Weekend Success

Hey everybody.  If you've been following my blog, you know that this past weekend was a HUGE weekend for my family.  It was the first Sunday of the brand new Church we've been preparing to launch.  The name of the Church is itown (http://www.itownchurch.com/).  We have been building up to this date since back in April.  Life has been busy, but it was all SO worth it on Sunday.  None of us knew how many to anticipate that first day.  Statistically, for Churches starting up in our area through this organization, the average that show up are around 250.  Guess how many we got? 340.  Can you believe that?  340 people came to see what it was all about.  But wait, the best part was yet to come.  At the end of the service, our pastor asked for individuals to mark on their comment cards if they had made a decision for Christ.  When all was said and done, 36 had rededicated their life to Jesus and FOUR people were received into the kingdom of God.  Absolutely amazing...just one would've made it all worth it, but four?  God has really started something big.  I'm so glad that He has called my family to this journey.  If you'd like to know more about how my family got involved in a Church plant, you can read about it on my FB page here.  Needless to say, I'm still buzzing from the excitement.  If you know someone in the Indianapolis area, please let them know about itown.

So, onto the other gift that God gave me, bein' crafty.  It's Tuesday, and you know that means another submission for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge (of course, it has to be last minute).  The color palette:

I've decided that green is the hardest color for me to work with.  It never seems natural.  These colors screamed nature to me, so I reached for this set, Nature Walk, from Close To My Heart:

Using the small leaf and big leaf, I decided to create a flower, inspired by this one that Lisa Somerville showed how to make on her blog.  Thanks Lisa!  When stamping the leaves, I used a technique called "rolling".  You first stamp into a lighter shade, and then without stamping off, you roll the stamp around on a darker shade.  Be sure to choose a clear block that is just the right size for your stamp.  If it is too big, you will have trouble rolling the stamp.  This technique helps add depth.  Here is how it turned out:

The background is embossed with clear powder and sponged around the edges.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up and the brad is BasicGrey.  When I started this card, it seemed like a cool idea, but once I finished it, I put it into the "different" category.  Sometimes my cards just seem quirky.  This is one of them.  Thanks for sharing your time with me today.  I do love your visits.  Come again soon. :)