Imagine with Jenni Bowlin

hello friends! well, i survived the day at the shop ( am i crazy to have a sale of various items two Saturdays in a row??? ..............maybe not if you saw the boxes of new stock that i have to make room for!!!) and i spent the late afternoon making my layout for Scrap and Stamp Saturday's Challenge. it is a sketch challenge ( i love those!!) and if you hop on over to the blog, you will see the sketch and the great prize from Glue Dots up for grabs this week!


as i was packing everything away this afternoon just after 3 at the shop, i walked past the Jenni Bowlin section and realised that i had never used any of her products. i also realised that i have now owned a Scrapbook Store for almost 2 weeks, and i had not bought anything myself!! goodness - what a disgrace!! so, i decided to treat myself!! i picked the papers and the BINGO cards, together with the title and the ribbon as well as two new Paint Dabbers for my collection - Watermelon and Pool, as i knew i would have to make my embellishments fit in. i covered the IMAGINE Enmarc Chipboard word with the Watermelon dabber and then added some clear UTEE instead of Glossy accents. i did two layers - a bit much as you can see - the embossing pooled in the detail folds of the word. i took the ribbon and folded it and used my Tim Holtz mini attacher to attach it to the butterfly paper in the folds, and then i added a small glue dot in each fold to keep it flat.


i grabbed some of my PRIMA off white paper flowers and first dabbed some Chestnut Roan onto it and then stamped script ( you can hardly make it out) with the Pool and Watermelon dabbers. i painted some buttons as well with the dabbers and then added some dark brown embroidery thread.

the butterfly i made a while back and i was going to use it on a card. it was lying on my table and it just JUMPED out at me!! it is a Kaisercraft stamp that i coloured with my Copics and added some glossy accents to it. i made the little antennae from beading wire and added the journaling. my subject in the page is Desiree's daughter, Carla.

she is a free spirit with a mind of her own and has her whole life ahead of her. as i was journaling it just came to me - what if she can be HERSELF, while keeping her eyes on Jesus' cross? and keep Him in her scope - always. in everything she does. every smile, tear, test, game, sms, fight, hug - in her LIFE. how many people could she reach? how many people could she be Jesus to and the only meeting they might ever have with HIM? and it made me think of my own life. i tend to forget who i am representing here on earth. not my company, my shop, my husband or myself. no, i am a representative of Jesus Christ who paid the ultimate price for me. do we forget that we are supposed to honour Him in everything because He is not VISIBLE? do we forget because we can just jump into bed without giving Him a thought or get up in the morning and say we are too rushed - He has to wait until Sunday, then i will give Him an hour? yet when we are in need, we immediately reach out to Him and expect Him to just be there and answer our prayers. why is that? why are we so selfish and self-reliant when things go our way, but when we experience a glitch, then we look up??? what if she can learn to walk a life of praise and worship - with her whole LIFE - and make it a living sacrifice to HIM - what if she took the time at school, at home, at parties, among her friends, to just BE who Christ created her to be, to glorify His name? she is 14. i am 37. if i think of the time i wasted (and still do) and all the poor examples i set for people (no wonder people dislike Christians so much - we are impatient, unkind, greedy, selfish, arrogant, difficult, miserable and just plain mean most of the time- all of that while we have received the greatest gift in the world - GRACE.) i cringe when i think how often i have just plain disappointed Jesus in my daily conduct, and i want to bury my head in shame. but i thank God that He always gives another chance. Carla, don't waste 23 years like i did. LIVE your life as a tribute to our Saviour and keep your eyes on the Cross!
and all you scrappers out there, hop on over to Scrap and Stamp and show us what you've got!