Teacher Appreciation

It's been a rough year at Chesebro Elementary.  We started the year off with a new Principal, moved classrooms and teachers around for about 3 months before finally settling in.  We had H1N1 to deal with and then one of our precious little students passed away. 

We came back in January to announcements of budget cuts and then many of our teachers were told they were being let go.  We've dealt with some serious family illnesses, including pnemonia and cancer and experienced loved ones lost.  

Then, interviews began this week for those re-applying for teaching postitions.  It's been an emotional and stressful year at Chesebro and yet we've helped each other through it all.  I'm so proud to be a part of such an amazing staff.

This week at Chesebro, we are showing our teachers how much we appreciate them.  They certainly deserve to be celebrated!

We have some special treats in store for them, including several power point presentations by students, lots of heartfelt notes and pictures from students and a little gift bag of goodies.  I was asked to make the tags for the bags and had a great time with it!  I made 22 tags and each one is different. This is a small sample of my favorites. 

I used stamps and paper from the Imaginisce Teacher's Pet line that I was fortunate enough to win from Papercrafts several months back.  I knew they would be put to good use one day! 

Thanks for visiting!  I hope you're having a super week!  Blessings~ Patti

January Divine Design

Don't worry about anything, instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and your minds as you live in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 4:6-7

My dear friend Carol shared this verse with me last week and I thought it would be a lovely addition to my desk flip book. As I've read it over and over again, I can almost hear God saying "Don't worry, pray and experience my peace as you live in Christ Jesus." During these emotionally difficult winter months, that is such a comfort to me.

Since I had not finished my Divine Design project from last year, I wanted to complete it before moving on to this year's project. This is my last page and I now have 8 verses on double sided 4x4 coasters which I will take to work. I can rotate each verse on a weekly basis or as I need them for encouragement. It's my prayer that they will be an encouragement to others in our office as well.

The Divine Design Challenges were started last year by Lori Craig and will carry on this year with her fellow Scripture Chicks, Angel, Nancy, Taylor and Jami. If you'd like to participate, you can find out all of the details here.

For my project this year, I purchased one of Taylor's vertical frames to display my Divine Designs. I've asked my family to share some of their favorite scripture verses and will use them, along with a few more that have touched my heart. I'm really excited about including my family in this project as it will prompt more spiritual conversation among us. Yet another blessing of participating in this wonderful challenge.

Enjoy your day~ Patti

As Time Goes By

I hope this post finds you well and enjoying this wonderful season of Advent. It's been quite some time since we my last post and I'd like to be able to give you some grand excuse, but I haven't one. I've simply been living life...working, caring for and enjoying my family and friends and even stamping from time to time.

Tonight I found some time to blog hop. There are so many beautiful projects out there! It inspired me to share one of my Christmas projects. It's a countdown box from Karen Foster (I purchased mine from Archiver's). I decorated it with Basic Grey Figgy Pudding papers and a variety of embellishments. It's become our Advent calendar and each little box contains either candy, a note or a scripture verse. It's been a nice addition to our advent celebration.

In case I don't make it back in the next few weeks, a very merry Christmas to you and yours! Blessings~ Patti

Butterfly Trio

My daughter Sarah makes the most beautiful glass bead jewelry! For Mother's Day, she made each of her grandmas a necklace that reflected their personal style using one of their favorite colors.

Because the necklaces were so lovely and Sarah took such care in making them, I wanted her to have something pretty to put each necklace in.

Using recycled candy tins, Sarah and I made a little trinket box for each necklace with the Unity Stamp Co. Butterfly Beauty set, patterned paper from SU! and Basic Grey, Stickles, ribbon and bling. The boxes were super easy to make and the grandmas were simply delighted with their special gifts.

It's been so neat to see how well Sarah's beading and my stamping compliment each other. I think I could even get into doing beading, but I'm trying to resist. ;)

Hope your week has been a good one. I'm sure glad Friday is upon us, it's been a hectic week at work and I'm ready for the weekend again. It's going to be another good one! My husband, Chris and our two little ones, Jacob and Sarah are getting baptized at our Saturday evening church service! Very exciting! I'll definately be back to share the details on Sunday.

Until then, I hope you have a fabulous weekend! ~Patti

Be Still

Being still isn't something that comes easily for most of us. Our lives are so full of so many different activities, people and things. I was sure feeling the weight of those things earlier this evening.

Taking a moment to be still and focus on God, to really listen to Him, always puts things back into perpsective. Tonight, He's telling me I need rest. So, I'm going to keep this post brief.

I'm sharing another page for my desk flip book featuring Paper Trey Inc's Everyday Blessings set on Basic Grey Paper with a spritzing of Glimmer Mist. I think this is my favorite page so far. It's so simple, but so lovely.

I hope you have enjoyed your week. So much has been going on here! I hope to find some time to share more tomorrow. Until then, blessings~ Patti

Working for the Lord

Good Morning! I'm so happy that I get to share another page of my desk flip book today! I started my book as part of the Scripture Challenge hosted by Lori. You can find the details here in her original invitation.

It's brought me so much joy to able to work on this project, so Ephesians 6:7 was the perfect verse to add this month. Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. What an awesome reminder!

This past weekend was a great example of Ephesians 6:7. God has opened doors for my church, Christ Community Church, to partner with my school, Chesebro Elementary. I call it my school, but really I'm just the Office Assistant. ;) God brought me to Chesebro late last school year, in mid-May. With a population of 260 some students, more than 65% of our families are low-income. It's simply impossible to work there and not feel the desire to do something for, and with, the students and their families.

Over the weekend, my family, along with a dozen other church members met at the school to host a pancake breakfast fundraiser to help send the fifth graders on an overnight field trip to a nature center. It was a wonderful morning of fellowship and service!

My older boys were flipping pancakes, making juice, washing dishes and asking, "what else can I do?" From the kitchen, amongst the cracking of eggs and sizzling sausage came chatter and laughter from busy church members. Fifth grade students happily served guests. My younger children were busy making new friends with some of the kids from Chesebro that they'll go to middle school with in the coming year. The cafeteria was buzzing with families from the school and the church visiting with each other. And with God's blessing, in just a few short hours, we raised what was needed for the trip. Praise God!

I hope you'll take some time to join in the scripture challenge this month. If you do, please be sure to leave me a post with a link to your design! Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful day! :) ~Patti

Project Details
Stamps- SU! Garden Collage
Paper- Basic Grey Periphery, SU! Old Olive & Whisper White
Ink- SU! Chocolate Chip & So Saffron
Embellishments- Dew Drops, Primas
Other- SU! Pastels

Everday Blessings

Have you been to Paper Trey Inc lately? Nicole and friends have some fantastic new sets, paper, ink and ribbon available! Everyday Blessings, was released last month. The images of the cross are beautiful and the scriptures and sayings are some of my favorites. I purchased it thinking I would make some Easter cards with it. I never did make the cards, but it has been perfect for several of the pages 0f my desk flip book.

As I'm behind by two months, I decided I would catch up by sharing another page. At first I thought my design too simple, but as I spent more time looking at it, I decided that the focus was right where it should be...on the cross.

Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. ~ 1Peter 4:7 Isn't it wonderful to know that God cares for us so much that He is willing to take on our concerns...ALL of them! Now that's an everyday blessing!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a fabulous day! :) ~Patti

Project Details
Stamps- PTI Everyday Blessings, SU! Priceless
Paper- Close to my Heart
Ink- Chocolate Chip, Bayou Blue
Embellishments- Snowflake Glimmer Mist, Bling

Good to be Back

I didn't realize just how long it's been since my last post. It's been more than busy in our home as of late, as well as a bit of an emotional rollercoaster and somewhere along the way, I lost my stamping mojo. I tried to ignite my desire to stamp by visiting some of my favorite blogs and checking out the gallery at SCS. I went shopping at craft stores and poured over magazines, but nothing seemed to do it.

Then last week, as I was looking up some verses in my bible, the Scripture Chick Challenge came to mind. I hadn't touched my project in over a month. Recalling some of my favorite verses helped bring me back to complete another page for my desk flip book.

Do you ever feel like life is overwhelming and it takes all you have just to get out of bed in the morning? I'll admit it, I do. It's on those days, before I fling off the covers, I whisper to God "Today, I need your strength Lord". I am one of the thousands of people that live with depression. It came on after the death of my daughter and after 15 years, it remains. It's more seasonal now, showing up in late fall and lingering through winter, my daughter's birthday and the anniversary of her death. I don't know if it was the tragedy at NIU bringing so many memories to the surface or the long winter we are experiencing, but this year, it seemed to take hold of me more intensely.

Keeping God's word in mind has always been a help to me in coping with depression. Coupled with prayer, nothing else is so powerful to offer comfort and peace. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. ~ Philippians 4:13 is just one of the many verses that God offers us as a reminder that we can overcome anything with God's strength. And we CAN!

I pray that your day is filled with God's presence, His strength and His love. Hugs~ Patti

Project Details

Stamps- SU! Stipple Butterfly, PTI Every Day Blessings

Paper- Basic Grey, SU! So Saffron

Ink- Chocolate Chip, So Saffron

Embellishments- May Arts ribbon, Sakura Glitter Pen

Joining the Scripture Chicks

Recently, Lori posted that she will be sharing a scripture verse in a project each month, along with 4 of her friends, Angel, Jami, Nancy and Taylor. They are calling themselves the Scripture Chicks and Lori is encouraging others to join in. I'm a little late this month, but am definately going to be playing along.

I've been wanting to create a flip book for my desk at work with some of my favorite scripture verses. Although, I have Christian music on my computer's media player, I can't always listen to it and having God's word in view will be so uplifting.

I'm using 4x4 coaters that I purchased from eP. The paper is My Minds Eye and the flowers are Primas. I had a hard time deciding on which verse to start with...there are soooo many good ones. But January can be an emotionally challenging month for me and Matthew 11:28 is such a comfort. Jesus is always there, ready to carry my sadness and offer me peace. He's there for you too! If you like this verse, you can find it by Stampabilities. I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby several months ago.

Thanks again Lori for following God's leading and sharing such a wonderful idea!

Altered Clips

It's been such a busy week, but last night I had a chance to catch my breath and do a little stamping. After looking at my list of "want to dos", I decided to work on some desk clips for my co-workers. I work at a local elementary school as the Office Assistant. I really enjoy my job responsibilities and each day is different. My co-workers are such a great team to work with. Everyone is always willing to help each other. And I've just been wanting to make something for them.

About a year ago I bought these clips in the Target dollar spot to use at a stamping event to display project samples. Since I don't host events anymore, they've just been laying around. This SU! DP was perfect to dress them up and the accents were a perfect addition. (Beate sent them to me after one of her sketch challenges...Thanks Beate!)

I'm hoping to find a little time to stamp today as I need to make some birthday cards, but first I need to tackle some laundry. I hope you have a relaxing day! Thanks for stopping by!

Got Verve?

I was soooo happy that my new Verve stamps arrived before my Saturday Crop! One of the challenges at the crop was to created something using Bazzil Bling cardstock. Verve's Starlight Starbright was the perfect match!

I paired up my cranberry Bazzill Bling with some SU! Brushed Gold cardstock to create a gift box. It needed a little something to dress it up, so I covered a chip board star with the Brushed Gold cardstock, sanded the edges and added SU! gold cord. The tag was made with the Verve Starlight Starbright set, Baroque Burgundy ink and oval punches. The ribbon around the lid was a suprise find from Biglots. This box is the perfect size for 3x3 note cards, gift cards and jewelry!

The box turned out great and I won the challenge and a whole package of Bazzill Bling 12x12 cardstock! Very fun!!!

BTW, this little box is super easy to make! For the bottom simply cut a 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" square of cardstock and score it on each side at 1 1/2". For the top, cut a second piece of cardstock in a 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" square and score it on each side at 3/4". On both the top and bottom pieces, snip along each vertical score line just in to the horizontal score line to create tabs. Fold and secure each tab with adhesive and your done!

Gratitude

With Thanksgiving approaching, I really wanted to do something for my co-workers to remind them how thankful I am to work with them. I work at an elementary school, in the office with the Principal and 3 other office staff. There's rarely a dull moment and we've had more than our share of drama in the last few weeks.

I came across these copper beaded baskets at Michael's for just $1. and filled them with truffle and caramel Kisses. I added a Chocolate Chip grossgrain bow and a tag stamped with the saying "Gratitude, seldom spoken, always felt". It's a simple little gift that will be given with lots of love.

I'm truly blessed to work with such wonderful, caring people. Be sure to take some time this week to count your blessings. Wishing you and yours a joyous Thanksgiving!

Monogram Gifts

Sarah has been invited to a girlfriend's birthday party on Saturday. She is such a social butterfly. Most of her friends are at the age where they prefer to receive gift cards, but a gift card alone always seems so ... blah. This year, I've been making monogram gifts to accompany the gift cards.

The letter "E" is from Mike's. I used matte finish mod podge to cover it with SU! Loves Me Designer Paper. Then I embellished it with some ribbon, flowers, a button, "sweet" from the SU! Sweet on You set and a bit of Fruit Punch Stickles.

The card features all SU! product including Sweet on You, Dots and Daisies and Small Script stamp sets. I used Regal Rose, Cool Carribbean, Taken with Teal and Winter White cardstock, along with Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink and Basic Black Ink. The scalloping is done with my corner punch with the guard removed. A little bit of paper piercing and some Fruit Punch Stickles and it was complete.

The monogram notebook also came from Mike's. It was in their dollar goodies. What a find! I simply covered a chipboard "e" with patterned paper, a flower and Turquoise Stickles and then added lots of ribbon to the binding. I so enjoy making monogram gifts. They're always quick and easy and oh so personalized.