Ribbons and Vinyl Scripture Bag

This is the cutest scripture bag and our YW fell in love with them.  They can be personalized and changed for each personality, season, or age.  They can scrapbook pictures or put their names on them.  A scripture or handout can be made at each lesson to go in the "window" of their bags as a reminder of their lesson for the week.  This is also a great camp craft.

My bag is scripture size but it can be adapted to a full sheet of scrapbook paper.   

Supplies:

Clear vinyl - sold at the fabric store.  The heavier the vinyl, the sturdier the bag.

4 (12 x 12) sheets of scrapbook paper (one sided) or 2 (12 x 12) sheets of scrapbook paper (double-sided).

Cardstock

2 rolls of coordinating 1/4 in ribbon

Lanyard string - Clear or Clear with sparkles

Refrigerator tubing - available at the hardware store.

Scissors or rotary cutter

Hole punch 

Each bag has a front, back, bottom and 2 sides. 

Vinyl:  Front & back - Cut 4 pieces to 7" x 8 1/2"

          Sides - Cut 4 pieces to 3" x 7"

          Bottom - Cut 2pieces to 8 1/2" x 3"

          Match sides and cut all pieces on 3 sides with a Zutter Bind-It-All Machine or you can have it done at a local binder such as Kinko's or the UPS Store.  Leave the top without holes to make a clean edge.

Scrapbook Paper:  Front and back - Cut 4 or 2 to 6 1/2" x 8 1/4"

           Sides - Cut 4 or 2 to 2 3/4" x 6 1/2"

Cardstock:  Bottom - Cut 1 to 8 1/8" x 2 3/4".

Sandwich the paper between the vinyl to your desired pattern for the inside and the out.  Use the lanyard string to lace all the pieces together criss-crossing as if you are lacing shoes. 

Refrigerator tubing: Cut to desired length and thread with ribbon allowing equal amounts of ribbon to hang out of each side.  Punch 4 holes in the vinyl, two on each side for the ribbon then tie the handle by the ribbon through each hold to make a handle.  Trim the excess you don't want.  

I left my ribbons long and have my YW scripture ribbons in my scriptures.....ribbons, ribbons everywhere!  A little bit of whimsey-perfect for YW!

  

Unique Invitations

Our YW in Excellence is coming up.  My committee of YW selected the "It's a Jungle Out There!" theme which I think will make a great evening!  They are doing a lot of the footwork and phone calling so I told them I would make the invitations. 

Mother's cookies just came out with iced Jungle Animal Cookies (green and white instead of the standard pink and white Circus Cookies).  How did they know?  I placed several in a glycine bag - a left over from my daughter's wedding reception - and stamped some paw prints and shapes on it.  I added the invitation to the front and an animal sticker.  They're kinda cute and a nice change from the regular handout.  The girls, of course, are always interested in the treat. 

It's fun to find new ways to hand out invitations for activities.  Buy a large, swirly lollipop and place an invitation on it with a ribbon or a decorated box with the invitation printed in the bottom.  A small invitation can be placed on a plastic toy or felt heart pincushion.  Play with your idea and your theme.  I'll bet you can come up with something very clever and I'd love to hear about it!

Value Tablecloths

Most of us have tablecloths to dress up our YW tables.  It's nice to have one in each of the Values for the Value you are focusing on.  Holiday ones are especially fun!  These make a very easy YW sewing night.  Have the girls bring a yard of fabric and hem each one. A trip to the fabric store to pick out their fabric can be a great activity also. They can be stored in your closet for easy access and the girls will enjoy having "their" tablecloth on the table!

Planning an Activity Sheets

I searched high and low the other day looking for a planning sheet I thought would meet my needs.  I finally decided to make one of my own that had all the categories and info I wanted on one page and a How To sheet for the YW.  We'll be using these to plan our YW in Excellence.  Maybe you can use them too.

Speaking in Church

Source:  lds.org

Giving a talk in Sacrament meeting can be intimidating for the best of us.  For a Personal Progress Night lesson, we discussed how to give a successful talk in church.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the YW used the formula and suggestions we gave them as they took their turns to be youth speakers in Sacrament. 

We gave them each a small card that they could place in their scriptures to help them to remember the "Formula" :

Giving a talk in Church is E-A-S-Y

E - Experience (share one)

A - Apply (a Gospel Principle)

S - Scriptures (Use one or two)

Y - Your Testimony (bear it) 


We discussed a few common things we often hear over the pulpits, some dos and some don'ts:

PRAY - Ask for the guidance of the Spirit to say the things the things you are supposed to or to touch someone's heart.  Pray for help to do your best. 

The Introduction -
1.  Do not start with "My talk is on..." or "Bro. So-and-so asked me to talk on..."    - BORING!

2.  Introduce yourself, share your Experience (see above ) or a Quote.

3.  NEVER - make excuses for yourself by saying, "I forgot I was supposed to talk today," or "I didn't have a lot of time to work on my talk."  ACT like you know what you are doing, even if you don't!

The Body of the Talk - 
1.  Tell a story about yourself or someone you know...an experience you have had or a prompting you have felt.

2.  Relate an experience, scripture, or quote from a General Authority or someone you admire.  Use the "For the Strength of Youth" and the Standard Works.

The Conclusion -
1.  Give a short summary of what you have said.

2.  Bear your Testimony.

Hints:
- It can be helpful to practice at home before so you know how long your talk is.
- Mark your scriptures before so scripture references are easy to find when you speak.
- Smile - You are beautiful to look at!  :)

The Spirit will guide you if you ask because you are doing the Lord's work at that moment in time!  

This activity helps fulfill Individual Worth Value Experience #5 and Knowledge Value Experience #4.



 

Standards Night

In raising my daughters and working in YW, I have found that speaking plainly with my teenagers is a policy that works for me.  I do not want them to come back and say they didn't understand what I wanted or expected. I feel that dropping hints leaves too much room for interpretation.  We need to fight the evils in this world with clear-cut boundaries.  Elder Holland gives a wonderful talk, a portion of which is on youth.lds.org.  This, and another video presentation by President Monson, were played at our Stake Standards Night.  These are worth sharing for those who have not seen them.

I love how President Monson reminds us that we are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven! 

Heavenly Father is the author of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet through his inspired prophets.  As parents and leaders, we find our young people are strong-willed.  This is an important characteristic to channel for good.  It can become courage! We can help them find this courage by teaching them and talking with them about the standards their Heavenly Father has set for them.  In gaining a testimony of these principles, these youth can dare to have a purpose, dare to choose the right, and dare to choose the Temple. 

(Many more wonderful videos, talks, and resources can be found at youth.lds.org)

   

Necktie Skirt

Guest Blogger: Allison from ABitterKnitter.blogspot.com

Greetings!  I'm Allison, and am the daughter of the author of Value-able Ideas.  I'm a new mom and a knitter and am guest blogging today to share about a necktie skirt I made several years ago.

When I was a Young Woman, I had a friend who had a skirt made of neckties and it was the thing.  Everyone knew about Linné's necktie skirt!  As a young newlywed, I made one for my younger sister, who was then a Mia Maid.  She wore it until she graduated from high school and then continued to wear it to the single's ward.  And everyone knew about Crystal's necktie skirt!  Want one?  Sure... here's how:

Materials:
Neckties.  A bunch.
Ribbon 1.5" or wider.  Enough to go around your waist with some to spare.
Zipper.  I used one 8 inches long.
Hook and eye
Sewing machine
Thread to coordinate with ribbon and zipper. 
Yardstick or tape measure.

Step 1: Collect neckties.  This necktie skirt is made using 18 normal neckties.  Some of these ties belonged to my dad, some to my husband, and some were bought in thrift stores.  (I had a friend in the single's ward who joked that she was going to make one by collecting ties from guys she promised to wait for while they were on missions.  Hey, however you want to get your ties is up to you...)  18 neckties made a skirt that is about a size 8, but the size is very adjustable.  Just use more or fewer neckties.

Step 2: Pick the order. Pick out the ties you're sure you want on your skirt and decide which ones you want next to each other.  I didn't want ties that were too similar in colour next to each other, but that's just me.  Line your ties up in the order you want them to be in.  You may end up using more or fewer ties before you're done depending on how big your skirt needs to be.

 Step 3: Sew neckties.  For this step you'll need a sewing machine and thread.  I used black thread as it coordinated with the ribbon and zipper.  Take your first two ties and put them one on top of the other with the fronts together.  Line up the sides of the ties so that the tops of the Vs match up.  (Is there a technical term for tie anatomy?)  Sew the two ties together close to the edge.  I sewed as close as I could to the edge without going off and used a narrow zigzag stitch to better hold together the weight of the ties.  Make sure you sew up almost two feet.  (Well, that's for a skirt that comes down to your kneecap.  I'm assuming you want a modest skirt.)  Then open up those two ties, line up your third tie and sew that one.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  ♫ Do as I'm doing, follow, follow me... ♪
 

Once you think you have enough ties, "try on" your skirt by wrapping it around your waist.  Make sure the bottoms of the ties are where you want them to be for the right length of your skirt.  If it goes all the way around your waist, you're done and ready for the next step.  If not, keep adding ties until it goes all the way around and the ties touch or overlap by part of a tie.  If more than a full tie overlaps, remove ties until only one or less than a full tie overlaps.

Step 4: CUT.  It is better to make it too long at first than to make it too short!  Using your yardstick or tape measure, measure up from the bottom where two ties meet.  Start by measuring up two feet and place a pin.  Do this several places around your skirt.  Then cut from pin to pin.  Now that things are more skirt shaped, wrap it around your waist again and hold the two open sides together.  If it's the right length, stop here and move on to step 5.  If it's too long, figure out about how many inches need to come off, re-measure, re-pin, and re-cut.  When it's the length you want, move on to step 5.  (If you find that you have too many ties around once it is then length you want, remove ties as described in step 3 until the right number of ties remain.)

Step 5: Add the waistband.  Take your ribbon.  Fold it in half along its length.  Line it up along the top of your skirt, letting it hang off the edge by about an inch or so.  Sew it along your skirt, folding the edge over to the inside of the skirt.  (I sewed it with the right side out, sewing both the inside and outside down at the same time.)

Step 6: Add the zipper. Line up your two open sides the same way you lined up all the other ties, with the right sides of the ties facing each other.  Sew them together leaving about seven inches unsewn at the top.  Sew in your zipper.  (For more information about how to sew in a zipper, go to Google and search for "how to sew in a zipper.)

Step 7: Add a hook and eye. Just like the instruction says.  Add a hook and eye at the top.

And voilá, you're finished!  Wear with pride!  Next week, learn how to knit a pair of value-striped socks.  (Kidding!)

This project helps meet the requirements for the following Young Women Value Experiences: Divine Nature Value Project, Knowledge #2, Integrity Value Project.