ODBDSLC209 - Week 2

One week down and one to go on the Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light challenge - Red, white and blue. This week I decided to have a go at colouring some tiles! I can tell you - this was a trial and error lesson! Here is my tile:

I bought some glazed tiles at my local craft store and have used Brilliance ink (Graphite Black) to stamp the image and verse - both from Our Daily Bread Designs Cherry Blossom onto my tile. These stamps were quite easy to stamp onto the tile because they are cling foam mounted rubber stamps. I have tried some other tiles with clear stamps and found that I had to use a "rock-a-block" instead of the normal acrylic stamping blocks to get a nice image. 

I have then baked my tile in the oven for about 20 - 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius to heat set the ink. I could've used StazOn ink but I wanted to colour the image with Copics and StazOn and Copics do not mix!

The image is then coloured with a mixture of Copics, Copic Various Ink and Ranger Tim Holtz Adirondack Alcohol Inks. I would like to coat the tile so that it is more durable; however, I am having problems sourcing a water based spray sealant (and the "paint on" ones don't seem to work very well) so for the moment ... it's just pretty to look at... and more experimenting to be done :-)

For more inspiration for this challenge please visit my talented design team sisters:

Chris Olsen ~ Linda Carson ~ Diana Nguyen

Cheryl Scrivens ~ DJ Rants ~ Robin Clendenning

To see all the projects created for ODBDSLC209 or to join the challenge click here. You have until 8 pm Sunday, 20 July 2014 EDT to join us (or 8 am Monday, 21 July 2014 AWST). By participating in the challenge, you have a chance to be placed in a monthly draw to win a $15 ODBD Gift Certificate that can be used towards the purchase of stamps in the “stamps column” in the ODBD store; or to be spotlighted on the ODBD Blog at our next challenge! The random prize winner will be posted on the first challenge of each month.

I shared quite a few weeks ago now that I was attending a 6 week course on the Book of Psalms. You can see my post here about week 1. The course is now finished and I can now say that I really do look at the Book of Psalms in a different way! It was really interesting (awe inspiring and humbling!) to look at the Book of Psalms as a whole, and also at the individual Psalm level where each one points to Jesus. 

As part of the course, some of us chose to do an assignment - to delve a little deeper into the Book of Psalms and apply what we had learnt during the course. The question I chose was to "Write an explanation and application of Psalm 118 to a Christian audience". While it was a struggle at times, (and I was battling a horrible cold (that I still haven't got rid of!) I never cease to be in awe of how God put the whole Bible together - that each part of it was put carefully together to point to Jesus and what He did for us at the cross and through His resurrection. 

Psalm 118:22-23, in the light of the New Testament, speaks about Jesus, through His crucifixion and resurrection being the "stone which the builders rejected" (Psalm 118:22a) that has now "become the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22b) (Acts 4:10-11). Both Matthew 21:42-44 and Luke 20:17-18 quote Psalm 118:22-23 and then go on to say that "everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust" (Luke 20:18). This is warning people about God's judgement and that those who reject Jesus as the Messiah will be eternally lost.

But for those of us who do believe that Jesus is the Messiah - we can rejoice and celebrate Jesus' death as the "day the LORD has made (Ps 118:24) and the resurrection of Jesus is the LORD's doing and is "marvelous in our eyes" (Ps 118:23). We can celebrate, thank and praise God, for He Himself has become our salvation through Jesus' death and resurrection.

We, as Christians, can face each day, and even our darkest moments, and we can rejoice in the knowledge that through God's mercy and grace that He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins so that we may "not die, but live" (Ps 118:17a). Jesus is the stone that is to form the foundation of our lives. If we believe what He has done for us, in His death and resurrection, we may have eternal life with Him.

And this is why we should be giving thanks to the LORD with our whole hearts - as Psalm 9:1 says (that I used on my tile, above). 

Please note: some of the above is taken from my assignment that I wrote for the course. I used a range of references including: Baker, K (general editor) 1999, The Zondervan NASB Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Corporation); Mays, J.L. 2011, Interpretation - A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching - Psalms (John Knox Press: Louisville); and Wilcock, M. 2001, The Bible Speaks Today - The Message of Psalms 73-150 (Inter-Varsity Press: Nottingham).

Thanks for looking!