One of my favorite Bible verses is Isaiah 43:2. The entire verse is so beautiful as it promises God's presence and protection when we "go through deep waters" and "walk through fire." We won't be overwhelmed by the waters or consumed by the flames because our loving heavenly Father is beside us through it all.
I created this card for my sister and brother-in-law who recently lost their 18-year-old son. My nephew was a bright, funny, hard-working young man, and this loss is as devastating as it is unexpected. Yet we do not grieve as those without hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13) because we know he is with the Lord in heaven, and we will see him again one day. Still, there is the separation that death brings while we are still here on earth, and it's very painful. We are clinging to Jesus and trusting Him to strengthen and uphold us in this time of mourning. He is faithful!
The word art on the card is from the Silhouette Design Store, and I did an offset of it and made it into a print and cut in the Silhouette Design Studio software.
For the background panel, I used a few shades of blue Pearl Ex powders on water color paper and sprayed water on them. Then I sprayed some blue ink and blotted that a bit. I also added some touches of Stormy Skies distress ink onto the panel and a few big water droplets. I used my heat tool to dry the panel and then ran it through Altenew's From Land to See 3D embossing folder. I ran it through three times in total so that I could have the waves over the entire panel and have some of them seem closer than those in the background.
The boat was created using Altenew's Wooden Rowboat die set. I die cut the pieces out of a few different colors of brown and black and then did a little ink blending on the wooden planks. I added the boat and the sentiment with foam tape.
I find Altenew's grip mat is helpful for holding things in place while I'm blending die cuts or assembling pieces. I used it here to hold the base of the card down while I adhered the front panel.
Challenges I'm entering: