Happiness in Family Life & Other Activity Day Ideas

 

This week for our activity day activity, we are making these wooden blocks as a Mother's Day gift.

I first saw the idea at ldsactivitydayideas. There is a free download for the quote, making it super easy for that part: print & cut.

The wood blocks are 5 1/2 in. by 7 in. painted with matte black craft paint.  The paper is a light cream, cut to 5 in. sq.  I lightly distressed the edges with walnut stain distressing ink.  The ribbon is a light cream 5/8 in. grosgrain from HobbyLobby about 35 in. to leave plenty of room for a bow or to trim however the girls would like it to be.

 

Another cute version found at strawberrypearlstudios.

 

We believe the family is ordained of God

 

I am also going to print out scripture stickers like the ones at meckmom (I bought the sticker paper from her etsy shop).  I downloaded the most current edition of The Family a Proclamation to the World  and converted it to black & white to use.

 

In April, we did a scavenger hunt based on the 13th Article of Faith/My Gospel Standards inspired by this one at abushelandapeck. I changed/added a few things for our scavenger hunt and had some things printed off from For the Strength of the Youth that went along with the categories.  We also used a sudoku puzzle, a crossword puzzle and a page from the Friend on the 13th Article of Faith.

Also this from the New Era and this from a General Young Women meeting.

 

In April we also had an activity about budgeting.  The girls brought a plastic container to label to use as a place to save money for a certain item they'd like to earn and save money for.  We talked about several categories they should think about allocating money to: savings, tithing/fast offerings/mission fund, saving for an item and spending money.

We also played a game where we brought several items and had them write down how much they thought each item cost to give them an idea of how much items they use daily/weekly really cost.  This idea was also inspired by blogs with LDS activity day ideas.

Some articles we used were:

Making sense of dollars and cents

The doll dilemma

A dollar here, a dollar there

 

Other activities we've had this year include:

 

Babysitting. 

We gave them a small bag and a few items and forms to start a babysitting kit.  We went over things they should do & ask about when someone asks the to babysit, what information to make sure they have while they are babysitting and just some general things that are a good idea to do & be aware of while they are babysitting.

Some ideas:

"Bee" a great sitter

Babysitting kits

Babysitting bags

 

The Sacrament.

Based on the conference talk Blessings of the Sacrament.  We actually watched a video clip of Elder Clarke giving the talk.  We discussed ways to be more reverent each Sunday.

I made a handout with the main points from the talk.

Why is the sacrament important?

How should I behave in sacrament meeting?

 

 

 

Missionary Night.

We invited the sister missionaries to meet with us and tell the girls a bit about serving a mission and to answer some of their questions.

We also had the girls write to the missionaries from our ward.

ldsactivtydayideas

 

Personality posters & washer jewelry.

We had a poster board taped on the wall for each girl, had her stand in front of it and traced around her head and shoulders.  Then everyone went around writing things they liked about one another on each other's posters.  I then took a photo of each girl in front of her written on poster.

While I was snapping pictures, the girls made washer necklaces & bracelets with cute scrapbook paper.

Idea from here.

 

Music.

The other leader I work with is a talented musician.  She went over some music and music leading basics with the girls and we played a game about some of the musical items we went over to see if the girls could recognize what they were.  We also practiced the song I'm learning the Ways of Jesus to sing in sacrament meeting. 

 

These have also been great to use for family home evening ideas.

Wooden Nativity

 

Wooden Nativity for activity days activity this week.

Idea from learning to be me.

 

Basic Supplies:

6"2x2

5" 2x2
2 1/2" 2"furring strip
2x 1-1/2" ball knob
1x 1/2" furniture button
Craft paint: Grey (Americana Neutral Grey)

Peach (Americana Toffee)

Blue (Folk Art Coastal Blue)

White (Apple Barrel White)

Foam brush, sandpaper, hot glue and sisal

 

I wish I would have glued baby Jesus a little higher, but the hot glue was holding quite well, so I just left it after gently trying to pry it off with no success.

 

I don't have a total calculated cost for these yet, but we made 14 sets for about $30, which included a bag of 50 foam brushes and 400 yds of sisal for future use.  We used up almost all of the wood, 2 2x2s and 1 furring strip.  Amazingly, we only needed on bottle of each color of craft paint.  I did divide it up in little containers to help curb excessive paint waste.

 

 

Wooden Turkeys

I don't have much to share at the moment, but my mom finished up some cute, wooden turkey decor in time for Thanksgiving.

 

 

Halloween by My Mom

My mom sent me some pics of Halloween projects she's been working on, so I thought I'd share.

 

Yellow Sunshine Skirt

I'm calling this the yellow sunshine skirt.

I love it, it's just so happy.  My bathroom is a happy, sunny yellow too.

The fabric is Sunkissed by Sweetwater for Moda. I love that fabric line and have more of it in my stash.

I used the PinkFig Girly Stripwork skirt pattern; it is probably the fullest skirt I've made for K*.  Definitelyy twirly.

I bought the fabric last Spring and I got around to it finally in January, mainly because I wanted to use my new serger.  It has a lot of seams to serge between the strips, making it the perfect first project to try out my new serger.  But then, I couldn't decide how to finish the bottom so I set aside for almost two months.  Just a yellow or yellow print strip wasn't working for me.  And white alone wasn't either.  So, I ended up using the same solid yellow as the waistband and white 1 3/4"  lace.

 

 

 

And look at this super cute wooden chick my mom is working on.

The wooden chick is from the wood connection and the paper is from a paper pack called Sweet.

For April Fool's Day today, I got the kids at breakfast.  Last night, I poured some milk and cheerios into two bowls and put them in the freezer.  Before breakfast I pulled them out & added a little bit of unfrozen milk & cheerios on the top of the frozen stuff.  After the prayer, the kids went to dig their spoons into their cereal and couldn't.  Nothing incredibly fancy, but S* said it was, "the best April Fool's ever!"  And that may also be because I've never done something fun like that to them before.

I got the idea from the book The Happiness Project that I read in January.

Too bad I didn't snap a photo.

Family name {conversation hearts}

Family name conversation hearts

Last week when I was painting the birthday blocks, I also painted these conversation hearts.  I copied the idea from a pin on pinterest from the peanut paint shop.  I found the hearts at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 each.  I have been trying to be good and use the crafty supplies I already have.  So, I picked the paint colors I had on hand that would work best and didn't spend time trying to mix colors together to get a better color, I just went with it.  The colors are: lemon chiffon, heather, baby blue, and think pink.  I cut our names out of burgundy vinyl using the font poornut.  Then I used C*'s stapler from the garage to attach white grosgrain ribbon to the backs of the hearts, my grommet thingy to make a place in the ribbon to hang it on a nail and pinned a bow on it. Ta da!  It was fun to make (and pretty simple too).  It's hanging in our little hallway near the kitchen, so it was a bit tricky to get a decent picture.

After hanging it up, I think I should have made the names a bit bigger and I wish the vinyl was a bit redder/brighter so a red ribbon would match.  Oh well, I can always change it next year.

Aren't tulips just so happy!

A friend gave these to me for my birthday and I just love them.  They make my kitchen/table look happier and add to my Valentine decor.

Happy Birthday {to me}

I'm currently reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. One of the thoughts/quotes I like from it is, "The days are long, but the years are short".

Today I am 33

I graduated from high school almost 15 years ago

I've been married for 13 1/2 years

I've lived in Kingwood, TX for 12 1/2 years, my house for 11 1/2 years

S* is 10 1/2, K* is 6

They are halfway through 4th grade and Kindergarten

S* won't be living at home in another 10 years, K* will be learning to drive

I finished these wooden birthday blocks and presents Thursday night.

They are from the wood connection in Utah. My mom sent them to me in September and I tried to get them done before K*'s birthday, but getting some other things done before having my wisdom teeth didn't leave me the time to.

I started out painting the blocks multi colors like this one here on the happy scraps blog but I just couldn't get the colors right for what I was envisioning. When I pulled it all out earlier this week, I decided to paint all the blocks white.  I'm so glad I did.  I picked out the paper in September, which was nice to already have that decided. The paper is: a walk in the park by echo park, it's such a fun paper collection. The font I used for happy birthday is pea missy. I also used some glitter on the three presents and am still deciding if I like it. Not sure I can change it if I don't though.

It felt a little silly to be finishing a birthday decoration for my own birthday, but when I wasn't able to finish it before K*'s birthday I promised myself I'd get it done for mine just so I could have it ready to use for everyone's birthdays.

Have a Thankful Heart

Made this thankful heart board for Thanksgiving based on an idea I saw here. I need to get over my worries when it comes to sanding boards.  I may take the sandpaper to this one some more when I figure out some good sanding techniques.  It looks a lot better too on my bar next to some small pumpkins and other Fall decor.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Fall Yard Stake

This fun Fall yard stake was a project option at our recent church craft night.  Since I didn't make one, I snapped a picture of the one my friend down the street made.

Halloween skirts & tees

I made these two Halloween outfits  (candy corn & spider) for my daughter and a skirt for my niece in Utah for some Halloween fun in their wardrobe selection.  Earlier this year, I came across Riley Blake's fun & really cute trick or treat fabric line and knew I wanted to make some things out of it.  I also have some of the fabric for a Halloween quilt, but I might not get to that this year.  It's a cute line for kids, but in the future I can see myself using a nice, "softer" orange, cream and black to sew with/decorate some things (I want to make fabric roses in those colors, but probably won't get to those this year either).  I enjoyed sewing these, and it was fun sewing with colors I wouldn't normally make something out of for K*.  I made the outfits big so hopefully they'll fit for a Halloween or two (or three).  Although it wouldn't be the worst thing though if I had to buy cute Halloween fabric again soon. 

I used the Pinkfig girly skirt pattern for the two green  black skirts and studied a few patterns (mainly Pinkfig's nie nie pattern and a free tutorial from Izzy & Ivy) to make the orange & yellow candy corn skirt since I don't have a pattern for a two ruffle layered skirt.  I'm happy with how the t-shirt appliques turned out, I was having a bit of trouble with the candy corns at one point and had to cut new ones out, but in the end it seems to have worked out.  My original plan was to use a bat, but I'm glad I went with the spider dangling down with a bow, so fun.  Another fun thing I've never done before: tags.  Last time I made some skirts, K* told me she couldn't tell which way was the back and that I should put a tag.  I think they look cute out of Halloween print ribbon.

DETAILS Yellow fabric: what a hoot by exclusively quilters; Orange fabric: scrappy and happy baby #3530 by Jane Selck; Black & green Halloween prints, green dots and tag ribbon: trick or treat by Riley Blake; Black fabric: from my stash; Spider and candy corn shapes: silhouette shapes; Tees: target and the children's place

And a wooden witch hat:

This wooden witch hat is from the wood connection in Utah.  They don't ship, but fortunatley I have family who is willing to send things to me. 

I used black paint, some Halloween paper I already had in my stash, purple paint for the moon, green tulle for the "bow", black glitter over the black paint on the bottom of the hat, a plastic ring spider {since I misplaced the one that came with it} and three gems from some Halloween stamp packages my mom sent me.  I spent the good part of one morning start to finish.  I also kept bugging my sister over the phone about how did she make hers.

Rapunzel is finished too!  Thanks to the school trunk or treat on Friday, I'm ahead of schedule for Halloween as far as having costumes done.  Yay! Pictures soon.  And {hopefully} my tips for braided yarn Rapunzel hair after some trial and error.

July 2011 crafts

Copied the basic idea for these two wooden crafts from somethings I came across on etsy last summer. I'm really happy with how they turned out (once I finally got around to them last week). For the white blocks, I used vinyl as a stencil with blue paint for the words and glued on two rusty stars I bought on etsy. The red board lettering is white vinyl, and again rusty stars from etsy. The red board is about 12 by 7 1/2 and the white blocks are a 2 x 2 (so it's 1 1/2 x 1 1/2) cut at about 7 and 10 1/2 inches. I mixed the red paint up from two other red colors and the blue is a modified navy. I like using magnolia white paint, it's not too bright of a white, but not cream. The fonts are susie's hand, annabelle, and modern no. 20. I have some ideas for other boards too, I could just make them even though it's August tomorrow and be ready for next year, or procrastinate again.

And now, for the mess up craft....,

I used modpodge to glue a bunch of red, white and blue paint chip samples (free from lowes) onto a canvas. It was late at night, so the picture isn't great, but after getting the paint samples glued on with a few coats, I then spread dark walnut minwax stain all over and wiped it off. I was pretty happy with it. Had plans to put 'AMERICA land that I love' along one side. It's not my usual style of decor, but it's seasonal and cheap to make. Then the mistake. I wanted it to have a little bit of a shimmer, but I got the modpodge shimmer paint (metallic sahara gold) ratio wrong. I did four parts modpodge to one part shimmer paint, but it was too much shimmer, at least too much for the look I was envisioning. I guess a smart person would have tested the shimmer out on a scrap first. Oh well. I could always make another one.... Could be something fun for the kids to make something along these lines too.

Inspiration here and here.