SSiC #150

Hello dear friends.  It's time for another challenge at Stampin' Sisters in Christ and I am so glad you are here.  I hope you are blessed by your visit here.  I would share a comfy seat and some sweet conversation with you if you came down my country road.  Welcome.

Peggysue is our lovely hostess this week and she has selected our verse and our challenge.

"Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom."  Matthew 27:51

At first glance this may seem like a strange verse to highlight, but really it is a wonderful verse that holds so much promise for those of us called the children of God.  This verse comes from a portion of scripture that tells of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.  At the moment He died many things happened on the earth.  The veil was torn, the earth quaked, rocks were split, and believers who had died were raised to life.  History tells us the veil was approximately 18 inches thick.  The book of Exodus tells us it was woven of beautiful linen threads with a design of cherubim.  The veil was hung in the temple and it separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.  The Holy of Holies is where the High Priest would go once a year to meet with God.  Only one person, out of all God's chosen people, could meet with Him, and only once a year.  When Jesus died on the cross, and the veil was torn, that signified that we now have access to God.  Whenever we want.  Whoever we are.

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."  Hebrews 4:16

I'm not sure some people realize just how amazing that is.  Our country takes God too lightly.  Or disregards His existence all together.  There is a God.  And He created the heavens and the earth.  He created you and me.  And He wants an intimate relationship with each of us.  He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins that we might spend all eternity with Him.  And because of the blood of Jesus we do have access to the loving, heavenly Father.  We can go before Him at any time.  We can crawl in His lap and pour out our hearts before Him.  Don't think He is too busy or uncaring to listen to you.  He never sleeps.  He is never too busy.  He loves you and He's waiting for you.  The veil was torn to provide a way for us to freely come to Him.

Peggysue used this glorious verse to provide inspiration for our challenge this week.  She would like to see you tear your paper.  Not all of it (unless you want to!) but at least one piece of it on your creation.  Don't be afraid.  Be brave!  Its easy and fun and looks great!  Play along with us this week.  We have a great sponsor this week.  Inspired Stamps is offering $15 of store credit to one player this week.  I sure hope you'll join us.

For my piece this week I chose a fun image from My Favorite Things.  I have had my eye on her for a while and I'm so glad I finally bought her.  She's called What's Cooking.  I love her long legs!  All the images in this collection are so cute and they come with several sentiments each.

 Isn't she great?  So much fun!  I colored her with my Prismacolor pencils on kraft.

 This is one of the sentiments that comes with her.  The yummy flower is made from a Spellbinders die called Rose Creations.  I used a DP with script and inked all the edges.  It was my first flower from this die and I love how it turned out.  I used a tutorial here to make my flower.  Her directions and photos are perfect!  This die did nothing for me til I saw her flowers.  She has me hooked!

 I added some cheesecloth under my image, inked and sewed my edges and sewed some buttons to the corners.  Yes, I really do sew them by hand.  They won't pop off very easily let me tell you!  The image isn't as tiny as you may think she is.  This isn't a card, but the front of a gift bag!

 See?  I made this for a friend who sells Pampered Chef.  She gives out little prizes to guests during her presentation and I thought this would be so much cuter that the plastic shopping bag she is currently using!  I added a bunch of ribbon, cheesecloth and muslin to the handle.  It all came from my stash.  See that yummy DP?  I picked it up at Hobby Lobby and I love it!  It's by Echo Park and it looks like vintage newspaper ads.  So fun!  I tore the front DP but it still covered up the 3 ads that were about food, so I cut another copy of them from another piece of the same paper and mounted them on top.

See?  It adds a little more dimension.  

No, I didn't decorate the inside  ;)  Just put my custom stamp on the back, but you know what that looks like  :)

I guess that's about it.  Be sure to stop by all me Sister's blogs and see what yumminess they have created for you this week, then join in on the fun!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Blessings & Hugs

Michelle