Thursday, February 2, 2012

YW Arise & Shine activity

I love this year's theme for the youth of our church.
"Arise and shine that thy light may be a standard for the nations"
The imagery is so inspiring.  So much so that I really wanted to
make an impact with the girls by taking one of our activity nights to introduce it.
I found the program on the blog The Three Sweet Peas and tweaked it for our group.
The girls came into a dark room with little flashlights.
We slowly (kind of) turned lamps on with their flashlights to show how each light adds
to the others and brightens the room.  But even one small light can dispel the darkness.
The youth have great opportunities to share their light with their peers through small
everyday acts of kindness.  Their love of the Savior will shine through and influence others.
There was a short video that I couldn't get to work, so I just bore my testimony.
I think they got the point.

I knew the program wouldn't take all the time, so I came up with something that the girls
could make and take home.  
Here it is! 
Most of the picture was designed by Dianne Rigdon Design at Two Peas in a bucket
but the words are mine.  I chose this backdrop for the words because it was so cheerful.

Below is the image that is sized for 6x6 inches.  You are welcome to use it any way you'd like.  If you do the blocks,  I would suggest playing around with the size before you start cutting your wood.
Below are the instructions


My wood is 1.5x7".  I just bought it in the lumber section of the hardware store.  
I measured and cut at 5.75".  It gave me about 12 blocks.
Sand your wood and smooth the edges.

Make sure you cut your corners of your picture so the paper will have square edges after being glued down.  Cover one side of your block with a layer of Mod Podge (glue), then center your picture, place it down on the block and smooth out bumps.

Now turn your block over and put Mod Podge on the sides.  Fold the sides of the paper over making sure everything is smooth.  I chose to paint at this point instead of before, so that I could kind of blend the paint into the colors of the paper.  Once your paper is secure, and your paint is dry, turn it back over and paint the Mod Podge on top of the paper to seal it and give it a nice sheen.

Once it is dry, just glue a flower or whatever your heart desires onto your block.  Below are a couple that were finished by the girls.  Some of them didn't use the yellow paint.  Also, be careful not to brush the picture for too long or the colors will smear.  You can see it in the lower block a little.  The girls got to talking and just kept brushing on the glue.  

It was really inexpensive and the girls had fun.  We served sun cupcakes (so cute, but candy corn was hard to find so we used jelly beans) and some lemonade.
It was a good night.

1 comment:

  1. Noelle this is darling and just gives me joy this morning! :) I might use this idea sometime, too! (We homeschool, so it would be great for that, or we could adapt it for sunday school or a crafty day with friends. This would also be a good service project, where you hand out the blocks to seniors or neighbors and you could change the quote to one of encouragement or hope, depending on the recipient.)

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