New Beginnings invite

I can't believe how fast New Beginnings is coming up. This last week was all about working on getting the invites ready to hand out on Sunday. I designed the paper invite in Photoshop and had them copied at Office Max. 

Once they were printed I thought they needed a little sparkle so I added some glitter around the "sunny" and love how it turned out. 

I originally thought I wanted to do little boxes to put the invite in but decided that the bag was just as cute. I added some lemon heads for a little extra sunshine. 

 I found a sunshine on a cartridge for my Cricut that worked perfectly.

 Already to go. 

finished b-day gift

Yea!! gifts for the girls birthdays this year are all done and in the closet ready to go. I went back and forth on what to do for the tags for these and finally decided on this cupcake die cut that I had on one of my Cricut cartridges. I put their first initial on it and called it good. I love them!!

YW birthday gifts

This idea I borrowed from my sister who is also in the YW program in her ward. We've been trying to decide on what to do for the girls this year for their birthdays. Last year there was a box of things from the dollar section at Michaels that they could choose from. This year we wanted to make it a little more personal (and cuter!!!)

I asked my sister what they do in their ward and she told me that they gave the girls sock cupcakes. CUTE idea huh?!?!?!

They put theirs in cello bags and of course I wanted to take it one step further and had individual cupcake boxes that they looked really cute in. 

I still have to add the tags with their names on them but this is pretty much how they'll look. 

I found the socks at Target, 2 for $2.50 and the boxes are from Layers Cake Shop.

I have socks in purple, pink, red, and teal and each box is tied up with a matching ribbon. 

I hope they'll love them!!

Arise & Shine Forth board

 This is a follow up post to this one about our Spiritual thoughts in opening exercises. 

So I am doing a Arise & Shine Forth bulletin board. 

I cut out my letters in yellow glitter card stock and taped them on a wall in our YW room. 

This is the box I covered to hold all our pictures that will be posted on our wall as well as a reminder of what they're suppose to do. 

I used a box I found in the dollar section at Target and covered in scrapbook paper, add a few ribbons and chip board and there you have it. 

I put it all out on my bed to get a general idea of how it should all come together and after doing the first one yesterday, my only concern is having them stay stuck on the wall. I think I'm going to need to use command strips because the tape just isn't cutting it. 

Love One Another

This last week for our activity we had a Personal Progress night, meaning we did an activity to help the girls with one of their goals and we got everyone caught up with having everything signed that should be. We also brainstormed on ideas for the projects for some of the girls who were ready to do those. 

I saw this activity that someone had done for activity days and loved it. I wanted to do a Valentines activity for my girls but we didn't have a class activity any where near Valentines day. So I found a goal that tied in perfect with the activity I had planned. This activity goes with Divine Nature #3, and here is where I first discovered the idea, The Fickle Pickle. 

I picked up the boxes at Target for a $1 ea, as well as the notepads. I added some conversation hearts to the bottom of the box, printed of the instructions and scripture that went with it, and it all went in the box. 

 We talked about loving one another and why that is so important. We also brainstormed about who they could do this for in their family. 

She also had a great idea for a treat to go with this activity that the girls loved putting together. 

These are cupcakes split in half, vanilla pudding colored pink with some Cool Whip added, and then plain Cool whip and sprinkles. They really were quite yummy.

It was a great activity and I'll be checking in with the girls after two weeks to see if they have finished this goal. 

"Purse"onal Progress

I am over the Beehives and because they are just getting started on their Personal Progress I want them to be consistent in their efforts so that they will be successful. So I've started bringing a reminder on Sunday for them to work on their P.P.

It won't always be a treat, I've also found some great quotes and poems for each value(which I'll share as I do them). I'll probably alternate between a treat and a quote/poem. I'm also getting each girl a small photo album to keep her quotes and poems in as I give them so that they're somewhere they can go and use them later. I haven't gotten them yet, that's next week so you'll have to wait until then to see them. But here is this weeks reminder.

 These are Hershey Nuggets wrapped in scrapbook paper, small brad added and a little ribbon. They thought they were pretty cute. 

You can find more reminder ideas over on this post. 

Spiritual thought

I came across a great idea the other day and we've decided to give it a try in our YW program. 

I don't know how all your "spiritual thoughts" go in your opening exercises but ours are usually the girls opening their scriptures and what ever it happens to open to is the spiritual thought. There isn't any "thought" put into it at all. I loved the idea over at Burlap & Denim about taking a picture and having the girls tell how the picture shows an example of someone who shined their light or how it can help the young woman shine her light. She does her a bit different and you can check her original idea out on her blog. 

So we'll be turning one of our walls into our bulletin board and posting these pictures that they draw on it. To start I'm going to put a title on our bulletin board at the top which will say "Shining our light". Then in the center of our board I'm going to put this print that I created and had printed out at a 8x12 size.

 Then each Sunday after the girls have talked about their picture we'll post them around the print to remind us of all the ways we can shine.  I'll have all the pictures printed out and in a cute box with the instructions on it so they remember what they are suppose to do. 

You can find all the pictures she used for her board on her site, she was kind enough to share all the work it took to collect them all. 

You can also download my Arise & Shine Forth print here if you'd like. 

I hope this makes our "spiritual thoughts" a little more spiritual and thoughtful.