S.T.A.R.S Girls camp Kick-off party

We had our annual Girls Camp Kick Off  for YW. 

This is the night we introduce the theme, have parents fill out paperwork, give them an outline of certification nights, make their camp journals, discuss camp rules, and introduce the YCL's. It is a fun but very productive evening. 

We have Stake camp every year. This year the stake has chosen S.T.A.R.S

Shining Together As Righteous Sisters.

Each ward is given a Color/Value. We are GOLD isn't that perfect for a Stars theme?!

I was asked to decorate (my favorite part)

I wanted to make things that we could also pack up to decorate up at camp. 

I bought a 5 pack of these thin Canvas boards at Michaels (they were $14.99 but I used a 50% coupon) I taped off stripes and painted with black acrylic paint. I then modpodged Gold Glitter stars. Then put a layer of mod podge over it all so it will clean up nice. On the thicker Stripe I painted 2 coats of chalkboard paint. That way if at Camp we want to write different things each day we can. (Or if I want to use them for a bday party or something I can). You can't really see in the picture but I also drilled 2 holes in the top so we can hang these on a rope up at camp.

 I used one of my ruffle tents I sell for a little "camping" decoration. I didn't get a picture but I also had cute Metal lanterns with light up candles in them. I cut out about 1 billion stars and strung them on twine. I laminated them at a local copy store so that they would survive and still look nice for camp. And also just in case it rains at camp. I found these cardboard letters (they are probably at least 3/4'' thick) at Hobby Lobby for a buck! I then just \modpodged gold glitter on them.

We kept the food pretty simple but it was YUMMY. We had  Peanut Butter S'more bars. We found the Recipe at http://melssweetlife.com/2012/04/05/peanut-butter-cup-smores-bars/

I also am currently obsessed with these tissue paper tassel garlands. They are cheap, easy and look so dang cute! 

New Beginnings 2014

(thanks to my brothers, dad, and husband for setting up the HUGE tent it was like 20 feet tall)

We had a wonderful New Beginnings this year. We went with an "Army" theme and it turned out so cute. 

The Laurels helped with our "New Recruits" (beehives entering YW in 2014). They spotlighted each girl and gave them a cute little gift. (see Below)

The Miamaids did the CUTEST skit. It was a little Army Cadence about Personal Progress. It was cute they made the whole thing up themselves. it was darling. They came marching in and ran through the tires then stood in a straight line. 

1 miamaid dressed like a drill sargeant and yelled out and the others would repeat. 

I now know and we've been told 

setting goals never gets old

I now know and it's been said (others repeat)

Personal progress is good for the head (others repeat) 

I now know and we've been told

get your medallion its worth more than gold. 

The Miamaids each memorized one of the value statements. 

They then took a step forward and repeated in an army strong voice their value

Ex. 

I am a daughter of Heavenly Father, who loves me. I have FAITH (the others would repeat FAITH in unison) in His eternal plan which centers on Jesus Christ, my Savior. 

Then the repeated the I now know cadence and marched off. 

And the Beehives made the Cutest cupcakes. They were even Camouflage and they piped on the frosting to look like grass (See Below) 

 It was a fun CHEAP event to decorate for. Just some cardboard boxes covered in paper, some ruffle fabric i had, some banners made of Paper sacks, and some Tires my mom borrowed from a local tire store!

 Our "target" for the year is to COME UNTO CHRIST. We have made 4 goals for our YW to help them.. We also talked about how each of the 8 YW values bring us closer to our Heavenly Father.
                                      
 We gave each girl a dog tag. It has the word STRENGTH and Phillipians 4:13 on it. We talked about how we all need to become stronger Physically, Mentally, and Spiritually.

We also gave each girl a folder with important papers. It had a page of important dates, a list of lessons, S.I.T (Spiritual intelligence Training: Sunday Lesson Schedule, P.L.AY (Prepare, Learn, Active Youth: Activity schedule for the year, A target of our Ward Goals, and Roster)

 We had a yummy dinner served from the "Mess Hall" it was pulled pork Sandwiches, Chips, Carrots, and Water. My mom had these old school lunch trays that were the perfect touch! (I forgot to take a picture of the food of course).

 Here are the Adorable cupcakes the Beehives made. They were even Camouflage on the inside. I LOVED them!

 Here is what we gave our new recruits. We had all the YW sign each one so that the new girls would know we are all in the same troop and are so excited for them to join us!

Here is our Program from the night 

New Beginnings {BOOT CAMP}

This year for our New Beginnings we are having a Boot Camp theme. Here are the invites for the event. Here are the rest of the details of our night. http://alittlecrafting.blogspot.com/2014/02/new-beginnings-2014.html

Glitter Temple

Last spring I gave my YW a challenge to do a digital fast. You can see the details 

http://alittlecrafting.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-digital-fast.html

I was so excited, I had about 15 YW that followed through with the challenge!!

I forgot to post this earlier but Here is the little gift I gave those that finished

I bought a 10-pack of 8x10 canvas' from Michaels Craft store. It was $19.99  but I bought them when they were 50% off. Then just lightly traced a temple and modpodged glitter onto the canvas.

Come UNtO Christ

I introduced our YW to the 2014 theme on Sunday.

“Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” 

I saw a cute UNO birthday handout a while ago on Sugar Doodle (See HERE)

It was the inspiration for my lesson. 

I broke the Scripture down into a few different parts to go along with the UNO cards. 

Come Unto Christ

DRAW 2-  I asked the YW what that meant, and had them give ideas on how to do that. Their answers were great!!

Be perfect in Him

WILD CARD- "Jesus Christ is the perfect example of all eight Young Women values. As you work on Personal Progress, your efforts will help you become more like Him". (Rachel Nielsen)

Deny yourself all Ungodliness

SKIP- Skip sin. "While boulders surely block our way, loose gravel slows discipleship, too. Even a small stone can become a stumbling block". (Neal A Maxwell)

REVERSE- REPENTANCE  

Draw 4- these are 4 goals I have given to my YW to accomplish this year. 

1- Memorize The Living Christ- In my previous post i have explained how we plan on doing that! 

http://alittlecrafting.blogspot.com/2014/01/memorizing-living-christ-printables.html

2- a 90-day Book of Mormon Challenge- We will all start and stop on the same day!
3- a 5K we can do Hard things. I think this will help with Unity.
4- Attending the temple (1+ as a YW group, 1+ individual classes, 2+ on their own)

So for their B-days this year we are giving them a Mini Pack of UNO cards and a UNO Card. It will be in a cute little cellophane bag with this handout! I was going to use regular UNO cards but had no idea they were like $6 each so we went with the Mini ones I found on Amazon for about $1.25 each. I think this could also be a really cute conference treat!

Value Plates

We had a fun little activity with the laurels. Our lesson the previous sunday was on Spiritual gifts. For an activity We bought plates at the dollar store and on each plate wrote one of the young women values. I baked each plate at 425 for 30 minutes and let it cool overnight.  We decided to give plates to sisters in the ward that represented that value. It was so amazing to hear the Laurels decide what sisters should get certain plates. We had a list of about 5-6 sisters for each value. It was so hard to narrow it down! We wish we would have made more plates (: The YW each brought cookies to put on the plates.

 We attached a card that said
Thank you for being a great example of our Young women value : ______________
The laurels all signed the card and delivered it to the 8 sisters. I think it something we should make a yearly tradition!!

* After telling a lady in Jane's ward about the plates, they decided to do this for their NEW BEGINNINGS. They chose the sisters and then invited them to their new beginnings. They told the sisters to dress in the color of value they received. They had a Laurel tell a little about why they chose that particular sister for that value. They then had the sister talk for just a minute. I thought it was a cute idea!

Evening in Excellence

We had our Evening in Excellence this past week. It turned out Beautiful. I have some pretty amazing leaders! We couldn't do any of it without the amazing Jane.
Our theme for the evening was Stand in Holy Places: Live your life Higher. We wanted something that went well with the general YW theme as well as our ward UP theme.

 

I loved the talk by Joseph Wirthlin Journey to Higher Ground 

For my talk, I used some of his talk as well as things from Henry B Eyrings new book Choose Higher Ground 

We had it in the cultural hall, and I Loved how it turned out. I found the giant 36'' balloons and the plastic nets on amazon for $1 each. I only put these on 3 of the tables. On the other 6 tables we had pictures of different temples, and a little green & white floral arrangement

Jane painted this HUGE picture of The SLC temple. It is 11 feet by 9 feet. Most of the parents took pictures of their daughters in front of the temple. 

I had the Young Women cut out these cute lil clouds. 

We had each YW bring a few things to display. We told them it could be things they had done for Personal Progress or anything good they had been doing.  

Here is a closer look at the Hot air balloons we made

I found these aluminum bracelet cuffs on etsy for $1 each. I hand stamped them with our theme Live your life Higher. I did find a local trophy shop that would have engraved them for $5 each but that wasn't quite in our budget. It took me some time but it was worth it to me to save money!

I had 6 girls sing the song Temple Spires by Jenny Phillips. I had them sing this as our opening song. It really set the mood for the rest of the evening. It was beautiful. 

 Our program:
Opening song
Dinner
YW President talk
Video of all the girls doing good things throughout the year
Laurel Talk ( a girl that has received her medallion this year)
Bishop Remarks
Displays

Popcorn Bar

 We had our YW girls Camp Kick off last night. It is a night we introduce the Stake camp theme, and our ward value & Color. This year we are Faith (WHITE). I've been wanting to do a popcorn bar ever since I saw one HERE The white popcorn would be perfect for our ward and popcorn is so cheap! Even better! The girls LOVED making their own little bags of popcorn. It was so fun, alittle messy but FUN!

I found all the seasonings at Walmart by the popcorn. Each little 3oz bottle of seasoning filled 2 salt shakers. I found the salt shakers at the dollar store and it came in a 2 pack for $1. The seasonings I bought were Ranch, Butter, White Cheddar, Garlic Parmesan, and Kettle Corn. I also mixed up some cinnamon sugar.
For mix-ins I just bought random things that I had a coupon for or were on sale. Sweet tart jelly beans, m&m's, oreos, honey roasted peanuts, white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, mike & Ikes, etc...

Adventure Awaits... New Beginnings

We had our New Beginnings last night. It was a fun casual night. The theme of our Night was Adventure Awaits... Come see what the YW will be "UP" to in 2013

We will be using this theme along with the Stand in Holy places throughout the year.

I Love President Monsons Talk Your Celestial Journey 

I thought it went perfect with our Adventure theme.

Gaze upward,

Look inward- This is where I introduced the YW values and the purpose of Personal Progress

Reach outward,

 and Press forward.

Jane found a bunch of these old suit cases at a local thrift shop. We painted the outside and then modpodged cute scrapbook paper on the inside. This is where everyone first came in. The suitcase had the program for the night, and also a little packet of what is going on in 2013.

For our SKIT- We had one of the Laurels dress like Russell from the movie up. She had a little sash. The other laurels each talked about a YW value. She would then pin that value on "russells" sash. I just let each Laurel decide what she was going to do for her Value. They were really cute and some of them were pretty dang funny. I wish I had a script of what they said!

I had this globe that I thought would work perfect for our year. I put on sticker letters and then spray painted the globe white. Peeled off the stickers then to reveal the stand in holy places. I put this globe out every Sunday. The girls sign in with things that they have done throughout the week to "stand in Holy Places" it has been fun to see what they have written on it. (Seminary, Sports, FHE, Temple attendance, activities with friends etc...)

I used 2 build-a-bear boxes for my UP house. I cut one in half to do the porch side of the house. I then covered it with Scrapbook paper I had on hand. (build-a-bear was so nice and just gave me the 2 boxes for free)

 I forgot to take a picture of our cute food table until it was almost gone... We had cute little make your own fruit pizza's. We had fruit in all the YW value colors (Pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, mandarin oranges, blueberries, purple grapes, golden bananas, and the frosting was white)

  For the new beehives coming in 2013 we gave a cute little 7-up (original idea found at Marci Coombs blog), and UP2You gum. We had each laurel "interview" a new girl asking her simple questions like her favorite color, subject in school, what kind of animal she would be, what she's most looking forward to about YW etc...

 We are giving the girls these cute little bottle cap necklaces for their birthdays this year. They are like the cute lil bottle cap pin Ellie gives Carl in the Movie UP. I found them at Hobby Lobby and just used metal stamps to put their initial

In my talk I talked about how anywhere we stand can be a holy place. (which is the general YW theme this year)

 We  gave each girl her own lil adventure book. We challenged them to fill it up this year with all their adventures. A place they could put little handouts, pictures of YW activities, notes from lessons, anything that reminds them of all the places they "STAND".

My Bishop in his closing remarks talked about the Adventure book in the movie. He said that in the beginning they put the picture of Where they thought their adventure would be. But at the end of the movie Carl finally sees that Ellie had put the adventures of their everyday lives.  He said we should make everyday good and something we are proud of.
I thought it was cute he Tied in the movie with his remarks (:

I got these smash books on such a good clearance sale at twopeasinabucket.



We added alittle pocket in the front where the girls can put handouts if they'd like.

 Here is an outline of our program

Here are a few things we put in their little packet. Things we will be "UP" to this next year

 And here are the invites incase you missed the previous post.
We rolled them up and attached them to balloons!