Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Girl's Camp 2009

Girl's Camp was months ago, but I've had several of you ask me what exactly I was up to in this post. Our Girl's Camp theme was: I Strive to Be G.R.E.E.N. (Grateful, Respectful, Energetic, Example and Nice). Each day at camp we focused on one of the acronyms of G.R.E.E.N.
I wanted to get the girls excited for Camp, so I decided to pass out little treats with cute sayings on them the last month before camp. One of the focuses, was to be "Green" or environmentally friendly, so I found a font online that had different pictures and symbols which represented recycling, tree huggers, etc. I also used this font throughout the process.

Barnum's Animal Crackers with the saying: "Don't worry about living like an animal for a week, we do it all the time". Then there is a recycling symbol below that and the Girl's Camp theme at the bottom.

This treat was Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears that said: "YW Field Guide to Bear Identification" in a Bear font that I found online for free :D This also included a recycling symbol and the Camp Theme at the bottom.

Pop Rocks: "Camp Rocks"

Fruit & Nut Granola Bar: "There a little Fruit and Nut in all of us"

Another idea I did, but didn't take a picture of:
Little Baggy with 2 Golden Grahams, 1 small marshmallow and 1 chocolate chip: "Want S'more?"



Each ward was in charge of providing notebooks for the music, instead of making each leader their own, since our turnover is really high, I decided to make 1 for each position (YW President, 1st Counselor, 2nd Counselor, Secretary, Camp Director, Camp Assist. Director).

For one of our pre-camp activities the girls decorated their binders and they will get to keep them when they turn 18. They all turned out so cute and I think the girls really enjoyed making them.




Now, onto the main event. As soon as I heard about the theme, I went crazy and started thinking about all of the fun things I could create. Last year we purchased canvas totes from Robert's and decorated them with puff paints and fabric stars. I wanted to do something more practical, so this is what I came up with:


We took these swatches...

and after trying 3 different kinds of canvas, we found the one that would work perfectly...


we started cutting, and measuring...

all the while, trying to keep track of whose was whose...
my mother-in-law was a saint to help me out, and the sewing began...
the project was finally starting to take shape...
The final project....a drawstring backpack and matching journal.

Two cute pockets in the front of the backpack, one for the journal and one for a water bottle.

The journal below I made with the help of my sweet friend (2nd Counselor at the time) Dorothy. She was a saint through all of my madness. We also used her mother's embroidery machine to embroider each of the girl's names on the inside of their journal.
Our older girls, came and helped us pick out a button that would fit each girl's personality and make them original. I was so impressed with their skills and how mindful they were of each girl.



I found some of this fabric at the fabric store and knew I had to create something and incorporate it into our theme somehow...

so I made these little buttons for their backpacks.


Then I took all of the scraps...

and made a cute fabric banner for our cabin! It includes a piece from each girl's fabric that they chose for the backpack and journals, although they didn't know what they were choosing the fabric for.

While the girls were away at flag ceremony, we put the backpacks with all sorts of goodies on the table.

Our Girl's Camp flag below: It includes two separate pieces from each of the different fabric. The girls put their names on the squares at the top and their year of camp on the rectangles at the bottom. My favorite part...we used glow-in-the-dark puff paint!!!!

And finally, one of the crafts we made at camp was a block with the Mutual Theme on it.
Front:
Back:

I realize now, this is an extremely LONG post with lots of pictures, but I've been wanting to share for a long time! About two weeks after Girl's Camp ended, I was released. And a short month or two later my husband and I were called as the Nursery Leaders. Now we spend our Sundays playing with 18 month to 3 year olds and have enjoyed their little spirits and their ever abundant energy.

8 comments:

Lindsey said...

you are incredible! i can't believe how much time you must have put into all of this. everything looked so good! you don't know how much i wish i could have been around to help out with your projects. can we please live near each other again someday?!
love you!

Nakita Ellis said...

WOW! You are more creative than I thought a human being could be! Those girls sure were lucky to have you! And now...those nursery kiddos are lucky, I've seen how little kids are drawn to you!

Chels said...

Ahhhh we're in nursery as well and are counting the Sundays til we move(just 3 more!) and are hoping we don't get that calling again for a long time! Looks like you were an awesome YM leader I was a YCL one year, and I will admit it, I was a horrible one so I don't know if I could cut it as a leader.

Bethany said...

YAY!!! I have long awaited this post! Those bags! and the journals! so beautiful, so special. and I just love that fabric! I love the goodies and crafts too...I'm craving animal crackers now, hehe. Those girls were so lucky to have you.

Jenni Sue said...

That is so awesome! I just got put in YW, and I love these ideas! You're so talented, EM!

Lisa said...

Wow, For Real!!! I'm so impressed, that's all that I can say!

Mars said...

How awesome! Geez you are amazing. What a fun YW leader you were! All that is so cute!!

Merrells said...

Wow Emily. You are amazing! I love all these ideas and how great everything looked. The only problem is how are we supposed to meet that standard this year?! (: