2011 Young Womens Theme Block

Even though it's been months since I was released from Young Women's I still miss it.  I got asked to help out with a craft project for New Beginnings and jumped at the chance.  These were pretty easy to make.  In fact, we had the girls make them.  We had them precut and sanded for them. I got the cute subway art from Melinda over at Under My Umbrella. She is seriously talented!!

We used 2x6 boards and cut them into 6 inch blocks.  We had the girls paint the entire block black.  Then we took a piece of scrapbook paper and modgepodged it onto the board. Then we took the subway art and attached it with modge podge to the front of the block.  Add another coat of modge podge, tie a cute bow and you have a way cute reminder of the theme for the year!

I had a blast coming up with them.  I tried making them in different sizes, but this was the cutest.  It was a great project to be involved in.  I came up with the idea and my friend and her hubby did all the gathering, cutting and sanding!  I got to go and help the girls make them!  It was perfect!

My new Obsession: Fabric Flowers

I'm obsessed! My husband is freaking out and wondering what we are going to do with all of these flowers. He wants me to sell them, but everyone sells them!! I am just having fun.
This was taken about a week ago, there have been oodles more since then!

This is a fun little no sew flower. You can get the template here. These one's actually take a a bit longer than the ruffle flowers, but if your an anti-sewer, these are the ones for you!

These headbands are so much fun and so easy to make! You don't even need to add the flower, but it's fun to add a little something to it. I followed her measurements exactly and apparently I have a big head!! It's squishing my brain!! So I made some more and added about 2 inches in length and now it's almost to big, so maybe just adding 1 & 1/2 inches next time. This one was way cute on my 2-year-old and fit Mandee's little gal who is 7 perfect.

This is my favorite flower. A little bulky. I actually took it apart to make it smaller. My husband thinks this is way to big to wear, but I tried to tell him that it's the style and big is better!

This is perhaps my favorite one I have made and I just gave it to a friend for her birthday!

I know I am a behind in jumping on this train, but I am loving it! There is definite a learning curve on the flowers. I will do a tutorial on one, because I have kind of changed up a few different set's of instructions and have been making my own. Let me experiment a little and then I will share!!

Caramel Apples

I love Carmel Apples! No, I don't just love them, I ADORE them! You can add so much to them by using a variety of toppings. Please ignore our slightly blurry picture. We made these at young women's tonight and I ran off and forgot my camera. So this picture was taken with a phone. We started this at 7:15 and we were cleaned up and ready to go by 8:30 and that includes about 40 minutes in the fridge, while we worked on personal progress.

You will need a microwave safe bowl, cookie sheet and spoon.

Caramel
1 regular sized bag of Caramel's, unwrapped
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 stick of butter (no substitutions)

Combine ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, take out and stir. Continue to microwave for 2 minutes at a time, always stirring in between until you reach your desired consistency ~ Smooth!!

Dip your apples in the Caramel making sure to scrape off any excess caramel from the bottom. Place them on a greased cookie sheet. (I was melting chocolate while they dipped) Decorate as desired. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set and then enjoy!

The toppings that we had were white and semi-sweet chocolate, that we melted down and drizzled on top. Sprinkles, mixed nuts and almonds. You could also use crushed m&m's or oreo's. OH HEAVENLY DAY!

(Also, I found caramels that were unwrapped and were shaped like little, sixlet sized balls. So easy to melt!! It made the process go much faster.)

Another great idea, from my mom, who got this recipe and this particular idea from her Bishop, was to make the caramel as directed and then roll big marshmallows in the caramel. Then you can roll them in nuts, coconut or crushed candy! Oh, sugary high waiting to happen. How fun to do this for Christmas goodie plates. I may have to try it!

Happy Dipping!

Young Women Camp Journals

I have to be honest. I don't know where this idea sprang from. Mandee and I did this when we made our cookbooks last year. I used the same idea this year for girls camp. They turned out darling! All you need is a 3-ring binder (.99 cents at Wal-Mart), modge podge and cute paper.

Cut your paper down to fit the cover of the binder. Use Modge Podge to adhere the paper to the front of the binder. Be careful that you don't use to much, because it will bubble if you do. Press the paper outwards to work out any bubbles.

Decorate the cover as you desire. If you want you can modge podge the cover to give it a glossy finish. We had girls who did both options. The one in the middle was done with gems and used thick dots to give it a 3-dimensional look. We didn't use modge podge on the cover. We used ribbon on a lot of them and just modge podged them on. Some of the girls did modge-podge their binders and then used the cork board letters on after it dried.

We filled each binder with some lined paper, blank paper and sheet protectors so they could save any handouts that they recieved. We also gave them a ton of great quotes that I found here (if you have a calling in YW, you want to bookmark her page), that they could cut out and use on the covers or use to put inside their binder.

The possibilities are endless. These are just a few that I was lucky enough to get pictures of. They were all cute. Happy Modge Podging!

LDS Creativity Corner

I had to share this site! Stumbled across this blog today, via Sugardoodle. Still looking at camp stuff. Sure will be glad when it's over next week! Anyway, LDS Creativity Corner is awesome! It looks like this gal is in Young Womens! I am super excited to have found such a great sight and that she is generous enough to share with those of us who are less, well let's say computer literate. Go check it out!

I need your advice....

First of all, we haven't dropped off the face of the planet. Both Mandee and I have just been very busy with our everyday lives. Not to say that we aren't always busy, but it just seems that time slips by and life is really busy in spurts. I promise to be back and posting soon!!

But first, I need some advice. I am the Beehive advisor in my ward. We have a great group of girls. This past Sunday the entire presidency was released and so was an advisor and our secretary. Four of these beautiful and wonderful women had been in for over 2 years, so there is a lot of emotional attachment for everyone. I was retained along with another advisor and one member of the presidency was also extended the call back as the 2nd counselor, so whew, very little change for the Beehives. However, we will miss our friends very much!

So my question is, any ideas for handling such a change? There were several very emotional girls on Sunday and some emotional leaders!! As one of the surviving leaders, I want to do everything I can to make this transition a positive one for the girls. I'm that friendly face that they are comfortable with so I need to help keep things rolling smoothly. Any ideas?? Any advice you can give will be much appreciated.

In the meantime check out these sweet talkers, candy bar wrappers. This is what we were going to do for our young women's birthday's. Maybe we still will, who knows?