Integrity

Your Integrity Shows Your Faithfulness - Rick Warren

“Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones.” (Luke 16:10 GNT)

No matter what they say, anyone who is not faithful in small matters will not be faithful in large matters.

A common saying today is that “what you do in your private life is nobody’s business.” Well, it actually is. What you do in your private life — what you do behind closed doors or out of view of other people — builds and reveals your true character. And God sees it just as clearly as the things you do in public.

In fact, the small things you do that are unseen are the seeds to God’s public blessing on your life. You cannot compartmentalize your life and say, “I have integrity in my public life, just not in my private life.” I bet you could make a list right now of public figures who have tried to live their lives this way only to have their private indiscretions become this week’s public scandal and their personal downfall. No matter what they say, any leader who is not faithful in small matters will not be faithful in large matters.

Jesus says, “If you have not been faithful with that which belongs to someone else, who will give you what belongs to you?” (Luke 16:12 GNT).

For centuries, everybody who learned a skill, trade or vocation learned it through an apprenticeship. If you were going to be a mechanic, you apprenticed to another mechanic and served in his (or her) business before you started your own.

This principle of apprenticeship applies to every area of your life. It applies to how you handle other people’s money, how you handle other people’s possessions, and even how you handle other people’s ministry before God gives you your own.

Before God gave me my own ministry, I served as a youth pastor under another man’s ministry. God was watching how I handled it; he was testing my integrity. I needed to prove my faithfulness in that ministry before God would allow me to lead the ministry of Saddleback Church.

If someone loans you his car, how well do you take care of it? If a family lets you stay in their house for vacation, do you treat it as well as you treat your own home? God is watching and testing your integrity. And he will reward you accordingly.

52 Weeks of Wonder

Terrific Textures

"Ready to do some kissing? Stamp kissing that is, the visual kind that adds texture to stamp images to give them creative interest. Today, we’ll focus on texture kissing—check out some of these great ideas using August’s fabulous Stamp of the Month, Wicked (S1008A).

Another fun way to add texture to your stamps is looking to fabrics and ribbons. The bear in the Nature’s Gift stamp set (C1424) has a great textile look thanks to the help of the Juniper ribbon (shown on left of photo above) found in the Designer Ribbon Green Collection."

Jeanette Lynton

Jeanette shares a few other "texture" techniques throughout her blog post.  Click through to find additional artwork created with her amazing ideas.

CTMH's Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

CTMH is delighted to introduce the exclusive CTMH Cricut® Art Philosophy collection! CTMH worked with Provo Craft* to bring you a Cricut® cartridge filled with 700 shapes hand-selected by company founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton. Simply insert the cartridge into your Cricut® machine and you’re ready to cut any of the shapes with the touch of a button! Choose from stunning rosettes, unique gift boxes, elegant doilies, crafty banners, and more. The exclusive images are incredibly versatile, and many are designed to be used with specific My Acrylix® stamps for real eye-popping power!

Bring your artwork to life with stamps and chipboard Dimensional Elements! When you purchase the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge,^** you’ll also receive three exclusive D-size stamp sets and three sets of Dimensional Elements designed to perfectly coordinate with images on the cartridge. That’s a retail value of over $120 for just for $99! Stamp on your Cricut shapes; cover your Dimensional Elements with a Cricut shape; or cut, stamp, and then cover!

Numerous My Acrylix® stamp images in our Idea Book pair wonderfully with images on our Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. When you see the Cricut icon or a stamp image outlined in red in the Idea Book, you will know there’s a matching shape on your Art Philosophy cartridge. Cut out the coordinating shape with your Cricut machine using the setting indicated on the stamp’s carrier sheet, then stamp your image on the base shape—quick and easy!

Contact me to find out how to add the CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge to your collection at 50% off the retail price!  And if you don't have your own copy of CTMH's new Autumn/Winter Idea Book, let me know and I'll rush one right out to you. 

*Cricut® is a registered trademark of Provo Craft & Novelty, Inc. All rights reserved.

**The Cricut® Art Philosophy cartridge is sold as part of the Cricut® Art Philosophy Collection and is not available separately.

"Enjoy" Scrapbook Page Pops with Flowers

Quickly cut, stamp, and curl pretty 3-D flowers using CTMH's new Cricut® Art Philosophy cartridge, My Acrylix® Hooray Bouquet stamp set, and your own creativity. Pick up more ideas for embellishing your layouts, cards, and gifts with fun florals in this how-to video.

52 Weeks of Wonder

Thrilled for the Cricut cartridge

"We introduced so many exciting new products at Convention a couple of weeks ago, but our exclusive Cricut cartridge collection, Art Philosophy, has to be among my very favorites. This versatile cartridge, with 700 shapes ranging from the basic to the complex, really is a scrapbooker and stamper’s dream. Today, I’d love to feature a few fun ideas to inspire your creativity using this great new product. Enjoy!

The Art Philosophy Cricut Collection includes three exclusive D-size stamp sets designed to perfectly coordinate with images from the cartridge. The “congratulations” card shows one of the Cricut square bracket shapes with a coordinating stamp. It makes putting a card together extremely easy (and the great scallop border is also a nice finishing touch, courtesy of the cartridge.)

In addition to the three sets included with the collection, our new Idea book has numerous stamp sets specifically designed to complement images on the Art Philosophy cartridge. Take for instance the Hooray Bouquet set (D1491). The set has a whopping six flower shapes that coordinate with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.  It’s one of my favorites! Layer them together or create your own little garden.  CTMH has taken stamping to a whole new level when it comes to coordinated die-cut shapes. We’re thrilled to add this new product to our idea book and can’t wait to see all the ideas that bloom!"

Jeanette Lynton

CTMH's August SOTM

Beautiful Stamps, Amazing Discounts - "Wicked"

Each month you can enjoy a new D-size stamp set, available for one month only, for just $5—that’s over 70% off retail! When you place an order of $50 or more in CTMH products, you qualify for this special Stamp Of The Month pricing.

Supply list and directions for all the "Wicked" projects shown above can be found here.
 

Extra! Extra! with CTMH

Not only is the CTMH Autumn/Winter Idea Book live today, our Extra! Extra! promotion is in full swing too!  Check out the amazing deal below.

Free bonus stamp set in August!

In celebration of our newly updated Stamp Of The Month program, we’re throwing in a little something extra: a FREE* bonus stamp set! In August, when you place an order of $50 or more in products and purchase the August Stamp Of The Month set, "Wicked", for just $5.00, you’ll receive the My Acrylix® A Typeface bonus A-size set FREE (retail value $6.95)! Think of it as two promotions in one—qualify for and purchase the discounted August Stamp of the Month set, and we’ll throw in a second stamp set FREE! It’s Extra! Extra!

*Offer valid August 1–31, 2011. Tax and shipping/handling apply. Studio J® purchases are not eligible for this offer.