Experiment Gone Good

Hahahaha, what ever could I be talking about?    Well, you'll find out in a bit.    But, for now I wanted to say that I hope and pray all y'all had a wonderful weekend.   Here in the United States of America, it was "Independence Day" weekend.    When we say "4th of July", it lacks the enthusiasm that "Independence Day" has.     4th of July is more generic.    Independence Day automatically has what the day is all about in it's name.    We need to always remember that Freedom comes at a very high cost, it isn't free.    Most of us in the US, knows someone or knew someone who has fought for or died for this great country.    Most of us have had relatives down thru the years that have fought in or died in all of the battles and wars that this great country has had part in since July 4th, 1776.    I don't know about you, but I am thankful for the freedom that I have.    Thank you to all those who have fought, spilled blood, and died for this great country!!!!!    God Bless our military service men and women who are still in war torn areas of the globe today.    May you all come home safely, and soon.

Experiment gone good, you ask?    Well, Saturday evening I had a bit of "Hyde and Jekyll" going on in my laboratory, er, craft room.    I had no expectations of making something that was worth keeping, I was just experimenting.   I was just playing with some stuff and trying to make good use of all my crafting supplies that I have been blessed to have, but haven't made good use of them yet.    I bet some of y'all can relate.    Oh, shoot, I know you can!   hahaha

So, I took a shape that I had cut on my Cameo, a card front shape.    By the way, thanks, Penny Duncan, for all the wonderful shapes you have made.    I forget from time to time that I have access to many wonderful shapes that Penny has created over the years.     So, anyway, I took one of those shapes and a couple of stamps, Versamark, pewter embossing powder, LePlume markers, color mists, and liquid pearls and set out on my experiment. 

So, I started of with a solid white shape and stamped it with versamark and then used my pewter color embossing powder and heat gun.   What I learned is, next time, I will use silver embossing powder.    I do love the pewter, but it doesn't catch the light as well as silver would.

I stamped my parrot right in the middle.    The next time, I will see if I can put her on a branch instead of just hanging out in mid air.   hahaha

Then I had some flowers that went with the parrot and I just stamped them on the edge all around.   Next time, I will stamp more of the flower.

Then I used my LePlume markers and just filled in the flowers and the parrot with the island colors that are popular.    I love how the embossing gives a stained glass effect.

I had taken one of the markers and went along the cut edge to cover the stark white.    I took out my color misters with a bit of shimmer to them and misted with all four colors, Purple, Green, Yellow and Red.    I really love the effect that it gave to the card topper.

The next to the last thing I done was buffed the whole front of the card with my finger and it helped the pewter to shine a bit more than it was.   Then I put down a piece of pink Bazilla card stock on my card front and then attached the parrot to that.    The final thing I done was use my turquoise liquid pearls and put a few dots of that around.

When I started off, I had no intentions what so ever in using this as a real card front.    It was totally an experiment!      But.....when I got thru with everything and looked at it, I thought, "this just might work!"    And I think it did.    I was really pleased with my "Experiment Gone Good".    Hope y'all are too.     Hey, there is no such thing a a bad experiment in the craft room/laboratory.    Most is very usable.

As I leave you this morning, I leave you with this scripture:

Philippians 4:11  "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content."

Paul was writing to his Christian brothers and sisters in Philippi and he had been thanking them for helping him.    But Paul had some very valuable lessons that he passed on to this congregation and he is still passing this on to congregations today.    He had learned to make do with he had.    Whether a little or a lot, what ever the situation, he had learned to be content.

Have we learned to be content?     Some people think contentment is a bad thing.   For me, I think contentment is one of the best things that can happen in  a persons life circumstances.   Some times, contentment can refer to the financial side of life.    If you happen to know how to stretch a little food to make a lot of food, you can have more contentment.    If you happen to know how to repair a rip in a piece of clothing or sew a button back on, there is more contentment.    If you can do home repairs yourself, there is more contentment.     If on the other side of that, you are always trying to keep up with your neighbors and all that they do, you may never experience contentment.

Are we content in our relationship with the Lord?    One of the things that I have always tried to apply to my life is this; "I do as I know to do, when I learn to do better, I do better."    I want the Lord to be my teacher.   I want the Lord to teach me to do better.    I do not want, ever, to be chasing after the next great idea or to be chasing after something that God isn't telling me to go for.   Some say, do you want to be satisfied with mediocre?    I say, if God has me at mediocre, then I know He knows what He's doing.   I know He is at work in me getting me ready for better than mediocre.    But, I don't want anything that He hasn't already planned for me.    I really feel that sometimes in our search, we are searching after stuff that He hasn't commissioned us to search for, therefore we have even more discontentment in our lives.

Sometimes we need to stop and take a breath and look at our circumstances and ask God what He has in store for us, but until He takes us to the next level, we really should ask Him to help us be content with where we are.    Whether we have a little or a lot, be content and keep on doing the work that God has before you and praise Him through it.   I am not saying we should ever stop trying to achieve what God has put before us.    My life won't look like yours and yours won't look like mine.    But discontentment will make both our lives look miserable thru the eyes of the onlooker.    God will bless us right where we are, in every situation, if we ask Him to do so.

Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Those don't sound like words from a discontented Paul.    Whether he had meals fit for a king or bread and water, whether he was behind bars or a free man, he was content.    His contentment came from Christ!    Yours can too.    I pray that if you don't have that contentment in your life that you will ask God for it.    Contentment will only come during the hardships of life.    Contentment comes through the struggle.    When we have come to the end of who we are, and realize we can't do it on our own, Christ is ready to strengthen you.    When Christ is your strength, when Christ is your everything, then Christ is all you need.    With Christ comes contentment.

I hope and pray you have a contented day today!    I hope you have enjoyed what you have seen and read here.   If so, I would love to read your comments.

Ladybug, I hope you have a wonderful day today.    Sweetpea loves you and will be with you in a couple of days.   See ya soon.

Have a blessed day!   God loves y'all and so do I!   hugs, Patty