Back in December I shared a new Devotional Coloring Book called "Cozy Moments to Calm Your Heart". I said I would be spending the winter working in this book before returning to my "Coloring Through the Book of Psalms" book in the spring. This is such a large coloring book and the illustrations take a long time to color, so I doubt I'll finish this book this winter; but here are some more pages I have finished thus far. I'm including the titles of the pages, and the accompanied verses, but not the devotionals that go with each page. You will have to order a book for that, I don't want to break any copy write laws. 😀
All the pages were colored with colored pencils.
No Wonder We Sing
O God, my heart is quiet and confident. No wonder I can sing Your praises!
Psalm 57:7
A Way Through
What a wonderful God we have -- He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the One who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials.
II Corinthians 1:3-4
No Sweeter Rest
Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him to act.
Psalm 27:7
God's Loving Gesture
A true friend is always loyal.
Proverbs 17:17
A Sigh of Relief
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13
Love In The Spotlight
See to it that you really do love each other warmly, with all your hearts.
1 Peter 1:22
Dwelling On Goodness
I will give you peace, and you will go to sleep without fear.
Leviticus 26: 6
Worthwhile and Wonderful
He directs the snow to fall on the earth and tells the rain to pour down.
Job 27:6
Spiritual Fuel
Don't you know He enjoys giving rest to those He loves?
Psalm 127:2
The Joy of God's Heart
A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body.
Proverbs 14:30
All The Joy
I, even I am He who comforts you and gives you all this joy.
Isaiah 51:12
I hope you enjoyed my latest devotional coloring pages! Next week I'll be back with more cards from my time as a Dirty Dozen Design Team member with Splitcoaststampers.
This is part five of a travel series to Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks. If you'd like to start at the beginning, go HERE!
Perhaps the most beautiful spot in all of Yellowstone is named after another one of America's natural wonders: The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. If you are ever in Yellowstone, this is the one attraction you don't want to miss.
Looking at our trusty map I've been using in all my blog posts about Yellowstone, we continued on our journey of hitting all the highlights on the figure eight loop on Day Two. We spent the night at Lake Hotels on Yellowstone Lake. As soon as the sun started to rise, we headed upward, through Hayden Valley, and towards Canyon Village.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone has multiple overlooks and trails from which to view the falls and the canyon. Because we were coming from the south east, we hung a right on South Rim Drive and stopped at the Upper Falls Viewpoints first.
Judging by the vast size of the parking lot, this must be pretty busy during tourist season. But because it was the off season, plus it was so early in the morning, we had the whole place to ourselves.
The map below shows you all the stops, trails, and look out points of the Canyon.
Next, we got back in the car and drove to the next look out point: "Artists Point". This was the best, most beautiful, and our favorite view of the falls and the canyon. It seemed surreal. Like we were looking at a painting instead of something in real life. We never checked the best time of day to be there, but we must have hit it right, because the view was other-worldly.
Here are a couple of short videos taken from the Artists Point
Of course we had to take a couple of selfies to prove we were here! Although I think these photos make it look more like we're standing in front of some fake scenery instead of the real deal. 😂
This next photo is looking at the other side of the canyon, opposite the falls.
After oohing and aahing for quite some time, and just soaking the beauty in, it was time to head back in the car and visit more of the overlooks. We got back on South Rim Drive, and headed to the main figure eight loop road to see the Brink of the Upper Falls. Now we were across the river, on the opposite side of our first stop in the morning.
This was the first time since arriving in Yellowstone we were actually walking a trail. I wasn't worried about bears though, because the area was very civilized and there were plenty of people around by now. The trails we were on were very steep and I was upset because I left my walking sticks in the car. I thought the trail was so short I wouldn't need it, but they are crazy steep and walking sticks would have really helped.
The trail takes you right to the top of the falls. It's incredible!
After viewing the Upper Falls, we then headed over to the Brink of the Lower Falls Trailhead. It was another very steep trail down to the lower falls.
I included the photo below so you could get an idea of how steep this trail is. My husband and I were literally hanging onto each for dear life trying not to slide down the hillside. It was much easier going up than going down.
The view of the canyon was just incredible!
This entire area is "Get in your car, drive two minutes, get out, hike a bit, soak in the views, repeat". All the parking lots were very large, so we always found a spot easily. But again, it was during the off-season, but the parking was much nicer than it was for the Grand Prismatic Spring.
Our next stop: Lookout Point
This is the view of Lookout Point; not quite as incredible as Artist Point, but beautiful just the same.
This trail had lots of boardwalks and steps.
More selfies. By now it was mid-morning so it warmed up and I could lose the jacket.
If you don't like stairs, this might not be the trail for you. 😆
Back in our car again to our next stop: Grand View
The Grand View was just a view of the Grand Canyon. After everything else we saw this morning, this was the least impressive view to us. I wonder if we started here, and then ended up at Artist Point if we would have felt differently.
This area has multiple overlooks of the canyon with short walks leading to them.
And the last stop for the day in this area: Inspiration Point. Definitely not as impressive as Artist Point.
This area did have a really cool new steel and wood overlook whose engineering and style we really admired.
And here's a couple more short videos. The first one shows the view from the North Rim Trail and the second one is the Lower Falls Trail. Enjoy!
We really loved the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It was one of our favorite spots in the park. I would highly recommend getting there early like we did to avoid the crowds and get the best pictures.
Spellbinders came out with these really cool tunnel dies last year, that I thought were pretty unique, so I ordered a couple of them. One is for underwater scenes and the other one I purchased was for sky scenes. This week, I will share my Under-the-Sea cards I made with these new dies.
The main cutting die set is on the right and is called "Underwater Tunnel". The die helps you create a 3D underwater scene. It comes with an anchor die and some plant life, but I also purchased some coordinating die sets to go with it "Underwater Marine Life" and "Luna the Seahorse".
The tunnel dies are so versatile! You can use just one or two of the dies to keep the card more slim, or all three. The card below using only one die cut layer, which makes for a slimmer card and therefore easier to mail. I stamped a water background in versamark, embossed it with clear embossing power, heat set, then ink blended over it. The water bubble stamps and ink blending make a more realistic water look. The top layer is popped up on dimensionals, then I just glued all my little pieces on.
There is a sentiment stamp set that coordinates with this set, but I didn't buy it. I tell you, you can go broke just buying all the "add ons" that come with one new die set. So, I cheated, and just typed all the sentiments from the set onto my computer and printed them out. Ha!
My next card shows how I used the die set to make a shaker card! Once again, I only used one layer mounted up on dimensionals with a piece of acetate in-between. I did the same ink blending technique to create the bubbles. I put sequins inside my shaker card.
And here is a card using all three die cuts. Each layer is popped up on dimensionals so it ends up being a pretty thick diorama card. I dry embossed waves on the white card stock and added bubble embellishments.
Now, when you cut that many holes in your card stock you end up with a lot of scraps, so the next few cards I will do the reverse to use up those scraps!
Here I just took the punched out pieces and glued them flat to the card.
For this card, I dry embossed all the scraps,
I had some old Cuttlebug sea die scraps too (the whale, crab, star fish, and little fish) so I decided to use them up too.
These were such fun cards to make! I really enjoyed working with these new tunnel dies!
