Sunday

I Love God - It's God's Love #15


This is just a simple, short post each week

consisting of a Bible Verse around the topic of
God's Love and I would be very pleased if you
would join me each Sunday.









 I Love God



Why?


because

He loves me







because

He created me,


because

He is truth,


because

He is the 
LORD
  the Most High God



But 

God demonstrates His Love for us in this:




God 

loves us

even though we are not worthy of His Love.



God loves us 
so much
that He sent Jesus to the Cross 
for us.








Do you believe this?

Have you responded to this offering of Love?

If not then the offer still stands - will you accept the sacrifice Christ made for you?











Friday

How to Make an Attendance / Chores Wall Hanging


Here is a simple tutorial for making an

                      Attendance / Chores Wall Hanging 

for your Sunday School class or a small Children's Church, which will cost very little to make.


It has been made so that it can be reusable by changing the simple decorating feature.


It can also be easily adapted to suit a Home Chores Chart







PLANNING



I got out my card table and some card and a ruler and pencil to brainstorm the first day.





I wanted something that the children could actively take part in each week as an attendance incentive and this is what I can up with.





Some form of card or light wood for the Header, ribbons representing each week hanging down in sections of the 4 months up to Christmas.

As you can see I sort of drew part of it out and then wrote down my ideas.

But as you will see later - I modified it!




PREPARATION



If you are like me you will have various leftover crafting embellishments from other projects so you can hunt them out to help with this one.






I got a sheet of A3 coloured card.
There was no choice of colour as it was the last sheet in that size.
(Just hoped the boys would not object)


Then I folded it in 3 lengthwise but with one end section slightly narrower than the other two.


Next it was off to the computer







and I used a nice thick Alpha from my digital scrapbooking files to use for the font of the Header and this was printed on to a white A4 Card.


I made 3 because I only needed the header to be less than a third of the width of an A4 card and thought I wouldn't waste the rest of the card and I would have two headers for future use.


Then I got out my embellishments





All three containers.






Next I got out the container with the odd pieces of ribbon.






I didn't need all the pieces of ribbon to be the same colour as this would have made the Wall Hanging rather bland so I was happy to use my left over pieces which gave me a nice variety of colour.







I also needed my container with two sided sticky tape because I didn't want to mess around with glue and the tape makes it all so much quicker to do.






The next stage was getting the pieces of ribbon long enough so I placed some ribbon down flat on the table and put the larger embellishments beside to measure how long to cut the ribbon.  I would probably have 12 children at the most in the class so it just needed to be long enough to hold 12 of those butterflies plus a little bit more to be stuck inside the card.






When the 15 pieces of ribbon were cut to the right length (15 because I was going to use it for attendance on 15 different weeks before Christmas) I then had to make sure they were all ironed flat because ribbon likes to curl round when it is cut.

So now that everything was ready it was back to the card.




PRODUCTION


I folded the card over from one side towards the centre and then the narrower section over on top of that.





Then came the two sided tape






I cut a length of the tape just slightly shorter than the length of the card and pealed off one of the coatings and stuck this down on the card in far enough from the folded edge remembering that the last section to fold on top was slightly narrower.






Next I peeled off the other coating from the tape but did not stick down the last section of card because the ribbons had to be put in first.






There were 15 ribbons so I was able to start easily with placing one in the centre and pressing it down to have it stick to the card.
I had of course taken a little time when ironing the ribbons, to consider the colours I had and worked out the arrangement I wanted to place them in.






So I placed all the ribbons in the right order of colour on the table and spaced them out evenly before I stuck each one unto the tape.






Then I folded the card over and pressed it down firmly.
I did not need to put any more tape on the last part to fold over because there was enough of the tape between the ribbons for the card to stick well.






Using my card and paper cutter I cut the header sheet into 3 pieces and put two away carefully to keep for another time.






Using more two sided tape I cut two strips and placed them along the two long edges on the back of the Header.

I peeled off the coatings, carefully lined up the Header on the Front of the Card and stuck it down.






Next I took the butterfly cut outs that I planned to use for the first week and cut small pieces of two sided tape to put on the back of each one and then tiny 2.5cm long wooden pegs were stuck to the butterflies so that the children could clip them to the ribbons.
(I had enough pegs to do for about 4 weeks but since then I have bought more on Ebay and they only cost around £2.97 for 100 pegs inc P&P)

Each week we will have a different shape and have different colours in each of the shapes so that the children can pick which colour they want.






Before the children clip their shape to the ribbon they will write their name on the shape.
Then at the end we can count each of the names and see who has attended best and there will be a small prize for that person.

All of the children will then get to take all their shapes home with them - so they will all actually get something.

Now all that was needed was to stick two other butterflies to the Card to decorate it and the whole thing could simply be used again by carefully removing the two decorations and adding two different ones (perhaps balloons, or animal shapes).







I hope you can try this out for yourself

or

use it as inspiration for something that might suit you even better.



Other Kids Resources can be found Here.


Plus

There are many Free Printables etc. in the RESOURCE LIBRARY











Sunday

I Love the Bible - It's God's Love #14


This is just a simple, short post each week
consisting of a Bible Verse around the topic of
God's Love and I would be very pleased if you
would join me each Sunday.





                                                           


 I Love the Bible



Why?


Because 

It is God's Word

and God's Word is POWERFUL!






Because

It is Truth

and Truth sets me FREE!



Because 

God's Word is full of love,

God's LOVE!








Nothing


No One


No Place


No Situation


No Separation




WHY?



Because

The Love of God

is in

JESUS



















Wednesday

I love Arks - A Dose of Encouragement


I collect Noah's Arks,
  -  but I don't think there's a Flood coming!


Some people have joked with me about
"is there a flood coming?"

 when they have seen my collection (or some of it)

 of Noah's Arks.







I have always loved arks and pictures of Arks but my collection really began when our daughter was about 8 or 9.

Linda went on a weekend away with a Christian organization called Girl Crusaders.  While she was away she saw a poster picture of an Ark and decided to buy it as a present for me.
On the journey home the corner got dog-eared and Linda was very disappointed but I love my picture.
It was put into a blue frame and has always been in view somewhere in our home ever since.

In our present home it sits on top of a bookshelf in the Sun Room.



Can you see the crease in the top right corner?



Well since then I have collected:



An Egg from America


On the Mantlepiece in the lounge






A Utensils Holder


On top of my Paper drawer set in my study







A Money Box & Snow Globe


On the bookshelves in my study







A Wall Hanging



In our guest room







A Decorative Plate, Beleek Biscuit Barrel, Silver Trinket Box & Decorative Tea Pot



All 4 of these have ended up on the large dresser that is now in our kitchen







A Photo Frame



On the corner edge of the kitchen worktop 






Some Bags


On the back of the door of my study






A Memories Box


Which can be found in various locations





Cushions


On our various couches / settees





An Apron



Also on the back of the door in my study - used for crafting.





More Pictures


In various rooms 





Plus a Clock 


In the kitchen






A Wooden Carved Ark with Animals


When our oldest son went to Malawi for 3 months to work with a missionary couple he brought it back for me





and he had me in tears at this lovely gift.



The Ark has always been very special to me.

In the Ark there is safety  -  God's Protection
In the Ark there is compassion  -  God's Mercy
In the Ark there is forgiveness  -  God's Grace


The Ark is a symbol of Salvation and our salvation is in Jesus so the Ark is a symbol of Jesus.


When I was young and accepted God's Gift of Salvation I knew I was safe.  Even though I may not have understood all about God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit or the Bible; I still recognized the fact that I was safe with Jesus.

So even though some may joke about my Arks my friend Jennifer in Belgium saw things differently and has always referred to our home as the safe Ark.



Are you safe with Jesus?

Are you in the Ark which is Christ Jesus?



As a teenager I listened to songs by Len Magee and one of them asks the question


 "Are you in the Ark, or are you outside?"



I want to encourage you today with some other words from that song 

Oh don't hesitate
You'll be too late
His arms' open wide


there will come a time when it is too late but right now it's not!

So please consider that Question again


       "Are you in the Ark, or are you outside?"


and but also with the fact that


You can be safe with Jesus, 
He is the only one you can truly trust.