Snow!

Hello friends, my name is Andrea, and I recently discovered this website and was invited to contribute! I hope I may help in some way.

I would like to share just a bit about myself! I attend Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. I have been married almost two years to my wonderful husband and best friend, and we enjoy serving the Lord together at our church. (If you are interested, you can see our website here.)We have the privilege to work in the following ministries: Master Clubs Program (Wednesday nights -for kids), a small but growing bus route, working in the church office, doing bulletin boards, and whatever else needs done! What an honor to serve our God!

Well, my in-laws so graciously gave me a Cricut Expression for Christmas this year! So I got real excited about being able to cut out letters (as you can see!)...and I think I went a little overboard!

This board is composed of letters and snowflakes cut out on my Cricut, bulletin board paper background (our church supplies this in a variety of colors), and solid, colored border. Some of the snowflakes were cut out of patterned scrapbook paper (which can create a special effect sometimes), but it is difficult to make that out in the picture! Also, here's a tidbit: I cut out part of the letters with one kind of card stock, but then I ran out. I proceeded to purchase more white cardstock, but when I began cutting out more letters, I discovered the color was slightly different than the other white! Oh no! Whatever will I do? Well, I went ahead and cut out the rest of the letters, and then when I put the letters up, I just tried to mix and match the two "whites" as much as possible. In the final product, I think it would be difficult to notice unless you were right up next to the letters. Even then, you might need to be told what had happened to really notice it. So, don't despair when little things go wrong...it may be relatively easy to work out after all!

And I cannot write this without saying that I did indeed go a little "crazy" with this idea of being able to cut out the letters! They took a while to cut even with the Cricut, and perhaps even longer to put up on the board. I did not staple them, but used a "tape" applicator --kind of like using white-out tape. They were little sticky pieces that you just apply with pressure. (I hope I am explaining myself!) Sometimes tape looks better than a host of staples, but one-sided tape would take a very long time to roll up! So double-sided tape or some kind of "tape" applicator (like I used) makes it much easier. I would advise to try to find a shorter verse, though, unless you really feel God might want you to use the longer one!

Here is another little board (maybe about 2' x 3') in the same room that I try to match up with the bigger one. This time, it was relatively easy...just add more snowflakes, and keep a paper background and solid colored border!

The Earth Bringeth Forth Her Bud

Ok, here's a dual board with the ideas of Elizabeth W. and Elizabeth K. combined. : ) I bought the white, wire, outdoor flower decor on clearance at a discount store for $2 last year at the end of the season. I had no idea where I'd go from there. Then I found the yellow forsythia at Big Lots...it was actually a long chain of it, but Elizabeth K. cut it apart for decorating. We found the ribbon boarder in a storage tote leftover from years past. It's hard to see but this boarder has yellow and pink butterflies on it. We were undecided about what color background to use until we started peeling away the old layers of backgrounds and found purple (from the grape vine board) and decided to go with purple. I like to leave my backgrounds up on this board since it's such a large board and hard to get them up. Then, I just layer over them until I need a color that's already there and I just peel back the layers. Sometimes they're a little "poked up" with staple holes, but they still work fine. So, Elizabeth K. went to town putting this up and later I added the dogwood flowers which I found while cleaning out a closet! I would still like to find some pretty butterflies to attach to the top of this board to fill a little...if I do I'll repost the picture later.

An idea for when you're trying to attach thicker things than paper to a bulletin board..."T" pins (found in the sewing/craft area of WalMart) or Joann's for sewing work wonders!

On a side note...Elizabeth K. just got a Cricut which she has wanted for quite some time! She has assured me that she will have lots of great ideas for boards coming with this new tool. So, hopefully we'll have some ideas from that soon!

Read Your Bible...and You'll Grow, Grow, Grow!

This board was done by one of our Sunday School teachers to match her attendance charts which are growing sunflowers. She used a plastic table cloth for the background. I'm pretty sure she found all the other stuff at the Dollar Tree. I printed off a banner for her to go with the children's song "Read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow!" Cute idea, thanks, Marlene!

Spring Attendance Chart

Nothing too exciting here...another attendance chart post for the sake of my own memory! ; ) I am thrilled that it's time to put up SPRING boards and I'm thrilled that my Sunday School class is growing that I now have 8 charts to put up! I praise God for the changing of the seasons and for the new little faces of 3-5 year olds in my class! So, this is just blue wrapping paper from WalMart, attendance charts from A Beka Joyful Life, flowers and boarder from the local education store. I have discovered that WalMart has a fairly good selection of plain rolled wrapping paper that is great for boards instead of the old plastic tablecloth route. The rolls go a long way and they're only $3. Just a thought if you're looking for cheap backgrounds!