I was thrilled to see that Patter Cross decided to continue her scrripture challenge this year. The revelation that an alphabet challenge perfectly coincides with a biweekly format is phenomenal. I love how the Lord keeps things simple for us when we have an ear to hear.
Our first challenge for 2011 is from the letter "A": -- Anchor. My mind immediately quantum leaped to a Ray Boltz song: The Anchor Holds. I ran into several problems while putting this page together. The first is that I couldn't find any music background paper either in my stash or in our local craft stores. In all fairness, I did find one sheet of brown distressed/vintage music backgournd paper, but I preferred white.Fortunately, my friend Tina had two sheets of music paper and the Rainboworld paper worked perfectly. I did manage to find some music brads at Micheals which seems to have worked well. AND I got them for half price!
My second problem was the anchor, Again, I searched for an anchor, either a sticker or a stamp, at my local craft stores and couldn't find any at all. Since I discovered digital stamps last November (or maybe October), I googled "anchor" digital stamps and found what I was looking for at
http://www.whimsystamps.com/.
I haven't totaled up the purchases I made to support this page, but I really do like the way it turned out. What the scanned image doesn't show is the depth. Using Microsoft Publisher, I typed the chorus of
The Anchor Holds around the outer edge of a 6"x6" square. After I printed it out on my HP Photosmart B5500 printer (it also prints 12"x12"), I cut it down to size using my EK Success Cutterpede paper trimer. I also cut the inside edges, approximating the size. I probably should have measured it, but I was too busy creating, thinking on my feet! Then I took my gifted paper and cut out a 6" x 6" piece. I knew I didn't want the background paper to fight the anchor design, so I looked around and voila! Standing right in the middle of the craft table array was my Fiskars Scallop Tearing ruler.
"Perfect," I muttered as I decided where to tear it. But I couldn't get a reasonable grip to tear inside such a small space. PLUS I didn't have any more paper should I tear too much! But God called us to be problem solvers, so I went to my ScrapRack Travel Pack and retrieved my Cutter Bee Retractable Craft Knife which was up to the job. I already decided that I wanted to elevate the frame so I immediately glued the top frame to the music frame. THEN I decided to chalk the edges with CTMH's Chocolate Brown. Of course, chalking the outer edges was a piece of cake, but not so the inside frame which was glued to the music fram. So, I used a masking technique and a CTMH dauber to complete the chalking effect.
I'm writing much more than I'd planned, but I thorougly enjoyed this project and its final. While this would be a good place to stop, I think it's important to note the story behind this incredible song. It didn't take much to find out that
Lawrence Chewning wrote the song and that this story began in 1992. You can find the complete version of his story on his website (http://www.lawrencechewning.com/). But the song actually came to him after a year of extreme stress and trauma: the death of his father, burnout after pastoral ministry for 19 years, and his wife's third miscarrage.
“I was given a sabbatical from pastoring for six months," he writes. "During that time, my wife and I grieved and prayed. I also began to play the piano again for hours at a time, alone with God. During this time of sadness and uncertainty, the Holy Spirit gave me a song which I entitled 'The Anchor Holds'. As I would sing it, I began to experience God's comfort, encouragement and hope. Eventually, fresh vision came and I entered a new phase of the calling on my life." Rev. Chewning's old friend, Ray Boltz, heard about the song and asked to evaluate it for his "Allegiance" project. It was released in November 1994.
Sadly, tragedy and disappointment is an integral part of life itself. Those who are not anchored often do find themselves adrift and unable to receive the comfort and healing that's necessary to move on, to move forward. But the Lord is our refuge; He is our stronghold; He gives us strength; He walks with us in the garden and in the desert. What more can we ask? He is the anchor that holds us.
PRODUCTS USED:
Meljen's Designs Digi Stamp Anchor Away
SparkleNSprinkle Opaque Fantasy Gold G1001
Boxer Scrapbook Productions Fish Lovers Alfphabet Stickers (Item #15036)
Recollections Music Notes Brads
Close To My Heart Chocolate Dye-Based Ink
Close To My Heart White Daisy Cardstock
Close To My Heart 3-D Foam Tape
Recollections Kraft Cardstock
SHEET MUSIC, Rainboworld by Masterpiece Studios
Gold Chord, elasticized from my stash
Tempus Sans ITC Font
Fiskar’s Scallop Tearing Ruler
