25 Names of Christ

The reason I made this is because our older daughter decided to serve a mission to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. She was assigned to serve in the France Paris mission and recently left for the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah. It was hard enough to have her gone for the holidays, let alone 18 months!

I think of her Every. Single. Day. I wanted her to have something to open every day while she was away from us in the MTC. I envision her opening the gift, reading the scripture out loud with her companions, and hanging them on the tree. (It's definitely a sparkly picture in my mind!) She doesn't have a lot of room (think of a college dorm room with 3 other girls), so I had to make it small. And she won't take it with her when she leaves for France. She can just send home what she wants to keep.

There are so many more names of Jesus Christ you can find in the scriptures. I just limited it to 25 so she can have a small gift to open up Every. Single. Day. leading up to Christmas! And I had friends asking me for the idea, so here we go!

The Tree

• Fabric Tree (or a small fake tree)
• Wooden Dowel
• Jute String

She doesn't have much space, so I ordered a fabric panel online of a tree. If you are super creative, just make your own! Here's the link where I found this one:
https://www.equilter.com/product/246141/supernova-snowy-tree-green-42-x-44-panel-digital-print
(It took about 4 days to arrive in the mail. I had to finish the edges and sew a small casing for a wooden dowel. Tied the ends of the dowel with jute string and it's ready to hang on a door or closet.)

Names of Christ

Here's the list, scripture references, and items I chose to use for gifts. Again, there are SO MANY MORE names of Christ, these just worked for what I wanted to use.

Printable Ornament Tags

• Ribbon
• Hole Punch
• Laminator (optional)
• Safety Pins

 These are the style of ornaments I created. Obviously you can make your own or feel free to use these. They are just JPGS- you can copy and paste them right into your own document and size them the way you like. There are blank ones as well.

Here's what some of them looked like when I cut them out, laminated them, and put on a ribbon.

Gifts and Tags

Choosing gifts is all up to you! I found a lot at Hobby Lobby, Deseret Bookstore, Target, and Walmart. This part was SO MUCH FUN!! Wrap them up the way you want. (I put mine in brown paper bags with tissue paper.) Attach the ornament gift tags and number each one in the order you want them opened. (I selected Emmanuel to be opened on Christmas Day.)

Bright and Morning Star (Star Ornament- of course, this is the one gift I missed to take a photo)

Horn of My Salvation (French Horn Ornament)

Potter (Small Clay Cup- perfect for holding pens or candy)

Prince of Peace (Peace Ornament and Dove Chocolates)

Shield (CTR Necklace)

Stone (Pop Rocks Candy with Modified Label)

The Way (Milkyway Candybars with Modified Label)

Tree of Life (Tree Ornament)

True Vine (Red Vines Candy with Modified Label)

Keeper of the Gate (Kit Kat Candy with Modified Label- my youngest daughter said they look like a gate)

King of Kings (Crown Ornament)

Lamb of God (Llama Stuffed Animal- they are a big thing right now)

Light of the World (Twinkle Lights- these just happen to match any rhythm)

Living Water (Vitamin Water Drink)

Maker of Fisher of Men (Goldfish Crackers)

Man of Sorrows (Bandaids)

Mansion Preparer (Gingerbread House)

Gift for Holy One of Israel (Toblerone Bar)

Alpha and Omega (Ring Jewelry- inserted a card that read "rings have no beginning and no end")

Bread of Life (Swiss Roll Cakes with Modified Label- since she is going to France!)

Creator (Lego Mini Figures- these are all female superheroes)

Emmanuel (Nativity Ornament with Baby Jesus)

Firstfruits (Tootsie Roll Fruit Chews Candy)

Good Shepherd (Candy Canes)

High Tower (Eiffel Tower Ornament- again, she is going to France!)

May you all enjoy your Christmas season! I hope this helps you feel uplifted and turns your hearts to Christ.

Come Unto Christ

The 2014 theme for our church youth was "Come Unto Christ". We are preparing for our Young Women in Excellence, an annual celebration of the year's goals and accomplishments by our amazing young women. I was put in charge of the podium/front of the room display. Here's my idea for a visual focal point.

 

Materials

(I got all the materials at Hobby Lobby, a nationwide chain craft store.)

• Letters. I chose a wooden C and the other letters are metal. I liked how they fit on the canvas and how they looked overlapping.

• Painters canvas. Mine measured 20"x24", but you select the size based on your letters.

• E6000 glue. I didn't trust my glue gun to hold the letters onto the canvas. This works *EVERY* time.

• Swirly flourish stickers. I picked mine to accent the letter "C" in black. I used 2 packs.

• Gold spray paint. I tried to use other acrylic type paint, but it just looked messy. Use the spray paint for a clean finish and sharp edges on the chevron pattern.

• 1/2" painters tape to mask off the chevron pattern on the canvas. I used blue tape as you can see in the next pictures.

Instructions

1. Measure your chevron pattern and mask off the lines. Don't forget to wrap around the edge of the canvas. Rub that tape down so that the edges will be crisp.

2. Spray paint the whole thing. Don't forget the edges! Let dry (about 20 minutes) then peel off the tape.

  

3. Lay out your letters on the canvas. You can even use vinyl lettering, of course.

4. Once you are happy with the placement of the letters, glue them down.

5. Add the sticker embellishment. I also added vinyl letter cut outs.

6. Display proudly.

Halloween Mantle

Soooooo... let's just say that life has been very busy lately. But here's a craft I made for Halloween last year that I thought I'd share. It's my favorite BOO sign.

1. Bought a cheap frame from Goodwill, removed the glass, and spraypainted it black.
2. Used spray adhesive on the frame backing and stuck some burlap on. Get it on there good and tight!
3. Bought some unfinished wood letters from Michael's and used spray adhesive to stick orange glitter all over them.
4. Used a glue gun to stick the letters onto the burlap.
5. Tied some fall-ish ribbon onto an autumn floral pick and used a glue gun to stick it to the corner of the frame.
6. Done.

Make A Thumbnail Icon

Okay, I'm so over the subway art thing... well, at least for now anyway. This time I want to show you how to make your own thumbnail icon. What is a thumbnail icon? Blogger calls it a Favicon. It's that cute little square picture that shows you what webpages you have open in your website tabs. This is what they look like in the web browser tabs:

But did you know that you can make your own icon and have it display for your website or blog? This is this icon I created for my blog:

It's simply a square with a fancy script font. The actual size is only 100 x 100 pixels, but that's all you need!

TIPS

• Before you start, have an idea of what you want for your icon. 
• Remember that this image will be VERY TINY so the best thing it so keep it clean and simple! 
• Stick to 2 or 3 colors max or else it just gets muddied up. 
• Use a high amount of contrast between the colors you select for maximum pop!

STEPS
1. Open Paint application. (Almost every PC I know of has this program.)
2. Click File-> New.
3. Click Image->Attributes.

4. Type 100 for Width and 100 for Height.
5. Select Pixels for Units.
6. Click OK.

7. You'll get this cute little square as your blank canvas. Now... CREATE!
8. Click a color you want for your background. (I chose light tan for mine.)
9. Click the bucket icon in the toolbar to fill in the background.

10. To insert a font, click the text icon (the letter A) in the toolbar.
11. Click on the canvas and you'll see a text box open up for you to type in. You can move it by clicking and dragging it to the exact place you want it.

12. Right click the text box and select Text Toolbox to open the Font dialog box.

13. Select the font face you want to use. Remember that only the fonts that you already have saved on your computer are the ones you can use. (I used a font called Old Printing Press for this set of instructions. In my blog, I used a font called Kramer.)
14. Select the font size you want to use. You will need to adjust this to fit the box. You can also type in a size. You are not limited to the preset sizes.
15. Enjoy your masterpiece! Be sure to save it for use in the future.

Here's my finished project:

Fun, huh?!

Next time, I'll show you how to insert your cool thumbnail icon so that it displays on your blog or website!