Young Womens in Excellence 2014

Time to catch up on some blog stuff! We had our Young Women's in Excellence in November. Our theme was "Night of Stars" - since our girls are always shining brightly! I got the inspiration from here 

I loved how she had made star invites to hand out to all the girls rather than mailing a flat invitation.

I found these stars already cut at Hobby Lobby school/craft section. There were about 24 in a pack. I just cut out the smaller stars from glitter paper and used glitter tulle behind it - hot glue worked!  I bought a pack of wooden dowels and painted them silver and glued away. I made the oval print in Photoshop and assembled everything - they turned out really cute and the girls loved them!

 My wonderful teaching partner and I made this ribbon wall. I ordered ribbons in silver, white, gold and cream from papermart.com. It was much less expensive than buying ribbon from any local craft store. We took a piece of ribbon and just tacked it to my wall. Then we cut and tied long pieces of ribbons just randomly across it until we ran out of ribbon! It shimmered so pretty in the nighttime light.

 Luckily this fell during Christmas crafting season - I found silver and gold wrapping paper at Hobby Lobby (my favorite wrapping source). We lined the existing chalkboard and wall below with the gold wrapping paper. Then we hung lights and our ribbon curtain over them.

 I added gold sparkling tulle with stars I had sprayed with gold glitter (same stars as the invite). I just attached everything at the church with my mini stapler.

We ran red tablecloth plastic down for our "red carpet" and lined it with lights. The girls walked the red carpet when they came forward to share what they had done for Personal Progress.

Our front table had our gifts for the girls - clear boxes with gold stars printed on them and filled with silver Hershey Kisses. 

 We had a table in the back of the room that displayed things to represent what the girls made or did for PP. The girls had helped to make all the cut out stars. We placed each one's name on a glittered paper for their display area. It was a wonderful evening with shining beautiful girls!

Back to School Survival Mutual

Last night we had a Back to School mutual activity at church.  I made Survival kits - found the idea here. We had the girls list their fall time activities on our YW calendar so we could go and support them. Then we had each girl stand in front of the chalkboard and all the other girls wrote cute things around them - seen on Pinterest. We took their picture with their decorated board and erased it all before they could see it. We'll print all the photos and display them for the girls to see. It was really cute and the girls loved it.

 My "apple" cupcakes (red velvet of course!) 

 These are the little notes and treats that went into the survival kits

I used red bags from Hobby Lobby - Target also has red lunch paper lunch bags that are less expensive.  

Red velvet cupcakes with pretzel stick stems and frosting leaf :)

Simply Prom 2014

Our stake (with six others) held the area's first Mormon Prom. It was titled "Simply Prom - a Royal Ball". The kids were encouraged to ask a date or as a group. YW leaders provided a "fancy" dinner at the church - the parents hosted a table & decorated it. The youth said they really loved that part of the evening. We had a little after party at our home - the kids swam, ate snacks & had fun!

Scripture Cover

I made up this scripture cover a couple weeks ago so I could teach my church girls how to make them. I've had requests from friends on my pattern and how-to.  So I'm posting this tutorial in hopes it helps any of you (I apologize that all photos are with my phone - terrible quality but it had to do).  I sew a lot so if I'm not super explanatory for beginners, I apologize!

Also, I didn't take step-by-step pics of the one above - but of one that got started at our "sewing night".  

In my original one above (chevron), I used two fabrics - the main cover and then one for the inside and straps. This polka dot one (below) only used one fabric.

You will need from the main fabric a piece 14"x8.5"

The lining fabric you need a 14"x8.5" plus two pieces that are 8.5"x5" (sleeves)

Two strap pieces 12"x2.5"

Stretch elastic (this is what they use for headbands and hair ties - found on a spool at Hobby Lobby) 8" long

Two pieces of ribbon 12" each

 

You will hem one long raw edge on each "sleeve" piece (the 8.5"x5" pieces - top right in pic). These straps were already made before I started pictures.  I ironed in the two raw edges of the straps - overlapping each other.  Then sewed on the ribbon to hide the exposed raw edge. Make sure you sew both edges of the ribbon and not down just the center. Then stitch the straps and elastic to the side edges of the main fabric (like above). I just eyeball it but you can measure to be precise on placement.

 

 Then you will place the sleeves on top of the main fabric - sandwiching in the straps and elastic like above. Make sure sleeve fabric is nice-side down like below.

 Then you'll place the lining piece (14"x8.5") on top of all that above. Making sure that the lining is also nice-side down like below.

 Pin all around to keep everything in it's place.

  On the bottom edge, I made small marks about 4" apart - you will NOT sew between those marks - that's how we'll turn it all right side out.

Once sewn with a 1/2" seam, you will then clip your four corners to help with fabric excess when turned right side out.

 Carefully turn it all right side out through the opening on the bottom. Your seams all around will be puffy (below) - you will now want to press them so they are nice and crisp!

  There are a couple ways to close the bottom opening. You can stitch it (I didn't choose to do this since there will not be top-stitching around the whole cover and I don't want to see it on the bottom only).  I used Stitch Witchery - it's basically a strip of dried glue that will melt when ironed.

I just cut a piece the length of the opening and sandwich it in there - then iron well and voila! It's stuck together :)

 Now I've made a little mark that is half way down the cover and 1.5" in from the edge - this is where the button will be hand-sewn.  You want to make sure you do NOT sew through the sleeve piece on the inside of the cover - keep your hand there to make sure you're not going through.

  I love these cute square bling buttons - found them also at Hobby Lobby in the sewing notions - on $2 for six of them!

 Slide your scripture covers into the sleeves and....

 ...you have the cutest scripture cover ever!!

 My church girls were given six fabric and four ribbon choices that they could mix up. Here are a couple other ones - so cute!

As a side note - on my original chevron one, I put a pencil/pen holder down the spine of the lining. I cut a piece that was 8"x2" - hemmed the top edge, folded in the sides and bottom, and then stitched closely around them. 

Hope this helps - any questions, leave me a comment and I'll try to help :)

Enjoy and create!! ~Jenny

Young Womens New Beginnings 2014

 New Beginnings is an evening that introduces the Young Womens program and the Personal Progress program to all the incoming 12-year old girls.  We used the 2014 theme, "Come unto Christ" and added in the quote "When yo give your heart to inviting people to come unto Christ, your heart will be changed."  We wanted to use all the eight value colors but also tie it into the Valentine's time of year and quote with hearts.  The program was really wonderful - we had eight girls speak for a couple of minutes on the different Values and we had our Personal Progress leader talk to the girls and families about that program.  We served strawberry shortcake afterwards - delicious!

The invite we printed out and mailed to all the girls and their families.

I made the heart garlands by sewing together all the hearts that were cut on my Silhouette. The larger hearts were first printed with the Value that is represented by that color.

We found this poster print on Etsy and added some beautiful colored flowers.

One of our leaders put together these cute frames for the incoming girls with the year's theme. We also gave the a little bag of value gumballs with the cute "heart" quote attached.

 A look at my gumball tower - the pink should really be gold but that wasn't possible. I got a huge box of gumballs at Sams Club (850!) and layered them into a tall glass container. Then added a yellow striped ribbon on the top (see photo above) - I love how it all turned out.

Young Womens in Excellence 2013

I've been a bit behind on blogging due to my crazy family life the past few months!!  I just wanted to share some things we've done in Young Women's at church lately.  The first is Young Womens in Excellence. This is an evening where the girls can showcase what they have accomplished in the Personal Progress program.  We had displays all around the room showing off the talents and achievements of our girls. I decorated around a theme that I got off Pinterest - Seek the Sweet.  It was fun and right up my alley!

 I covered the large chalkboard with wrapping paper from Hobby Lobby (love their wraps!). Then designed out this poster and printed it out as a 30"x20". Used coffee filter and tulle poms with ruffled streamer garlands.

To the side of the room, we had our main decor and sundae bar.  Made up different sized pom pons out of tissue, tulle, and coffee filters.  Then hung white plastic tablecloths to cover the curtain fabric. I attached streamers up to and twisted to create backdrop.

 We gave each young woman a take-home box with lemonade cookies inside (have to keep with the color scheme :)

 The sundae bar was a hit - this doesn't show it with all the topping like the hot fudge, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. We had Blue Bell ice-cream! Yay for living in Texas!

Young Womens Fun Stuff

I no longer am serving as Stake Girls Camp Director for our church - but now I'm in our ward's Young Women!  I love being with all our girls and I really love making cute stuff with them in mind :)

Here are a few things I've done recently~

 I'm over the Mia Maids (14 & 15 year olds) - when they turn 14 and come into my class, they are also of age to attend the church dances.  So with some online ideas, I put together this little "First Dance Kit" bucket to give them on their birthday.

(I got the wording for the card off of Sugardoodle.net)

 This past week I had our Sunday lesson on Gratitude. I gave the girls a challenge to find one thing each day they were grateful for and to jot it down in this little journal. I found these cute super mini sized composition notebooks and made a little cover for them with a quote from Pres. Monson.

Then I also made and laminated a little bookmark for their journals - they turned out pretty cute, I think!

 A fun activity we had was a makeup and hair class with the girls. My daughter was the "pro" and showed them ways to braid, curl, and put up their hair. She also showed them some makeup ideas that were both natural and a little more dramatic (I need to use her talents before she leaves on her mission soon!).  This was our little reminder that I handed out to the girls - it has a cute little brush glued onto the bottom :)

Girls Camp 2013 Wrap up

Our camp was scheduled to be June 18-21st - but we got a call on June 11th from the camp asking where we were!! 

They were expecting us that day (a week early) - WHAT?!  

So we all rallied and got most of our girls to camp with only 6 hours notice!!  I love our leaders!

Our theme was "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"  These are the goodies bags everyone got when they registered.  It had their name lanyard, the schedule, their Secret Sister name, the camp song lyrics, a lollipop treat and a theme-inspired print out.  

 They also got their "Value Pills" (Skittles) 

 A couple of the pillow treats this year

 We usually give out a necklace to the girls each year according to our theme.  We got them large compasses so they can be reminded of the Places They'll Go in life

I gave my teachers these goodies for preparing wonderful classes. I put their photo on "Fox in Socks" and put it on the yummiest shea socks from B&B works

Our camp crafts this year - paint chip bookmarks. They stamped all sorts of designs on their picked out colors and then attached the Dr.Seuss quote on the back and tied their fluffy ribbon on top. We made a double braid headband - those turned out so cute. We had about 7 different fabrics all ripped for them to chose from.  The girls also make this cute braided hemp twine bracelet with heart charm.

Our t-shirt this year. They printed up a little more neon than I had designed - but everyone liked them that way :)

 I had made and laminated about 15 hot air balloons with all the Places You'll Go throughout life (college, mission, motherhood, Temple, marriage, workplace, etc). We hung them all up in our main room - they looked super cute.

 Some of the room doors had Dr.Seuss themed characters and poster on them. We also had a cute "mailbox" envelope on each door this year for the girls to put notes in for each other.

It's kind of hard to tell how cute this hall was with all the colorful ribbons and bows tied to the posts!

We had a great camp and I'm so grateful that I had everything prepared way ahead of time since I had a week less time to prepare.  I was able to just pack up my van and get to camp with the girls!!