The Blooming Cross

This post was originally featured on Faithfully Yours. Easter is a time to celebrate the miraculous. God coming to us restoring a relationship with Him. God taking someone dead and not only bringing that person back to life but giving us that were dead in our sins a chance to come back to life in Christ. Because of the message and the project I thought it was fitting to share here as well for Easter.

To me, the most wonderful thing about scrapbooking is being able to relive those special memories when you turn the pages of your album. This page is especially dear to me because of the story it tells. The story is one of those miracle moments that God used to assure my mom everything was going to be ok.

Hidden Journaling Card reads: Emily made an Easter dish garden for Grandma. Imagine her surprise though when the grass in the dish garden wasn’t the only thing growing! To make the crosses I cut down branches from a shrub in our yard. Most of the branches were dead and those that were not had all the buds removed and then were cut down to 3 and 4 inch lengths. We then tied these together with hemp twine. When mom had Emily trim back the grass they were both in for a surprise. The center cross (the one representing where Jesus died.) made of twigs, that had their buds removed and then cut into 3 or 4 inch lengths and tied together with twine and stuck into a pot of dirt, was GROWING! They both were so excited to see the growth against all odds! Even more amazing to me, when Mom saw it she felt such a sense of peace! She’s been dealing with a lot lately, chemo has been taking its toll on her and she felt like Jesus’ cross growing was a sign to her that everything was going to be ok!



 Tips: Sometimes a story is just too long or even too personal to include in the main design on your page. Using hidden journaling-which in this case consisted of a pull out card behind a photo mat. Allows you to tell the story the way you want to , but not have it as the main focus of the page. The decoration along the side of the hidden journaling disguises it to look like an embellishment on the photo mat. If the journaling is something of a personal nature just put the page into your album as is. Only you would know to take it out to read the hidden story. If the journaling is something you want others to read. Cut a slit into your page protector where the journaling card can easily slide out. This allows for access to the journaling but still protects your page. When cutting the page protector, mark the cut line off first with a grease pencil or wipe off marker. Remove the layout from the protector, then insert a cutting mat. Carefully using a ruler and a straight cutting knife cut along the line you drew. Reinsert your page then thread the pull tab for the journaling card through the slit to make it known to your reader that it can be pulled out

Supplies used: Glorious Morning collection (Faithfully Yours), Chipboard Thickers, Metal Crosses from Momenta, assorted ribbon, white cardstock.