Shoe Invitations & Program Covers

Since the mutual theme this year has been "Standing in Holy Places", we've used shoes a lot.  I'm receiving requests for shoe program covers and invitations.  I deleted all my wording and am making it available for you to use.  Just pick some nice fonts and add all your own details.  These are pdf files ... please let me know if this set-up is not working for you - if several people tell me it's not working, then I'll change things up.

Just as an example, here's the invitation I made for our YW in Excellence.  I used 3 different fonts to add some variety:

Go HERE to see the invitation I made for New Beginnings ... very similar.

The following links will allow you to get the PDF files for the invitations/program covers.

Shoe Program Cover by Becky

Shoes Invitation by Becky

Shoe Invite 2 by Becky

Inn Crowd or Stable Few YW Christmas Gift

I'm getting messages every day from people that want information and printables to make this gift.   We put together a "Christmas Extravaganza" last year for our young women.  Go HERE for more details.  We wanted to end the night on a spiritual note and with a small gift for the girls to take home.

  

We bought 2x4-inch wood & had the store cut the blocks. We enlisted in the help of several ladies and painted the blocks black fairly quickly.  We chose the sand the edges of each block a little bit for the worn look.  Mod Podge (I recommend going with a matte rather than glossy Mod Podge) was used to attach the photos & then a bow was attached to the top with a fancy-looking nail type thing.  I've also seen blocks like these where the ribbon is wrapped around the outside of the whole block and then tied a bow at the top.  I'm sure there are oodles of options.

Costco is my favorite photo developing place for something that's quick & easy for most people.  (They ship, too!)  Regardless of where you go, get a luster/matte finish ... the glossy option will make it hard to read the wording.  All files should be printed as a 4x6-inch photo.  We wanted to have a border of wood showing around all 4 sides of our photo, so we used the file that makes two sets of the quotes per 4x6-inch photo.  If you use the 2-per-page option, cut the white strip off of the bottom and then cut the photo in 1/2, so you'll have two photos, each about 3x3-7/8 inch.

**Please feel free to download & use my designs for non-commercial use only.  I'm letting you use it for free, so you can not sell my design in any way, shape, or form. :)

If something isn't working or is not clear, please leave a comment and I'll do my best to help!!

**Update:  I've had a few people leave comments & say they are having trouble converting the PDF to a JPG file.  I've uploaded all 3 files to Flickr, so try these & see if they work better....

**Instructions for the JPEG/Flickr option:

1.  Click on one of the three thumbnails above for the photo/printable that you desire. The enlarged photo/printable should open for you in Flickr. *Note that the last photo has a different font.

2.  Right-click on the enlarged photo that opened in Flickr.

3.  Select "ORIGINAL".

4.  A new page with the photo should open in Flickr.  Towards the top, find where it says, "Download this original size of this photo" and click on that.

5.  At this point, you will choose what program you want to use to open the photo or where you'd like to save the photo on your computer.

6.  Once the photo is saved on your computer, you can upload it to Costco's photo department or any photo-developing website of your choice.

Two Printables per 4x6-inch photo (you will end up with two 3x 3-7/8 inch photos) :

Inn Crowd or Stable Few 2 With 2

4x6-inch of printable (you will need larger blocks of wood for this option):

Inn Crowd or Stable Few 2

Hot Chocolate Bar - Free Printables

I need to do a better job of getting hand-outs, printables, etc on my blog and in a way that's easy for everyone to use because I keep getting emails that the jpg versions aren't working well.  I'm going to try using Scribd again.  I need to find a host for all my printables and I doubt any site is going to be perfect, but please leave your feedback!

Now for the good stuff....  Hot Chocolate!! 

Last year for Christmas, we did a progressive dinner type thing for our Young Women and one of the things I was in charge of was the hot chocolate bar.  It's a bit time consuming, but not terrible, and most of the goodies can be found at Wal-Mart or other places where you might do your regular grocery shopping.

To make your job a little easier, grab an EK "Real Estate Sign" punch from your local crafting store. If you can find it at a store that takes 40% off coupons, all the better!  I designed my printables for this particular punch but scissors should work great too! Some of the little signs might repeat, but print & use what you want.  I recommend printing these on white card-stock or another heavy paper like photo paper.

Hot Chocolate Bar Labels 1 of 3

Hot Chocolate Bar Labels 2 of 3

Hot Chocolate Bar Labels 3 of 3

Be creative, but here are some of my ideas....

• "Crushed Cookies" = Oreos or the peppermint Trader Joe's version
• "Semi-Sweet" & "White Chocolate" = chocolate chips
• "Caramel" = we used the Kraft Caramel Bits - little round balls of caramel found on the baking aisle
• "English Toffee" = Heath Bar pieces - on the baking aisle
• "Dippers" & "Dunkers" = donut holes, biscotti, Trader Joe's Chocolatey Coated Chocolate Chip Dunkers, Pepperidge Farm Creme Filled Pirouette Rolled Wafers
• "Peppermint" = crushed candy canes
• "Marshmallows" = we found a lady at church that made us homemade marshmallows - WELL WORTH IT!!!  My favorite mix-in!! 

If you're going go through the work of putting all this together, use a really good hot chocolate.  I couldn't find anyone to make me hot chocolate from scratch & I was already feeling a bit overwhelmed with all my jobs, so I had bought the Starbucks hot chocolate mix from Costco {with a rebate/coupon} & had someone bring it ready-to-serve.   Swiss Miss is just not acceptable! ;)

{Matching Mugs from Williams-Sonoma}

  Questions??  Leave me a comment with an email address.

Covenants & Ordinances - Young Women Lesson July 2013

I taught a combined YW lesson a few weeks ago.  Thought I'd share the handout that I made - I got all the ideas for my handout online, but I wanted to combine a few nice ideas onto one handout.  I attached a Ring Pop (big canister of Ring Pops can be found at Sam's Club) to go with the "I Do".

Feel free to save the handout to your computer and use it.  If you get it printed as a 4x6 photo, use a matte finish - glossy does not work as well.

I used this video excerpt which can be downloaded from You Tube:

Printable for New Beginnings - The Right Shoes

Last night I was a night owl :) & busy making printables for our upcoming YW New Beginnings program.  I thought I'd share what I'm working on sooner than later so that others who are planning a similar theme for their New Beginnings can use my printables, if they want. :)

{Go HERE for free shoe invitations.}

OK.  So ... First, right-click on the first image below & save it to your computer.  Print it out on any white 8.5"x11" paper ... I chose to use white cardstock, but photo paper will also be sturdy enough and work nicely.  (I don't recommend using regular printer paper - it will be a bit flimsy.)  I like more of a matte finish ... photo paper will just make it more glossy.

Depending on the punch, I have to trim some paper off of the bottom of my page so that I can center my punch around each graphic....

Center your punch around the each graphic & punch away....

** My graphics were made to work with a scallop punch with a diameter of 1.5" or 38cm.  A circle punch that's a very similar size should work too.  THIS is the punch I bought at Michael's a few days ago with a 50% off coupon, but any brand of punch should work as long as it punches a 1.5" shape.

As you finish each row, the bottom of your paper will look like this ....

Trim off the bottom again so your punch can reach the next row of graphics...

Use each graphic how you choose, but here is one idea....

Get some glue dots (probably NOT mini though), scotch tape, or a glue stick might work just fine too, and attach each of your circles to a skewer or lollipop stick and then stick it in your food.

I'm going to cut each of my wooden skewers (100-12"skewers are $0.97 @ Walmart)... probably into 1/3's so my sticks will be about 4" long.  Then I plan to stick some of these into mini cupcakes.  Probably not into every single mini cupcake, but maybe about 1/3 of my cupcakes.  The white lollipop sticks are nicer looking than skewers, but it will just depend on your budget, how many you need, & what you'll be doing with them.

Have fun!  If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to leave me a comment with your email address & I won't publish your comment.

Thank you to my Penguin for being my photographer.

Blank New Beginnings Invitations - The Right Shoes

Here are some "blank" invitations that you can add your own text to.  Go HERE to see my blog post & my finished invitation.  Go HERE for free shoe printables.

**Update: I just uploaded PDF files for invitations and program covers to my blog.  Find them HERE.

Leave me a comment with your email address (I won't publish your comment) if you have any questions. 

New Beginnings Invitation - The Right Shoes

Update: I just added "blank" invitations to my blog.  Go HERE to find them.

**Additional Update: PDF files for shoe invitations and program covers just added to my blog.  Go HERE.

New Beginnings is in the works for our Young Women.  New Beginnings is special evening that is held at the beginning of each year for all the girls in our congregation that are 11-18 years old.  Girls who are 11 get to come and be introduced to our Young Women program and learn about what they can expect when they turn 12 this year.  Girls that already participate in Young Women have an opportunity to set goals & to regain their excitement for this special program.

Our theme for New Beginnings this year is "The Right Shoes".  We are getting a lot of our ideas from Jenny Phillips.  Yesterday I made invitations to mail to all the girls ....

P.S. If you have any interest in using my invitation, leave me a comment & I'll see what we can work-out.

Young Women Christmas Extravaganza

**UPDATE: Hot Chocolate Bar Printables can be found HERE.

**UPDATE: Inn Crowd/Stable Few gift/printables are now available HERE.

We, the YW Presidency, wanted to do something special for the Young Women (12-18 yr old girls that attend church with my family) of our ward for Christmas, so we planned a progressive dinner for the girls which affectionately became known as the Christmas Extravaganza!

I made invites:

We started our evening in the backyard of one of our girls.  I was in charge of the hot chocolate bar.  {Someday when I have a minute, I'll share my printables & more details.}  The girls made yummy mugs of hot chocolate, the Grinch made a visit, & the girls enjoyed a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas around the fire pit.

After our tummies were warm with hot chocolate, we paraded next door to the home of two other girls for dinner, a visit from Santa, & a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Our last stop was the home of a leader where the three wise men read a story to the girls, we enjoyed a variety of desserts, and had a little gift for the girls ... free printable for that to come too.