Valentine Ideas

I am so, so far behind!! I have so many things to post and update, I'm not really sure where to begin. Soooo...since the next holiday to come upon us is Valentines Day, I thought I would show you what I did last year for Valentines Gifts. 

It's always a challenge for me to come up with creative *NEW* holiday handouts for my Young Women. Last year I was inspired one day while at .99 ONLY store shopping for something else. 

I found boxes of fortune cookies. There were a dozen in each box for $1!! SCORE! 

{SIDE NOTE...and YES, by the way, I do buy groceries at .99 ONLY.  I have 2 rules when buying food there. #1) it has to be name brand products. #2) Check expiration dates.}

Anyway...I have A LOT of girls to make hand outs for (I usually make 30), so the cheaper the better.

I then bought some of the red & pink chocolate for candy making & dipped just 1/2 the fortune cookie in chocolate. Add a few sprinkles and viola...SO. DANG. CUTE! and YUMMY!

 

I already had these adorable Valentine Chinese take out boxes in my bin of valentines stuff...so those were free.  

 

I put a little bit of red paper shreds in the bottom of each box and then filled each box with 3 cookies. 

 

They turned out SUPER cute and very YUMMY!! Both my YW and my boys LOVED getting them for Valentines. 

 

Happy Hearts Day!

BLANK INVITE FILES

Hi All!!
I've had LOTS of requests for some of my blank invites & tags for New Beginnings and Young Women in Excellence. I am attaching the ones that I have made. I don't feel comfortable attaching any that we've used with other people images, photography or downloads. So...I'm just going to post the ones I've made myself, from scratch.
Just click on the picture, once it opens right click on it and select "Save Picture As." Then, once you've downloaded it to you computer, you can add your own text to it via Photo shop (or any photo editing software you may use).

YW LEADERS BOARD MEETING

~invite~

"Taste the Rainbow" NEW BEGINNINGS

~invite~

 

~sign~ 

 ~blank tag~

 ~text for programs~

YW Christmas Party

~invite~

 

HOPE THAT HELPS!!!

YW Christmas Gifts

 For our YW Christmas Party, we kept it S-I-M-P-L-E!! I was in the midst of JUST doing a wedding luncheon & planning a wedding reception for 5 days after Christmas. So I needed to make it EASY!!

Our Theme was "TIS THE SEASON." We had every leader bring a bite sized dessert for a dessert bar. Then I brought everything for a hot chocolate bar. :) the program consisted of all the YW leaders sharing their favorite Christmas story with the YW.  We ended the evening with our annual gift exchange, which is always a fave of the girls. REMEMBER...EASY!! The evening was perfect!! Simple, spiritual but fun as well with YUMMY food!!

For the handout, my adorable second counciler {Jamie Pieper} put together these fuzzy sock cupcakes for every girl. In the middle, we rolled up a small nail polish. We displayed the handouts on a cupcake stand @ the dessert table with the treats. We tied them in by talking about the new 2013 theme 'Stand ye in Holy Places.'

 

UPDATE: I am adding a BLANK copy of my invite for anyone who would like to use it. If you do, use it, and post it, PLEASE just link it back to my blog. Thanks!!!

 

 

S.T.A.N.D. YW Board Meeting

The beginning of every year, I have a YW board meeting with all my YW leaders.
We go over leadership training, our calling responsibilities {per the handbook of instruction}, teaching responsibilities, & the Personal Progress program.

This year I really wanted to discuss the Handbook Section 3,

 "Leadership in the Church of Jesus Christ."
 But also tie the evening into the new 2013 mutual theme of 
"Stand ye in Holy Places."
 

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull it all together but was hoping to figure it out before our meeting. :)

 

As I was studying the handbook, reading talks & watching videos on serving the YW of the church when I came across the talk from conference a few years back by Sister Beck called "Mothers who know..."

I had a light bulb moment!!!

I thought I could do my leadership instruction & call it

"Leaders who know...STAND."

 I would use each letter of the work STAND & talk about our responsibilities as YW leaders {per the handbook}.

Here is what I came up with...

I pulled out a section of the handbook to share with my leaders for each letter that we discussed.

S-Strengthen-Handbook 10.1.1 & 3.2.3

T-Teach & Testify-Handbook 3.2.4

A-Apply-Handbook 3.2.1 & 10.5 paragraph 3

N-Nurture-Used a portion of Sis. Becks talk "Mothers Who Know...Nurture."

D-Do more by doing less-Handbook 3.3.3, 3.3.4, 10.8

 

Here is the handout that I made for each of my AWESOME leaders to that home that evening so they could remember the 2013 theme.

I just printed a picture of the temple out on card stock that I had put the word "STAND" onto & modge podged it onto a 6x6 tile.
Thanks again to Mindy Evans Photography.
Who has the most beautiful pictures of various temples and allows you to use them for personal use.
The evening turned out GREAT!! I am so lucky to be working with the most amazing YW leaders on our board. They are fabulous!!
Good luck to all you YW presidents planning your board meetings.

UPDATE: I'm adding the BLANK files for this evening for all of you who would like to use them for your own board meetings. You can download by just right clicking on the image and saving the pic to your computer. If you do use it and post it, please just link the file back to my blog. THANKS!!!

Hope this is a help to someone, somewhere. :)

 

"Keepers of His Light" YWIE 2012

The mutual theme for 2012 was "Arise & Shine Forth."

So for our Young Women in Excellence program this year, we chose the theme to be

"Keepers of His Light."

 The whole evening was based around the girls individual testimonies. We wanted to spend the evening talking about the girls testimonies as their 'LIGHT.' How Personal Progress has helped strengthen that 'LIGHT.' How they can that light with others.

Naturally, we chose yellow to decorate in. I added grey & white (who doesn't LOVE grey & white?)

We also decorated with black lanterns & battery operated candles all over the room that were paired with pictures of Christ.

We held it in our RS room. Here is a look at the front of the room. The backdrops on either side of the large projection screen are just rolling chalk boards that we covered in white fabric. One of my Beehive advisers has boatloads of white fabric because her hubby is a photographer. I borrowed the chair covers from my friend who decorates for weddings. The yellow chair ties were from my secretary. :)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the yellow and grey together.

 Down each side of the room, we set up narrow seminary tables so the girls could display their PP items. We asked the YW to display an experience/project they had done during the year that had strengthened their testimony...strengthened their 'LIGHT."
We also had each YW write down her testimony for us prior to YWIE.
That evening, we had a wood block with each girls testimony typed up on one side & The Living Christ on the other side. These blocks served as a sort of name plate for their display, as well as their hand out. I can't take credit for these blocks at all. My adorable secretary made ALL 25-30 of them for the girls.

"The Living Christ"                                          Testimony            

As the centerpieces on these LONG display tables, we grouped large frames filled scriptures that had to do with light. I made these & just printed them on card stock.We grouped lanterns and pictures of Christ around them and a few votive candles.

Even with 6-8 those narrow seminary tables down both sides of the room, We needed more space for YW displays. One of my AWESOME advisers has the idea to put another table in front of the piano to camouflage it. I LOVE the way it turned out. It hid the piano perfectly & gave us the extra space we needed for the girls displays.

 

In the back of the room we  had the dessert table, a small table for programs & a wall of pinwheels that we made to cover up the seminary display on the wall.

For the dessert table, we hung a painters tarp up behind it, to cover up a seminary display. We added the cute (and oh so easy to make) yellow Polk-a-dot garland & the Shine Forth Sign.

For the centerpiece, we just filled up frames with pictures of various activities that we'd done during the year. I WISH I had a picture of the DELICIOUS DESSERT that my first councilor made for that night. We wanted something "yellow." She make the BEST vanilla pudding parfaits that I have EVER tasted!!

Here was our small table with the programs on it. By the way, the program was fantastic. I really brought in the spirit to the evening. It went like this...

~OPENING REMARKS: by me :) based on Pres. Monson's talk "Believe, Obey, Endure." from the YW General Broadcast back in April of 2012. The prophet stated & I emphasised

"Is there a way to safety? Is there an escape from threatened destruction? The answer is a resounding yes! I counsel you to look to the lighthouse of the Lord. I have said it before; I will say it again: there is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what the lighthouse of the Lord can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. It calls, “This way to safety. This way to home.” It sends forth signals of light easily seen and never failing. If followed, those signals will guide you back to your heavenly home.

I wish to talk with you tonight about three essential signals from the Lord’s lighthouse which will help you to return to that Father who eagerly awaits your triumphant homecoming. Those three signals are believe, obey, and endure."

 It fit PERFECTLY with our theme of LIGHT & TESTIMONIES.

~TESTIMONIES OF VALUES: We then had 6 YW & 2 leaders bear their testimony on how a specific value strengthened their testimony.

~VIDEO PRESENTATION: One of my advisers had put together a video of all our YW bearing testimony on specific questions we asked them. This way EACH one of our YW were represented, but they didn't all have to get up & talk in front of everyone. It turned out GREAT!!

~CONCLUDING REMARKS: Our Bishop spoke about lightness & darkness. He based his remarks on the series of videos that Elder Bednar put out on that subject.

~CLOSING SONG: "Light on a Hill" by Jenny Phillips

For this song, we had our YW form a HUGE circle around the seats where everyone was sitting. We gave each girls a battery operated taper candle and turned off the lights before the music started.

The song started out as a solo for the first verse with only the soloist candle on. The rest of the room was dark. Then at the 1st chorus, we had a few more YW join in singing. As each girl joined, she would turn on her candle.

A few more started singing at the second verse until by the time we got to the second chorus ALL our girls were singing and all the candles were lit. Filling the room with light. It was BEAUTIFUL!! The girls did an absolutely AMAZING job with the song and the spirit was defiantly felt. At the end of the song I think the entire group of parents & leaders sitting in the middle were crying.

Here is our Pinwheel wall that we made to camouflage another seminary display. I can't take any credit for this either! My AWESOME second councilor made ALL THOSE PINWHEELS & I think they turned out DARLING.

The whole night was just PERFECT! It couldn't have turned out any better. I have to give credit to all my amazing YW leaders! They are the best & there is no way the evening would've been that great without their help.

I LOVE my calling! And my YW! I am SO blessed.
UPDATE: I've had lots of emails asking for the artwork that I used at this event. I have added it below. Feel free to download for your personal use. However, if you post it online, please link it back to my blog.

Thanks!!!

Girls Camp 2012

I LOVE girls camp...But I HATE camping! And even though I know Camp LoMia {the girls camp that services most of the stakes in Phx}, isn't REALLY camping...It's close enough for me. I'm just not a huge fan of sleeping on cots & with spiders. So the last 2 years that I've been YW Pres, I've just gone up to camp on Bishops Night. Which is one of my favorite things that we do all year in YW. We get to have a spiritual lesson, visit together as a ward, eat a delish dinner & then share testimony meeting with our Bishop & his cute wife.

This year our stake camp theme was "Rise Up, Step Up, Shine Forth." Which went right along with the 2012 theme of "Arise & Shine Forth."

The small lesson that I shared with our YW was talking about strengthening your own "light" and "shine forth" as an example to others. So to go along with that...I made each of our YW these necklaces to remind them of all their fun experiences at camp.

"Your Future is BRIGHT" YW Grad dinner

It's that time of year...GRADUATION!!

I had 7 young women at church who were graduating from high school this year.

With the suggestion of one of my Laurel advisers,

we decided to host a graduation dinner for these sweet YW.

Our theme for the night was "Your Future is BRIGHT." To tie in the 2012 mutual theme of "Arise and Shine Forth." We decorated with YELLOW, YELLOW & more YELLOW.

We invited all the laurels, the entire YW presidency, the laurel advisers, the entire RS presidency,

& the Bishop.

We began the evening by having each of the younger laurels spotlight one of the graduates. It was really cute to see the girls spotlight each other.

THEN ONTO THE FOOD.

For dinner we served chicken Caesar salad, rolls & fresh fruit kabobs.

Lemonade & water for drinks. Lemon cake for dessert. It was all YUMMY!!

After dinner, we turned the time of to the RS pres. who welcomed the YW into RS. She talked a little bit about the RS organization. Then presented them all with a RS manual, the new RS book 'Sisters in my Kingdom," a bookmark & some chocolate. The YW really liked it.

We then had all the YW leaders stand up and each give a bit of advice to the YW. The advice given was collected in advance that we put into a book that each YW could take home that night.

Then the Bishop presented each YW with their Laurel certificate for finishing YW.

To complete the night, we gave each graduate an "off to college" basket that were put together with contributions from all the YW leaders. Each leader contributed one or two items they bought for a dollar or less to help fill the baskets.

Each basket contained:

Laundry bag, flip flops, air freshener, antibac hand sanitizer, bleach wipes, ear plugs, book lights, first aid kit, sewing kits, sleep masks, face microfiber cloths, advice book & Top Ramen.

They turned out so dang cute!!

For the rest of the YW- we made these ADORABLE light bulb favors. Found these at Hobby Lobby 50% off-making them .71 each. Then we added lemon heads to each & tied them up with ribbon and a tag.

It was such a fun night. We will defiantly have to make it a tradition each year for the graduating YW.

I am going to miss this group of girls SO much!! They are all beautiful and amazing YW!! Best of luck to them all and they head of into the world.