Moments to Celebrate

Laughter and Tears

2010-04-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

Isn't it amazing when you let go of all your plans and expectations and just let God work. I can't believe how often I forget that His plans are so much better than mine. This weekend was Disciple Now and as usual I had in my mind what I wanted God to accomplish down to every detail and as usual He showed me that I am only a tool and when I accept that and let Him use me, awesome things will happen.

The weekend was filled with tons of laughter thanks to some amazing college leaders and also some tears which led to some amazing breakthroughs. It was my constant prayer that this would be a life-changing experience and I believe, whether large or small, it was for everyone involved, not only the students who attended but the adults who had even the smallest, but significant part.

As for me, I was energized, ok, not physically, but spiritually as I learned again to rely on God and trust Him for what He is doing. I am so insignificant compared to the plans He has. I am also encouraged to persevere in my ministry with kids who at times it seems impossible to reach; I will try to celebrate and recognize each tiny step. I have a new hope that these jr. high and high school kids can grow into amazing people like the young adults who led them this weekend. These five college kids were so amazing and so full of God's love; their joy and service to the Lord inspires me.

My heart also breaks for the kids that I am so privileged to work with on a weekly basis. Some of them face the kind of problems that even adults should not have to endure. I pray that God will use me and Rick to give them hope and a desire to let God use their hardships for His glory.

When asked what they had learned this weekend, so many responded by saying that they now knew that God had a purpose for their life. We all need to be reminded of this!

"And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His spirit." Ephesians 2:22

Come On Over

2009-09-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

For all of you who like paper crafts, I am not the Paper Crafts Editor at BellaOnline. Come check it out for everything you ever wanted to know about Paper Crafts, projects, forum, and more! http://www.bellaonline.com/site/papercrafts

Scrapbooking for Beginners

2009-09-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in creating beautiful photo scrapbook albums but don't know where to start, check my article on the Top Ten Scrapbooking Products for Beginners.

About That Time

2009-09-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

This time of year is when I start thinking about planning for Christmas. I always have wonderful intentions of finishing my shopping early, having my Christmas cards made and ready to mail by the first week in December, and all of my decorations up so I can enjoy the season. Maybe I'm asking too much of myself because like most busy women I find myself running down to the wire to get things done. Well, once again this year I have my goals in mind but I'm trying to be realistic about the amount of preparations and the perfection of everything. I want to enjoy the season without getting stressed about money, gifts, a perfectly decorated home and the most imaginable and unique Christmas cards. So if you too want to have a nice and meaningful but a bit more simple Christmas this year, stay tuned and we can work through this celebration together.

I think the first place to start is making Christmas cards or buying them if you would prefer. I like to make my Christmas cards so about this time of year, I start experimenting to come up with about five designs. I usually purchase several stamps and other new supplies but this year in trying to respect the country's call to be more frugal I am using the stamps and supplies that I have. This is also a fun challenge to try and come up with new ways to use the things I have.

Speaking of holidays, tomorrow is Labor Day. Our family will be home for the day and I plan to take a break from writing articles and try and have fun with my rubber stamps and maybe some scrapbooking. I'll let you know how that goes and post some of my creations if they turn out worthy of being posted! I hope you enjoy your day as well! I would love to hear about your Labor Day and also your entertainment, decoration, celebration, etc. aspirations for the Christmas Season!

Birthday Parties for Teens: Black & White Tea

2009-09-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Birthday Parties for Teens: Black & White Tea

A New Twist

2009-08-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

In developing this blog I was mainly focusing on Stampin' Up stamping projects and scrapbooking. I am changing my focus a bit to provide a more inclusive look at how to celebrate and preserve all of those special moments in life. I will be sharing scrapbooking tips, handmade greeting cards, party planning and gift ideas. I hope you will continue to follow Moments to Celebrate and find it useful!

Recently I wrote the following article about 10 Things to Consider When Planning a Birthday Party. You can read the article by clicking here.

Please contact me if you have questions on party planning, scrapbooking or rubber stamping.

Happy Celebrations!
Meschill

Searching for Normal!

2009-07-24T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Wanted you all to know that I am feeling much better but the last two months have been crazy traveling for work. I think it should start to calm down; I have two trips in August but September is free! That's right - NO TRAVEL IN SEPTEMBER!!!!! You know what that means??? It means I will be doing some scrapbooking and stamping! Finally! I hope some of you can join me - nothing formal just get together to create and visit. I got back from Texarkana last night so I took today off, well, kinda - I worked at home - but I cleaned off my scrapping table and I'm really starting to get the bug again so I might spend some time tomorrow. It's so overwhelming now I just don't know where to start. I still want to do a tribute album of Kristi but once again, I don't know where to start.

Next week Mattie, Rick and I are going on a short cruise for Mattie's 21st birthday! We are really excited. I will try and take tons of pictures if I can figure out what I'm doing wrong with my camera. I took pictures at Carrie's reception and most of them didn't turn out - they were dark but I had the flash on ;(

Another thing that I have been doing is working on my walk with God. It dawned on me that I don't seem to have alot of joy in my life - I am always trying to find it in people and things but I need to find it in God regardless of circumstances around me. One thing I've been thinking about is that God's spirit is in every believer and therefore we are all linked in an intimate way. Don't you love it when you meet someone and find out that they are a Christian and then you spend some time talking about Christ and the Bible! Pretty cool, huh?

Well, no pictures this time but I wanted to say hi and let you know what's going on in my life!

Take care,
Meschill

Creating for the sake of expression

2009-05-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Today I spent the afternoon stamping. I had some thank you notes to make and write and I got those done. I don't have pictues though because I forgot to take them before I put them in the envelopes! After the thank you notes I decided to play around with tags. I thought these might be a nice additon for some goodie bags I'm doing for my crop on Saturday - so for those of you who are coming pretend you don't see them. I made a couple.....

These butterfly, flower and leaf images are from the God's Beauty hostess set that can be earned by having a Stampin' Up! workshop.

For the next tag I started looking through my scraps and found some cardstock that had antique keys as the pattern. I thought I might have a key in my "found objects" treasure drawer so I started going through the rejected objects that I had saved with the hope of turning them into something artistic. To my dismay, I had no key but did find an old watch - I played with that for awhile and nothing came to me so I went back to my stash and found a little heart on a key chain. The heart had a cross on one side and a picture of Jesus on the other, you know the kind that was on the sunday school wall in 2nd grade. From that and the keys I came up with the key to my heart and then that is when it got personal - God holds the key to my heart --- so I hope you enjoy my last tag which is the first time I have been happy with something that I created just for the sake of expression!

Quick & Easy!

2009-05-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

Hey friends! I decided to play with the Petal Party Simply Scrappin' set from Stampin' Up! before I went to bed. Wow! I love these sets - so easy and so quick!

All projects are made with elements from the Petal Party Simply Scrappin' set. The first card also uses stamps from A Rose Is A Rose and Friends 24/7.

The second care also uses the A Rose Is A Rose stamp set.

The scrapbook page is a little blurry but I hope you get the idea! Like I said so quick & easy! I also used a stamp from the Friends 24/7.

Well, that's all for tonight. I'm not sure if I'll post tomorrow or not; Sunday's usually get pretty busy.

Take care and look for those moments to celebrate!

Meschill

A Rose Is A Rose

2009-05-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hello! Happy first day of May! Well, this picture is terrible but I wanted to post and show it to you. I need to get some photo tips from my BFF on the best way to do the pictures. This is a beautiful card that I CASE'd from the SU demonstrator website and changed a bit. The stamp sets used are A Rose Is A Rose and Friends 24/7. I love these sets; there are so many things you can do with them. This would make a great Mother's Day card! If you're not into card making and would like to order this card from me for your mom just let me know. The cost is $3 or 2 for $5 and includes the matching envelope.

As promised here are the May Stampin' Up! specials:

Great Stock Up for scrapbookers!
Buy Three, Get One Free
Celebrate National Scrapbooking Month with Stampin' Up! From May 1-31, buy three packs of Designer Series paper and/or 12" x 12" textured card stock, and get one pack free! Mix and match your papers to meet all your scrapbooking and paper crafting needs.

Jumble Alphabet Sneak Peek
Get a sneak peek into the 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog when you purchase the brand-new Jumble Alphabet stamp set at 20% off. This set of 52 die-cut, double-mounted stamps is perfect for scrapbooking because you'll never run out of letters! But don't wait—this offer is only good through May 31.

Limited-Time Scrapbooking Starter Kit
Start your own business for as little as $75 with the limited-time Scrapbooking Starter Kit. The Scrapbooking Starter Kit contains the following:
Schoolbook Serif Alphabet stamp set
Simply Scrappin' Petal Party
Earth Elements Assorted textured card stock (12" x 12")
Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad
In addition, this specially-priced Starter Kit contains all the business supplies found in the regular-priced Starter Kit.

Click Here for more details and to order products.

Please subscribe to my blog. I finally figured out how to allow you to do this. Don't worry, you won't be inundated with emails, I will only post about once a week!

Take care,
Meschill

Is Anyone Out There?

2009-04-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

So this is my first post to my first blog! Please excuse the simplicity of my blog format; I'm more creative with paper than computer layout and design so hopefully you will be interested in my posts enough to overlook that until I figure it out or have Debbie help me! Tomorrow I will post my first artwork which is what Moments to Celebrate is all about. As you know I have just recently become a Stampin Up demonstrator. I am really excited to share these products with you. I just love the line and have finally found a way to stamp in my scrapbooks that makes sense - more on that later. Please subscribe to my blog so you can leave comments and receive email notices when I add a new post.

This blog is also a place to share with you the life lessons and grace that I have been given. For those of you who don't know, I lost my beautiful daughter, Kristi, just three years ago. I have a sadness that will always be with me and there are still times when I spend the day crying and asking why but the moments that I want to share with you are the times when God gives me amazing insight and peace. Please join me for the ride!

Looking forward to seeing some of you soon! Tomorrow I will also post Stampin Up's May promotions!

Celebrating the everyday moments in live,

Meschill