Christmas Mugs

So one of the first things we had to think about after birthday gifts, was what to do for the girls for Christmas.  With a limited budget and 30 girls we had to be creative.  We decided to make some mugs like other ones we had seen on Pinterest and we filled them with hot chocolate goodies like chocolate dipped spoons, marshmallows, peppermint candies, etc.  The girls loved them SO much!  It was super fun and not expensive.  We got the mugs at the $1 store and drew the letters on ourselves. 

 I used a black sharpie on a perfectly clean mug and then baked it for 45 minutes in the oven and let it cool for 24 hours before handling.  The cheaper the mug the better because the glaze is cheaper and allows for the pen to kind of melt in when it's in the oven.

Now one word of warning - no matter what other websites claim - these letters WILL wash off!  They absolutely can not be put in the dishwasher or have the letter scrubbed with a sponge.  I tried everything people said to do to make those letters stay on and not one thing worked.  I even went so far as to buy a sealant and put it on over the letter.  That did make it stay longer, but it too, eventually washed off.  So, if you want to give these out, you do have to warn the girls how to care for them.

Anyway, we attached a Christmas message to them and wrapped them in cellophane that we found for cheap at Hobby Lobby.  I can't tell you what a big hit they were and super easy and inexpensive.

Hello Young Womens!

So guess what is the FIRST thing I did now that I'm back in YW?  Yep - I updated the bulletin boards  LOL!  I started with the boards inside the classroom.  I found some super cute clip art from Jello with Green Carrots.  Fortunately I purchased them as soon as I saw them because that Etsy site has since disappeared.  Anyway, here's a picture of our Values board inside the classroom:

I think it turned out so super cute!  There's a girl for each value color and then a description of the value next to her.  And the best part of it is, it will be relevant the entire time I'm in YW so I won't have to keep updating this board  :)

 

The next board took a long time but I'm IN LOVE with how it turned out!  First I took up-close pictures of each girl to hang on the chicken wire.  Most of them didn't want their picture taken so I took a lot of pictures of each girl and let her choose the one she liked best.  I didn't post any pictures that the girls didn't like.  I figured if they didn't like their picture they wouldn't like the board so that was my number one priority!  Here are some of their pictures - aren't they beautiful?!

 

Next I got the supplies including burlap, silk flowers, and wooden frames.  I found everything on sale or super cheap.  I already had the chicken wire.   I painted and distressed the frames to give them the country look I was after.  Then I printed out a bunch of gospel quotes about the inner beauty of Young Women to put in the frames and hung them with twine and wooden push pins.

 

 

 

I added embellishments like the flowers and the fence (which is faux wood scrapbook paper glued to cork board that I cut out).  I even found some rustic keys at Michaels to hang on the fence!

 

 

I inked some paper letters to make the perfect sign with our ward name on it  :)

 

And here's our finished board!  I hate the silver frame that comes around the bulletin boards so I made a larger black frame to really offset the board and make it "pop" 

 

Here's a view from down the hall a bit.  Sorry about the weird looking wall.  Our building has textured wall coverings that do strange things in photographs.  We love how the board turned out so I'm keeping it through the end of 2014!

 

 

Goodbye Primary.....

I have served in YW most of the last 10 years.  I drift out every few years to other callings but then, happily, find myself back again. I LOVE YOUNG WOMENS!  There is no place I would rather be but something is different this time.  First of all, for the first time I find myself president of the organization, and second, Pinterest was born, which has changed a lot of things.  I never have liked blogs much but I like Pinterest A LOT.  Since I need a place to host things I want to pin, I realized I needed a blog.  So here we are.....

Last July I was released as 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency and sent back to YW.  One thing that I was in charge of while in Primary was the bulletin boards.  It was super overwhelming at first, even for a scrapbooker like myself - bulletin boards are WAY bigger than 12x12  LOL.  Still, I got better at it each year.  So I thought I would start off there.  Here is a picture of 2 of our bulleting boards.  I'm afraid I don't have a good picture of the second one, which is sad because it was pretty cool.

I used material rather than paper on this one.  The tree is made out of butcher paper, crinkled for a 3D effect.  We swapped out the pictures regularly to keep them current.

I'm really sad I never took an adequate picture of this board  :(  It had a black frame all the way around the board.  I got engineered prints from Office Depot.  They are black and white and super cheap.  It was like $5 for prints that were about 2ft square.  It's a terrible picture but I can't tell you how much the kids loved that board.  The first week we put it up, you couldn't even get by it in the hallway because so many people were crowded around to look at it. 

 

I love a lot of things about Primary!  The kids love for you is so genuine, you get to be so silly, and you get to play lots of fun games.  I still miss their hugs but I am so excited to be back in YW!