Note Cards to Share

I created a sweet little set of scripture cards for Visual Faith Ministry. You can download my set (and look for the other lovely sets as well!) free to print at home. The set is available in both black and white as well as full color.

I colored my set with colored pencils.

Print them out onto cardstock and write an encouraging message on the back. Or mount them on colored paper and create a folding card. Whatever you do, I hope they encourage both you and the recipient with the truth of God's Word!

Get your cards here at Visual Faith Ministry.

Sermon Notes - Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled

Our Pastor’s recent sermon (you can listen here: https://www.oursavior-lcms.org/recorded-sermons) focused on John 14, particularly verse 27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” The Greek verb “tarasso” is the word for troubled here and its definition is “to cause inward commotion and distress; to take away calmness of mind.” We all experience troubled hearts now and then, and Jesus knows this. He himself experienced a troubled heart in the garden (Matthew 26:37 says that Jesus was “sorrowful and troubled”) before His arrest and ultimately His suffering and death. The verb used here is slightly different and infers a very heavy burden of distress that Jesus was experiencing as He began to take on the sins of the world.  But even so, Jesus knows and can empathize with our troubled hearts. When Jesus tells His disciples (and us) to let not your hearts be troubled (see also John 14:1, Mark 6:50, Luke 24:38), He simply reminds us to focus on Him, not our troubles. He reminds us that He is our peace. “Believe in God, Believe also in Me,” He says in John 14:1. “Take heart, it is I,” He tells the disciples in Mark 6:30. In yesterday’s sermon Pastor said, “The remedy for our troubled hearts and anxiety is Jesus Himself.” Sometimes, the answer is simple, but it’s not always easy to implement the cure. We need to be deliberate about it. We need to be disciplined about it. We need to work with the Holy Spirit and ask for the Spirit’s power to focus our eyes and our hearts on Jesus Himself. In Him we find true peace, rest, and joy for living.

When your heart is troubled, what’s your go-to scripture or spiritual discipline that helps re-focus you?

Faith Planner

Do you keep a planner? I do, but it's not for keeping dates and appointments.

I'm talking about how I use my planner to journal scripture lessons, reflections, and prayers over at The Holy Mess blog.

Come join me!

Using A Bible Journaling Page as a Card

Part of the process for me as I Bible journal is prayer. Oftentimes I have specific people in mind as I reflect on scripture and use the Word I am reflecting on as part of my prayers. That was true as I reflected on Psalm 18 and prayed for a friend who was battling cancer. After my prayer and Bible journaling time, I wanted to send a note to my friend to encourage her and let her know I was praying for her. I decided to use my Bible journaling page to create a card.

For my page, I used the spear-like arrow stamp on the Walk By Faith stamp set. I think it's the perfect visual for verse 39 "For you equipped me with strength for the battle." I colored in my sketch with ColorIn Watercolor Twists.

The process is very simple. I scanned my page (you could also take a photo) and imported the file into a word processing document so that I could resize it and print it on my color printer. After that, it was simply layering cardstock on top of a 5x7 card base.

Watch this quick video to see it all come together.

Reverse Canvas With Vinyl

This was such a fun project to create!

The bright colors of vinyl really make it stand out against the rustic frame.
When applying vinyl to canvas, the key is to prep your canvas - either with a layer of paint or spray it with a sealer before attempting to apply your vinyl. For my project, I sprayed the canvas with a spray adhesive after removing it from the frame and before cutting my vinyl.
I used my Cricut to cut the words/letters and cupcake (3 gorgeous colors of Oracal 651). Once I finished cutting and weeding, my canvas was ready. The vinyl easily adhered to the surface. I sprayed it again with the sealer and let it sit while I stained the frame. Once the frame was dried and ready, the last step was re-attaching the canvas to the back of the frame.

For this project I used:

Oracal 651 vinyl from SRM

Textile Foil on Wood Project

It's so fun when I get my box of goodies from SRM Stamps. Recently, as part of the Design Team, I was sent some textile foil. I'm new to textile foil, but was excited to discover different ways to add some shimmer and shine to my projects.

Today I'm sharing this wood plaque project using textile foil and EasyWeed Adhesive.

Watch this video to see how I created this project and what I did when it didn't turn out quite as expected. 

I love how this project turned out and I learned a lot in the process. I also love that I was able to use this wood plaque that has been sitting for quite some time, just waiting for sparkly inspiration.

For this project, I used:

EasyWeed Adhesive | Cinnamon Textile Foil

Foil Cards

I've been having a great time discovering different ways to use the new textile foils from SRM.
Today I'm sharing one of my favorites.

To make these cards, I found free online images and resized them and made sure they would print out dark and black. I printed each image onto card stock using a laser (toner) printer. It is key that the image prints with toner ink (not an inkjet printer).  I then ran my image with foil layed on type through a laminator. The heating of the laminator adhered the foil only to the printed image. 

I'll walk you through it in this process video. But I have to warn you, you may become addicted to this easy and quick foil application technique!

Thanks for watching - I hope you are inspired to using textile foil in your projects!

I used:
Textile Foil | Sticker Stitches | Stickers by the Dozen Birthday | We've Got your Sticker Birthday