I Will {Praise} Thee

Happy New Year!! I hope your year is off to a good (and healthy) start. With the start of the new year come a little change to the Word Art Wednesday challenges. Starting with today's challenge, each challenge will run two weeks. This will give you extra time to play along and give those of us on the Design Team extra time to comment on all your beautiful projects. This week we are going to the book of Psalms and turning our focus on Psalm 139:14, "I will praise thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works: and that my soul knoweth right well." This time of year, many people make resolutions to improve their bodies and minds. These are all very good. It's important to make sure we're taking care of our physical body. As this verse states, we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Part of taking care of our bodies is to keep our minds sharp and keep learning.  My favorite author, K. D. Winchester, has a great blog post about ways to exercise your mind and direct your reading this year. You can read her post here. It's also important to keep growing spiritually. One way is to make sure we're spending daily time reading our Bibles. This year I'm reading through the Bible chronologically. I've never done that before and, so far, am really enjoying it. Here is the one I'm using: Daily Chronological Bible.  A free downloadable reading plan I've used for a several years can be found here. I like it because it's so versatile. We need to be good stewards of our bodies and minds and take care of the "marvellous work" that the Lord created.

One of our new sponsors this year is Simon Says Stamp. If you haven't shopped with them before, I can tell you that you are really missing out! They strive to be a one-stop-shop and I think they do a pretty good job. They carry all the popular brands of stamps and supplies as well as have their own stamps, dies, inks, cardstock, etc. I was able to play with one of their new You Have My Heart release stamp sets called Texting. This set is full of emoticons and cute sayings in speech bubbles.  I started with a watercolor paper base and used various Distress inks to blend a rainbow of colors diagonally across the panel. Laura Bassen, the Queen of ink blending, I am not but I think it's a happy effect. I then used the smiley emoticon stamp to stamp happy faces all over the panel. I deliberately faced them different directions. I thought they went well with today's verse because the happy faces illustrate an attitude of praise. :)

I kept the rest of the card pretty simple (my version of CAS) to keep the focus on the verse and on the happy faces. Some double matting, a trio of gems and a small baker's twine bow finish off the card front. Another strip of happy faces adds a little interior decorating. This card is already in the mail going to a couple that are awaiting the birth of another one of God's marvelous creations. That last week or two of waiting is so hard and I hope this is an encouragement to them (and the mama loves smiley faces and rainbow colors).

Supplies:
Cardstock: Georgia Pacific (white), Recollections (black), Bazzill (yellow), watercolor paper of unknown brand
Stamps: WORDart by Karen (Psalm 139:14), Simon Says Stamp (Texting clear stamp set)
Inks: Distress Inks (Barn Door, Squeezed Lemonade, Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint, Broken China), Versafine (Onyx Black)
Tools/Embellishments: Spellbinders dies (Standard Circles Large and Small, Petite Scalloped Circles Large), The Twinery baker's twine (Charcoal), The Paper Studio gems

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Sweet Stamps Blog January Challenge - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Something New (new stamp set and going to a couple expecting a new baby)
Craft Your Passion Challenge #293 - Anything Goes
Outlawz Paper A La Mode Challenge - Something New (new stamp set)
Crop Stop Linky Party #11 - Use something from the Crop Stop Store (I used several Distress Inks)

Thanks so much for stopping by today. If you come back later this week, I'll have more cards to share with you using this new Texting stamp set. It's just soooo fun!! I hope you'll visit the Word Art Wednesday blog to see the list of exciting sponsors we have for this year. While you're there you can also see what the rest of the Design Team have made and pick up your free digi. Also, please visit Simon Says Stamp. You will find LOTS to love!!