Friends of the Heart

Hello and happy Sunday everyone! With Sunday comes another Stampin Sisters in Christ challenge, and this week's hostess is the sweet and talented Peggysue. She has chosen Matthew 16:23 for today's Scripture. " Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan!" Peggysue's challenge is to use versamark or same color ink on the same color of paper (e.g., purple ink on purple paper) for a tone on tone background somewhere on your card.

I hope you can see the pattern I created on my background with VersaMark. I stamped the flourish from Layers of Color Nature Walk clear art stamp set in VersaMark in the lower left corner of my aqua background. In the upper left corner I stamped the same little flowers that are colored in the foreground, from Our Daily Bread designs Sing to the Lord set. All along the right side I stamped a pattern from Touch of Elegance art stamp set by Layers of Color. I added a torn postcard dp from K&Co, sponging all the edges of all the layers. I stamped several of the small flowers from Sing to the Lord with Memento Rich Cocoa Ink, colored with Copics and cut out. Some are popped up with dimensionals.

I have been wanting to do a sort of shabby chic collage wall hanging for some time now. I have been a lover of Chickadees for years, but recently my sister has started collecting them too. So I decided to make this project into a framed art piece for her. The Chickadee is Our Daily Bread designs You Will Find Refuge. The little framed decoration was a pin that I removed the pin part from and adhered to my 6 x 6 frame. The bow is some seam binding that I dyed with ink and wrinkled up while wet, and I used another pretty crocheted element from that treasured scarf I have mentioned before. Three little ZVA Creative roses and some Martha Stewart punched boughs complete the decoration.

This week's verse really needs to be looked at in the context of the rest of the passage. The full verse says "Jesus turned and said to Peter 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." Jesus was not calling Peter Satan here, but is using a word that in Hebrew means adversary or accuser. Jesus had just begun to prepare His disciples for His coming suffering and death. Peter, reacting in human terms had said no, it cannot be! But Jesus knew that what He was about to suffer had to be, because there was no other way to redeem the sinful heart of man. Being God made flesh.... He knew that the plan and mind of God could not be understood by Peter,with his finite human mind. We might think that Jesus' rebuke of Peter sounds harsh, but Jesus knew the much bigger picture, and the perfect plan that He had to fulfill, and I can't help but think that in His humanity He didn't want to even be tempted to agree with Peter! We must never forget that Jesus did what He did on the cross for us, knowing full well the pain He would suffer, but we also need to know that He was also fully man while here on earth, and in that way He also was tempted in every way as we are, (yet without sin). His response to Peter is facing that temptation head on and not letting it even penetrate His will. You know... it's a good example of how we should respond when someone, no matter how much we love them, tempts us to disobey our Lord.... Confronting the temptation and putting it behind us, out of our view or reach would keep us making far more right decisions. It's also a great reminder as we enter this season and celebrate this holy week... Jesus suffered terribly and died for us! He loved us that much! I would have been like Peter.... No Lord... No! But Jesus said... "Father, not my will but yours be done". Let that fact penetrate your thoughts this week and respond to Him with all the love and honor that is due Him! Happy Easter to you all!

Our Sponsor this week is Designed2Delight
The prize is a $10.00 credit to the store!
We thank them for their generosity and support!

For complete details on the challenge and our sponsor, and the full devotional, please see the SSIC Blog.
For more inspiration on today's challenge, please visit my DT Sisters:
Chris, Linda, Peggysue, Miesje, Rebecca, Lisa , Kris, Sabrina, & MariLynn
Randi (is on leave)

One piece of exciting news:

Lisa, our dear SSIC sister and owner of a brand new on line store, The Crafts Meow, just announced that the talented Nina Brackett will be designing stamps for The Crafts Meow, and that Alice Wertz and Sarah Martina Parker will be joining TCM as kit designers. Lisa has created a Facebook Page! For every 100 fans by April 30th, she will be giving away a set of the four new stamp sets that were designed by Nina and will be released on May 1st! So click on over to facebook and become a fan! Thanks Lisa for your generosity!

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Card Makin' Mamas -- embellish it, Fabulous Friday - Homemade/handmade embellishment (crocheted embellie), Inspire Me Fridays - Anything goes, Totally Papercrafts - Challenge #62: Springtime, Wags 'n Whiskers - Challenge #52: Black, pale green, light pink, white/cream, AiFactory - Challenge #076: include an animal (bird?), Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Challenge #12: Anything goes, Charisma Cardz - Challenge #15: Use pink, black & green, Sassy Studio Designs - Spring theme, Amber's Crafts and Stuff -use your favorite things (lace, chickadee image, seam binding, flowers), Crafts and Me - #30 Ribbon, The Paper Variety - flowers, Truly Scrumptious - #55 vintage, A Spoonful Of Sugar - All Creatures Great & Small, Anita Be Stampin' - Anything Goes, Clear It Out! - 2nd week of flowers, Flourishes - Flowers, flowers everywhere, Paper Take Weekly - Dimension somewhere On Your Card

Thanks so much for looking! Have a blessed week!