The Lesson for Today {CSI Case File No. 137}

Eek! I am so far behind with my blog posts!

Yesterday we opened a new Case File:

I made a page commemorating my first time going to my church.

Clues I used...Evidence: polka dots, stripes, washi tape, envelopes, metal, flourishes, labels, wood; Testimony: Journal about your attitude, tuck your story into an envelope.

I used this sketch from Creative Scrappers:

Here are some details. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the circles in my cardstock and backed them with various patterned papers. I loved the sketch, but when I got my basic design assembled, it all seemed to look flat, so I used this awesome clock by 2Crafty chipboard, which turned out to be the perfect thing. The "Today" in my title is also by 2Crafty. I used acrylic paint on both pieces of chipboard. That ruler bit on the orange paper is an old 7 gypsies rub-on. The letter stickers are by Lily Bee (white) and Cosmo Cricket (yellow).

The little black bird is a wood veneer piece by Studio Calico that I painted with acrylic paint. I tucked my journaling into the yellow polka-dotted envelope. As a bit of background, I was raised pretty much without any religion. We went to Catholic church for a bit as I was growing up, but it never held any meaning for me, and as an adult, I never went to church. My mom started going to church about 6 years ago, and last year, her birthday was to fall on a Sunday. Months ahead of this, she said, "I don't want any presents for my birthday this year. All I want is for my family to go to church with me on my birthday." I replied, "Well, if it means that much to you, I'll go--we don't have to wait until December.

So here's my journaling... (By the way, that New Attitude image, is from these cards our church hands out at the start of a new message series, and that was the series that was starting on my first visit). If you aren't a Christian, you should give my pastor a try. You can see/hear his messages here. He's awesome and very inspiring and it will change your life.

I never ever expected this day to be the most important day of my life. I didn't expect to go into this church and fall in love with the message. I didn't expect to go in and find a church that was nothing like I ever knew or imagined it could be. I didn't expect to go from die-hard agnostic to Christian in an instant. I never expected that I would want to go buy a bible so that I could read God's Word. I never expected any of these beautiful, life-changing effects, but I am forever grateful that Mom invited me to this amazing church.

You might have read that I reorganized my paper at the beginning of summer, and since then, I've been making my pages using old scraps.  Some of the papers shown below are Jenni Bowlin (text), October Afternoon (yellow), Fontwerks (orange in the bottom right corner), Crate Paper (gray), Ki Memories (pink), My Mind's Eye (orange chevron-y pattern).

You should come by CSI and take a look at what our DT and guest designers made--lots of inspiring stuff, and this is the last Case File for your chance to win this awesome prize from Quirky Kits: