Fidelia's Sisters: An online publication by, for, and about young clergy women, published by The Young Clergy Women Project.

you might notice that different types of grass are different kinds of green, which are all different from the iris stems which are different from the maple leaves which are different from the oak leaves.  If you put out birdseed in early January on my back deck, you will soon see a flutter of crimson, azure, and stunning charcoal gray.

My love of color is certainly one thing that draws me to card making. I love laying out the papers and seeing which color combinations work best.  I love stamping with different colors of ink and painting the ink onto the paper.  Colors make me happy.
And the creative process makes me happy.  It is a joy just to sink into the creativity God has given me rather than thinking about what I can say about the Creator.  It is a blessing to have some time, however long or brief, when the biggest problem to cross my mind is how to fix the image that I just stamped crooked.  And, to be perfectly honest, it is a relief to have the stamps tell me what I will say to the recipient of the card: “You Make Each Day a Little Brighter,” “Sending Caring Thoughts Your Way,” “Many Thanks.”

Most Monday mornings I spend some of my Sabbath time making cards.  It enlivens my spirit.  And the pastor in me likes to think that when I send the cards, I am sharing a bit of that joy with others as well.

These are four stamps that I carved myself.

To create this stamped image, I inked my stamps with markers and sprayed them with water before stamping.

On this card I colored in stamped images using a water paint pen. The background is brayered ink.

I played with a lot of textures and layering on this card.

Inside this card it says, "Happy b-day."  Get it?

Joanna Harader is pastor of Peace Mennonite Church in Lawrence, Kansas.