Monday, April 14, 2014

Mason Jar Monday

Hello again Internet! I hope you've all had a fabulous day! Today is what I like to call Mason Jar Monday!! Being as crafty as I am, I love DIY crafts. Mason jars are the cutest and have the perfect shabby-chic look for my taste, and we have a bunch laying around the house!!! My favorite mason jar endeavor so far has been the melted crayon look. I tried two different methods, the first was melting a pile of crayons in the bottom of a jar:

First, I broke up colors that I like (cool colors, and although they are COOL, by that I mean greens, blues, and purples) and peeled the paper off of them. I dumped them in the bottom of a mason jar and held the hair dryer on hot above the opening of the jar for a while until they were melted. I tried to swirl the colors around but they mostly did what they wanted.

I also really like the way the bottom of the jar turned out:
I wanted to be able to display both the inside and bottom of jar, so i decided to display the jar upside-down. The jar looked to empty for my taste so I found a random piece of something laying around (it looked like a really pretty tree branch) and hot glued it to the inside of the lid to the jar to create this beautiful final product:


This jar is more of an art piece and less of a jar now. The second method was also a melted crayon technique, but with a dripping effect. I hot glued crayons broken in half to the rim of the jar and melted them that way. Getting them hot enough to drip definitely took a while, but it was worth it. Once they started dripping, I had to tilt the jar to get them to run the right way. And since I glued them in with the paper still intact, the crayons melted right out of the paper and the paper is still attached to the jar (except for one poor little purple).






















So sorry for the late post, was having some technical difficulties. Hope everyone's week started good and if not that it gets better!

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Most Recent Miracle

Hello Internet! I am a first time blogger who loves Jesus and fun crafts! Mission work is my passion; God has taken me to Panama and to Mexico in the past year to spread his fame in these beautiful countries. I am going on a 3 week trip to Taiwan this July and God has miraculously provided my funds for the trip. In March, I was starting to get worried that I didn't have any money and had 4 months to raise $3500 when, on my birthday, my grandma called me to tell me that she had just received a phone call that was leading to the best birthday present ever but it was a surprise. A week  later when my family got together for my birthday celebration, my grandma announced that she had a story to tell: One day in 1958, my grandma went to the store and when she came back my grandpa had purchased four funeral plots in Tulsa, Oklahoma for my grandparents, dad, and uncle. This was completely unlike him, he always checked in with his wife before making large purchases and never spontaneously bought things. A year later, their cute little family up and moved to east Texas. They kept the funeral plots for many years. My grandpa passed away when I was six years and was buried here in Texas. At this point, my grandma realized that these funeral plots were no longer needed and tried to sell them, but they never sold. Until my birthday. All four plots were bought for $4500 each, bringing in a total of a whopping $18000. My grandma then said that because she had received the call on my birthday that she knew the money had to go towards my mission trip. God never ceases to amaze me, the way that He plans things out years in advance. God put it on my grandpa's heart to buy those funeral plots to provide for my mission work 56 years ago. It also really touches my heart that my grandpa could be a part of my mission work, he greatly ministered to me when I was little and never got to see God use me as a missionary, but he didn't have to because he was already a part of it.

So this is my most recent miracle. God is good and provides wherever He guides. Trusting Him can be hard, but it always ends up being worth it. Remember Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Worry is a sign of not trusting God, so try this challenge with me: this week, whenever you start to worry about something, give the situation to God. Don't get caught up in worry when you could get caught up in God's love and grace.

I am taking part in two more challenges this week, one is spiritual and one is physical. I am cutting sugar out of my diet for a week (except for fruit). Today was my first sugar-free day and I feel so refreshed already. The second challenge is to tell someone about Jesus Christ every single day for 7 days. I will let you all know how these challenges are going for me and if you decide to partake in them, let me know how it goes!

Have a blessed evening!