Daughter of a King - a fun Girl's Camp Craft

This past week I joined the Young Women of our Church for a week at Girls Camp as their "Craft Leader."  The theme of the camp was Daughter of a King, and so I designed this Nail/String art to go along with that.  It ended up being a fun, easy craft for the girls to do, and I think they enjoyed the "downtime" while they pounded away!  If you are interested in the details, I've included them, along with pictures, below.

Step 1:  I needed to make around 160 boards, each measuring around 12x12.  I bought five 48"x96" wooden boards and cut them down to 12"x12" on my table saw.  

Step 2:  Sand the edges of the boards (no one likes splinters).  My kids were wonderful for helping me out in the garage one morning, sanding away.  

Step 3:  Then we laid down a tarp, and laid out as many boards as would fit.  I painted the top and sides of the boards, then let them dry.  Then I flipped them over and painted the back side, letting them dry again, before stacking them back along the garage wall.

Step 4:  I used an oval plate to draw a guide line on each of the boards to pencil the words Daughter of a King, then I went over it with a sharpie marker, making it look a bit more like Calligraphy/fancier writing style.  After the marker dried, I erased the pencil lines...

Step 5:  I made an outline of a crown (you can download it free here), and loosely cute around the edges.

Step 6:  Tape down the template (centered) onto the wood, and start putting a 3/4" nail in each dot (make sure your nails have a flat head). 

Step 7:  Once all the nails are in, remove the paper template - and then string away, wrapping the string around the nail before moving on to the next nail.  You can get pretty creative here, making patterns between the nails, or just keep it random!!

And here is the finished one!  Check out more pictures below from Girls Camp ~ and how cute and creative the Young Women got with theirs.  It was fun to see their personalities come out a bit with their color and design choices.  Hopefully, hanging this in their room, they will be reminded of this wonderful week at camp and that they are each a Daughter of a King.

Madison's Yummy Chex Mix.... enjoy!

School Christmas Party Time....

Jackson's class party is next week, and amazingly, I didn't wait until the last minute to do these!!  I'm such a procrastinator (and a night owl, which truly runs in my family), so most of the time, I'm finishing up either at 2:00 am, the night before, or literally minutes before I am heading out the door to head to the school.  Wow, this feels good.  Maybe I'll learn my lesson to be more prepared (but probably not)!  If you'd like to grab a free printable of the tag (without Jackson's name on it, or course), click here.  

With Jackson being our youngest, and only having a year and a half left in Elementary School, I'm really trying to soak in these fun school events!  When I had a couple of kids in Elementary School at the same time, these parties were so stressful ~ trying to volunteer, yet be at two places at once.  I don't (and won't) miss that.  But, just getting to enjoy this phase with Jackson has been fun, and I'm grateful I can be there with him.

And, they are done!  I got these cute bags from the dollar spot at Target {love}, and just used washi tape to tape the little cards on.  One tip ~ use a small piece of clear tape on the folded over part of the bag.  It won't lay flat or stay closed if you don't, and the tag hides it too!

Christmas Wishes.... for you!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season!  Grab this free printable here and I'd love to see where you put it.     Send us a picture and it just may show up on our Instagram Feed @Skip_Rock

Getting ready for family pictures....(what I've learned...)

Having your family pictures taken can sometimes feel overwhelming!  What colors should we wear?  How do you balance the colors out?  Where should we have them taken?  There have been a few years, when I felt like canceling because nothing seemed to come together.  So, since then, I've narrowed it down to just a few tips that have made this process much more enjoyable and a lot less stress, and I thought I'd pass those tips along: 

*  Find a great photographer!  Wow ~ this makes all the difference.  We found Tia Howell through a friend of mine.  I was visiting her home and noticed these gorgeous photos she had displayed, and she gave me Tia's telephone number.  That was six years ago, and we just treasure the photos she has taken of our family over the years.  Having built this relationship with Tia, my children are much more comfortable with her, and I feel like that comes through in the photos.  Find someone you are comfortable with and that you can talk to about what style of photos you are looking for.  We tend to be more casual, and less posed in many of our pictures, which is what I love about finding a photographer who understands what you are looking for.

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*  Choose a location.  We've taken pictures on a bridge, in front of a barn, on a cool vintage truck, and chose to do a more Urban feel this year.  Having a place in mind, will help you decide the appropriate attire and color scheme for your outfit choices.  Photography Mad's article on how to choose a location, gives five great tips on finding the perfect spot!

*  Lastly, the outfits!  I tend to go with colors that I know will go well in our home (because that is where they will be displayed the most), so often grays, black, blue, tan, cream and white are the basics.  Go with what is comfortable, looks nice and I always try to pull from what we already have, then adding in a shirt or sweater where needed.   I've seen beautiful pictures of families that mix and match stripes, plaid and lots of color, but that just isn't me (or I just can't seem to pull that off!).  I'm pretty simple, and that usually comes through in our photos.  I always like a little pop of color, but not to the point of it being distracting.  Madi's shirt is our pop of color above, and this was probably the most neutral clothing color scheme we've done.  In previous photo's, Madi's pink top or my Red Jacket were the pops of color.  I also like to bring a few extra items, a simple hat, scarf or blanket, to add a little variety to the pictures as well.  I make sure that they are only used in some of the pictures, just to have a variety of looks to choose from.  And that is it!  Oh, and a little bit of bribery goes a long way too ~ haha!  

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