Giveaway Winners and Easter Photos

“HE IS RISEN!
Happy Easter!

(Oops! I cut off the top of our banner in the photo!)

Thank you to those who enter the photo contest and giveaway. We had a very small turn out but, Lord willing, I will do another one again in the future! The following folks won a $20.00 gift card to our Etsy Store. I hope the rest of you will continue to follow us on facebook, or follow the blog… we will be releasing some new products in the next couple of months that you will want to watch for.

Photo Contest Winner: Our solo entry and winner to the photo contest is: Alicia Clark

Random Winner from Voters:  robinlscott (Please e-mail me at standlea(at)gmail(d ot) com because I did not get your e-mail address from the post.

If you didn’t win, you can take advantage of this 10% off coupon: PHOTOGIVEAWAY for our Etsy Shop that expire on April 15, 2012.

We had a late entry to the photo contest… but was too cute not to share it with you as well. Check out Jennifer’s photo of her adorable children with their Advent Calendar:

Photo Contest and Giveaway ends soon

Our Photo Contest ends soon and there are very few entries. Send a photo of your kids with their Advent Calendar or Easter Banner to standlea(at)gmail(dot )com to have it posted on the blog. The winning photo will receive a $20.00 gift card. Friends and family can vote for your photo and have a chance to win a gift card too! Hurry because submissions and voting end at 5:00 PM this Thursday! See this post for complete details or to vote for a photo.

Photos Contest/Giveaway Begins Today!

Heart FELT Truths’ is having its first photo contest and giveaway! There are two ways to enter and two separate prizes. ****DUE TO FACEBOOK’S rules about giveaways, we have moved the location of posts to this page! Please submit your photo directly to me to be entered into the contest at standlea(at)gmail.com!****

ENTER YOUR PHOTO:
To enter, simply e-mail me a photo of your kids using their Heart FELT Truth’s Easter Banner or Advent Calendar. Did you use the patterns on our site to make an Advent Calendar? That counts too! Post your image here and the photo with the most comments will receive a $20.00 gift card to the Heart FELT Truths Etsy store! (If there is a tie, the winner will be randomly selected from the leading photos.)

VOTE ON YOUR FAVORITE:
Don’t have an Easter Banner or Advent Calendar? No worries! You can still have a chance to win our second $20.00 gift card by voting on your favorite photo… to vote on a photo just leave a comment below with the name/# of your favorite photo.

Contest is only open to those over 18 years of age, living in the USA. By submitting your photo you are granting me permission to post it on this blog.

You can post and vote on photos starting today and going through Thursday April 5 at 5 PM CST.  I’ll catch back up with you all after Good Friday and Easter Sunday have past…. and the winners will be announced on Monday morning April 9, both on our blog and on the Facebook page. So what are you waiting for! Send it now: standlea@gmail.com

**WOULD YOU LIKE AN ADDITIONAL CONTEST ENTRY? “Like” us on Facebook or sign-up for e-mail alerts on our blog!

PHOTO #1 Carson and the donkey
(Submitted by Whitney Standlea, Owner Heart FELT Truths. You can vote for this photo, but sorry, I can’t win the photo contest!)

PHOTO #2 Alicia Clark’s Advent Calendar
Alicia purchased her calendar from Heart FELT Truths. Unfortunately she didn’t get her child in the photo, but he enjoyed using the calendar over the Christmas season!
(To vote for this photo, leave a comment on this post mentioning Photo #2)

Family Devotional Times and your Easter Banner

So, you received your banner in the mail and are waiting for Palm Sunday to arrive. Have you set a time aside each day for your family to gather around the Word and learn together? Let me encourage you to use your Easter Banner as a stepping stone to regular family devotional times. As you set aside a time each day during Holy Week to read and discuss Scripture, it is a great platform to establishing a regular habit for your family.

Family worship time doesn’t have to have a fancy Banner or visual aid each day! It can be very simple, just 15 minutes! Sing a hymn together, read a passage of Scripture and briefly discuss its meaning with the children. Then pray together for one another and for others. Check this out for thoughts on overcoming obstacles to regular family time.

Also, a big thank you today for Motherhood on a Dime sharing out Easter patterns! Motherhood on a Dime provides excellent resources for thrifty parenting. You can see more Easter ideas on their site here.

Coupon Code, Order Deadline Approaching!

Yes, that’s right! Time is running out to get your Easter Banner in time for its designed use starting on Palm Sunday. TODAY (FRIDAY the 23) is our deadline for orders expected to arrive by the following weekend. If you order by today at 2:00 PM (CST), you can use a special coupon code available over at our Facebook Page. Head on over and pick up the code… and maybe “Like” us as well!

Book and Activities for Children to Learn about Easter Hymns

While looking through the contents of a blog called “Motherhood on a Dime,” I found a great book I hadn’t heard of. It that is coming in the mail this week! It is called “Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart” and it discusses the meaning of various hymns related to Holy Week. You can click on the image below to order from Amazon.com ($16.05). I will post more about it after we have used it in our family. At “Motherhood on a Dime” she includes related activities and crafts (which aren’t in the book) to support some of the themes from each hymn.

Heart FELT Truths goes Canadian!

We are excited to announce that we will now be shipping all of our products to Canada! As some of you have requested shipping elsewhere, I am working on exploring shipping to New Zealand and Australia right now, but currently have not ironed out all the details.

Music for Celebrating Easter

Music is such an intimate and powerful expression of the truths we celebrate and the events we experience in life. Did you know that during Lent some churches’ liturgical structure changes and they do not sing the words “Hallelujah” until Easter Sunday has arrived. When Handel wrote the “Hallelujah Chorus” from his masterpiece The Messiah, it was the first time in the entire work (which lasts over two hours) that the word “Hallelujah!” was sung. How powerful and moving that would be!

What music do you associate with Easter? What songs will your family be singing as you remember Christ’s death and celebrate His resurrection?

From the “Risen” Album by Sovereign Grace Music.

Great Review and New Photos!

Head on over to I Can Teach My Child to read a thorough review of our new Easter Banner. Best of all, she is a much better photographer than me and took some excellent photos. I Can Teach My Child is one of my favorite blogs, providing encourage for moms and excellent resources and ideas for teaching toddlers and pre-k children!

Easter Resources

Thanks so much to Passionate Homemaking for referencing our Easter Banner today on their blog. Check out this great post of activities for families to use during Lent and Easter. There are some great suggestions.

Also, I would encourage you to check out the following book for preparing your heart for Easter. I just checked this out from my local library. (I haven’t got to read it yet but I have greatly enjoyed a companion one for Christmas called Come Though Long Expected Jesus.)

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross is a collection of devotional thoughts and sermonettes related to Easter compiled from sources past and present… including the likes of Martin Luther to John Piper. I am greatly looking forward to it. Because each chapter is a unique writing, a busy mom like myself can read one chapter independently as time allows. There’s no need to finish the whole book, read the chapters in a particular order, or finish it in a certain amount of time. I plan on enjoying what I can from its contents between now and Easter Sunday.