My Creative Blog:
Faith

One of my 2012 resolutions was to add more of ME into the style (or lack thereof) of my family room. I might have taken that resolution a tad literally come to think of it, but I'm still happy with the progress so far! Let me give you a little back story…

See that artwork? It was hanging in my family room for the past year. It's fine… if you know me well, when I say fine, I mean ehh… take it or leave it. In this particular case, I was ready to leave it, so I started by taking it apart.

I wanted to do something a tad more meaningful. Trust me, I'm all about art just because it looks cool, but for some reason I was determined to create something a little"deeper" for this room.
At first I thought I'd use some cool lyrics I love."American Pie" has always been a favorite song, but then I vetoed that because it just didn't feel right and I'm sure there's some weird deep meaning I am oblivious to.
I decided on Matt Redman's"Blessed be the Name of the Lord", typed it up on an 8x8 and enlarged it at Staples. (Total cost for two was like $5.00)

Here's the deal on the song. I'm not all like,"woohoo it has to be a praise song" or something like that. Truthfully, I hated this song for about 3 years and would actually leave church every time it was played. I wasn't being a jerk, I just couldn't stomach it. You may have heard me mention my twin boys in my birthday post, and this song has a line,"You give and take away, You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name." Let me tell you for a mom that wanted nothing more than to keep holding her babies that line was beyond challenging for me. So why put it on your wall crazy blogger? Well, over time I've been able to get to the point where I do trust and understand that He will give and take and it's not going to be easy, but I'm not in it alone. He doesn't say I'll give and take and see ya later. It's only by grace that I got through each of our losses without becoming bitter and changed. Okay, enough personal stuff, if you want to read about our journey with the twins, you can check it out here. (Who knows, maybe it will be a help to someone.)
So I had my lyrics and needed something to go over them. It took some brainstorming and then it hit me. FINGERPRINTS… our fingerprints!
Here's How I did it! The mat needed a coat of paint. Don't be afraid to change the color of your mat, it's a great, quick fix.

While they dried, I pulled out my kids stamping kit and took some prints. I'm a dork and started with my pointer, but realized a thumb is a better option. Just press, don't roll and don't use too much ink.

Then, I took pictures of our prints. I zoomed in as close as I could get, and then cropped in picasa. Editing the picture to black and white and increasing shadows helped me see the lines.

I happened to have a mini projector on hand (borrowed from a friend about 9 months ago- oops!) and a jar of cherries! I needed the projector a bit higher and they worked perfectly. If you don't have a mini projector an old school, classroom one would work fine too.

Keeping it real… yes, I still have a Christmas countdown on my walls.

I taped the paper on the wall and traced in pencil. I almost went blind. It was not simple to see, but it still only took about 5 minutes of tracing.

I removed it from the wall and traced over my lines with a sharpie.

After reassembling the mat and frame I was ready for after pictures… Darn that my room is bright with a glare 24-7.

Here's my new meaningful, fingerprint art.

I have a second one coming with the hub's print, but I'll show you that when the rest of the wall is finished! I have some fun plans brewing!

So what do you think of my new artwork? It's okay, you can be honest, I know it's a little unique.

So we've spent the month sharing all kinds of Christmas themed decor, projects, and ideas. We even had 12 full days of Christmas DIYs. We love all that stuff and everything about the Christmas season, but we wouldn't be keeping our promise of being Real with you if we just left it at that. See, there's one thing that we could never DIY and that's what Christmas is all about.
We believe that the Christmas story is just the beginning. You know that DIY I mentioned? Well, what we can't do ourselves is take care of the fact that we're not perfect…nope, not even close. Christmas is the start of God's relentless pursuit of us. He loves us so much that he was willing to send his perfect son to earth to forgive us from our sin. Yikes, did she just say"sin" on a light, fun DIY blog? You heard it… let's be Real. I sin… Jess sins… I'm willing to take a guess that you might too? It's so sweet and comforting to think of little baby Jesus and get the warm fuzzies, and don't get me wrong, I'm so dang thankful that Jesus came as a baby, but Christmas doesn't end in that manger scene. Christmas, the true reason for Jesus coming, ended on a cross, and ultimately with an empty tomb. It might not make for as cute of a piece of wall art, or printable, but it's the best gift we'll ever receive. Jesus not only came, but he died for us, taking our sins upon himself. You know what would totally bum me out on Christmas morning? If my kids didn't want the gifts I'd gotten them (especially the ones I got at 3am on Black Friday!) Parents want their children to accept their gifts, and it's exactly the same with God. We didn't deserve for Jesus to come for us, but He did and all we need to do is acknowledge that we can't do it on our own and accept His gift of salvation. If you haven't really thought beyond the manger scene before, I encourage you to do so this year. God's gift to you will be the last gift you ever need and man, I guarantee it will be a Christmas you'll never forget. We sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas, but more than being merry, we wish that this Christmas will be life changing and focused on God's gift for us (because seriously, what does being merry even look like? I picture cheesy sweaters and really big smiles). So, that's what Christmas means to these Real Housewives. Thanks for letting us share with you.

PS-If you want to know more about this whole God thing, email us any time. There's nothing more we'd rather talk about with you! PSS- Here's the info about our Christmas church services if you're looking for a place to attend.

Monica's Church- Calvary Church of Souderton

Christmas Celebration 2011 Services Friday, December 23, 6:00 & 7:30pm* Saturday, December 24, 3:00, 4:30 & 6:00pm *Deaf interpretation offered at the 7:30pm service Childcare birth thru pre-k offered during all services

Jess' Church- Hiltown Baptist
Christmas Eve Candelight Service
"Lessons and Carols"
Saturday, December 24, 6:30pm
Childcare provided through age 3

Since you all enjoyed the free canvases we shared last week, we thought we'd give you a little treat this week too! We love hooking you up with freebies!!

Have you heard of Paper Coterie? If you have, you're way ahead of us since we've been hiding under a rock and didn't know about their fabulousness. Basically, they sell super cool, trendy, fun ways to document and record all the important moments in our lives. Photo books, greeting cards, birth announcements, planners, journals. Awesome stuff, people. Check it out:

I Love Swatchbook (Great Father's Day gift! 30 pages, only $15!)

Memorykeeper (perfect for storing kid's artwork!)

Set of 12 Hello Cards (a personal favorite!)

Live the Life Planner (Calendar + Notebook + Personal Pics = Awesome) Here's what Monica picked with her $15:You might remember that I got an iPhone last month and I'm loving up Instagram (You can follow me at eastcoastcreative) well I saw this journal and knew it was for me.

I used four pictures that make me smile and voila. I plan to use it as kind of a prayer journal. Life can get a tad busy sometimes and often I don't take enough time to talk to The Big Guy. I find that writing helps. I loved that I could choose a fun font (I'm a font snob) and text, so I named it,"Hey God, It's Me Monica" (a little play off of Judy Bloom).

Here's what Jess picked with her $15: Ok, we're lame because we both picked journals, but I just started a new job (as a Trip Coordinator at the same continuing care facility I've been working at for the last two years) and I know there will be tons of details, little reminders, and future trip ideas I'm going to need to jot down on a regular basis, so this will be the perfect fit!

Simple, clean and of course, features my favorite picture of my kids ever.

Here's how you get your Free $15 at Paper Coterie! Click HERE and then use the code GIFTFAVES at Checkout!
So what will you get with your $15?? Let us know what you choose! Have a great weekend!