General Conference Book Ring Books

Twice a year our family watches our church worldwide conference. (What is General Conference? Brief explanation here. ) Watching it via internet/roku/tv from the comforts of our home is so great and I try to have one new conference activity for the kids to help them pay attention better. Sometimes a new activity happens, sometimes not, but we have favorites we bring out only for those special conference weekends and repeats are fun too.

Since I haven't been crafting or creating much, this totally counts- I have my new activity done early and ready for Easter Saturday and Sunday- Book Ring Books! I'm so excited and so are the kids. Two weeks seems way too long to wait.

The idea is to have a card for each speaker during the four sessions of conference. When that speaker is talking, the kids will put stickers on the back of the speaker card according to their speaking subject. If he/she speaks about Easter, they put the Easter sticker. If he/she focuses on the topics of prayer and families then those two stickers go on the back of that speaker card. Similar activities like this have really helped my kids listen for the mention of those key words and topics.

How I did it:
I printed off pictures of the first presidency and quorum of the 12 apostles from Rachael's BookNook that she made. Cutting them all the same size to fit nicely in the book rings meant 3.5 inches by 2 5/8 inches.

Then I went through past conferences to count how many other speakers there are so I knew how many other cards to add to the books- In April there are usually 11 other speakers. Since we don't know who from the different auxiliaries or the quorum of the Seventy will be speaking we plan on writing the speakers' names on the front of the colored cards and then applying stickers to the back just like our photo cards. The stickers I just copied and pasted from the gospel pictures from lds.org. Then printed on sticker paper and cut out- ready to go! Enjoy conference!

March 28 & April 4-5, 2015 General Conference

Family Night Chart

When I was little we had a family night chart that was a little wooden house. I couldn't find anything like it already out there so I made one myself. My dad cut the house shape out for me using a pattern I drew.

Once a week we do a family night or family home evening when nothing else is planned and we all are home together. After dinner our family night usually includes a song, prayer, lesson about a gospel principle or religious topic, closing song and treat. (Last week was about working with/for each other in the family & keeping our home in order which translates to simple job charts for the kids. I'm going crazy trying to pick up everything myself!) I've seen family night charts with "activity" and "treat" as categories but right now we share the responsibility of making the treat and if we have an activity it's usually part of the lesson. Every family member has their own heart (although these pictures don't have the names). What really made this complete was the gloss finishing spray. I love it- It's kinda like laminating a project; it adds the last layer to make everything look better and the colors really pop.

I debuted this family night chart last week and it was a hit! They've asked me the past two days if we can have family night again. 

Conference game, Activity Sticks & Pinewood Derby

I went to Staples and color copied and cardstocked this activity from The Friend. We used it during conference to follow along with the speakers. It worked!

I wrote down activities on the sticks and depending on our schedule or Mom's mood, I can say "Choose a blue stick" or "Pick any color." Even though these are mostly activities we do already, choosing them from a magical jar make doing the craft/trip/activity even better!

(I saw this idea used for date ideas on a blog somewhere but tweaked it for my 2 year old)

I was merely the Gluer, not the brains behind these special neckerchief slides. My friend Dawn had me put these beauties together the past 2 Pinewood Derbys. The cub scouts love them.  So cool! I need to catalog this so I can remember to do this 10 years down the road when I am in Cubs. I used the E6000 glue.

General Conference Goodies 2

Whoa it's been 6 months of not much making apparently. Last post was October.

Here's my little goodie I made for a few friends this time around to prep for General Conference for the LDS church this weekend. Yay! I am so excited!

General Conference Goodies

photos i modged podged to blocks I cut/painted

Found this printable online and made one

found above printable of apostles online and I put them on circles instead of the flashcards they were intended to be. Perfect for my toddler.

laminated and hole punched these older church pictures. Used ribbon and just wrapped one end with scotch tape. Cheap lacing cards!

File Folder Games

A Sunday Quiet Book

I thought I'd try my hand at creating a Sunday quiet book myself. This one is of people of The Book of Mormon. I chose that book of scripture since it was shortest. The Old Testament and New Testament will have a lot more pages to create! I used a $1 photo book from Walmart and used photoshop for the pages & covers! So fun and my little one loves it.

Lucky Thank You Note

I'm figuring out how to use photoshop, which I love. Here's a thank you note for our church's primary kids' teachers I made. So fun! I'm tag teaming with a friend and she is doing the hard part- making chocolate treats!

Sunday ABC Book

My friend Amber had this project on her blog and I immediately made one. I got the 52 page photo album from Target and ordered the 4x6 photos when there was a deal. I switched out a few of the pictures for ones I like better. Under $10. I have to keep it hidden so it's only used for Sundays at church. My baby girl LOVES it = success! Found it on Oopsey Daisy.