Resurrection Easter Eggs

This resurrection easter egg countdown has been done and posted about all over the internet. This is just my version combining some of those I found. I chose the events I wanted to touch on most, but there are tons of options out there! We made these for Activity Days and the girls can go home and teach them to their families.

These are the little items included in 11 of the 12 eggs, the 12th egg is empty to represent Christ's resurrection and the empty tomb.

We numbered each egg and included a printed quote and scripture along with the item in each egg.

Then we put them in a cute bag and tied it up with a resurrection picture card.

These make great gifts for family, friends and neighbors! Below is a free printable of the files I made and printed. Again, they are a compilation of others across the internet, so I take no credit for this idea!

JPEG / PDF

JPEG / PDF

AMAZin' Teacher Gift

Here a simple little printable for all those AMAZin' teachers in your life! 

Just print and attach an AMAZON GIFT CARD. It's simple, but your teachers will love it. I mean who doesn't love Amazon?!

Just click the image above to get your free download.

Teacher Valentine's Gift

I created this little tag a while ago just as a random thank you for all the wonderful teachers in our lives, but thought it would be cute as a teacher Valentine's gift as well. 

I changed the colors up a bit and it looks super cute with Valentine's red, pink and silver hugs and kisses. To download simple click on the image and save to your computer!

Apples, Kisses & Hugs Teacher Thank-you

Autumn is in the air. Well maybe not here in Texas, but I am definitely feeling in the fall mood. The produce section is filled with huge, juicy delicious apples, the kids are back at school, and the holidays are quickly approaching. I saw a cute teacher thank-you idea floating around pinterest and decided to create my own little printable to go with it. 

We did this activity for family home evening and we decided to give it to their church teachers. You could give it to school, church, preschool, music, or dance teachers. No need to wait for teacher appreciation week to show our teachers how much we love them for all they do!

Just grab some apples, hershey's hugs and kisses, and some way to package it, then top it off with the card. Lucky for you, I've made the last step easy because I've included a free printable of the card so you can make your own. It is sized to fit 4 on a standard 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of cardstock. Just click on the image below to get your download.

Happy Fall Y'all {Free Printable}

The weather has been cooler lately. For Texas that means we get to a high of 85-90 degrees, but the mornings are delightful. We always play outside first thing to get in as much cool weather as we can. The other day I stocked up on some pumpkin and we made pumpkin snickerdoodles.

 Today, after riding bikes in the cool shade, we decided it was time again for some fall baking. This time it was zucchini bread with some excess pumpkin added to the batter. I made extra so that we could have enough to bring to our neighbors. Then of course I had to make a quick card to attach. 

So here's a free printable just for you. Just click on the image to get your free printable.

A Happy Fall to Y'all too!

Hospital Thank-You Cards

After going into preterm labor and experiencing the hospital from a different perspective, I really became aware of how grateful I was for good nurses. My main nurse was incredible. She allowed me to make decisions regarding me and my unborn baby's health, unlike the triage nurse who acted as if I didn't have options or a say when it came to what treatment and actions they needed to take. 

I had already planned on making thank-you gifts for the nurses who would take care of and assist me during and after labor, but this earlier experience really sealed the deal, and I got creating soon after getting released and coming home. I was on bed rest, but this was something I could work on from the comfort of my bed. It also helped take my mind off all the millions of other preparations I wasn't able to do, like set up a nursery. I convinced my husband, who was adamant about my resting, that I was well enough to go with him to pick out the items from the store. 

I really loved the thank-yous that Jess from Craftiness is not Optional made for her nurses, and put pretty much the same stuff in my thank-you bags. Here's what we included:

- Chocolate bar

- Chapstick

- Gum packet

- Pen

- Hand sanitizer

I also designed a little thank-you tag to tie around each bag.

I used the bottom color options since we were having a boy, and tied them on with some colorful fabric scraps. I created the tags in two colors, with and without a message attached. Lucky for you, I making all four options available for download, so that you too can say thank-you to those who don't get as much praise- the nurses, midwives, doulas, and even family and friends. They are the ones there with you more time than the highly paid doctors :) and I think they deserve some thanks!

To download click on the option you want to be redirected to the download page.

Girl Thank-You with message

Girl Thank-You without message

Boy Thank-You with message

Boy Thank-You without message

**As with all my free printables, these are for personal, non-profit use only! Thanks**

Graphic Design Love

To say that I like to create printables, invitations, art, etc. would be an understatement. My love of graphic design has me constantly thinking in terms of layers and fonts and how I could turn an idea into something I can print and love. These past few months I have been busy designing for myself and for friends and family. There have been lots of baby showers, activities, and projects that have been keeping me busy- busy doing something I love. Here is a little sampling of a few of the things I've created.

This last one I created to give to women in an eating disorder center, but I thought that it is also true of all of us, in our different struggles and situations in life. It is important to remember our own individual worth and that we are important!

So I am offering the print above as a free download. It is sized to 5x7 and you can download it as a JPEG file or a PDF. Please remember that this printable is for personal use only, and is not to be resold in any format. If you are interested in using this for wide spread or commercial use, please contact me, as I would love to assist you!

Click HERE for the JPEG file.

Click HERE for the PDF file.

If you are interested in custom digital creations, feel free to contact me!

Valentines 2013

Last year my daughter exchanged Valentine's Day Cards with her little preschool group friends. There were 4 little girls in the group, and the Valentines were girly and fun. 

This year in Kindergarten, she gets to have a fun Valentine's Day party and exchange Valentines with her classmates. If you go to the store, there are the prepackaged cards or candy valentines. If you know me, completely store bought, just ain't my thing. Then, you go to Pinterest and there are TONS of cute ideas, but still a majority involve candy. Once again, too much candy just ain't my thing. (Side note: We have a "treat basket" at our house. We go through candy slowly around here, and still have Halloween and Christmas candy in our treat basket. So I had no desire to add to the candy intake. Cheesecake, ice cream and brownies are more than welcome though, and don't last long.) I figured a majority of the Valentines the kids will get will have candy, so they wouldn't be sad if ours didn't. Instead we came up with this:

And, of course, I had to design a little printable to go with it. Click on the image below to download it for yourself. Then, simply print at home, cut out, punch a hole at the top and bottom, have your child sign it, and slip a silly straw through the holes.

(File has been updated since the original post. Enjoy!)

We couldn't forget about her teacher! Her teacher's favorite snack is goldfish. So I had to copy the popular "FISH" themed Valentines out there, and designed this one:

Click on the image below to download your free printable. I made it print 4 to a page in case your child has more than one teacher to share their love with.

What are you doing for Valentine's Day?

Taste the Rainbow - Personal Progress Blitz

I am the Personal Progress Leader for the Young Women in our ward. If none of those terms make sense, find out more about the youth program HERE. I weekly try to remind and motivate the girls to pass off value experience and to be making effort and progress on their Personal Progress. Whenever there is a fifth weekly activity night for the month, I hold special Personal Progress activities. This month I did a Taste the Rainbow themed Personal Progress Blitz. The goal was the get the girls to pass off as many experiences as they could during the activity.

The Sunday before the activity, I gave the girls invites to remind them of what we were doing and what they needed to bring. If you note at the bottom of the invite, we had a little competition motivator- the girls were to dress colorfully, and the girl that was the most RAINBOWRIFIC would win a prize.

The prize was a little pack of rainbow colored nail polish. The second pack would go to the girl who passed off the most experiences during the evening.

At the activity we had 8 tables, one for each value. On each table was a card that listed the experiences they could complete or begin that evening. (Click on images to download the free printable.)

 

You will want to go through and make sure you have everything for the girls to be able to pass off the experiences. They will need their Personal Progress booklets and journals, a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, and scriptures, as most experiences require use of those. Some of the experiences require additional resources. I've included the printables that I made to help:

Integrity experience #4 requires the girls to look up Integrity in the dictionary, so I went ahead and printed this out so I wouldn't have to carry a heavy dictionary. (Click on image to download. Two sheets are included so cut in half.)

Individual Worth experience #2 requires the girls to read in General Conference talks about Patriarchal Blessings, so I found these excerpts. (Click on image to download.)

Faith experience #6 requires the girls to draw out and label a Plan of Salvation chart. I created this little chart for them to fill out complete with scripture references for help. (Click image to download.) I printed two of these per page to save on paper.

For some of the experiences you may want to bring Conference issue Ensign magazines, True to the Faith pamphlet, etc. so make sure to look through the experiences to be sure you have everything. For Knowledge experience #6 the girls need to conduct a hymn during a meeting, so I had a calendar available for them to sign up for when and what song they were going to lead in Young Women's opening exercises. 

On each of the 8 value tables I had a jar of candy. When the girls completed an experience, they could take a candy- thus they were Tasting the Rainbow. Here are the little jar labels I created. I just printed them out and laminated them, then hole punched and tied them on the jars with jute string. (Click image to download.)

These jars serve dual purposes. Each month we focus on a value. On Sunday we have that value jar out and if a girl has passed off a value experience or completed a value project they get to take a candy from the jar. Additionally, if they wear that value's color, they can take a candy as well. So now I'm prepared with candy for the next several months!

At the end of the activity the girls counted off how many experiences they completed. Most finished four, one girl finished five, and two girls finished SIX experiences. They had fun working together through the experiences, and were very excited to have passed off so many in one night.

I gave the girls a little treat reminder at the end. It just reminds them to taste the rainbow of values every day of their lives as they work on Personal Progress continually, and if they do they can reach the pot of gold at the end. (Click on image to download.)

I attached the tags to pretzel bags I filled with Rolo's and Skittles- the pot of gold under the rainbow. They thought this was really cute.

It was a very successful evening. Not only was it fun, but it was very effective in helping the girls make a lot of progress. I hope that some of this can help you and your young women. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment or email me!

Turkey Dice Game

My Gingerbread Dice Game printable has been one of my post successful printables to date with over 13,000 downloads! I've had a gazillion email request for more varieties of this game, so here we go. First up, since it is November, a Turkey Dice Game printable. Once again, I did not come up with the idea of this game, just the printable so we don't have to draw one out each time the kiddos want to play.

Click HERE to download the PDF of this printable. It prints on a standard 8.5" x 11" paper.

Here are the rules for how we are going to play:

Going around in a circle, each player rolls the dice when it's their turn. 

The player then gets to color in one of the segments with that number on it. Then, it's the next player's turn to roll and color.

The first player to color in their while turkey wins!

Have fun playing!

***Reminder, this printable is copyright of Kinzie's Kreations. This is for personal use only. Do not print to sell, or sell the PDF file. Thanks!***

Simple Pumpkin Canvas

Today the weather has been amazing. It's cool, there's a light breeze, and this just feel more like fall. I told myself I wasn't going to decorate for fall until October arrived, but with the weather today, I couldn't hold out any longer. I went up in the attic and pulled down what little we have for Fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. It was minimal at most. So I rummaged through my wood scrap pile and pulled out some leftover orange burlap to whip up this quick little project. (Sorry no pictures of the process.)

      What you'll need:

• Piece of wood, any size you want.
• Burlap to wrap around wood.
• Staple gun & staples.
• Contact paper.
• Pumpkin outline printable (see below).
• Scissors or exacto knife.
• White craft paint.
• Paint brush- I actually used a circular sponge stamper brush...

      How to:

1. Iron any big creases out of burlap.
2. Lay burlap on floor, and place wood on top of it.
3. Wrap burlap to the back of your wood and staple in place. I staple parallel sides one after the other, and then switch to the other parallel sides, pulling taut as you go, but not too hard since burlap is a loose weave.
4. Print out pumpkin to fit on your canvas with border room.
5. Cut a piece of contact paper to fit the size of your board, trace pumpkin onto contact paper, cut out pumpkin, and set aside. Using the left behind contact paper, peel off backing and adhere to your burlap wrapped board. Make sure to press down well especially around the inner edges.
6. Paint the negative space with white paint. With my circular sponge brush I dabbed paint, do not brush from side to side or the paint may seep under the edges of your contact paper.
7. Once painted you can carefully remove contact paper.
8. Set project aside to dry.

Enjoy!

Click on pumpkin above or HERE to download your pumpkin outline.

Service- A Visiting Teaching printable

I made this quick little printable to give away this month and decided to make it available as a pdf download for all of you. They measure 5x7 and print 2 to a page. So, simply download, print, and cut.

Click HERE (or on the picture above) to get your free download.

Service Art Prints for Sale

When I was a youth, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. I went in for screenings and it was determined that the curvature of my spine was bad enough that I needed to wear a brace to deter my spine from getting any worse. We were referred to Scottish Rites Hospital for Children in Dallas, TX. There I was fitted for a brace that I was to wear 18+ hours a day. Just the thing a teenager wants to hear. The first time I put it on, I could hardly breathe and the tears started flowing. My mom hugged me and reassured me that I could do this. Over the next two year, I wore that brace with diligence, only removing to shower or swim. Eventually I didn't have to wear the brace anymore, and the curvature had actually improved. 

A little bit about Scottish Rites Hospital:

 "Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children is a world leader in the treatment of pediatric orthopedic conditions. We strive to improve the care of children worldwide through innovative research and teaching programs, training physicians from around the world.

"The hospital was established in 1921 when a group of Texas Masons approached Dallas’ first orthopedic surgeon Dr. W. B. Carrell about caring for children with polio regardless of the family’s ability to pay."

Find out more HERE.

Thus, they began a hospital where children in need of care could come without paying for treatment. I am so grateful for Scottish Rites and the service they provided me.

My mother recently sent me a link to this video: 

After watching it, the girls in my family decided that we wanted to be part of an ongoing service project doing the very same thing- making sock monkeys. We are hoping to donate our sock monkeys to Scottish Rites Hospital as a little way to give back and say thank-you.

Update (1/13/14): I have currently taken these down for purchase, as we have completed our sock monkey service project. If you would still like to purchase these prints, please send me an email kinzieskreations (at) hotmail (dot) com ! Thank-you for your support and interest!

Want to get in on the service?!

I normally don't charge for my prints posted on Kinzie's Kreations. However, I have created a line of service oriented prints to sell. 100% of profits will go straight to the purchase of supplies to create one-of-a-kind sock monkeys for the children at Scottish Rites. These art pieces will be sold as print files for you to print from home or at your favorite photo printer.  They are high resolution and are suitable for 8x10 and 11x14 prints. Make you selection on the left sidebar.

More will be added periodically!

Remember these prints are for personal use only. Please do not redistribute, sell, or use for profit.

Father's Day Printable

Father's Day is just around the corner, and I'm already thinking about it. I usually am pretty much a slacker when it comes to celebrating Father's Day, and I feel pretty bad for my husband. So this year, I'm starting to think about it early, in hopes of making it a bit more special for him. I decided that I wanted the kids (well mostly my oldest) to fill out a questionnaire about Daddy. I could have printed a preexisting one, but instead I decided to design one myself. It prints as a 5x7 and would look really cute framed up for Dad.

click to download your Father's Day Questionnaire

 If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to email me!

I can't wait to see what the kids answers are, and I hope their Daddy gets a little chuckle out of it as well.