Friday Freebies at Faith Sisters!

The Bible Challenge

You can download this scripture art in our shop.

Nov 18-25 was National Bible Week so it only seems fitting to do a layout about our bibles!

The Bible. The word of God: Living, Active and True.

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Matthew 5:18 ESV

Journal about the Bible and what it means to you. Highlight some of your favorite verses or stories. Include a photo of your Bible or Bibles.

See more bible layouts and upload yours in our gallery here.

Faith Sisters Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Leave A Legacy Of Faith with Faith Sisters
Faith Sisters is proud to announce the grand opening of a brand new Christian scrapbooking website at www.faithsisters.com. The launch of this exciting community brings together many sisters from all over the world who participate in faithbooking challenges, contests, member chats, and so much more.

West Virginia November 27, 2007 – Faith Sisters announced the opening of its new website www.faithsisters.com “Helping You Leave A Legacy Of Faith” in September. The site is designed to provide inspiration, support, and a feeling of community amongst the Christian artists that visit there. It offers weekly faithbooking challenges, tutorials, exclusive designs, an online shop with lots of faithbooking freebies, downloadable Word Art, inspiring layouts and artwork in the inspiration gallery, and many other useful services. The Faith Sisters Shop has pre-made digital designs for sale, one can find educational assistance at the Online Classroom, and members can post their own layout creations in the Inspiration Gallery and chat with other Faith Sisters in the forums.

Faith Sisters is the brainstorm of three creative women who befriended one another while working in the scrapbooking industry. Karma Holoboff, Sunny Kohler and Michelle McVaney, the co-owners of Faith Sisters, live many states from one another but they are proof that the internet can be used for good. Their goal was to create a website that would give like minded women who are followers of Christ a forum to meet and share their art and inspiration, while also introducing others to this idea of leaving a legacy of faith. “We wanted to start Faith Sisters to provide an organized, fun, and helpful website for others to learn how to leave a legacy of faith in their scrapbooks,” says Michelle McVaney, a co-owner of Faith Sisters. “We envision it as a place for all to feel welcome; a place that nurtures those new to the idea of faithbooking and scrapping while allowing the more experienced artists to inspire and shine. Faith Sisters provides all of its members with a place to feel at home, surrounded by friends, sharing something that we love.”

Karma Holoboff, the Faith Sisters webmaster and co-owner, says,"We expected the site to be popular, but we were shocked to see the forum grow so quickly! The traffic numbers on the site have been higher than we could have ever imagined. For the month of November we will have had over five thousand unique visitors. Proof that Faithbooking and Leaving A Legacy of Faith is growing quickly and has been much needed in the industry!" Sunny Kohler, another Faith Sisters co-owner, adds, “As faithbooking is growing and developing within the scrapbooking industry, we see a huge potential for product lines both paper and digital. This large faithbooking market is new and untouched and deserves to have high quality products specific to this new form of art and worship.”

The art of paper scrapbooking has seen tremendous growth in the past few years. The Hobby Industry Association estimates the number of scrapbookers in the U.S. to over 62 million, with 57% of U.S. households participating in scrapbooking. Digital scrapbooking is a unique alternative to the traditional craft of scrapbooking by incorporating the computer to create artwork. Faithbooking is adding your faith into your scrapbooks, documenting God’s fingerprints in your life. “TELL the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord.” (Psalm 78:4).

The design team at FaithSisters.com encourages everyone to come – be inspired to Leave A Legacy Of Faith.

Faith Sisters
Helping You Leave A Legacy of Faith

Contact:

Michelle McVaney
Michelle@faithsisters.com
304-485-7322
http://www.faithsisters.com

2008 Scripture Challenge Participant List

In preparation for our Scripture Challenge beginning January 7th, I would like to set up links to each person's gallery on my blog that will be particpating in the Scripture Challenge. That way, you can find everyone's gallery easily to look at their cards and to share with each other. My thought is that I will include your first name with last initial. People will click on your name on my blog, and it will take them to your gallery of cards. This will take me a bit of time to set up. I would like to start working on it now if I can. What I need from each participant is the following:

• Your first name with last initial
• Link to the gallery you will use for posting your challenge cards/pages

Please e-mail your information to me at Patter. We have set up a 2008 Scripture Challenge category in our gallery here on Faith Sisters. You can certainly use this gallery or you can also post them on your blog. Just send me your blog link, and we will use that. I think this will make it easier for everyone to share and look around.

I hope you all are as excited as I am about the challenge. It has been fun watching God put our awesome group together. We have many people from many different boards participating. And if you haven't joined us yet, it is never too late. We invite everyone to join at any time. Have a blessed day everyone!

Thanksgiving Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Alisa, one of our newer members for her stunning layout and inspiring journaling this week!

Alisa says: This is a picture I took of my 4 year old saying a prayer for his brother.

Journaling Reads:
Dear Jesus I am so thankful I know you. That I truly experience your grace everyday. I am so grateful for these children of yours that you have given me for a short time to raise for you. That they may love and serve you with all their hearts. May I love up to this honor you have given me and may my children see You in me. My heart overflows with thanksgiving to You Lord when I see how strong my childrens faith really is. Even Christopher at 4 is a prayer warrior for our family. Thank you again Lord for loving us.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

Credits: Sept. Glow Kit
Ellilash Journaling Box
Rhonna Farrar Split Peas Alpha
CBX Elton Font

See more of Alisa's beautiful layouts in our gallery and read more about this mother of 7 in our forum!

Thanksgiving Challenge

Word art by Karma can be downloaded for free in our shop, versions for paper and digi scrappers.

This week do a layout that shows how thankful you are to our Lord for what he has done in your life.

The following is by the United States in Congress assembled.

PROCLAMATION

It being the indispensable duty of all Nations, not only to offer up their supplications to ALMIGHTY GOD, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for His goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of his providence in their behalf:

Therefore the United States in Congress assembled, taking into their consideration the many instances of divine goodness to these States, in the course of the important conflict in which they have so long engaged; the present happy and promising state of public affairs; and the events of the war, in the course of the year now drawing to a close…Do hereby recommend to the inhabitants of these States in general, to observe, and request the several States to interpose their authority in appointing and commanding the observation of THURSDAY the twenty-eight day of NOVEMBER next, as a day of solemn THANKSGIVING TO GOD for all his mercies: and they do further recommend to all ranks, to testify to their gratitude to GOD for his goodness, by a cheerful obedience of his laws, and by promoting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.

Done in Congress, at Philadelphia, the eleventh day of October, in the year of our LORD one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, and of our Sovereignty and Independence, the seventh.

JOHN HANSON, President

Charles Thomson, Secretary

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Here are some verses that you may want to consider using for your Thanksgiving challenge...

Psalm 59:17 “I will sing your praises. You are my mighty fortress and you love me.”

I Chronicles 16:34 NIV “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.”

Psalm 136:1 LB “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His faithful love endures forever.”

Psalm 65:11 LB “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.”

Psalm 37:8 LB “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who trust in Him!”

Ephesians 5:20 LB “And you will always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Exodus 23:15,16 “Thou shall keep the feast….of harvest the first fruits of thy labors, which is in the end of the year when thou has gathered in thy labors out of the field.”

2 Cor 9:15 “Thanks be to God, for His unspeakable gift!”

You can post your challenge project and see other members Thanksgiving Layouts in our Gallery.

Sharing Gratitude

There is so much to be thankful for! I just wanted to share my feelings of gratitude for all the blessed events that have came this past year. Our family has been blessed with steady income, my husband having a great local job and for the first time in seven years our family has health insurance! We are all healthy and through our trails are so blessed with happiness.

I am so thankful for the great women on our creative team who have shared so much of their talents and time! Michelle and Karma have been such a support to me and all the women I have met through the starting of this website. Your prayers and support have lifted me more than you’ll ever know! I think of all the wonderful things you have done and try each day to pass on the good.

I will be cooking Thanksgiving dinner at my home for my family and my father. I wish that more of my family could be there and that my children could know how fun thanksgiving is when there is lots of family around but we are still keeping our same family traditions even though it is just us. I am so thankful to have my dad live just next door and for all that he has done for my family. My kids and I have made him a gratitude box. Each of us writing things we appreciate about him on slips of paper. You can write things like, "I am grateful for your…smile, the sound of our voice, your hugs, etc." They have wrote great things like how he always has full size candy bars for them, takes them on horse rides, has snowmobiles for them, cooks them Christmas breakfast, feeds their cat, bough them bb guns, lets them drive his truck in the fields, lets them look at his knives and Kim likes how he waits on his porch to talk to her as she gets off the school bus.

Thanksgiving is a day to acknowledge and express how grateful we are for all that we have. "It's a time to stop, honor, and reflect on the abundance, prosperity, people and lives we are blessed with." I hope that you have a blessed day and share your gratitude with the ones you love!

Do you have any special family traditions that you express your gratitude?

2008 Scripture Challenge {Update}

First, I want to say how excited I am about the response to this upcoming challenge. I think it is going to be amazing. I already have all 52 topics ready to go for the year. God gave them all to me one morning very quickly. It was awesome. I have completed two of the challenges, and I must say, I get totally engrossed in the topic and finding scripture. I am enjoying it, and I pray you will too. I am very, very excited about it! Also, it is never too late to sign up for the challenge. Spread the word. People can join anytime through the year. I am excited to have anyone that wants to join us!

Many of you have asked for more specific details on the challenges. I have e-mailed you all but I thought I would post here so that everyone has an idea of what we will be doing. Each week I will post a subject/topic. You will then find your favorite scripture or new scripture relating to that topic. You will then alter your card or create your scrapbook page with that scripture or scriptures. I have found that I can fit two scriptures on the 7Gypsies cards. Usually I find more than one favorite scripture. I can't just settle for one! Ha! Anyway, hopefully through the year you will be building your own library of favorite scriptures.

Start date: Our first challenge will go out on Monday, January 7th. I will actually post it on the Faith Sisters blog and my blog sometime on Sunday, January 6th; however, Feedblitz (our subscription service) will not deliver it to your e-mail box until Monday morning. So if you are a subscriber to either blog, you should receive your challenges in your mailbox sometime each Monday morning beginning January 7th. I can't wait!

Update on 7Gypsies Holders: For those of you that have placed an order with Lisa, she told me that they were shipped to her on Nov. 16th; however, with the Thanksgiving holiday, she will not receive them until Monday, Nov. 26th. She will then send you an invoice and get your holders shipped out to you!

Also, for those of you that will be covering the 7Gypsies cards with patterned paper, I have found that a Rolodex punch is very handy. The holes are not spaced the same as the 7Gypsies cards; however, I just punch one side at a time to get the spacing I want. Simple and easy. I also don’t punch through more than one layer at a time. I generally punch my patterned paper separately from the card before gluing the patterned paper on the card. It is a plastic punch so I wouldn’t want it to break. Works fast and easy for me. I found my Rolodex punch locally at Office Max for around $6. They also have them online at officemax.com.

For those of you that want a 7Gypsies holder but have not reserved one, Lisa is expecting another shipment of 200 of them on December 12th. She ships right away so you would still have time to order a holder from her and receive it in time for January 7th.

I think that is my update for now. I am very excited to see what God will do with this challenge through the year. I pray that each of you has a blessed and joyous Thanksgiving!

Home Sweet Home Challenge Winner!

Once again, our wonder Faith Sisters member, JackieAnn, does a great job with her weekly challenge!

JackieAnn says:
I tried to make this look like one of those old fashioned cross stitch samplers. I just love the minute details my mom’s friend MaryHelen added to the painting. She put my Tbird in the driveway which reminds me of my dad and the Tbird he drove when I was little. And if you look really close you can see a couple of my gnomes peeking out =)


LAYOUT: HOME SWEET HOME


SUPPLIES:

• Cardstock: Bazzill Basics

• Patterned Paper: Basic Grey Mellow “Flavorful” & “Ebb”

• Digital Elements: Word Art by Krystal Hartley

• Vellum: Strathmore

• Font: Title: Home Sweet Home…downloaded from the Internet

• Journaling: Comic Sans

• Adhesive: Vario: EK Success; Vellum Adhesive Runner, Zots:Therm O Web

• Embellishments: Brads: Club Scrap; Felt Flowers: Greenhouse by American Crafts, Free Spirit Flowers: Fancy Pants; Chalk: Colorbox by Clearsnap Charcoal

• Other: Scan of Watercolor painting by MaryHelen Lewis 2007

JOURNALING:
MaryHelen painted a picture of my childhood home for me for Christmas last year and I liked it sooo much I asked her to paint one of our current home. So I sent off some photographs and this beautiful watercolor painting arrived in our mail the day before we had to evacuate from the fires. It was actually one of the first things I grabbed on the way out the door. I figured if our house burned down I would have an artists rendering of what it looked like and made it a home.

See JackieAnn's gallery here and find out more about her on her blog.

{Scripture} Challenge for 2008!

Beginning in January, our Creative Team member, Patter, will be hosting a weekly Scripture Challenge. She hopes to keep it running for 52 weeks (all year). We are posting this now so that you can get your supplies and be ready to go in the New Year. Patter will be using the 7Gypsies Revolving ATC Card Holder. Currently these are very hard to find. Patter has a store that will hold them for all challenge participants. The store owner is expecting her first shipment the week of Thanksgiving. You can e-mail Lisa at youratcstore@comcast.net. Tell her that you are part of the Scripture Challenge and that you want her to hold the 7Gypsies Revolving ATC Card Holder for you. She will also need to know if you want cardholder divider tabs and extra cards. Your card holder comes with 20 tags but you will need more if you are going to complete the 52 weeks. She will give you 48 hours to pay for your invoice. After that, she will make it available for other customers to purchase online.

For those of you that want to be part of this challenge but don't want to spend the money on the 7Gypsies card holder, you can certainly use a regular deck of cards, or a jumbo deck of cards (available at Walgreen's for $1.99), or a Rolodex file, a scrapbook, flash cards, use your imagination. You can use anything you would like.Please feel free e-mail Patter at tripletmom94@austin.rr.com if you have questions. We look forward to seeing a lot of you become part of this challenge! To get updates to the challenges each week, you can subscribe to this blog in the top right hand corner by adding your email address. Have a joyous day everyone!

Home Sweet Home Challenge

Our homes are a a special place of refuge to all who live there. Homes are about more than just the house that you live in. A home is a place with family, security and love. Most of us go through life living in different houses that we have made home for a time. Our homes are another wonderful blessing from God.

“A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.” Proverbs 24:3-4

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

“My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” Isaiah 32:18

You can download this weeks scripture art by Krystal Hartley in our FS Shop!

Faithbook tips:

• Scrapbook pictures of houses that you have lived in through the years.

• Journal about what makes your house a home.

• Take pictures of the special things that your family loves about your home.

• Journal about what drew you to your home the first time.

• What was life like when you first moved into your home?

• Do you have memories of your childhood home? Journal about them.

Take a walk through your house and pray in each room asking the Lord to bless and protect your family and all that happens in your home.

You can take a closer look at our layouts by going into the Inspiration Gallery.
Find more scripture verses in our Faith Forum.

Faith Prevails Challenge Winner!

Our winner this week is new to Faith Sisters but she has already found herself at home! We just love her layouts and contributions in our community forum! Congratulations to Cheryl from Florida!

Title of her winning layout:
Daniel's Surgery

Journaling reads: One of the hardest moments of my life was going through this second surgery for Daniel. It was followed by weeks of wound care - that I had to do three times a day. I never thought I would be able to do it, but God gave me the strength to continue. My faith in my Savior grew immeasurably. I learned nothing is impossible for me in Him. [Daniel is now 28 months old. We have had some issues following this surgery, but he is doing well at the present time.]

Credits: Krystal Hartley's True to Yourself kit in the Faith Sisters Shop; Krystal Hartley Word Art/Weekly Verse in the Faith Sisters Shop; font 1942 report; glitter dust My Emma Doodle; brushes (date and lines) Rhona Farrer 2PS Celebration kit.

Learn more about Cheryl in our community, see her layout gallery, and her blog.

Faith Prevails - Challenge

There is no obstacle too great, no challenge too difficult, if we have faith.

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. –Matthew 17:20

Create a layout that shows a difficult struggle or challenge that you have overcome and strengthened your faith.

See more layouts and upload your own here in the gallery.
Download our Weekly Verse by Krystal Hartley in our shop.

The following layouts were done by our Creative Team...

A Place of Worship Challenge Winner!

Congratulations to Shanna for this weeks fabulous challenge layout!

She has created an elegant and stunning layout this week using free downloads from Two Peas in a Bucket.

Journaling reads:
It doesn't matter where I am...
It doesn't matter who I know...
It doesn't matter if I'm alone...
Because it always feels like home.

Check out more of Shanna's layouts by clicking here. You can learn more about her by going into our forum!

Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day!

Hello Faith Sisters!

With today being dubbed the official Digital Scrapbooking Day, we thought that it was fitting to have today as the opening of our own Digital Shop!

You can now download our weekly challenge verses in our shop as well as some amazing papers and kits from our Design Team Members. As time goes on, we will have tons more things to offer and we will be updating our blog as we add them in!

Right now EVERYTHING in our shop is FREE to download! All you need to do is sign up for your free account.

Don't forget, even if you are not a digital scrapbooker, you can still print out our scripture verses for use in your paper scrapbooks and also print out the papers too!

If you are a digital designer and would like some information on how you can sell your designs in our shop, please email karma@faithsisters.com. We are currently looking for new Design Team members to fill it up with inspirational scrapbooking designs for Faithbookers!

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UPDATE: November 6th, 2007.

We have added MORE freebies to our shop and one of our gallery members did this weeks challenge with the new papers by Dahlia in the shop! (Seen here)

Thanks Tammy, (AKA: TWlokto) for your BEAUTIFUL work, we just love it!