Creepy Crawly Spiders

   This idea came home with my daughter from an activity she attended at church. They used big Tootsie Pops and four full size chenille stems. My daughter wanted to make them for her class, so we modified the idea slightly by using mini Tootsie Pops (because I already had a lot of them) and two chenille stems each cut in half.

Things you will need:

• Mini Tootsie Pop
  
• 2 chenille stems (same color as Tootsie Pop)
  
• Scissors or wire snips
  
• Clear tape
  
• White craft clue that dries clear

Instructions:
First, fold both chenille stems in half.
Cut in the middle.

Now you have four halves.

Place the sucker in the middle of chenille stems.

Fold the chenille stems on one side of sucker up and around the sucker stick.

Fold the chenille stems on the other side of sucker up and around the sucker stick.

After folding both sides up and around, you have four chenille stems on each side of your sucker stick.

Now, with one hand, hold the stick and chenille stems in the middle. With the other hand, shape one set of chenille stems to make spider legs.

Repeat the process to shape the other side of legs.

Still holding the middle, separate the spider legs on one side.

Repeat for the other side.

Now, see that funny piece of sucker wraper that sticks out of the spider's head.

Use a little piece of clear tape to tape it under the head. (I did find that this step can be done first, and it is probably easier to do it first.)

Now, cut off that ugly white part of the sucker stick off.

You might notice that the sucker can slide quite easily out of the chenille stems. To prevent this, turn the spider upside down and place some white glue right by the chenille stem and stick.

Leave the spider on it's back to dry overnight.

In the morning, you have a cool, fuzzy spider that stays together!

You can make them in a variety of colors!

My children's classmates enjoyed playing with these cute treats!

Oragami Shirt & Tie

   I found a cute handout that I wanted to use to go with my lesson next week at church. It was made using an Oragami shirt and tie. I searched through many YouTube videos until I finally found a pattern for a shirt and one for a tie that I really liked. Because it took me so long to figure out how to do this, I thought it might be nice to make an instructional video on each to help out anyone else in my predicament!
   This would be an adorable card for Father's Day as well!!
   Here is the video showing how you make an Oragami shirt.

   Here is the video showing how you make an Oragami tie to go with your shirt.

   I used some double stick tape in a few places to help my shirt an dtie hold thier shapes really well.
   For those who want to use this as a handout for YW Manual 3 Lesson 13, you can view the handout idea at Tales of a Trophy Wife's Blog. I just wrote the words on my tie by hand, but I did make a PDF file of the "Father's Responsibilities" to put on the inside.

Other posts you might like:
   "Father's White Shirt"

Scripture Reading Jars

   If you are looking for help to read your scriptures daily, then look no further!
   This jar is filled with hard candy treats. The poem on top of the jar says:

"Scripture reading can be fun,
When eating treats while it is done!
Pick one treat to suck; don't chew,
And when it's gone, you are through!"
∼ by Kim Bennett ∼
   I used baby food jars for this project. I spray painted the lids pink and then sprayed a clear acrylic spray over the pink. I typed up my cute poem to fit on a 1¼” square label and printed it onto white paper. I used a 1⅜” circle punch to cut out my poems. I used decoupauge to adhere the poems to the tops of the lids. (I have an Epson printer which prints with archival ink that does not bleed. Be sure your ink does not bleed when it's wet.) I found a cute ⅛” ribbon, and used the decoupage as glue to adhere it around the edge of the lid. I filled my jars with Gobstoppers, Lemonheads, Sweetarts, Jaw Breakers, and Sprees!
   I gave these to the girls in my youth group at church! I hope they will remind the girls to read their scriptures each day!
   I was inspired by Dot to Dot's Scripture Reminder Jars. She used gumballs and had a cute poem to go with them. However, I'm not a big fan of chewing gum, so I wrote my own poem. I wanted it to work with any kind of hard candy. I hope you will be inspired by our ideas!

Santa Suit Candy Bar Wrapper

   This is a fun gift to give at Christmas! Who doesn't like chocolate? And lots of it when you give this Giant Hershey bar all dressed up for Christmas!
   All my measurements are for a Giant Hershey bar, but you can adjust them for any size Hershey bar.


Items needed:

• Giant Hershey bar
  
• Red, black, yellow, & white paper
  
• Glue pen
  
• ⅝” circle punch
  
• Button hole paper punch
  
• 1⅛” square paper punch
  
• Paper cutter with scalloped & straight blades

Cut the following:

• red paper (1) - use straight blade 9⅝" x 7⅛"
  
• white vertical (1) - use scallop blade 1⅜" x straight blade 7⅛"
  
• white horizontal (1) - 1⅝" wide one side straight one side scalloped x 9⅝" with straight blade
  
• black belt (1) - 1" x 9⅝"
  
• yellow square (1) - 1⅝" strip of yellow paper; use 1⅛" square punch to cut out center of belt buckle and then cut belt buckle 1⅝" square
  
• black buttons (3) - ⅝" circle punch; use button hole punch twice to make 4 holes

Take the brown, outside wrapper off the Hershey bar. Re-wrap it using the red paper that you cut. Use a glue pen to adhere the wrapper in the back of the candy bar.

On the center front of the candy bar, glue the white vertical piece with scalloped edges.

On the bottom edge with straight sides together, place the white horizontal piece and wrap all the way around candy bar. Adhere with glue pen in front as well as in back.

Next glue belt buckle onto center of black strip.

With glue pen, adhere belt above bottom white piece with belt buckle centered on vertical white piece. Wrap belt around candy bar and adhere in back as well.

Now glue the three buttons on the white vertical piece above the belt.

Your Santa Suit is done!! Now don't you wish this gift was for you?

Scripture Story Kits

   I wish I could take credit for this fun kit, but the idea came off of sugardoodle.net. I did, however, take the idea and put it to paper... literally. I am including the downloadable files that I created to make the kit. This is a great idea to aid in scripture study as a family!
   Each kit contains two cards. The cards contain a list of items found in your bag, i.e. kit. One person picks an item out of the bag, and then finds it on the card. Next to the item is a story or event from the scriptures along with the scripture references to read about it.
   My children had so much fun looking for the items on the list to include in the bag. I was surprised at how many items they found! For those they couldn't find, we just used clipart printed onto cardstock, cut each item out, laminated them, and cut each item out again.
   These are very inexpensive to make and make wonderful gifts for families with little ones. They are even great for grandparents to have when the grandkids come to visit!
   I do plan to include some pictures soon with more detailed instructions for making the drawstring bags to hold the cards and items. There are brief instructions included in the kit files for making the bags. Be sure to read the instructions in the kit file about printing!

    Clipart for Scripture Story Kits
    Bible Story Kit
    Scripture Story Kit - LDS Edition

   We already had one family night activity using our Scripture Kit and it was a huge success! We had some great teaching moments with our children. I hope you will find this beneficial for those special children in your life as well.