Arise and Shine Forth: Birthday Gifts

I know this is up late but I was thinking to post this for those who are getting a late start or for a cute gift idea for New Beginnings.  

One of our YW leaders found these darling star jewelry dishes at THE DOLLAR STORE!!!

They would be great to keep on a night stand for jewelery and such.  

What a great reminder every morning of the 2012 YW theme!

I copied a cute tag I saw on Sugardoodle and customized the size to fit these.

Since I don't know how to attach a PDF file,

email me at ourscoop@gmail.com if you are interested in a print out sheet of the tags.

Fundraiser: Chocolate Strawberries and Pretzels

For our girls camp fundraiser last year we sold 

Chocolate covered Strawberries and Caramel/Chocolate covered pretzels.  

It was such a hit in our ward and we can't wait to do it again this year!  

We sold these for Mother's day and scheduled to make them in the ward kitchen the Saturday before Mother's day (which was the day before).  It was a huge hit for all the men in our ward!  Our fundraiser made it so easy for them to get their Wives, Mom's and MIL's gifts all in one swoop.  

The women also loved it and bought some for friends and visiting teaching sisters.  Some just bought them to eat for themselves because they were so goooooood and some just gave us money for the fund. :)

I wanted to keep the orders simple.  The choices were:

1 Box of 8 Strawberries   $12

1 Bag of 6 Choc/Caramel Pretzels   $8

1 Combo pack of 4 Strawberries/ 3 Pretzels   $10

Here is what the order forms looked like.  I printed them on pink paper.

*Update- we are planning on printing these out on envelops this year and are not going to offer delivery service.  They will be available for pick up on Sat at noon. or Sun after church in our ward kitchen.

The young women announced it in Relief Society and Priesthood meetings a few weeks before and passed out clip boards with order forms for people to take.  

To collect the money, we would have the Young Women stand in the foyers before and after sacrament meeting with big envelops (8 1/2 x 11) marked "YW Fundraiser" for people to turn in their order form with their money.  I would not accept order forms without money included.

All the forms and money came to me and I created a spread sheet to plug all the information in.

Here is a picture of the spread sheet I made:

Update: Sadly I have lost the copies of my spreadsheets when my old computer died. So I cannot share them with you. Sorry!

 If I end up making new ones, I will make a downloadable link here.

I purchased the pretzels rods ( I don't know how many) and caramel at our local store Orson Gygi. 

The caramel comes in a 5 pound block for $15.  

It is so easy to melt.  You can do it in a microwave or crocpot.

I melted it in a croc pot and one of my YW counselors and I dipped the pretzels in the caramel the day before to have them ready for Saturday.  Easy. Place them on wax or parchment paper to dry on cookie sheets.  

I bought the strawberries at Costco.  I think 6 cases of them.

For the chocolate we used this recipe:

Large Batch

1/2 case strawberries, room temperature

11 1/2-ounce package milk chocolate chips

11 1/2- ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 Tablespoons shortening

Rinse berries (we did this Saturday morning to keep the strawberries fresh) and let dry on paper towels for a couple of hours ( we had to paper towel dry them to speed up the process but you could get up real early and do it way before ;) ).  Line bottom of baking sheet with waxed paper and place in freezer.  (The night before I went to the church and put all their great big cookies sheets in in the fridge and freezer to get them nice and cold)  Melt chocolate chips in double boiler and stir in shortening until smooth.  Remove baking sheet from freezer.  Hold each berry by stem and dip in chocolate to cover about two-thirds of the berry.  Place berries on baking sheet.  Let berries stand at room temp. to harden for at least an hour Eat within 24 hours.  Never refrigerate!

We dipped strawberries first and the pretzels second to allow drying.  

The girls thought it was fun to drizzle white chocolate on everything.

The most important part, have the girls wear gloves!

This will keep them from finger lickn'.  

It is sooooo tempting but the gloves eliminate the desire.  Plus I remind them. 

Our young women were salivating to eat these!

After we were finished, we let them go to town on the left overs and non perfect strawberries.  That was their favorite part.  

We started our Saturday morning at 9 and were done by noon to deliver.  You don't have to offer delivery but we did and it worked.  We would only deliver within our ward boundaries.  

I bought the boxes at Xpedex.  

The candy boxes are 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 x 2 3/8 for $0.65 each

Xpedex is nationwide.  If you don't have a local store you can call a store and they can ship some to you.

Here is the number to the store I went to: (801) 485-8882

I have spools and spools of ribbon left from the ribbon outlet I went to in D.C a couple of years ago.

All packaged and ready for delivery.  This is where the spread sheet came in handy.  As packages we filled we would refer to the spread sheet and once they were delivered I could check it off.

We raised over $700.00 after cost of Materials.  I'm sure we will beat that this year because now the YW have a great reputation in our ward for these.  A tradition the ward can look forward to year after year.

Value Flowers

Because we have a small group of Young Women (16) we get to do some things that would normally cost too much in a larger group.  

These fun Value Flowers are a great for our table scape each month.

We like to focus on a different value each month and we change our garden accordingly.

We did this last year and the girls just loved it!  We make them stare at the suckers all month (on the table) and then the last Sunday of the month we let them take one, but only after they share their favorite young women experience that month.  

We have all Faith suckers in there for this month.

I got this idea from Pebbles In My Pocket.  If you don't know of this scrapbook store, you should.  My cousins let me in on their awesomeness.  

Pebbles designs their own paper with all the Young Women Values colors on them.  Stripes, Polka Dots, Flowers and all sorts of cute designs (notice my blog wallpaper).  I have loved using their pages for just about everything!!

The best thing about Pebbles is they have an online store here.

So you can get in on all this goodness too.

I've added a little twist to it this year and put the

 "I will Bloom where I am Planted"

on the front.

You could also do...

"I Will Seek After These Things"

To go along with this years theme.

I buy the suckers from Start Ups Candy Company in Provo, Ut.

They are also known as the "Sundance" suckers which come in all sorts of yummy flavors!

Faith is Cookies and Cream.  Yum!

Unfortunately, Start Ups mostly does wholesale sales and I go to their factory to buy their seconds for a discounted price.  I've tried to think of another fun sucker to do it with but can't think of anything.  If you think of something else that could work with these flowers, I'd love to know.

I have a  Floral foam block inside to hold all the suckers. 

Pebbles has the Value Flowers centers with the scriptures on them and everything here.

Since we did this last year, I have tried to make my own and change the quote on the flower because all the young women saved the flowers from last year.  

I also have a Cricut which has allowed me to save some $ and cut my own flowers.

So I am planning to put quotes that go along with the Bloom where Planted theme.

Here is what mine will say (if I can fit it on a flower center).

Faith - I am a daughter of Heavenly Father, who loves me.  I have faith in His eternal plan, which centers on Jesus Christ, my Savior

Divine Nature - I have inherited divine qualities, which I will strive to develop

Individual Worth - I am of infinite worth with my own divine mission, which I will strive to fulfill.

Knowledge - I will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth

Choice and Accountability - I will choose good over evil and will accept responsibility for my decisions.

Good Works - I will help others and build the kingdom through righteous service.

Integrity - I will have the moral courage to make my actions consistent with my knowledge of right and wrong.

Virtue - I will prepare to enter the temple and remain pure and worthy.  My thought and actions will be based on a high moral standards.

Handout: Manual 3 Lesson 1

I know this is late but maybe you can use it for another lesson.  

I love handouts.  But I try not to do them with every lesson.  

I feel conflicted.  

My creative crafty side loves to do them but my logical practical side thinks it's a little much.  

The girls love them.

When I was a young women, I made a lacey, fabricy, binder to hold all my handouts and I saved them all in there.  It is so fun to go through those.  I really remember some of the lessons taught with them.  

I went to 3 stores looking for Princess fruit snacks and couldn't find any.  Thanks to the Valentine stuff being out so early, I was able to use these suckers.

I am a child of royal birth.

My Father is King of Heaven and Earth.

My spirit was born

In the courts on high,

A child beloved.

A princess am I

Remember who you are

Birthday Mailbox

This is one of those projects where I had no idea where I was going to take it.  I just pulled everything out and threw it all together.  To my surprise it all came together perfectly.

If only, I had a craft room.

Some how I don't remember that basketball being there.

Anyway, last year one of my counselors taught a lesson on Developing Your Talents.  It was so cute how she divided up the girls into two groups and gave them flowers with names of the other girls on them.  We then had to write down all the talents of each girl on their flower.  Each girl felt so special to receive a flower with their name in the middle, surrounded by all of their talents that the other girls saw in them.

We thought something like this would be a great idea for Birthdays.
I bought this mailbox from Joann's fabric.  It is a bit bigger than the $1 ones at Target.

Here is what I came up with:

I love the fact that we can use a dry erase marker to write who's ever birthday it is on the front.  

Making it even more personal.  

I found these free printable birthday tags for the sides.

The week before a birthday, we'll just have the young women each write a little note for the birthday girl.

I made these cute birthday cards with my Cricut DoodleCharms cartridge. 

This has been such a fun way to show a young women how much she is loved on her special day.

To: The Birthday Girl
You've Got Mail!