YW Christmas Gift...

I needed a quick Christmas gift to give to the Young Women tomorrow. I am teaching a Christmas lesson and thought a gift would go along perfect with my lesson. I found SO many cute ideas on Pinterest. I loved the chapstick with a cute note. It is easy and inexpensive! My problem was I did not like any of the printable versions that I could find. So... I made my own!! It was super simple using my cameo. I imported some digital scrapbook paper that I already had, used that as my background image and then typed the words I wanted. I printed my image then cut with the cameo. Super simple and fast!!

Photo Christmas Ornaments...

13 years ago my oldest sister started a tradition. She made a photo ornament of my niece and then she did it again the next year. The tradition was born. Each year I have a hard time coming up with something cute! Sometimes I resort to buying them from Target!! But this year, I started early and came up with a great idea! A matchbook photo album turned into an ornament!! I started by buying a matchbook shape from the Silhouette Online Store. Then I had to decide on some paper. I always love seeing the new christmas scrapbook paper that comes out. But being in an area where the scrapbook supplies are sparse, I had to order online. I went with Echo Park 'Tis the Season. While waiting for the paper to arrive (it wasn't in stock yet) I designed my shape and decided how many pictures to put into the album. I chose 5. It seemed like a good amount to fill in the matchbook but not be too heavy for the tree.

Once the paper came, the cutting began!!

I printed all the pictures using my own printer. Obviously you could have them printed, but with the silhouette software it was a breeze to import them, print, and then cut. For the front of the ornament I wanted to try using the sketch feature on the silhouette. I bought gel pens in white. I found some free chalkboard type fonts and designed the tag. The sketch feature is pretty awesome!! Once all the pieces were cut, all I had to do was glue them together. To attach the photos to the matchbook I used the stapler. I did not love the look of the staple so I covered it with a sticker. To hang the ornament I used a silver brad and then wrapped the twine around it. Then I secured the last photo to the back of the album to cover the back of the brad. (In the words of my 4 year old)... BOOM, DONE! The ornaments are all packaged and ready for Santa's sleigh!

Hello Kitty Pancake and Pajama Party

 My husband started singing the girls a lullaby from The Big Bang Theory called Soft Kitty. Since then Hello Kitty has been known as "soft kitty" at our house and oh how we love her. It was only fitting to have a Soft Kitty Party for the girls 4th birthday.

I started by creating a Hello Kitty cut out from the Cricut cartridge. I printed out the invitation and cut a second head just smaller then the first. Glued them together and got an adorable party invitation.

The Decorations:

I really loved making the party decor. I once again used the Hello Kitty Cricut cartridge to create the banner. It was simple circles with flower, letter cut outs. I placed white paper behind the flower cut out to make the letters stand out. I put them together with tulle and hung them at an angle for a different look. The paper fans were really fun too. After making the fans I clumped them together and glued with a hot glue gun. I added jewels for a bling look.  

The chandelier was my second favorite decoration. I used pre-made paper lanterns, fans, and tissue paper puff balls from Hobby Lobby and Zurchers. I started with the bigger balls and hung them around the chandelier and then filled in the gaps with the smaller tissue paper balls. Loved it!

My ALL TIME FAVORITE decoration was the photo collage. I am no profession photography so I couldn't get a perfect picture of it but you get the picture. I printed out pictures from the last 4 years and hung them with jute and clothes pins. I added a strand of tissue paper tassels just to break them up and add some color. I'll admit that as I hung the pictures and remembering all the cute moments I cried. My babies are growing so fast.

Of course we had to have Hello Kitty bows.

And pink milk (strawberry) in little mason jars and a cute straw.

 Since it was a pancake and pajama party we had a pancake bar with marshmallows, mini chocolate chips, mini Reese's, powdered sugar, pears, bananas, raspberries, blueberries, home made whipping cream, and syrup. YUM!!!! I used a table that could be lowered to the kids level which worked out perfectly.

 Thanks for stopping by!

Photo Collage

Easy Wall Decoration

Since I loved my photo collage so much I decided to keep it around. We had a big, blank wall upstairs between the kids rooms so that is right where I put it. Eventually I want to change the tissue paper tassels to fabric ones but I just don't have the time right now. Soon.

Halloween Sign...

I found this adorable Halloween sign on pinterest last year and wanted to make the sign. Unfortunately, the link takes you to a flickr account. I was so bummed that there was not a "how-to". So, I was determined to make my own. With the help of my Silhouette Cameo I made my own sign.
I used vinyl as my stencil and cut the design out. The actual lettering is approximately 14x6. I had some boards laying around from another project so I just used what I had!

The font is not exactly the same as the original but I thought it turned out so cute!! I'm still trying to figure out how I can offer the stencil as a download. So keep checking back!!

DIY Witch's Broom

Do It Yourself Witch Broom

 Locate some ornamental grass that is ready to be cut or trimmed for the fall.  

 Locate some tree branch's that are ready to be cut and trimmed for fall from your tree. Spray Paint black.

 Trim your grass to desired length.

 Secure with jute around your branch.

 Spray Paint your grass black until you have the desired color you like.  

 Decorate with your homemade Witch Broom. 

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween Witch Leg Dish Towels

This summer we had the chance to be all together for a week ... so of course we crafted!  We made the cutest witch leg dish towels for our selves and for Visiting Teaching Gifts and Halloween Teacher Gifts.  We started by choosing fabric for our witch legs and boots.  We started at the local JoAnn Fabric then headed to our FAVORITE Hobby Lobby for additional supplies.  We bought fabric in 2 patterns, wonder under, purple ribbon, and pom pom ribbon.  Then we were on the hunt for plain white DISH towels.  WHO KNEW this would be such a task????  We headed to every local store such as Target and Walmart.  We were able to find flour sack towels  and bar mop towels in white and in large packs, but we did not love the size and texture of these towels. We then headed to every local department store, such as Kohl's, JcPenny's.  No luck.   FINALLY, we found single while towel's that we liked at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and later found extra towels at a local craft store in Idaho called Porter's Craft and Frame.  Of course, we ended up spending a little more than we had hoped, (around $4 a towel) but, the size and length is perfect.  So, if you find a great deal on white dish towels ... we'd love to know where you found yours!!  

  

Then we ironed wonder under to the back side of our fabric.  We used the silhouette machine to do the cutting for us.  We purchased our witch shape right from the silhouette store, then measured our towels and sized them the way we wanted.  Next we cut our witch legs and boots.  

Position them onto the center of your towel and iron onto your white towels. 

For additional securing to the towels, we did a straight stitch around the legs and boots on our sewing machines.  

 The purple bows were tied and hand stitched onto the top of the witch boots.  We added ribbon to the bottom of the towel for extra decoration on some and pom pom ribbon on some.  We used a zig zag stitch to attach the ribbon.

These towels turned out super cute!!  Keep an eye out for our Christmas version of this towel!

YW 10 hour project...

**Apostle cards have been updated with the 3 new Apostles**

I love helping my Young Women accomplish goals in their Personal Progress books. This week for our activity we will be making Conference Journals!! In addition to making the journals the girls are going to commit to watch ALL sessions of General Conference to complete a 10 hour project!! This is one of the easiest ways I have found to complete a 10 hour project, because you are going to watch conference anyway!!

I found these cute notebooks at Wal-Mart! I loved that they were already cute so we didn't have to take the time to make them look better! I made some tags that have pictures and names of the First Presidency and the 12 Apostles. I then taped them to the notebook pages using packing tape so they would be sturdy tags! Using some mad math skills I figured out how many pages each apostle was allotted. I also factored in extra speakers, so there are a few pages at the end of the notebook for those speakers who are not apostles. Here are the apostle tags. Feel free to use {personal use only} to make your own General Conference Journal!! (Click on picture and then save to your computer! To save image to your computer click on picture then right click and choose save to computer (Mac) or click save image as (PC)! 

If you have a Silhouette cutting machine, I have the file and can send it to you. Just leave a comment with your email address and let me know you want the silhouette file!

**Updated Apostle pictures!**

General Conference Kit...

The past few days I have been working on a General Conference Kit for our Young Women. For our activity this week we will be making conference journals and then committing the girls to listen to ALL sessions of conference in order to complete a 10 hour project! So I wanted to put together a cute kit to help them "get through" all those hours! I perused the internet and pinterest and found some amazing ideas.

I loved Marci Coombs blog and that is where most of the ideas for my kit came from. Each kit includes a bag of popcorn, tissues, a pen, smarties, a lollipop, M&M's, and Fanta soda. I loved the wording on the Make the Most of General Conference and Become a 'Fan' of General Conference, so that stayed the same. I love using my Silhouette Cameo, so I made my own tags for these 2 things.

Feel free save the images to your computer and print to use for your YW group! (Click on each picture, right to save image to downloads (Mac) or save image as (PC).  I have the Silhouette files if you are interested in using that to cut them out. Leave a comment with your email and specify that you need the silhouette files! {The red lines on the fanta printout are the 'cut' lines!}
If you want to know more about what General Conference is, check out THIS video!

BUNCO

Does anyone else LOVE girls night out? One month I was looking for new Bunco score cards. I found this awesome set from http://www.tipjunkie.com/party-ideas/bunco/bunco-party-free-printable/

I went with her color scheme and found a few feather boas that I made into decor and a hair bow for each lady. It wasn't extravagant but it was a fun way to change up the normal Bunco night.

 And seriously, who doesn't enjoy the opportunity to serve delicious food. This is the

Kneaders French Toast you've probably seen on Pinterest. Take the time to make it! So good! And the omelets are easy and yummy too.

I got my printable from here:

http://printable.tipjunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/10/shindig-parties-bunco-freebie.pdf

Wreck it Ralph Movie Party

 My twin boys turned 6 this year and they wanted to have a Wreck it Ralph party. We decided to have a Wreck it Ralph Outdoor Movie Party. I found images online (personal use only) and created an invitation that looked like the movie poster. I used Photoshop to add the writing (the font is Sonic-Advanced) and printed them from Costco.

Envelope

 The night came and we had a great set up. My sister has a movie projector and we used a white sheet for the screen. Of course we had a treat table that I liked to call "Sugar Rush"

I pre-bagged all the candy so that they could just grab the bag and stay seated for the movie.

 We made cupcakes and dipped them in sprinkles for a "Sugar-Rush"topping

 In the movie there are many references to different candy. 

I made the labels with Internet images, sonic-advanced font, and Photoshop.

 (all personal use)

 In the movie there is a Nesquik-sand pit that Felix falls into so of course we had to have Nesquik for our drink.

 You can't have a movie without popcorn

 For the "Thank You" I got Diet Coke and Mentos for our guests to recreate "Diet Cola Mountain" from the movie.