Seat Belt (Travel) Pillow

We will be doing across country trip so I have been busy scouring the internet (and Pinterest) for ideas.  I've found many.  This post is the seat belt pillow.  The first thing you should know is that I found it here: Living Life and Loving Every Second.  Since I don't sew I'm not going to attempt to redo her tutorial.  And since I don't sew and I made one three, I know you can too (seriously, I can count how many things I have made before this project on one hand).  I will tell you what I changed in case you like my adaptions.
I let the kids pick out some soft material they wanted a pillow out of.  Next I cut it out, but instead of two pieces I cut one 12 x 26ish (it may have been a little bit longer - I didn't measure exact, but it was at least 26 inches).  I also cut out a piece 5x7 to create a pocket to hold a iTouch or iPod.

This piece I laid right side up and folded the top down twice.  I didn't sew it, but if I do it again I would sew it down.  I folded the other sides back 1/4 inch and pinned them to the bottom of the pillow.  I sewed it on using a zig-zag stitch.  

Instead of using ribbon I wanted Velcro tabs.  I made one pillow with three and then decided to make the other two with four: I cut eight strips of material out of cotton 3 x 3.5.  I ironed them in half (so I had a crease) and ironed 1/4 inch fold on one short end. I sewed 2 inch Velcro towards one end (the one that wasn't ironed, but leaving room for it to be stitched together).  I folded it in half, wrong sides out and sewed the short end (not ironed) and the long side.  Flip in inside out and pin it on the pillow.  

Sew them onto the pillow (see picture for example, but don't look too closely because my stitching isn't the best).  After the tabs are on, fold the pillow in half - right sides together - and pin.  Sew along around the outside leaving room to stuff it.  Stuff it and hand sew it closed.  I used the ladder stitch I found via YouTube.  Now it is good to go.  My daughter tested it out (in that picture it wasn't stitched closed yet because we were testing the stuffing level) and she liked it so much I may have to make me one too!

If you have questions, let me know.

I Love My Whole Family (Primary Manual 1, Lesson 25)

Sunbeam Lesson #25, I Love My Whole Family

I was recently called to the Sunbeams.  My team teacher and I were formally nursery workers, but when both the sunbeam teachers were released they moved us up to Sunbeams.  I was very sad to leave my nursery class ~ I had a bunch of cute kids!  My Sunbeam class is cute too, they are just more challenging.  We are working hard at getting them to stay in their seats (Any suggestions?).  They have a short attention span.  I guess I should state that I have taught Sunbeams (and then the 4 year olds) for YEARS.  It has been awhile, but it is the calling I've had the most and the longest.  This bunch is a little harder to keep their attention and to keep seated.  I must say we had a great week last week, but we were also a little smaller.  I tell you this to let you know that I like lots of interaction and hands on.  I always search for ideas and hardly ever come up with my own.  Often I will borrow someones idea and recreate the same thing or something similar.  My first source is Sugardoodle.net (and I try to share back with her since I use so many things).  If you know any great site with ideas, please share.

Here is what I plan to do:

First we are going to make a family chain.  I found the original idea here, but made a few more chains and added color.  Each chain has a family member listed: me, parents, brother(s), sister(s), cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and a box to draw their family in.  At the bottom of this post are the downloads for black and white or color.  I chose to print the chains in color and the heart in black and white using red paper (which is a little thicker than copy paper, but not as thick as cardstock).  I also cut out and put each child's chain in an envelope (the same envelope will be sent to mail their letter - see next idea).  If they had multiple siblings I used the brothers or sisters, but if they only had one then I used the singular chain - brother or sister.

We are also going to mail hugs to an extended family member.  This idea I got here and I didn't change a thing.  I sent it home in an envelope already containing a postage stamp.  Hopefully the parents will just add an address and mail it off!

While at Costco we sampled a cereal that I hadn't heard about before:

Quaker Whole Heart is much like Cheerios, but heart shaped.  How fun is that?  Anyway, we are going to make bracelets with them.  They will have fun edible heart shaped bracelets that we will make as we talk about loving our whole family.

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

Download Family Chain Here - Color

Download Family Chain Here - Black & White

And since my daughter FINALLY colored in the stick people (I knew I should have done it myself) on the chains so I could have an example for the kids (and pictures for you), I decided that the chains would look better longer.  So I went it and fixed the documents so that they are.  If you wanted the longer chain version download below.

Download the Longer Family Chain Here - Color

Download the Longer Family Chain Here - B&W
**Make sure you click landscape after the document comes up to print or it won't print correctly!**

If you have any questions or problems, let me know!

I Have Feelings (Primary Manual 1, Lesson 21)

Sunbeam Lesson 21: I Have Feelings 
or
Behold Your Little Ones: Nursery Manual, Lesson 19: I Can Be Happy

I moved the tab so it wasn't right under the mouth.

I made this to go with my lesson in Sunbeams.  However, I was meaning to make it for Nursery during singing time for the song Smiles:

If you chance to meet a frown, 

Do not let it stay.

Quickly turn it upside down

And smile that frown away. 

No one likes a frowning face. 

Change it for a smile.

Make the world a better place

By smiling all the while.  

The kit I bought (I mentioned in my first singing time post that I have pictures for singing time) has something similar and the kids ALWAYS wanted a turn to do it, but since there was only one the singing leader always held it.  So when I came upon the Sunbeam lesson: I Have Feelings ~ and you were supposed to have a happy/sad face ~ I knew what I was going to make! {For those of you that teach Nursery it also goes with lesson 19 : I Can Be Happy.}

All you need to do is:

• download (link at the bottom of this post), 
• print (I recommend cardstock), 
• cut (don't forget to cut out the two windows), and 
• poke a brad through the star (line up the circles first so it goes through both sheets) ~ Teacher Tip: if you lay it on the carpet first it is easier to poke the brad through.
• hold the top circle and use the tab to move the bottom circle.

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

Download the Smile/Frown Face Here 

The Itsy Bitsy Spider Song for Nursery

I can't believe I haven't had time to blog about what I have done in nursery.  The reason I can't believe it is because I have already been released (a couple months ago).  I LOVED this calling.  It was great to play with the "babies" since my "baby" is 8.  I was only the nursery leader for about 7 months, but I must have matured quickly because they moved me up a level: The Sunbeams!  I will share things I did in there (I have lots of pictures I took before I turned everything over).  Hopefully I can prepare my lessons a little sooner and share what I am doing with my Sunbeams too.
One thing I learned at my training was to help the kids sing ~ or at least stay with you during singing time ~ was to give them something to hold.  I already had many things made from when I my kids were little, but this idea I'm going to share was genius.  It is so much more fun to hold an object instead of a piece of laminated paper - no matter how cute the paper is. 

I present, The Itsy Bitsy Spider:

The kids absolutely LOVE wearing a spider ring when singing the song!  Ever since I brought the rings to church guess what song they ALWAYS want to sing first?  Yep, the Spider Song!
On my way out I had to leave everything nice and tidy so I made some signage for the spiders.

I recycled a container from our favorite Chinese Food Restaurant formally carrying Sweet and Sour Sauce.  If you don't have one of these nifty containers to recycle you can use Ziploc or Rubbermaid containers:

For my followers, I will share this printable with you!  Oh and I almost forgot.  I know some people sing it Eensy Weensy Spider so I made labels for that too.  Just. In. Case.

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

Download Spider Labels here

Thanks for reading!

Baptism Hair

Here is a little about how we styled Boo's hair.  Her hair for her pictures turned out so much better than her baptism.  I had a little more time for the pictures and took time to put it into a bun.  Here are a couple pictures showing off her hair taken during her photo session.

 











Hopefully you can figure it out by the pictures, but I'll try to describe what I did, but you can also check out one of my favorite hairstyle blogs: Girly Do Hairstyles. First I made a part going all the way around her head (along the outside like a crown - but with the back too).  I pulled up the extra hair in a pony tail to keep it out of the way.  Then I made a bunch of small pony tails all the way around.  Then I did another part all the way around.  This time I made the pony tails half way in between the ponies on the first row.  I added half of the ponies on the first row to the new row (there should be a half from two ponies added to the new one).  If your child has lots of hair you could try this (same idea, but there is an extra row of elastics without adding more hair).
That is all the room I had for her hair, but if you have lots of hair you could do more rows.  

 

Those last three pictures I took at a different time (I don't remember putting pearls in for her baptism, but this do is different because her bangs are down and it isn't in a bun).  I like it much better with the bun.  To do the bun I split the hair in half.  Half to curl up and half to curl down.  I divided each side (top & bottom) into threes.  I curled it around (with my fingers) until it was the size I wanted and curled until her ends were in too.  Then bobby pin it - at least two bobby pins making an X to hold it in.  Use as many as you need to hold it, but keep them in the bun so you can't see them. Then you get a bun look.

 Her dress has pearls on it.  If you look at the top of her dress and the front waistband you can see the pearls.  At Michaels I purchased some Bling on a Roll:

It is a bunch of half pearls on an adhesive roll.  I cut off the larger pearls and stuck them on each rubber bands.  They stayed in okay, but would never last getting wet or with play.  I had to reattach a few during pictures.  When it was in the bun you couldn't see the big elastic, but when I just pulled it partway through I wrapped small pearls around the elastic.  
Hopefully that all makes sense.  If you have questions, ask.  If there is enough interest/confusion I can make a step by step tutorial.

To see more posts about the baptism click here or the baptism link on the right under labels.

 

Baptism Decorations and Food

For the program table I wanted a picture of my daughter in her baptism dress.  Originally I was going to do a picture in her blessing dress and in her baptism dress, but somewhere along the way that was changed.  In my search for subway art I also came across an editable one here at Oopey Daisy.  You are able to change the name and date.  I had a 5x7 printed up when I ordered the photos for the programs.  I also ordered a couple other pictures from her photo session.  And while I'm confessing I actually ordered a 11x14 collage of some of her pictures that I was thinking about using.  Well, I wasn't to thrilled with that and I still had the 8x10 of my favorite photo I definitely wanted to use and the cute little subway art to display.  Then I remembered a frame I had that had 2 5x7 openings and one 8x10 (currently holding outdated pictures of my kids - all three in the middle, the boy on one side and the girls on the other).  I was even more excited when I realized that the faced the correct direction.  I only had one problem - what to put into the other 5x7.  If I would've had more time I would've printed another picture, but I was didn't.  So I did the next best thing, I mounted a 4x6 picture on paper and threw it into the frame.  It didn't turn out too bad:

I love that 8x10!  It would look better with a 5x7 instead of 4x6, but since the subway art is framed with a pink border, it doesn't look too bad.  Her other photo that I loved (which was the big photo on the collage I didn't use) was the photo on the program.  That was on the table too so I had enough photos displayed (at least all my favorites).

I wish I had better pictures of the refreshments and room, but I was busy playing mom and host so here is what I was able to get my tween to take. I kept the decorations simple for the food tables.  I put out round tables and used table cloths in the colors we chose: the bright colors of blue, yellow, purple, pink, and green.  In fact the decorations were so simple my 8 and 13 year old were making them as I loaded up the car:

All you need is tissue paper and wire.  We layered two sheets of a color and rotated colors (2 yellow, 2 purple, 2 yellow, 2 purple).  Accordion fold the stack (over, under, over, under).  When it is folded wrap a wire around the center (we used a pipe cleaner).  Trim the ends - round or pointy - I did round.  Gently (so you don't rip the paper) peel each layer up at a time.  Soon it will look like a flower.  If you can't follow those instructions search Martha Stewart and she can help you out better.  So I didn't take step by step photos, but like I said, the girls made them on the way out while I loaded the car.
On the table we set out clear cups.  I had purchased what were supposed to be clear labels.  I printed out labels that matched the pop cake toppers (I made those first and you can read on about them shortly).  On the cups I had Congratulations and her name or It's great to be 8.  I changed up the colors (below happens to be the same colors and again, not a very good photo) to match the colors we picked out and I also changed the fonts.  Right now you can download the 8 labels below.  Since I used fonts not on everyone's (or all my) computers I had to save it as a PDF to get it to print correctly.  I think I started to convert the other to a font in word, but until that is finished I only have the one for you.

Now it was towards the baptism date that I decided to serve food.  In fact I hadn't decided how much food when I made the invitations so I worded it as refreshments.  Turns out it was enough for dinner.  In trying to figure out the goodies I thought along the lines of her colors and what I could make that would bring in the colors (since I did little decorations this really tied it all together and made it look nice). I ended up using candy melts to tie in the color to the food.  We had pretzel rods dipped in chocolate, cake balls on a stick with a cupcake topper.  The cupcake toppers had her monogram & date of baptism, Congratulations & name, and 8 is great.

Another treat I made are mini turtles.  Go here for the recipe.  I set them out on color coordinating plates or tied ribbon around jars to tie it together.  I also bought a sliced ham (she was baptized the day before Easter so a bonus that they were all on sale), rolls (sliced for sandwiches), a cheese tray, we also made veggie and fruit trays.  I froze fruit in ice cube trays for the ice and set out pictures of water.  I had lemon, strawberry and raspberry ice cubes.  It added some fun color to the water.

To see more posts about the baptism click here or on the baptism link to the right under labels.

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

 Download It's Great to be 8 labels here

  Download It's Great to be 8 Cupcake toppers here

*NOTE* Below are the other labels & cupcake toppers. The fonts will not work on your computer (unless you have happened to have downloaded the same ones) so you may have to play around and change them to fit your style/needs.

 Download Congratulation Labels Here

Download Congratulation Tags Here

Download Initial Tags Here

The Baptism Program

Since I wasn't able to make my invitation with Boo in her Baptism Dress I wanted it to at least be on her program.  Myself and the oldest took pictures the Sunday before her baptism.  A kind friend edited the pictures for me (since we all now know how I can't manage Photoshop).  I searched for invitation ideas, but couldn't find one that included everything I needed.  So I made my own.  I designed it with my daughter's name at the top and the date of the baptism at the bottom.  A 4x6 photo fit perfectly in between.  I ordered these from Costco and included a black border around it.  I attached the photo with photo corners so that friends and family could remove the picture and keep it if they chose to.  You could print the photo right on the invitation, but I wanted family to be able to keep the photo and not necessarily have to keep the program.

On the inside left is the first song we sang in the program: "When I Am Baptized."  Type in the song your child chooses here.  On the right is the program outline.  I included titles - either Brother/Sister/Bishop or family relation: Grandpa/Father/etc.  I wanted to include the witnesses and who was performing the baptism and confirmation.  I also learned that both a member of the primary presidency and bishopric take a moment to welcome the child & say a few things. (If this is for a convert there wouldn't be a Primary Welcome).  On the back is the closing song.  There is also a little note stating where the template came from.  Please leave the web address on it (you can change wording/font size, just make sure the blog address is correct).

If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right).  I'm happy to share my creations with my followers.  If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!

Download the editable program here.  (Be kind and leave the source of the template on the bottom of the back of the program). 

To see more posts about the baptism click here or on the baptism link under labels on the right.