Praise Him! And we have Cards by Traci~

Hi Friends~

Happy Monday!  Isn't it possible for every day to be joyful when you are a Child of God?  Of course it is!  Our circumstances may not be...but our attitudes can be! As you may remember, I have had a difficult time getting the photos out of our camera for over a week!  Well, I asked my husband to help me out this time.  First, they wouldn't come out of the camera at all. He fixed that!  Then they wouldn't save to my computer!  After he fixed that...it would not save any changes made while editing the photos!  By then, we were both ready to call it a day for getting these cards posted!  Finally, he had all of that fixed and...I didn't realize that when I edited something and saved it to the computer...it would lose any changes when it would be put on the blog! So, back to the drawing board we went...and, with every minute down went my attitude. 

Finally, I turned up the volume which I had snapped off angrily a couple of hours earlier.  I was looking for Scripture to share today...and before you knew it, I was singing along to the worship and praise style music--offering Praise to our Lord, turning my anger into thanks for allowing me to even be a part of this blog, my DREAM!  Thanking Him for letting me serve Him in this way with such wonderful people like Wendy, Michele and Joan and each of you! I put the actual blog away for a while and just kept praising Him for the people that He has put in my life, and my love for His Word! When I came up from sitting on the floor...the computer worked just fine.  Praise God!  It doesn't really matter why it wasn't working.  And, the cards weren't even important! I needed that time...that 1 on 1 time with Him. I needed to focus on Him and nothing else. Aren't you glad to have a Lord that you can go to ANYTIME? It doesn't matter if you are wearing a T-shirt and shorts, sitting on the floor of your art room! Aren't you grateful that we can tell Him ANYTHING and He will love us just as much, and still forgive us? Aren't you SO grateful to be Saved?  To KNOW-without a doubt that we will spend eternity with Him forever...no sadness, no pain, no sorrow?!!  I am pretty excited about all of this!   How about telling Him just how wonderful He is?  Spend some time offering Praise to the Lord!  How about listing one thing in the comment section that you praise Him for?  There are no right or wrong answers!

And, if you do not know Jesus the way I described Him, email me, TraciStarkweather@gmail.com and I will contact you and we can pray together...and ask Jesus to be the Lord of your heart, and ask Him to forgive any sins you may have committed, and He will!  We can thank Him for dying on the cross and paying the sacrifice for us...for all of us!  We can talk about any questions you may have first.  After we pray, I will ask if you have a Bible, and if not, I will work to get a Bible to you.  It would be a blessing to stand with you in this way.  Your life will never be the same.  When Jesus opens your eyes all the way...everything gets brighter! He becomes bigger! Hope becomes a possibility!  Anything is possible!

"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."  Hebrews 13:15

  

OK--so let me show you some of these cards. First let me remind you that I seldom put sentiments on cards, unless I know exactly what or who it is for.  I made these to use for different occasions, so as they come up...I will add the correct sentiment.  That way they can go from a thank you card, to a sympathy card, to a birthday card...all from one card!   I made about 6 of these. These first cards were made with an African Violet stamp that belongs to my Mom.  My Grandmother used to have so many of these plants....and my Mom had even more...One of my Sisters grows them... I guess they would be the "Family Flower" if there was such a thing. They remind me of my Grandmother.  I miss her very much.  I will be thinking of her at next week's American Cancer Society's 24 hour Re-Lay for Life Fundraiser!

 The background paper is from Crafter's Companion and it is FABULOUS!  If you haven't tried their shimmery paper you are missing out!  It is a nice heavy weight, too.  I used Paper Wishes glimmer flower paper from a while ago.  I didn't realize how much I loved it until I took it out of the pack!  It was hidden in my un-used "stash" of paper.  There are all different flowers included in the pack. I used my oval Spellbinder's and I actually made it correctly and had the machine emboss it!  But is it supposed to leave marks on your clear "plates?"  I am seriously curious.  I painted some with Twinkling H20's-Sweet Alfalfa color and the others with some incredibly shimmery Ivory Creative Inspirations Paint.  I love this paint.  It goes on so smoothly!  I used a combination of copics, Stampin Up!, and Marvy Markers to color the images in.  And, I used Sakura Metallic Gelly Roll Pens to add some sparkle to the flowers. 

"Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful." Psalm 147:1

This card changed so many times, it doesn't look at all like it started to look like!  Except that it has a flower on it!  lol  Not just any flower stamp, but one of my top 5 favorite flower stamps (that I own).  This is my MJM Tiger Lily stamp.  And, at first it was colored with pastel colored pencils.  And, it was going to sit nice and quietly on a celery green card.  Well, that just didn't match my mood!  This card was then re-colored with my deeper and brighter water color pencils, and SU! Markers!  The little butterfly is L-I-T-T-L-E...probably about 3/4"!  She has tiny orange Stickle dots on her wings and body.  The SU! "Yolk" (hated that name) paper is the background for the card, and the blue paper is really white...but painted with GORGEOUS Tanzanite Creative Inspirations Paint!  I don't know if you are supposed to paint in circles or rows or what, I would love to find out...but this dried so quickly, and evenly.  I love it...and it shimmers a mile away!  Well, I didn't actually go a mile away and check...but you know what I mean!  The Sentiment is a Stamping Up! Stamp from 1997.  I don't know the name of it...but it is bordered by Hampton Arts Blue Glitter Glue.  This Sentiment reminds me of Jesus.  More people come to love Him and ask Him to be their Savior...the more often we tell people or give them cards sharing the love of Jesus!  Amen?  Amen!

By the way, if you won a Card of the Week last week please make sure you have emailed me your mailing address by this Tuesday 8pm...or you will sadly forfeit your card.  The Winners I am referring to are:  Vikki Jo, Wanda Cullen, Michelle, Nikki, and Little Birdie Blessings-Abby.  I know some of you have already sent your address.  Thanks so much. 

There is another "Card of the Week Give-Away" for anyone who leaves a comment or prayer request or answer to our ongoing CONTEST in the comment section before Tuesday 8pm.  If you are randomly chosen...you will be announced here on Wednesday morning! And, you will win a fantastic card, envelope and postage.  This is for people living in the continental US.  If you live elsewhere...still enter.  If you win...I will let you know what is in the plans!

We do have a CONTEST with prizes going on right now!  We need your help naming our Team here at the He IS Able blog.  Please check the side bar for details! 

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night."  Psalm 92:1-2

This is a very different card for me to have made!  I was attempting to do something I have not really tried to do before.  It makes me giggle to look at it, now.  I tried to make a distressed...unusual card.  I got the unusual part right! lol  It just didn't come together as I thought it would.  Hey, if I can laugh at myself...then you can laugh, too.  (At this part!)  I like the pieces separately.  I should have known from the start I was off on the wrong foot.  I found this great piece of partially distressed (looking) paper...it was faded in spots.  Well, I wanted to use my little distress tool...it looks like a bottle cap opener in a way...it's round.  Anyway, I couldn't get it to pull the paper, so I grabbed my Tim Holtz Distressing Ink called Vintage photo and went around the edges.  Then I went to my shape box.  (It is a large boot box where I keep envelopes with papers cut into different shapes...circles, crosses, rectangles, scalloped circles, etc...  I am also adding different envelopes with different styles of embossed paper in them...Swiss Dots, Birds on a Vine, Houndstooth.)  This way I can just grab what I want when I need it, instead of getting the machine, choosing the paper, and making room on my work table to use it...etc... It works very well.  Anyway, I liked the idea of putting the lily inside a ring.  I chose a more red-orange piece than the orange lily and liked it.  Hurray!  I liked it! (At least that part of it.)  Well, I looked for ribbon to put from the ring...I looked at chip board, flowers, buttons...you name it.  I decided to use ric-rac.  I have never used it to my knowledge, and I shouldn't have used it here as an after thought.  It was wayyyy to small for this large section.  I was trying to follow the style of one of my dear friends.  I am sorry  if this is an insult...the compliment is that I was attempting to follow your style of art.  Now, everyone stop worrying if I was trying to follow your style...and have a good laugh....it feels so good.  Laughing!  That's another thing we can thank Him for!

Next week, I am going to  try to bring this card to the style that I was aiming for.  And, I hope that we will be mailing our a bunch of Cards sharing about His Word and Love.  And, I believe I may actually have a bit to share about wisdom, if you can believe that!  I hope you will stop by! 

He IS Able,

Traci S.

p.s. Please remember to put at least one reason you can Praise Him in the comment section...along with a CONTEST entry naming the Team of People that put love and effort into this blog. Ask your teens, too! The prize is good for their age, too. You will like it also!