Faith Discovery Challenge #13 - {Fear Not}

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend! It was a long weekend for our family and we had such a great time together. I'm sure many of you were taking time to remember our troops and loved ones who served to protect our nation. It's amazing to know that we wouldn't be enjoying the freedom we have today if it weren't for all the lives that fought for our country. May God continue to bless America and those serving in the military!

For last week's Faith Discovery Challenge - {Little Things Do Matter}, I selected a layout created by one of our sweet faith sisters, Kristi D. aka krispysky. She did a great job with putting this page together and what I love most is her list of 'LITTLE' things that she chose to recognize as the big moments that she'd never want to take for granted. **Due to temporary technical difficulties in our gallery, I wasn't able to upload the image of her layout in this post. But you can go directly to her gallery here.

{Fear Not}

Fear. There are so many things that can cause fear to creep into our lives and rob us of our peace. We all can fall prey to the fear as we are surrounded by the many things in this world that can harm us or those we love. So many times I have been overcome with fear and I know when we fear, we lose hope, and eventually we lose faith and sight of God's plan and purposes for our lives. Fear can spiritually paralyze us from doing what God has called us to do and eventually can affect us mentally and physically if we don't have the courage or tools to overcome it. Fear is such a huge obstacle in our walk with God and no wonder God has commanded us in the Bible so many time to not fear. So how do we overcome these fears? By trusting in the Lord and believing in His promises. There are so many stories and messages in the Bible that speaks about fear but, one verse that I'd like to share in this case is in Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Also in 2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." If we know that His spirit is with us wherever we go, then we can be at peace that He is watching over us. There is nothing hidden from Him and He knows when we are afraid. But, we can come to our heavenly Father during times that we are filled with fear or anxiety and He will grant us peace so we can enjoy living a life free from fear.

Challenge #13 - This challenge is to create a LO about the thing(s) you fear most and your thoughts and prayers to the Lord to overcome this fear. If God has delivered you from certain fears, you could also create a page that will serve as a reminder of what God has done to set you free from them.

Faith Verses:

Psalm 27:1 - "The Lord is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?"

1 John 4:18 - "There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear..."

Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."


Because we our currently experiencing some temporary technical difficulties with our gallery, I couldn't post all of the CT layouts on here. Once the gallery is back up, I'll be sure to include the other layouts. In the meantime, you can check this gallery link to see the other layouts created for this challenge.

*Click on images for credits*

By Dahlia Co


By Tammy

Breathe...

Just checking in to say hello! I'm catching my breath and stopping to take a break from my busy life. I've been caught up with designing and preparing challenges for Faith Sisters that I finally made a point to take some time to just be creatively free... My creative juices are just overflowing that I created FOUR layouts (very unlikely of me) in one week and have two more that are close to finish. So, I thought I'd upload it and share it with you... It was really liberating to create a layout that I felt inspired to do by looking through random photos that I've been meaning to scrap so I can finally start collaborating some albums. I also saw how I've filled up my hard drive with so many digital candy that I've never even used and thought I really need to get my money's worth and use them. So, I'm challenging myself to scrap at least 2 layouts a week if I can manage to set time aside from school and my priorities at Faith Sisters and of course, with my family.

Anyways, one of my favorite places to shop and hang out is Little Dreamer Designs. I remembered when they first opened and immediately knew that I was going to love it there. I look forward to every Wednesday, when they have their $1 sales!! Most of all, I love their playful designs! Every time I start on a project or layout, the first place I look to in my collection is Little Dreamers. Here are some layouts that I created with them!

Build A Dream

Credits here.

Through It All

Credits here.

View of You

Credits here.

Another thing I'm also being drawn to is the 'minimalist' approach that I found very interesting and actually really cool. I met a sweet friend over at Scrapbook.com, Warrior Princess, and absolutely adore her work! The clean, modern, and simple design really bring the photo into perspective as the central focus of the layout. As a graphic design student, I've been taught that 'less is more' and I didn't really grasp that concept at first, but now I see it clearly as to why it makes such a huge difference. So, I took up the challenge to try it out!

Cherish The Moment

Credit here.

Today is Memorial Day and hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend! And may we continue to remember those who fought for our freedom and for the liberty of our country. May God bless you all!

Faith Discovery Challenge #12 - {Little Things Do Matter}

Hope everyone had a blessed Mother's Day last weekend! The last Faith Discovery Challenge - Woman of Virtue - was a chance to celebrate and honor those special women in your life, whether it was your mother, friend, daughter, or mentor. Also, some of you chose to create a layout about your own experiences or thoughts about the virtuous woman you'd like to become. Proverbs 31 not only had a strong influence upon my life as a woman of God, but as a true servant to my family which is why I chose to highlight that portion of biblical scripture.

And now for the Featured Layout...

By Debra

Journaling:

"It’s taken a long time to get to the point where I feel like I am at peace in my walk with God. In the past I’ve not been the virtuous woman and feel ashamed that I wasn’t. I have so many perfect role models, how could I not be that kind of woman that God wanted me to be. Hard lessons learned and mistakes made have only drawn me closer to Him and constant prayer will keep me here."

Debra is one of our newest members of our Digital CT and she not only did a great job with designing this layout but, I also admired her honesty and truth in her words... Something I definitely found to be true in my own walk with God and because we are all imperfect human beings, I agree that with constant prayer and following hard after Him, is what will help us to be that woman of virtue. Thank you Debra!! Please leave her some love and see more of her talented creations in her gallery!

{Little Things Do Matter}

This topic was something that God has been putting in my heart for a long time and many times I have gone back to this little saying "little things do matter", especially when I'm feeling so lost in my own world of wanting more than what I have or when I feel so insignificant at times that I'm not doing enough or if I'm simply worrying too much that I hardly recognize the importance of what really matters in life and what really matters to God. Do you ever find yourself asking the Lord, "Do you really care?" I know I have many times. There are times that I can't help, but feel desperate for God to answer a prayer or a need. Or there are moments when I'm so afraid of what my future might hold for me or my family. Other times I wonder, "Does God really understand or care about all the things that happen in my daily life?"--the bills, the leaky faucet, my achy back, my husband's commute to work, the little accidents my kids have when they play, etc.--which I've felt were things that God may be too busy to care about when there are so many other catastrophes and bigger problems to handle in this world. But, not true at all. There have been so many incidents that God would prove to me that even the smallest requests are heard like needing help with finding my lost keys or to find good parking at the mall or to be able to get a good grade on my final exam. Those are just a few of the many reasons why I can trust that even the LITTLE things that matter to me, matter to God. We are His precious children and He cares!!

The Bible also gives us some examples of how even the LITTLE things are used to do great things. For instance, when Jesus fed the five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two small fish (John 6) or when God instructed the widow and single mother to give her last piece of bread to the starving prophet which God then miraculously provided enough for her and her son throughout the famine (I Kings 17), are such powerful examples of how something LITTLE becomes more than enough through His power and grace. God is so awesome!

Another LITTLE thought on this topic is also being faithful in the LITTLE things even when it may seem unimportant or useless. Many times, we forget that if we want God to trust us with more of His blessings, it's important for Him to know that He can trust us with even the little blessings. If we can appreciate the little things, we also can appreciate the bigger things. The reasoning in this can be more understood in this example: You receive a two gifts, one is inexpensive and the other one is rare and priceless. Which one would you take more care of and keep safe? My answer would be the more expensive gift of course! However, God is wanting us to be faithful in being good stewards with every gift, whether big or small, that He so graciously gives us in order for God to trust us with more of His blessings... (Luke 19:13)


Challenge #12 - So this challenge is for you to create a LO that acknowledges the LITTLE things described in the article above. Whether it's about cherishing the LITTLE moments with our loved ones, praising the Lord for answering our prayers for the LITTLE matters of life, or for turning our LITTLE blessings into something big, I hope this challenge will help you grow to trust that our Lord cares about us in every LITTLE way and that every LITTLE thing we do or go through matters to Him.

Here are the layouts from me and the CT! Hope you enjoy this challenge and look forward to seeing your take on it in our gallery! For discussion about this week's challenge, please visit us in the forums, I'd love to chat with you and get to know you as well! Find us back here in 2 weeks to also see who gets selected as the Featured Layout...

* Click on images to see credits in their gallery*

By Dahlia Co

By Tammy

By Jackie Ann

By Terrie L.

By Rita S.

By Cheryl in FL

Out with the OLD and in with the NEW and a FREEBIE

Hello! May is here and it's officially spring in my neck of the woods! I'm trying to get myself in the habit of keeping my blog up to date and hopefully stick with it. So much goes on in my life that I rarely can keep track of it. But, with a little bit of discipline and motivation, I hope to make a point to blog at least once a week. I know there are bloggers who post something everyday and I must say, that is such a huge task for me to even accomplish. I've got two active toddlers which is enough to keep me super busy! Love every bit of it though! They are my life and without them, I wouldn't be doing what I love--cherishing and preserving MEMORIES!

I'm doing a little SPRING cleaning in my shop @ Faith Sisters. There are a lot of products that I'm currently working on and uploaded a few NEW things. I didn't have much to begin with since I was super busy with hosting challenges along with the usual stuff that goes on in my little world as a SAHM. But, it looks like I've finally managed to cut out some work and let my creativity flow. Anyways, in the process I've decided to put some of my older products on SALE in the CLEARANCE section with discounts running from 20% to 60% off! What a deal, huh? So, hurry and take advantage of the sale and grab these retiring products before they're gone! Here is a preview of a few of these goodies that you can grab here.

Gift of Love Kit

Reg. $4.00 / Sale $1.60


Gift of Faith Kit



Reg. $4.00 / Sale $1.60

WHAT'S NEW...

I've also taken some of my kits from our collaborations @ Faith Sisters to make them available to those who would like to purchase them separately and also ADDED more elements to it for your scrapping pleasure! The Kits is $3.50 and Paper Packs are $2.00. Grab them here.

Beautiful You Kit and Paper Pack







Unconditional Love Kit and Paper Pack







And here is my newest item - RENEWAL PAPER PACK. The full kit will soon follow so please check for updates!




Here is a FREEBIE sample for you!




Download here.

Have a wonderful day!! And don't forget to visit our site to find tons of creative inspiration from all of our faith sisters! The challenges are still going on every week for the Inspirational Faith and Scripture challenges and for a more in depth, out of the box, challenge - Faith Discovery challenges are posted here on my blog and at Faith Sisters every other Thursdays! Be creative and be blessed!

Faith Discovery Challenge - {Woman of Virtue} and a FREEBIE

Hello! Before I begin, I wanted to feature this beautiful LO posted for the previous Faith Discovery challenge -Stay Focused. This was created by another beautiful and extremely gifted CT member of Faith Sisters, Cheryl in FL a.k.a. gonewiththewind in the gallery.
She is such a beautiful person inside and out and it definitely shows through in all her creations.

Her journaling reads:

"The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say."

And this is what she says in regards to the quote:

"I am not sure where my path is going, but I must follow it with eager feet, knowing that God will place me where many other paths and errands meet. Although I often want all the answers and struggle, it is so refreshing to lean on Him and know that He has my path, my road, in His Hands."

Please check out her gallery for more inspiring layouts and you will definitely be blessed, I promise!

Featured Layout for "Stay Focused" Faith Discovery Challenge

By Cheryl in FL

Can you believe it's MAY already? I can't! May is one of my favorite months of the year and also one of the busiest aside from the holidays. To name a few of the reasons I love the month of May is because of the annual National Scrapbooking Day that everyone all across the nation and even in some other parts of the world, is excited about. So much is happening in all the scrapbooking communities and it doesn't matter which way you scrap--paper, digital, hybrid--we all have the same passion to preserve our memories and tell our stories for our future generations. Woohoo, I can't wait! If you want to know what's happening right here at Faith Sisters, please check back here often during this weekend. You won't want to miss it!

{Woman of Virtue}

Another special reason I love the month of May is, Mother's Day which is on the 11th (also the day my DH proposed to me :). Not only do I love being pampered, but it's always a special moment for me to remember how extremely blessed I am to be a mother AND it also serves as a reminder to me that we should honor and give appreciation to our own mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, friends and relatives who share the common gift of motherhood. My own mother went home to be with the Lord when I was only 11 years old. And even though it's been a very long time since then, memories of her life and godly example has never left me. There was one day at the hospital before she passed away that I clearly remember and the last words she spoke to me was something that I believe were words that God knew would help me stay close to Him throughout my life. This is what she said,

"Always remember to love Jesus and to keep serving Him because He will take good care of you. Be a good girl and finish school so that you will live a good life. Pray for your sisters and Daddy to keep going to church and to always love the Lord."

I believe that was her prayer and God definitely heard it because most of it has already come to pass. After so many years of being lost, I found my way back to the Lord, I'm currently in school and blessed with a wonderful husband and two precious children, and my Dad re-dedicated his life to the Lord 3 months before he died. So, it's only a matter of time before my sisters and their families receive the gift of salvation which I have been fervently praying for and know will also come to pass. I guess what I want to share is, the prayers of a mother are very powerful. Like my pastor, Rev. Mary Stewart (wife of our beloved Rev. Ed Stewart) would say,

"Don't underestimate the power of your prayers. God listens and He hears and is faithful. Your prayers have value and we have such a privilege to be able to pray to our God who is alive and is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."

So in honor of all the mothers that we love and care about, this week's challenge is based on a passage that I think describes the highest standards of what a mother is and the beautiful role that they play. I know that we all would love to be as perfect as this proverbial woman, but I know that even if I may not do all that it says, there's one verse that I believe we should all focus on and it's Proverbs 31:30, "Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." My mother was hardworking and sacrificed so much of her life for her family but. the one thing about her that was unforgettable was her love and faithfulness for the Lord, which is my understanding of what true virtue is. My prayer is to do the best that I can be to be a woman of virtue and to leave behind for my family, a legacy of faith, just as my mother did...

Challenge #11 - In honor of Mother's Day that is just around the corner, this challenge is based on scriptures found in Proverbs 31. This passage has always given me a glimpse of what a virtuous woman is like especially Proverbs 31:30 - "Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." For this challenge, I thought I'd ask you to read and study this chapter in Proverbs and create a LO of your mother or someone that reflects the character of a proverbial woman. For some of us who may want to scrap about a sister, a friend, or a relative would be perfectly fine, too. Another option to this challenge if you'd like, is to scrap about what you feel in your heart when it comes to the person you are and the things that matter to you as a woman of virtue.

*click on images to see credits*

By Dahlia Co

In honor of my mother, Erlinda A. DeGuzman

By Terrie L.

By Jackie Ann

By Tammy

By Rita S.

I do have one more thing to mention!!!! Don't go away just yet! I have a free download for you and maybe you'll be able to use it for this week's challenge! I hope you like it!

Download here.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I look forward to seeing your work! It's never too late to do any of our previous challenges so feel welcome to join in at any time! :) For discussion and info, please visit our FDC forums as well. Take care and have a blessed weekend!