagine with me how full God’s heart must be when we stand on our feet, throw up our praise hands, and with laughter shout out to Him “wow, God...you are so good!” 

Praising God with laughter and joy is the gift He deserves! Not because He has done a thing for us...but just because He is God. And He is good. And love. And just. And merciful. And and and. He is God and He is worthy of all our praise!

As I reflect on this birthday that has just passed, my heart is so full. God truly blessed me as many of you loved on me with your sweet words, thoughtful prayers, and love over a meal. I want to praise God for loving me in this way.

But mostly, I want to lift up my praise hands, with laughter in my heart, just because He is God!!

Art behind the story:

The Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps new October All Wrapped Up set was perfect for me for this month!! I loved using it to stamp all the birthday presents. It’ll be great for Christmas...and for year round. I stamped several presents, used the stamp of the month Texture Tiles 4 for “coloring” the presents, and then fussy cut and paper pieced them. The words from the Women of Praise set were perfect for this passage. The background was done with a watercolor wash and then the “confetti” paint drops were splattered on top.

Have fun creating!

Gayle
Patio Ponderings

Behold The Lamb

Look to Him. Look at the Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God. Read more here...

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

‭‭John‬ ‭1:29‬ ‭NIV‬

The thing about Christianity is I become less obsessed with me. Or I should. I don’t have to be anybody or impress anyone. I don’t have to measure up... because I know I’ll fail. I don’t have to explain or justify myself. I just have to confess it and be honest about who I am. And believe in who Jesus is and what happened in and by His life. It’s not about me feeling better or being better. It’s learning about who God is. Why He created us. Why He wants a relationship with us? How do we have a relationship with Him.  Is it important? Does it matter who we think Jesus is?  In that passage John is saying STOP. Stop everything. The Lamb of God is standing before you. The ONE who takes away the sins of this world. The ONE who will die on the cross for me. For my own failures. For my selfishness. For everything I’ve done and not done. For not living to bring Him glory. Stop and soak that in. We’ve heard it a thousand times. But He’s there in front of us. The Lamb who was and is slain. 

How do we miss Him? Or reject Him? Or ignore Him? He came so we could see Him. So we could see weakness as strength. To see humility and selflessness. To see honor and love. To see wisdom and guidance. Everything He did was perfect. Everything He was doing was bringing glory and honor to God. He lived and set an example. He died in love to set us free. He rose from the grave to give us life everlasting. He did it all for us to see. To believe. To live. 

BEHOLD THE LAMB. Look at Him. Look to Him. Let’s those words flow through you and change you. 

Art Talk
I used Distress Oxides for the background. Stamp sets used were Thrill of Hope, Worthy King, chunky Alpha. Rebecca Script.

Blessings,
Colleen

The First Noel

HELLO FRIENDS!

As I steep in the warm feelings of Fall, I become very excited about what is to come.  

Snow.  

Cold.  

Christmas…

It's a blessed thing to remind ourselves - even as we baste in Fall flavoring - that something incredible happened on a cold, miserable night a very, very long time ago. 

It's a wonderful story: young couple seeks shelter in busyness and mayhem of a city fraught with the oblivious and unknowing.  Said young couple is resigned to a "suite" weighted down in the stenches of old animal feed, animal dung and dust. 

Holding on by sheer will power, as the pain grows and persists, Mary breathes the dusty air and exhales hope made possible by the Spirit that fills her.  She is cold.  She is scared.  She is brave.  She is strong.  She bears down, and within moments becomes the mother of the Light of the world. 

This Light interrupts the darkness of the stable.  This Baby replaces thoughts of fear with His first human cry, loud and strong.  His presence ushers in an unfamiliar but welcomed peace, while His tiny body is swaddled for protection.

There was no night like this.  No night like this Noel.

Nuvo drops helped me get a more 3-dimensional affect
for the stars in the sky.

Colors used are shown above.

When we read the account of Jesus' birth,  we forget that He entered humanity and lived humanity.  He did this to present humanity fully before God as His first love and vow.  This birth was beyond anything Mary or Joseph would experience.  It was far more spectacular than anything the Shepherds had witnessed as lowly and forgotten as they may have been.  It was far more anticipated than the Magi ever knew as they traveled long, hard hours to behold a prophesied King.  This Noel was Jesus' Noel.  His timely birth became the catalyst through which God would Redeem His people.  The Messiah had come, and the world could not comprehend.

We're not given to gratitude, but I think even the most grateful of people could not quite come close to the thankfulness due to the Lord for His act of loving-kindness.  Jesus is His tender mercy to us; our one and only Hope for eternity with the Father.  In His birth, Jesus fulfills God's promise of a coming Savior.  By his Life, Jesus demonstrates His grace, mercy and compassion for the world.  By His death, Jesus satisfies the wrath of God making it possible for this crumby, undeserving world to know and receive Him.  Oh, that First Noel!

That First Noel - Jesus' transition from glory to lowly - is remarkable, beautiful and definitely worthy of song!

Embossing powder aided my attempt to make the snowflakes and deer
stand out above the darker areas.

God bless, and much love,

Deeds

Be Still

Hello friends, it is so great to be back here sharing my Bible with you all. Today my baby is seven weeks old...how is that possible?! I have been slowly finding time between the marathon nursing sessions and cuddles to journal and dig back into the word. Over these last few weeks the words "be still" have been resonating in my heart. God has been reminding me it's ok to just rest in His presence, and allow Him to fill my tired, weary heart. what better way to illustrate this then with the latest stamp set coffee and Jesus.

I used the sunshine girl alpha, some tiny alpha stickers and hand lettering to create the title for the page. The fun coffee rings and splatters were created using a brown watercolor paint. I painted the bottom edge of the cup and stamped it, so it encircled the verse. The rest of the page I simply stamped a few of the coffee images in brown or black ink and colored then in with watercolors.

The message translation often has a new fresh perspective I enjoy reading. Psalm 46:10 says "take a long, loving look at me, your high God." I so needed to hear this, maybe you need these words this week too! It's ok to slow down and rest in the grace and goodness of God. I find it so easy to get caught up in the busy work of being momma that I forget to take time for the relationship that really matters...my heavenly Father. I invite you to sit down, put on the praise music, open your Bible, pour a giant mug of coffee or tea and let the grace of God fall fresh on you and revive your heart.

Father, help me stop and meditate on your goodness. let my focus rest on your insurmountable greatness, grace and love. Amen!!

Hugs and prayers, Jenn @creativegurl85