changes?!?


If you've ever visited this blog before January 2019, you may be a little confused right now!

I hate it when blogs, companies, etc, go through major changes and they don't tell anyone. It's like they just... think no one will notice?

Well, I think my blog design went from drab to fab, thanks to some recent work, so I hope you noticed! Lol. 

So! What's different, and what's the same with my blog and the changes?

The Name

Yes, I definitely changed the blog name. I wanted something that wasn't solely Latter-Day Saint based. To make it clear, I'm not doing away with the church-inspired posts on this blog, and about 80% of the blog will still be church-related content. Being a Latter-Day Saint is too big of a part in my life for me to just...stop posting about it!! Changing my name is mostly about broadening my horizons and making things available to members and non-members alike. :) I will continue to share ideas and resources for Latter-Day Saints.

The URL

From about two months after I created it, I realized that ayearofpersonalprogresslds.blogspot.com wasn't a little URL. It was literally a piece of HTML code it was so long! I finally bought a registered URL, and it is myprintspiration.com. You can totally still type "ayearofpersonalprogresslds.blogspot.com" and it will redirect to this blog... if you're in desperate need of some typing practice! But myprintspiration.com is the new URL. 

The Content

As I previously stated, I'm still going to continue to develop free and paid church-related resources, and all shop purchases will still fund my mission. But hopefully I can also branch out to include more! More quotes, handouts, and other hand-lettering projects. 

The Quality

I am always aiming to make things better and keep progressing. I hope that you agree that the new changes are for a better quality.

My Profile
Yes, this is me!! (Insert Greatest Showman music...) Of course it's a caricature and not my actual face, but I'm still Claire as I've always been and I'm still here! I always read and reply to the comments and the changes do not equate any added distance between myself and the blog.

Changes

I can finally assure you that these will pretty much be the last. Of course there may be minor upgrades ahead, but this, I promise, is the last major one. In every change I made before, I was seeking a beautifully designed blog with my own URL, which wasn't LDS-exclusive. Now that I've reached these goals, I'm finally done with major redesigns.


Tsym for anything and everything you've done to support the blog.

Valentine's Day Personal Progress



Oh, goodness, it's already Valentine's Day again!

So, I know candy hearts are kind of a hot topic right now. Everyone's making a huuuuge deal about how SweetHearts isn't making them, but seriously, other companies are only too happy about it and still producing off-brand candies.. Whether you found an alternative source of candy hearts or not, I thought this Valentine's Day Personal Progress worksheet would give you a healthy dose of them. 

It's Individual Worth #1, about how Heavenly Father LOVES you and is mindful of you. ;) You read each scripture, then draw a cute little saying on the candy hearts. I filled out one already for D&C 18:10 -- UR WORTH IS GR8! What cute sayings for the candy hearts can y'all come up with for the other scriptures? Lmk!! 

You can get this free worksheet here, and happy Valentine's Day, everyone. 

How Can I Help My Less-Active Friends Return to Church?


I'm sooo excited to share this with y'all! Whenever I don't post or do much for a while, it usually means I'm working on something, and I finally have it completed to share with you.

I created this packet with hand-lettered resources and really think that it can be a great help! 

It's $2.50 on my shop, and you can visit the shop here, view the product here, and follow me on Pinterest here.

Below are some pictures of the product so you know what you're getting!






And, of course, I have some treat ideas! They all turned out super cute. Now excuse me while I start belting out some Frozen songs...



Be sure to Pin these images! Lmk if you have any other lesson packet suggestions, I will totally be making more.

Missionary Movie Night


I'm so happy to report that this activity was a success.

It's pretty straightforward to pull off! Simply start at 6:30, and invite the sisters. We spent about 15 minutes asking them questions about their work, then started the movie. Everything was cleaned up by 8:30. It was the perfect amount of time!
The Errand of Angels, simply, is a summary of fictional Sister Taylor (Emma Chambers)'s mission in Austria. She goes through everything -- the language, the food, the work, and an annoying companion. But she grows and matures, in this beautiful film. You can purchase this here, and if you have The Best Two Years, you could show that instead. I just love how The Errand of Angels is actually about sister missionaries, not that there's anything wrong with its male missionary movie counterpart. (That one scene in The Best Two Years where the tall missionary had the cowboy hat on … lollll oh my gosh I am crying-laughing rn…) Both are great movies!

For refreshments, I made some black and white popcorn that was a hit, to go with the black and white, missionary tag theme. 

But as I learned from all the time I spent working on it, there's no need to complicate everything in life like I do often. A simple bag of SkinnyPop should do the trick! No, ewwwww, the blandness... agh… scratch that actually... 

If you do want to make it, it's pretty easy. Just drizzle melted chocolate over some popcorn, and put in the freezer to set. Break up the chunks, put in a bowl, and repeat. Keep the popcorn in a fridge so the chocolate doesn't melt!


This activity is super easy to pull off and can prompt great discussion. I hope you enjoy holding your own!

YW Birthday Gift Idea



There's always been the question... what to gift the young women for birthdays?

Now's the time to decide with budgets being decided and new young women coming in, and I thought I would share an idea I had with you.

I know baking a giant cookie (delicious as it may be) for every young woman may not be realistic for you or cost effective (although my ward is so small it would be no biggie). I'll definitely be sharing more ideas.

But if it is possible for you (even just to purchase a big cookie) it's at the very least a cute idea!

First I ended up baking the m&m cookies. This part was simple, and I used a recipe from #lilluna. 

The thing I struggled with was... how big should I roll the cookie dough to get the perfect? Mega? Size??

So, with a large bag of m&ms and dough on my side, the testing began.

I started out with a whopper of a cookie, with three scoops of cookie dough (that's ice cream scoops), rolled it into a ball, and pressed m&ms into the sides. Ideally you'd follow the recipe and crush half, place the other half, but due to m&m loving family members (🙄😑) I had a limited supply.

The result was the mega dough ball you see below!

(or so I thought)


Lol. Can you understand how BIG that cookie was? To sum it up quickly, after pulling it out 15 minutes later, it failed. Like, one of those Pinterest fails you're too embarrassed to even document. It was a legit pancake... with all the m&m colors bleeding everywhere, a nasty mushy center, and little flavor at all. 

So... we try again. Heheh.


This time, I used 1 scoop of cookie dough and carefully pressed the m&ms into its side. And it worked! The result was exactly as I wanted, the perfect size that exactly, perfectly fit into the Ziploc bag. I wish that specific cookie had been around for me to photograph (obviously the little thumbnail at the top was pretty fake) but life happens. (I should have known that leaving a beautiful cookie on the cooling rack uncovered for 3.5 seconds while I went to grab my camera was a fatal mistake.) 

So what was the purpose of that little segment? To show you about what size, shape, etc, the cookies should be when you put them in the oven. I couldn't find specifications for this in recipes, so I tested it out for y'all! Also. Do not leave valuable cookies unattended. 

 the beauty of cookies in the oven...

So, now that you have the basic concept, don't forget to grab the treat tag print!

Good luck -- and until next time...

If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments Presidency Planning Binder


I'm so excited to share a new product in the lineup! This planning binder should make your presidency and class presidency meetings simple and fun.

The bright and lovely binder covers are available plain, blank, and with titles of 18 different callings.


There's 12 monthly planning pages, each with a mini calendar, space to write activities, lessons, and more!


I've also created several other resources -- 

a cute yw birthday list, a ten commandments back cover, and a budgeting sheet!


And also, a Sunday Agenda to help things go more smoothly, a colorful chart to keep track of callings, and a simple mutual planning sheet.


You can view the product here, visit my shop here, and follow me on Pinterest.

Good luck with your planning 2019!

2019 If Ye Love Me Keep My Commandments -- Free Giveaway and Poster Pack!


I made some supercute posters for free -- I know I promised to make a bulletin board kit, so this is me actually following up. (Shocker, I know.)

Get them below, skip to bottom for giveaway of my Teach the Theme kit!!







---MY FIRST PRODUCT GIVEAWAY---

Also, I'm sooooo happy the Teach the Theme kit has been popular! So I'm giving one away! Enter the giveaway here -- will only take about 30 seconds, depending on how good you are at typing! ;) On January 6th I will send files to the winner, who is randomly selected.  It's 100% free, no strings attached. Good luck!

--MY FIRST PRODUCT GIVEAWAY WINNER--

Unfortunately, the giveaway is over. But fortunately, we have a winner! Congratulations, Ashley. You can find the files in your inbox.

2019 If Ye Love Me, Keep My Commandments Teach the Theme Packet

Purchase the product here, visit my shop here.



It's always a struggle, is it not?

Whenever there's any sort of activity, you want to try and keep it from leaning too far into one of the four quadrants of social, spiritual, physical, and emotional activities. Good activities touch on all elements - and it's hard to make a mutual theme activity that balances correctly and thoroughly teaching youth doctrine while not making it a total snooze-fest. 

So I'm so excited to share my resource package for Teaching the 2019 Theme! I really procrastinated creating it, but once I started I was so grateful for the "ideas" (cough, cough, inspiration from the Spirit, lol, cough) that started flowing into my brain day and night as I worked to prepare it! 

The one thing that the whole activity is centered around is the theme video!

Go ahead and watch it right now if you haven't already!

It's a great, upbeat song with beautiful lyrics. It has a great music video to accompany it, with three inspiring stories told, with beautiful video footage.


Lol, the Polynesian boy's smile is so cute. Ahhhh! Dimples! Anyway.

This activity really dissects the chorus of the song - "We'll go and serve our neighbor with an open heart, find the heavy hands and try to lift them up, live the way He lived and do the things He taught, if we love Him" - and teaches it (while reinforcing the principles and key concepts of 'Keep My Commandments') in a fun and interactive way to get the youth working together and taking away valuable lessons about this theme that will stick with them the rest of the year. It's helpful while still fun.

For only $4.99!!

Purchase the product here, visit my shop here.

I am hosting a giveaway on this product, go to the post (including cute prints) here or straight here to enter!

 I have some previews below...








Best of luck this new year! I made a board with all of my helps for this theme (free and paid) -- view it here, follow me on Pinterest here