Mini Planners

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Kristin

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! We have been enjoying the last days of our Christmas countdown – making ornaments to fill up our ornament boxes, delivering Christmas goodies in little paper gingerbread houses, caroling, and looking at Christmas lights.

I’m starting to look ahead to the new year, and thinking of how I want to be better organized, better disciplined, and just… better. I’ve started using my mini planners again, and thought I would repost the links to the daily planner, the self-reliance planner, and the PROS planner.

These mini booklets fold up from one piece of paper – producing 8 pages to plan and inspire. They are perfect for Family Home Evenings, or to give to a like-minded goal setter.

Posted in planner | 2 Comments

Come, Follow Me Curriculum

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Kristin

I’ve been thinking about the 2013 youth curriculum, Come Follow Me, and how we are going to work with this new system of teaching within our Young Women group. I started out by wanting all the topics for the month’s theme printed out to share with my presidency and with our class presidencies, so we could discuss the topics and what we wanted to focus on in our classes. After investigating further, I really liked the spiritual preparation questions to help see where the discussions might progress, and where the young women may be having thoughts and questions. I also looked at the “Live What We are Learning” section, to see if there might be ideas for mutual night activities that we could plug into our calendar for that month.

You can download what I came up with for January here. Young Women leaders, please let me know if this is helpful to you, or you have any ideas or suggestions for how you will be using the new curriculum!

Posted in Follow Me | 28 Comments

2012 Ornament Exchange

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Kristin

Our second annual ornament exchange transpired last weekend. To see how our exchange works you can read my post from last year. A dozen ladies make a dozen handmade ornaments, then we come together to exchange after chatting over salad, rolls and desserts.

This year’s hostess made these amazing felt owl ornaments.

This Santa key is tied to a poem explaining how the magic key opens the door on Christmas Eve when there is no chimney to come down. It fits into a hand stitched burlap envelope.

This salt dough star was stamped with the tree image, then baked and tied with a blue ribbon.

This “honeycomb” ball ornament is made by sewing circles, then hot-glueing ends and middles together.

Buttons strung on wire make this wreath very sweet.

This ornament was made with vintage church art sandwiched between tiny glass panes and soldered together, with a little bling at the bottom.

This is a Norwegian elf – complete with long beard and red cap, perched on a pinecone.

This wire ornament was made using a jig to get the basic shape of the letters, than free formed to get the loops.

A dozen of these scrabble-inspired ornaments were pieced together from multiple game sets found on ebay – with different Christmas sentiments expressed on each one.

The cupcake is made by gluing a red ball ornament to a cupcake liner, then applying caulking “frosting”, bead sprinkles and tiny cherry ball on top!

This snowman is covered in glitter, with puffy paint features and an orange sculpey clay nose. The hat is a finger from a mini glove, snipped and rolled.

My ornament was also a key – and goes with a poem and “Symbol of the Innkeeper’s Key”. I made velvet pouches to store the keys, and stamped the words, “Let Him in” to an antique brass round which I attached to the key. It is a reminder that Jesus is waiting at the door, but we need to let him in.

Following is the poem I wrapped around the key:

A Prayer For December:

 Dearest God, Please never let me

Crowd my life Full to the brim.

So like the keeper of Bethlehem’s Inn,

I find I have no room for Him.

Instead, let my heart’s door be ever open,

Ready to welcome the newborn King.

Let me offer  the best I have

to Him who gives me everything.

-author unknown

Each of us is an innkeeper which decides if there is room for Jesus

-Neal A. Maxwell

You can download the printable I made here.

Posted in Christmas | 33 Comments

Pulling Back the Curtain

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Kristin

I’ve made this fun “curtain” card to go with the December 2012 Visiting Teaching message, Visiting Teaching, A Work of Salvation. It has this quote printed on the front:

“You are going to save souls,” said President Kimball to visiting teachers, “and who can tell but that many of the fine active people in the Church today are active because you were in their homes and gave them a new outlook, a new vision.

When you open the card, the curtain slides open to reveal a scripture reference, and below that is the rest of the quote:

You pulled back the curtain. You extended their horizons. …

“You see, you are not only saving these sisters, but perhaps also their husbands and their homes.”

To make the card, print the file found at the bottom of this post on three different colors of heavy cardstock.

Cut out all the pieces, score and fold on the dotted lines, and arrange so you have contrasting colors for the three cards.

Fold your card as shown above.

Lay the inside places in the card to make sure you have the circles centered.

Tape the heart with scripture down, then place the “curtains” on top.

Using double sided tape, adhere the middle piece on top, again making sure it is centered. The top piece of tape I cut in half horizontally so as to not interfere with the curtains.

Finally, add pieces of double-sided tape to the ends of the curtains, and close the card, pushing down on the front to adhere everything well.

When you open the card back up, it will slide the curtains open. I did have some trouble closing the card again, and have to manipulate the curtains a bit to keep them from crossing and getting stuck – but it is a fun little surprise that will hopefully make you and those you visit smile! I also added some embellishment on a couple cards, because my cutting was a little messy, and the doodling helped to mask it! I followed the video tutorial here for the card, if you’d like some additional help.

You can download my curtain card below. (Thanks again to my wonderful translators!):

English

Spanish (view entire post in Spanish here)

German

French

Dutch

Portuguese

Posted in relief society | 8 Comments

Christmas Breakfast

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Kristin

We are having a pancake breakfast for our church Christmas party this year. Using this fabulous poster as inspiration, we put this announcement together to get everyone excited for a fun morning. We will have simple decorations, but one favorite thing I’d like to share with you is the placemat we’ll be using. To help encourage the children to stay with their families while everyone eats and visits, we wanted a simple activity for them to do at the tables.

This placemat will be at every seat, and includes a beautiful coloring page (found at hopeink.com), a place to draw a picture of a “gift” for the Savior (found at a year of fhe), a darling maze and word search. There will be crayons at the tables for the young and young at heart to enjoy!

You can download the Christmas Placemat here, to be printed on legal size or tabloid paper.

Posted in Christmas, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

G is for Ghost

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Kristin

This fall we started a preschool co-op for my daughter and 3 other little girls. We meet just once a week for a couple hours, introduce a letter of the alphabet, and do lots of playing. The day after Halloween was my turn to host while exploring the letter G. The most popular activity has been the sensory bin – we’ve had it out all week – and all my girls have had fun pouring and mixing and pretending with it. It consists of several bags of dried black beans, dried lima bean “ghosts” with Sharpie-drawn dots for eyes, spider rings, cookie cutters, green jewels (also for the letter G), and lots of spoons and bowls for scooping and mixing. I try and keep the beans in a medium-sized bin (or for now, a cauldron) inside our sand table, to minimize a dried bean home-takeover.

I found a couple great books to read, the first called Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara. The illustrations are wonderfully fun, and the ghosts are more sweet than scary. Perfect for preschoolers. I had a sheer curtain that we played with after reading this one. The other book, Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O’Connell, is a great counting book. We used our lima bean ghosts to countdown the ghosts as they left the story. The girls wanted me to read these two books over and over again.

Other activities we threw in for the morning included making green Kool-aid playdough, gluing paper ghosts and green gumballs onto a letter G coloring sheet, and pumpkin bowling – knocking down a toilet paper roll pyramid of ghosts.

For snack we had vanilla yogurt with spooky sprinkles, and frosted mini wheats!

Posted in preschool | 2 Comments

Of Regrets and Resolutions

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Kristin

I’ve made some little books to help teach the points in President Uchtdorf’s general conference talk, “Of Regrets and Resolutions“. I am teaching a lesson to my Laurels using them tomorrow, and I may use them next month also as a visiting teaching message.

Just fold in half vertically, then again horizontally. I’ve added some thought questions after quotes from the talk.

You could add a fun fall goodie to this lesson like any of the following:

You can download the booklet below:

English

Portuguese 

German

Posted in general conference | 12 Comments

Family Proclamation Placemats

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Kristin

Here is my guest post from the Family Proclamation Celebration over at Jocelyn’s blog, “Talk of Christ, Rejoice in Christ”!

We all want our families to be happy and successful. I love a good list – and the one found in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, to help us in our quest for family success – is solid. It states that, “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.”

I want to be reminded of these principles more in our home and family. I want to discuss them often, and there is no better time for us to do that than around the dinner table.

With this in mind, I’ve made a placemat which incorporates these principles of successful families. It is meant to be used during a family home evening, and then for subsequent dinners. With each table set, we will be reminded of values we should be focusing on daily, while at the same time getting our utensils on the correct sides of the plate!  🙂

To introduce the placemat at a Family Home Evening, the principles can be covered with matching shapes, and then revealed and discussed one at a time. I’ve tried to make a connection between each principle and the item it is printed on. Below is a brief explanation of each shape. Follow the links attached to the principles for wonderful thoughts and quotes relating them to our families.

  • Faith: The seeds in the watermelon are to remind us of the principle of faith. (Faith is like a seed! Alma 32:28)
  • Prayer: A pretzel reminds us of arms folded in prayer.
  • Repentance: The lollipop reminds us that repentance is sweet.
  • Forgiveness: The bread reminds us of the sacrament, and forgiveness through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
  • Respect: The many tines of a fork remind us of respect – no one is put ahead of another, and we live in peace and harmony, being mindful of the worth of each member.
  • Love: Spoons can snuggle close together – and thus symbolize love
  • Compassion: The tear drop in the cup is for compassion, to remind us of tears shared when feeling empathy towards one another.
  • Work: The knife is an essential tool in the kitchen, and reminds us of work.
  • Wholesome recreational activities: Napkins can be folded and played with, and remind us of wholesome recreational activities

Once each principle has been uncovered and discussed, you can play a memory game to see who remembers what each symbol represents. Later at the table, try interchanging an object’s name for it’s principle. For example, “Anyone need a little more compassion in their cups? Please wipe your mouth with your wholesome recreational activities. Save your love for later to eat your dessert!” You get the idea. 😉

I hope this is a fun, helpful approach to focusing on the principles that will guide your family to greater happiness and success!

Click to download the Family Proclamation Placemat.

Click to download the Blank Placemat Shapes.

 

Posted in families, family home evening kit, Proclamation on the Family, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Honoring Our Covenants

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Kristin

The Visiting Teaching message for October, Honoring Our Covenants, talks about how we honor our covenants when we serve as visiting teachers, and also how we can help the sisters we visit keep their covenants. I’m using a clothespin to help share this message. Just as the clothespin is a useful tool or instrument – we also are instruments  in the hands of God – as we make and keep sacred covenants. On one end I’ve written, “serve” and “strengthen” to represent this thought:

Visiting teaching is an expression of our discipleship and a way to honor our covenants as we serve and strengthen one another.

On the other end is a heart (because it’s cute and we love each other!), and a rolled up piece of paper that reads,

As we make and keep sacred covenants, we become instruments in the hands of God. We will be able to articulate our beliefs and strengthen each other’s faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

I love the promise behind that statement – that as we try to keep our covenants by serving others, that we will be given the capacity to do so.

Because this is a simple printout, I’ve saved myself some trouble and combined some languages in the downloadable files below. I hope you have a wonderful month!

English, Spanish and Portuguese

German, Russian and French

Dutch and Japanese

 

 

Posted in Covenants | 5 Comments

Family Proclamation Placemats

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Kristin

I’m guest-posting today over at Jocelyn’s blog, “We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ” for her annual Family Proclamation Celebration. Click over to see the Family Proclamation Placemats I made – they are a fun way to review the principles of success listed in the Proclamation!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments