Subway Art...YW Values

I tried my hand at creating a piece of Subway Art...

I used Picnik to create it. Click HERE for download jpeg or you can right click on the image above and save as.

"13th Night"

As promised from the short little blurb that I wrote last night from my phone, I am posting the details of last nights mutual activity.

The theme for the night was Being in the World but Not of the World or simply known as the "13th Night." 

We started out with the girls all repeating this years mutual theme, the 13th Article of Faith. Our idea for the nights activity was on the last words of "if there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things" and Elder Oaks talk on Pornography (which can be found HERE).

We had our stake president come in and talk to the girls, he is also a professional counselor and has had experience in the effects that pornography causes, plus our girls really responded well to him when he talked at girls camp. 

We had the girls and leaders sit in a circle so it was a little more intimate and so the girls would feel comfortable asking questions or making comments. Our stake president started off with some points that he liked in Elder Oaks talk and then proceeded with some current statistics which are and were quite alarming....for example if we took all the money that is spent on pornography we we could fix the national debt with in weeks. Considering there is about $180,000,000.00 spent in 60 minutes on the filth. Scary isn't it? He also mentioned that one in seven females get solicited. Even scarier!! 

He also brought up some great stories from the scriptures to drive his point. He used the story of David and Bathsheba (how thoughts turn into actions and so forth) and then he talked about Joseph and Potifer's wife (sorry if I spelled those name wrongs) and how Joseph knew what was wrong and how he made a commitment to avoid the temptations. 

We talked a little from our discussions how thoughts and being modest affect the young men that our young women associate with.  How being strong and committed to doing what is right can help them if they found themselves in a situation that would compromise their virtue when on dates or what not. The girls made a lot of great points and it made it for a great night to address some concerns and issues that our youth are being forced to deal with in the world that they live in. 

Tonights mutual activity

Hey everyone! We had a great activity tonight with our stake president that I just had to share (a more complete post will added soon). We had our "13th Night"  which focused on being in the world but not of the world and centering around the yw values of choice and accountability, integrity, and most importantly virtue. There was a lot of discussion and questions from our yw. It was just amazing so I will be posting about it tomorrow when I am more awake and focused.

Avoiding Dishonesty

Avoiding Dishonesty, lesson 34 from the YW Manual 3. 

Took my inspiration from the FSOY booklet. 

Click HERE for download

Paper credit goes to Hot Pink Pansy!

Each Person is Divine & Eternal

Here is lesson 33 for the Young Women Manual 3- Each Person is Divine and Eternal. I just love this quote from President Gordon B. Hinckley. Sister Susan W. Tanner quoted it in her talk that she gave at the General YW Meeting in 2007. You can read her talk HERE.

The handout is a set of 4 with paper and element credit going to My 4 Princess Designs and Hot Pink Pansy. Thank you ladies!

 Click HERE for download

Service in the Community

Here is lesson 32 from the YW Manual 3- Service in the Community. Bookmark style handout with 3 to a page. 

Paper Credit goes to Plum Dumpling Designs from their 6 Bees Kit from the April LDS Blogtrain

Click HERE for download

Service in the Church

Here is lesson 31 from the third yw manual. PDF set of 4.

Click HERE for download 

Paper credit goes to Dede Smith from the 6 bees kit that was available on the LDS Blog Train.

Camp Pictures....

Or at least what I was able to take...still waiting on some more (fingers crossed)

 Most of the above pictures were taken at around 630 in the morning....with the exception of the top photo

 One policy was that everything had to be put away before they went to bed...the items that were not were placed in the "UH OH" box (kind like a lost and found) and in order for the girls to get their stuff back they had to do something to earn it....here the two pictures above are of two of my girls "butt writing" their names...its really funny to watch....especially when you have them do their full name!

Pictures of our skit...we kinda did a night at the museum meets harry potter type of a thing. Since we were France our setting was at the Lourve and the girls were on tour and every time they would pass one of the "works of art" something would happen...ie the painting or statue would interact with them in some sort of way...cause the girls to get our security guard to have them look...nothing happens and everyone is still and in their places...etc...finally it ends with the tourist running out screaming and the art having a big party...in a nut shell.

The rest of my pictures were of the fire...I love fire so I couldn't resist taking photos of it...it was my down time so to speak

Scripture Study

Lesson 30 is up and ready for those of you who can still use it. Its a book mark with 4 to a page.

 Click HERE to download

A Change of Heart

Its a little slow in the coming but I finally have found some time to get some handouts posted. Here is lesson 29 from the third yw manual. The pdf is a set of 4

Click HERE for download

Paper credit goes to Shabby Princess from the Promise Kit

...Search of treasure? Part 2

Thanks for checking out the second part of this post. I was worried that the other post was getting to be rather long. I told you I would provide to you the clues that we used. I will share them here and then  when I get them typed up in a word document I will post them as well. I just took an extra copy of the clues...I actually didn't type them up...the words in ( ) are the answers to the clues we used.

CLUES:

1. Ye will need to seek high and ye will need to seek low, if you want to get close to gold. Seek ye in a small space where the water runs both hot and cold. (Handicapped Bathroom)

2.Aye...Nothing beats a good pirate performance! "Under," over, in out...look carefully for your next clue. (Stage)

3.Ahoy mateys! Pirates often have secrets or skeletons in their closets. Sometimes they have them in their family "trees." Sometimes they are "stored" away from the the ship. (Storage shed in back of church)

4. Ahh, our dear Captain is a busy man! He believes we should improve on our reading skills while we wait to talk to him.  (Bulletin board by the bishops office)

5. Pirate ships are usually hot and stuffy. A chill wind blows today. Brrr...its freezing in here! (Freezer in kitchen)

6. Davey Jones' locker is as big as the deep blue sea. However, young, 8 year old Pirates get their feet wet in a much smaller sea.  (Font Room)

7.The ship's mast is tall and inspiring to all who cast their gaze upon it. Our ship's mast is pointing to heaven. (Steeple or wall nearest to steeple)

8."Train up a child in the way he should go..." Pirate children must learn, too. Get them while they are young! "Babies" are even better! (Nursery)

9. The ship's doors seem to say, "Shh, Be Still." You will find the treasure you seek near by. Look closely. (Chapel overflow)

10. Aye...all this searching for treasure has made me thirsty! I need a drink! (drinking fountain)

11. The Captain is sending you down into the bowls of the ship. Below deck level can be a dark place. Beware of the young men who hang out there! (Stairs leading to the scout room)

12. Your beginning is where you will end! You have collected valuable treasures along the way...but the best is yet to come! (Primary Room)

The clues that we had matched the maps. They were made out of the same brown card stock and crumpled up just the same and then laid flat to dry. We had an old antique key stamped onto the front of the clues. 

As you read from the last clue that was given...it took our girls back to the primary where we had started. Let me share with you our decorations. We raided our local dollar store into the party isle and found maps, and hanging things from the ceiling. Treat bags (which we bought some plastic gold coins and put four coins in a bag). We had the sound track from the first Pirates of the Caribbean playing in the background the entire time. All of the leaders involved dressed up like pirates. 

We had wanted posters placed with fun pictures of our two pirate thieves. They were stationed all over the church (depending on the clues) and they "attacked" the girls by taking their cell phones and shoes and hair clips...anything that could get their hands on. We told our girls that they might have to barter for things...none of them did. 

As part of the hunt, their were 3 stations before meeting back in the primary room. The family tree (clue 3 would be the clue leading to this station). Here we had one of our YWs mother talk about the past...she shared stories about her past and present and also about her daughter as a baby. A family history type of thing.

The next station was in the font room. We had a lady come in and talk about education and studying habits that the girls need to start develop and how they will help them in college and life (this was great since this activity was the night before school started).

Then they would start the clues that would take them to our 3 station which was in the chapel overflow. We had a lady come in to share about how personal progress and goals will help get the girls to their future and the importance that those two items. 

Finally the end of the hunt led the girls to a large treasure chest (we had jewels and candy (oh at each of the station they would collect treasure which was candy like ring pops, candy jewelry, hershey nuggets and any other candy that was gold or silver) and was spot lighted. Here we had a member of the stake YW presidency speak to the girls about the ultimate goal and the cummulation of the hunt (past present and future) about going to college, getting married in the temple and then starting a family and then concluded with the ultimate goal of returning back to Christ and our Father in Heaven.

We closed with the map handout and prayer. It was a great night and the girls had a ton of fun. I will hopefully get some pictures from the person who was taking pictures and get them posted on here. I will also type up the clues and the intro script and post them on here as well. 

Click HERE for pdf of Clues, Answers, and Send Off Script

Any comments or questions just let me know!

Aye, are ye in search of treasure? Part 1

So I just wanted to take a few moments and share with you some of our mutual activity that we had last night. I do not have actual pictures of the events that took place (hopefully I can get a copy of those pics so I can share with you all on here). 

So as you can see from the last post and the title of this post that we have taken our girls on a treasure hunt. Our inspiration came from a talk that President Monson gave at BYU in 1997. You can find a copy of that talk HERE. 

Once we had our "muse" we set out for invites...

For the invites I used Srapbook Max to create. I borrowed a  black and white image of the skull and crossbones, except for this I used the skull and swords...once I had my image I lightened it up so it was pretty much just in the background.  I used the font Pieces of Eight (very close and sometimes used, I heard, for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. You can find and download the font HERE. Its really cool in my opinion. I have these if you would like a pdf copy of them...I can personalize them for you too. Just comment me or sent me an email.

Once I had them I just printed them out on paper (the one you can see in the pic I took Tim Rangers Tea Dye ink pad and went around the edges cause I couldn't find my black...but since it didn't go with the rest of the invite I left it off. So to finish it..I cut and rolled it up and then some twine/hemp/jute cording to tie it up and then I placed them in a glass bottle.

For our handout out to give to everyone at the end of the night...

 OK, this looks a little different. The paper that we used is actually card stock! It looks like a brown paper bag but I assure you it isn't. I don't know where my other leader on this project got it...I think it was Michael's craft stores. So it came in the size of a 8.5 x 11 sheets. What we did was take it and cut it in half. I found a treasure map from Google and used my nifty scrap booking program (you can find out about it HERE) so I could get two maps to a page.

Here comes the tricky part. To get the crinkle effect, you have to spray the paper with water. Ink jet printers will work if you let the ink sit for quite a few days...and you really only want to spray it enough to make it soft enough to crumple it up. Laser jets are awesome! We went to Office Max and photo copied it. This was great but the toner on the paper would rub off when it was wet and crumpled together...so I ended up having to go over ALL the maps with a Sharpie prior to wetting it. 

Once wet and crumpled...uncrumple it and let it dry flat. Once it was dry (and it doesn't take long) apply a jewel heart on the "X"

Once it was all dry and the heart is glued on we go to the back of the map. Here we have the scripture from Matthew 6:19-21 and a little bit of the talk that Monson gives us. This was typed up and cut out with a cricut embellishment. It was stressed with a stamp background to give it an aged look with the stamp up caramel color ink pad (not a member of the club so not sure of the name). Then it was applied to the back with glue and then we glued three jewels...to represent the past present and future. 

Check out part 2 for the rest of this activity (mainly the clues and script).