More April ideas to come

I have so many more fun ideas for you besides the ones that I just posted below using wash cloths, and I am now back energized after a great nights rest, to share more ideas with you. Maybe April is just an easy month but I have a wealth of simple, inexpensive and mostly home made ideas for you to share with your sisters you teach, or with friends, neighbors, or anyone else you might be thinking about.

I am posting a picture of my next idea, however these carrots are filled with candy goodies.
This is an easy way to do it and just fill the bag with store bought jelly beans or other easter candies. BUT... my idea would be to make your own cellophane carrot shaped bags and fill them with this great, tried and tested popcorn recipe that I will list below. I made the particular popcorn for the edible centerpieces for the Back in Time party my husband and I hosted last weekend. Everyone loved it and even though there were great desserts too, the popcorn was munched all throughout the evening and completely gone by the end of the party. Many comments were expressed on how much they love it and asked for the recipe. You can make this popcorn any color simply by using a different flavor of unsweetened kool-aid mix. You could also make up a batch of this popcorn and put it inside a clear cellopane bag and tie it off with a ribbon. Anyhow you do it, the gift will be appreciated by the receiver.

Here's the printable recipe


















This one is more readable on the internet but you can print the one above.
Katie's Mother Goose Popcorn recipe
1 Cup Popcorn kernels
t Tablespoons butter
2 Cups sugar
1 packet (0.13 oz) unsweetened Koolaid Soft drink mix
(I used Black cherry to make Pink Popcorn)for Carrots, I'd use Orange flavor
6 ounces of Evaporated milk ( I didn't have evap milk on hand so I used 4 oz skim
milk and 2 0z. cream)
1/2 teaspoon soda

Pop the popcorn in an air popper into a large bowl. Shake the bowl from side to side to let unpopped kernels go to the bottom of the bowl. Then put the popcorn into another large bowl by hands full so to separate any unpopped kernels, and throw away the unpopped kernel and tiny popped corn bits.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the koolaid to the sugar and stir in as it makes it dissolve easier in the pan. Add the sugar and Koolaid mixture and the milk. Stir well and bring to a boil. Once it is at a boil, I found that I need to let it boil for about a minute, stirring constantly. Add baking soda and be prepared for it to really swell up. Remove from heat and once the entire mixture is pouffy, pour into the popped corn. Stir very well and keep stirring because you want to get the air into the mixture. I step outside even and stir because you want the popcorn to sort of go to a sugary consistency and not stick together.

I then spread out the coated popcorn on to a sheet of parchment or Freezer paper to continue to dry out. From time to time, stir with hands and eventually the popcorn will be dried to a frosty and sugary pink.

The Kool-aid adds flavor and color all in one. If you want to make the actual flavor of the Real Mother Goose Popcorn, omit the Koolaid, and use drops of Red food coloring and add a about 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, or if you have powdered Vanilla, use 1/2 - 1 teaspoon powdered vanilla. Add the food coloring and extract after it has come to a boil.

Once your popcorn is cooled,dried and sugar frosted, you can roll a square sheet of cellophane to form a cone, and secure the cone with a strip of cellophane tape. Cut the pointy uneven ends (not the tip of the cone) evenly straight across. Fill the cone with popped corn and tie the end with a twist tie or thin ribbon. To cover the ribbon or twist tie, cut a 2' to 2 1/2' x\strip of beautiful green ribbon and tie a bow. I prefer the ribbon width to be at least an inch and a half. Trim the ends of the ribbon and there you have it... a Popcorn Carrot. Yum!

The "Dish Towel bunny" is another very cute idea for your visiting Teaching sisters. I found the instructions at http://www.familycorner.com/homegarden/crafts/towel_bunny.shtml At this site there are step by step instructions as well as pictures that will tutor you in this project. Very cute!

April - Happy Easter!

Don't you just love Springtime, buds, bulbs popping out of the ground, new life begining again everywhere you look. I love the colors of Spring, and they go hand in hand with Easter. I was walking in the store the other day and I went past the bathroom towels. The colors were so bright and vivid that it almost lured me into buying new towels. Well as I sit down to try to figure out something new for you to do for the Sisters you visit teach, I thought about making something out of some of those beautiful and colorful towels and boy did I hit the jack pot. I remembered some cute ideas that I have done myself in the past and then I googled some ideas. I found some really cute ideas to give as a simple and inexpensive but creative little Easter/Springtime gift. Have you ever made those cute little Bunnies with your kids out of a wash cloth? Well here is a new twist on a wash cloth bunny. The bunny can be unwrapped and used as a wash cloth after using it as a holiday decoration. How about making one out of a colorful wash cloth and wrapping a small bar of soap in the back of the bunny. If you go to this link it will show you the directions how to do it.
To just make a simple Bunny wash cloth you can find the directions at: http://www.thefabricofourlives.com/Eco-Friendly-Lifestyle/Sherri-Osborn-Easter-Bunny-Craft
You can find the directons to make another cute little bunny out of a wash cloth and a Poofy Shower Scrubber by going to this site:http://www.instructables.com/id/SM8SQZ8FMZADHV1/
There are so many other darling things that I found online that you can make with a simple wash cloth.

Wash cloth cake rolls w/ a cherry maganet to top it off. The ones pictured are for purchase, but how hard would these be to make by rolling up a colored and a white cloth together into a jelly roll? There doesn't seem to be any directions that I can find to make these, so my directions to make a jelly roll cake out of wash cloths would be to fold two wash cloths in quarters and put the colored one down first and the white or cream one on top of it. Then Roll. YOu could probalby cut a strip of card stock paper to help hold it shape. I would also guess that you would need to use a matching colored elastic or 1/4 " ribbon to tie it around the rolled section. Find a plastic cherry or Strawberry and paste a magnet on it. Secure it onto the elastic or ribbon. You could cut a strip of clear plastic transparentcy paper the width of the roll and wrap it around the roll and secure it with a clear cellophane tape strip and I think it would hold it's shape better. Set inside a cupcake cup, and I would think a foil cup would be pretty! Wrap in Cellophane or set inside a cute clear cellophane bag that you can purchase at Xpedex stores or craft stores as well. I have not made this yet, but I am going to go down and purchase what I need and I will experiment and see if I can get some more precise directions for you!

How about a lollipop wash cloth surprise? I can't believe all the ways you can fold a wash cloth and make something so cute! Well if you would like the directions to make them, go to http://www.cutest-baby-shower-ideas.com/baby-shower-craft-idea.html
http://www.cutest-baby-shower-ideas.com/baby-shower-craft-idea.html

There's more.... how about a colorful washcloth folded into a cute little chick? I can see you putting on a little tag tied to the chick and saying something like this..." I am so glad that we chicks can cluck together while visiting teaching!" To get more informaion go to http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPenla9AepnTsrarmYxk9LOU-fqv384jodktLmmQs3J3teh7RVnUXi7_s90h9jdPpMgsT7CN1nS-z3dOOs6_ojzSCHdEp_fM9ULHMvMixgcrAFMnowm2vhyTDJbjKY2WaA1-RvWZ-vKE/s400/washcloth+bird.jpg&imgrefurl=http://zakkalife.blogspot.com/2009/02/creative-packaging-bird-washcloth.html&usg=__aOk, ok, I have just about exhausted the folded wash cloth ideas, but for you overly ambitious sisters, here is a very cute idea for using wash cloths. These are wash cloth slippers and they too look very cute.

There are two examples that I found that you could go to find the directions and both pairs of slippers are just alittle bit different from each other. I can imagine how you could create all different kinds of looks with these slippers by adding all kinds of do dads. Go to http://patterns2go.com/Downloads/P2GsWashclothSlippers.pdf and another site is at this location:http://www.pattiewack.com/washcloth_slippers.html

March 2009 Handout idea

I have to tell you I am a bit behind. I am just now posting my March 2009 Handout idea for you. This March 2009 Handout is in English and Spanish, so make sure you print off the right one. I have a crazy story to tell you about my March 2009 Visiting teaching but you will have to go to my other blog to read about it. Go to http://visitingteachingtips.blogspot.com

I found some darling Vintage Stamps online and I wanted to experiment on how I could use them. I ended up with this collage. I thought you could print this off and on the back side, you could introduce yourselves to the ladies you Visit Teach so that they can have your name and phone number if they ever need to call you. Good idea huh? Here is just another little idea surprise for you. Hope you like it! Katie G.

February or March 2009 Handout idea

Make sure you visit my original blog http://visitingteachingtips.blogspot.com/ to get the March message links, view the cute videos that I found that go so well with this lesson, and to read my own post about the Message.

This is a cute little idea that I have put together for many different occasions. This ideas can be used for the Visiting Teaching handout for February or March, or if you change the header wording, you can even give it out for any other occasion, like Birthday or even wedding party favors, make a dip mix in packet, or just about for any other reason you want to give out a tiny bit of fun to someone. The directions are on each page. The header is self explanatory but the other two pages with printed strips are if you would like to add a bottom outside package to the header.
Just cut it out, and fit around the filled plastic bag and secure the tops by stapling. Then you can attach the header as outlined on the directions on that page. This turns out really cute. If you have some scrapbooking paper, you could use that as well and measure the width to be 4 inches and length to be as tall as you want your bag up to 11 inches, but that is probably too large. If you want to make the bottom squared off so it can stand alone when filled, you can make two folds about 5/8 down both ends of the length which will leave about and inch or two for a flat bottom. Another cute ideas is to cut a window in the front of the bottom half of the bag in an oval, circle or square, so that the candies or treats inside can be seen.

I have prepared for you the header page which goes with the Visiting Teaching message for this month. You can fill it with whatever you want but the focus is to have a Mommy Moment which is the divine destiny of Women and Mothers. Suggest to your sisters that they take a moment with their children to focus on some kind of teaching moment or just some nurturing, togetherness time. This is about the only example I could find online to show you sort of what you will be making this month.

If you are giving this to a women who does not have children, suggest that she might share a nurturing and friendshipping moment with someone she knows such as a friend, a niece or nephew, a neighbor, or even pass it on to those she Visiting Teaches. For a Grandmother, she could have some fun nurturing moments with her grandchildren.

I hope that you enjoy this idea. I will have another idea for a April handout hopefully by the end of this month. Lots of love and happy Visiting Teaching, Katie G.