Hero Arts weekly challenge - one layer cards

It is Hero Arts blog birthday - they are one year old. The challenge this week is a one layer card and I am amazed at the creative entries so far! The one layer refers to paper not to embellishments.. I have been amazed to see how dimension is created through colour, machine stitching and shading with pencils!! Some cards look layered and yet they are not, so so clever!

I chose to make a grid card, not the easiest of cards, but I cannot make effective simple cards.I used distress inks and Hero art stamps.

Meditation Monday - the third 'A' - ADAPT

Apologies for not being here last Monday. I was in the North of France with my DH to speak on this very subject of a christian marriage.

It is never easy to adapt and especially the concept male/female can be particularly trying!
Carrying on with the book 'The Total Woman' by Marabel Morgen on this subject, I will highlight what she has to say because I couldn't say it any better. Bear in mind we are dealing with the general biblical principles for everyday life.
Adapting to our husbands does bear fruit - although maybe not always visible short term. When I chose to live sacrificially I chose for the long term commitment - and it pays. We have already handled ACCEPT and ADMIRE. So if we accept our husbands as they are (trusting that God does the changing..) how do we ADAPT...Without further ado:

Quote:
Diana was feeling lonely, neglected and unloved. Should she put her foot down? Insist that he quit football? Demand that he spend more time at home? Threaten him? She had already tried that for two years, but of course nothing had changed. Should she withhold her love? Make him come begging to her? Play the martyr? She had tried that too... no change! The advice I gave her was to ADAPT as that was the only thing I knew would work. Adapt to his way of life wholeheartedly, even if nothing changed. When he is home, make life so attractive he won't want to leave. Don't make him feel guilty and don't complain. Instead, treat him like a king and cater to his needs.

What causes most of the problems in your marriage? I find that conflict between two separate egos is usually the culprit - your viewpoint versus his viewpoint. If they happen to be the same, fine. If not, as so often is the case, conflict results.
For instance, your weary man comes home from the office longing for a quiet evening; You have been cooped up in the house all day and want to get out. There's instant conflict with two egos, each shouting, "Me, me, me." So how can two different egos fuse their two different opinions into one? Some don't. It often results in two people going their separate little ways.

The biblical remedy for marital conflict is "You wifes must submit to your husbands' leadership in the same way you submit to the Lord". Ef.5:22
Before you scream, hear me out.... No one says you have to get married. If you do not wish to adapt to a man stay single. If you are married but not adapting, you probably already know that marriage is not the glorious experience you anticipated.
You may think, "that's not fair, I have my rights. why shouldn't he adapt to my ways first and then maybe I'll consider doing something to please him?". I have seen many couples try this unsuccessfully! Unless the wife adapts to his way of life, conflict is certain to occur.

God originally ordained marriage. He gave certain ground rules and if they are applied a marriage will work...
Man and woman, although equal in status, are different in function. God ordained man to be the head of the family, its president and his wife to be the executive vice-president. When the order is turned around, the system breaks down... there is enough evidence of this in the world today!

We don't have to nag or be a doormat - we have our dignity, opinions and spunk, but we leave the final decisions over to our Head!

Unquote

We all can find creative ways to adapt and see what a relief it brings to our husbands. I have found that the times I have adapted and followed René (instead of thinking that 'my' way was better) and kept my mouth shut have been the times that I was refreshingly surprised how things worked out - I usually would think things would
only go well if they went how I thought they should - WRONG!! We can be such control freaks! Thank God I am learning! On the other hand if I suggest something in the right attitude, I notice that my DH really thinks it over and actually alot of times he has said, yeah I think you are right this time!! It's just the way we say things sometimes! For me the key is: my relationship with René is also a mirror of my relationship to the Lord - that helps me stay in the right attitude.

I'm stopping here, not to make it too long. It might be helpful too to make this practical with some real issues - I will be back.
God bless! Jacqueline

Hero Arts Challenge - window cards

The challenge at Hero Arts this week was to make a window card. I thought that this was a super idea of Lisa's as I've never made one of these before and it's yet another way of stretching one's stamps.
These are the cards I made.


(Sorry Louise, I lost your comment..)

Vintage eggs...

This beautiful blog of Elizabeth Golden is a jewel! I found it via Dymphie who shared that Elizabeth had beautiful French postcards free to download and I've been a fan ever since. Here, is where I found egg templates. Thank you Elizabeth.
I put them against a miniture Eiffel Tower I have to show how small they are, but they are still a nice size to work with.



I am not a fan of decorating eggs for Easter as I believe that Easter has another meaning, but I loved the shape as a change to ATC rectangles. So I thought I would just give it a try and see how it went with collage.


The size is 7.5 x 5.5cm.

My favorite colours

Thought I would share a vintage card I made a while back with my favorite colours.

Arrived home Sunday evening after a very satisfying three day trip to the North. We are always so blessed to have been able to speak into people's lives, provide teaching and prayer on the very delicate subject of a 'marriage made in heaven'. We are so happy that we decided a long time ago to trust God and perservere in our calling. It pays to trust and obey the Bible! It pays to listen to God's voice and seek after Him.
I have not done a Meditation Monday this week as I needed to get alot of work done and get a time of rest. I am relaxing of course in my craft room, playing with paper, ink and stamps! I am not very inspired though!

Spring in Paris..

I will be away until next week as I will be travelling with DH to share what God has done in our lifes in our marriage with quite a big church in Mulhouse (North of France). That costs me alot of preparation!


Just wanted to share before I left and also to say thanks to those who leave a little comment on Meditation Monday. It blesses me to know that it's a blessing!
The theme on Hero Arts is Spring. I haven't been too inspired so Sue came to my rescue when she sent me a lovely bag of her scraps! I used a background panel that she gave me to make this card - it's got everything you would find on a French flea market, including the little vintage button at the bottom.

This is the lovely ATC SUE sent - it's gorgeous and the dragon fly glitters in the light! Thanks once again dear Sue!

To finish, this card is on it's way to somebody - I hope she doesn't look here. It's a quick card made with scraps I had laying on my desk. Love playing like that.

See you all next week!

Meditation Monday - the second 'A' - ADMIRE

I sincerely hope that these meditations are a blessing for you! This week is all about admiring your husband. There is so much more to say but I have to reduce a chapter into a smaller meditation.

I am founding this with a quote from Scripture: Eph. 5:33 (Amplified version): ''and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband (that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him and loves and admires him exceedingly)."

Once again I am quoting from the book 'The Total Woman' by Marabel Morgan:

Quote:

It was Friday afternoon and Mr. Feelin’ Low glanced at the clock with mixed emotions. After a long, hard week he was glad that Friday had finally come. He looked forward to a hot shower and a hot dinner, but he dreaded facing the cold wife.
Friday afternoon meant a long weekend at home, just trading one headache for another. Something’s missing, he thought. Is this all there is? Loneliness rolled over him in waves. Somewhere, someone must admire him, even if his own wife didn’t.

Starting from earliest childhood and continuing all through life, a man is recognized and applauded for his accomplishments and who doesn’t love that type of admiration? Women do, too. If your husband was a Big Man on Campus he probably has all sorts of trophies, stars and other special memorabilia. Have you noticed how a person will do almost anything for a star? Imagine that, grown men with stick-on-stars on their helmets!

A man’s most basic needs, outside of warm sexual love, are approval and admiration. A man tries to fill those crying needs in many ways. But a man longs for respect and personal admiration from his wife more than any other person. You can transform your husband by a few genuine words of encouragement. Your man, like many men all over the world, may be like an empty cup emotionally, unable to properly express his feelings to you. If you want to help him express himself, try filling up his cup with admiration. And when his cup runs over, guess who lives in the overflow!

For some men your attitude of indifference is the worst pain of all; We have to care about what they do and think! It is your hightest privilege to assure him he is as special as he thinks he is! Your husband needs you to see him as he sees himself. For example, take a good look at him. As he grows older, his need for admiration grows stronger. With a balding head and protruding paunch comes the question, “Does she think I’m handsome?” He happens to love his body. It’s the only one he has and he lives in there. He wants you to love it too – so tell him! We can be honest and still meet his needs – there will always be something we can make a nice comment about and you will be surprised at the results!

UNQUOTE

Look how we creative ladies act when we see beautiful artwork – we run over with praise and admiration, and with all the commenting we do, it shouldn’t be too difficult to just continue off the blog towards our husbands and children! Say to DH for example, wow, you look gorgeous, that colour tie so matches the colour of your eyes! It’s just an example!

Even stronger, I believe the we women have to be on our guard to keep this alive in our marriages because the devil will always try and drive a wedge in a relationship because he knows if he gets that out of harmony, he steals the power out of families which results in a weakened Church. Let’s be on our guard and not allow the evil one to take away the praise from our mouths towards our husbands and children.

Gothic Arch challenge - Mother and child

Love the arch shape. Happy to take part in this challenge as the theme was not so difficult this week..



The weekly arch challenge can be found here.

Catching up

I am catching up on my blog entries. So wanted to share Nancy Kreuger's work! I met Nancy on the Hero Art's Flickr gallery and she is a Christian who prays for our work and our boy's.



I am amazed how God has given me contacts via the Internet world and I am very grateful for them! I live very isolated in a French culture which is so different from any other, that I am so happy to have contacts this way!
Nancy sent me a gorgeous RAK and some of her gorgeous work. The ATC's and card are from her hand. She does not have a blog unfortunately.



This is a card I made with one of the beautiful vintage images she sent me.
Thank you Nancy, you made my day!

Art Creations Friday - # 17

I got the idea to use a very kind RAK sent to me by Louise a couple of months ago, after visiting her blog today. She sent me a package of vintage cards as she had inherited a box full from her family! So, so kind of her. The vellum arch and cut out flowers are from one of those cards. Thanks again Louise!



My lovely sister, who I don't see very much but will be here for a week in the summer, sent me a paper pad of vintage Christmas papers which she found for an extremely good price on the market (under a pound!), which is the background panel for this card.
Thanks Linda!

The challenge on Art Creations Friday, was to use the image they provided - so I believe everything on this card is a RAK!
The challenge can be found here.

Meditation Monday - the first 'A' - ACCEPT

I’m giving the floor to Marabel Morgen who has given me kind permission to quote here from her book ‘The Total Woman’.
Quote
Most of us marry a man with every intention of changing him. Then we spend years of married life trying to do just that – round off the edges, suggest what he should do, and how he should act. Why are we such fools? It never works! The poor husband crawls into his shell to protect himself from the onslaught, vowing never to communicate with this relentless woman who was once his bride.
A man needs to be accepted as he is, just exactly as he is. This kind of all-out acceptance convinces him you really love him. His need for total acceptance isn’t so strange. I need to feel accepted too. Do you have a special friend who will listen to your innermost heart and accept you, without fear of rejection, criticism or advice? Can you do less for your husband?
Unfortunately, I’m a nag by nature. I don’t mean to be! Nagging is my occupational hazard. All day long I direct my kids: “Pick up your clothes, brush your teeth and don’t get out of bed. When my husband walks in the door, I just naturally continue my commands: “Take out the garbage, be kind to my mother, smile at people, etc. One thing is sure, nagging doesn’t bring results! Nagging never kept anyone alive. It has, however, killed many marriages. A man considers being nagged at worse than being nibbled to death by a duck.
Some women don’t nag verbally, but their non-accepting vibrations communicate loud and clear. Tolerance is not acceptance and only makes your husband feel incomplete and unworthy. He can sense when he’s not being accepted or manipulated and is not able to love you fully.
Our strength for accepting our husbands lies in the fact that God accepts us as we are and even though we don’t deserve it, His love is unconditional. Because He accepts us, through His power we can love and accept our husbands. If you have lost this love for your husband, ask God to restore it!
Your husband needs your acceptance most of all during his times of apparent failure. If he’s already low, don’t put him down further; Never compare him with another man and remember he’ll never confide in you if he feels that you are being critical.
Your man needs to feel important, loved and accepted. Make his home his haven, a place to which he can run. Allow him that priceless luxury of unqualified acceptance.
Unquote

I have not quoted the whole story here, just taken out certain details. I can really recommend her book. You can order it so easily via ‘Amazon Books’ (they also carry cheaper second hand versions) and have it in your home within a week!
Next week I hope to share something on the second ‘A’ – ADMIRE.

I probably won't be posting again until late in the week as I will be heading up North with DH to care for a stand with our books at a big conference in Grenoble for French pastors and their wifes. Our book is out in the French language - we hope to be able to share it with many couples! Please pray for our time there! We always have our laptop with us.



And lastly I am sharing some photo's I took yesterday of the surroundings here on our way home from church. The almond tree is blossoming everywhere!!
God bless you!
Jacqueline

TGIF - Wish

I have never joined this challenge group before but as the theme was not to difficult I decided to join in this week.
Yesterday I received an e-mail from a lady about the arch I made which appeared in the Stamplers Sample. It was made up of inchies. Thank you Charlotte!
It gave me the urge to make another one, which I had been wanting to do for a while. It was just the inspiration I needed.
The challenge can be found here.



This is a photo I took this afternoon as I looked outside from my craft space.

Vintage

This is a gorgeous image to work with, so versatile.
A huge thanks to Dymphie who thought of me.

The close up of the stamped butterfly shows how I stamped on the inked up stamp with a postal mark stamp before I stamped on paper.

Hero Arts weekly challenge - the little things

This week the challenge was to use our 'little' stamps, which I think is always hard to do.



Luckily there was some nice inspiration from a lady called Patty who created some beautiful cards, one of them was a bunch of grapes using a small flower stamp - it is really beautifully done - here, you can take a look at it.

This second little card was made from a scrap of my first project for this challenge which did not come out as I wanted. Actually I'm quite grateful for these scraps! The card is scanned because the weather is too gray to take a nice photo today.

Meditation Monday - The woman's role

In relation to last week's meditation a question arose which is very valid and needs to be addressed. We talked about the man being the Head of the home, which God ordained him to be, but the fact is, many men do not take up their role and are passive.
Well, look what happened in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were taking a stroll and the snake appeared on the scene. The devil knew the order of authority that God had ordained so he very cleverly addressed the woman when he wanted to seduce them into eating from the tree of knowledge.
The Bible clearly states that after she ate she gave to her husband.. 'who was with her' - he wasn't somewhere else, he was there when the snake started talking to his wife but he 'didn't do anything', he didn't stop the process, he ate too....
(See: Gen.3:6)

It is a fact that we cannot change each other, only God can change a human being. BUT we can be very creative in our interaction with our men!

God created the woman to do what? Iron her husbands shirts? Cook his meals? Yes, but that isn't all! God said, it is not good that the man should be alone, I shall make him a helper - and he created Eve. (See: Gen.2:18)

The fact that we might do our household chores and be brave Christians does not mean we are giving our husbands the intimacy they were looking for when they married us and to which they have a full right.
The two most important things for a man are sexual and emotional love. There are four 'A's which will prove to be key to opening up your husband. They are ADMIRE, APPRECIATE, ADAPT and ACCEPT. I will be going into these four emotional needs in later meditations. A book from Marabel Morgan called 'The total woman' will be my source for explaining these key tools.

And these are the things that bless my husband most and cost the most, requiring a sacrifice!
I have come to see that it is mostly the woman who has to guard herself against closing up towards her husband. She has to stay open and interested in his life, in what makes him happy. It will be different for every woman to discover the ways she can draw intimacy into her marriage. I had to learn that René was not looking for somebody to advise him all the time or a wife who played the Holy Spirit for him. No! He was looking for a woman who knew how to be a woman!

Now, you might be thinking - but what about 'me' then - who will cater to my needs? I can tell you, if you are willing to cater to your husbands needs in the above, not only will you bring your man alive, but you will emerge from under a spiritual blindness that has held you back from intimacy because you thought your husband was at fault!!
Not only do I have a man with a twinkle in his eye, I have been blessed by God in ways I cannot even explain. To give you an example - I always used to have headaches - since I have really conquered this problem of always thinking my husband had to change, and have changed myself, I do not have these problems!

If love, intimacy and passion is revived in a marriage, the husband will more likely take in his rightful place because he doesn't have to fight a wife who finds fault with him all the time!

Of course, there will always be exceptions to the rules, but I believe that if we as women can lay this foundation in our marriages we will have happier men and happier men means a happier world!

Sunday Postcard Art

The theme of this challenge is 'Once upon a time...', which can be found here.



Sometimes I just crave to do a vintage card. I think it's because of the prettiness and the colours - something about it which I just love! So I kept this card simple and used the scraps that were left over from my projects this week.