Even though Valentine’s Day isn’t as impressive of a holiday as Christmas and New Years, I’m determined to not let this one sneak up on me as the last two did! I came up with a cute idea for Kai’s class Valentines and pitched the idea to him. Thankfully, he’s on board (and not asking for something Transformers themed like last year) so we’ll be working on that soon. No last-minute scrambling/crafting here, no sir-ree!

Now, let’s discuss romance films. There are very, VERY few romance/chick flicks I’m able to tolerate. My short list of favorites reads Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrman version), pretty much anything Audrey Hepburn, The Notebook, Jane Eyre (LOVED the latest one), and…can’t think of anything else right now. Where do you stand on romance and chick flicks, and what are your favorites? Should I take Mindy Kaling’s advice and treat the genre as if it were sci-fi and enjoy by suspending all disbelief? I have an extremely low cheese threshold, so I think that’s my big hangup when it comes to anything starring Jennifer Lopez or Jennifer Garner, but cheese is relative and I’m sure there are many out there who think The Notebook reeks of Gruyere!

I’ve posted these little Moulin Rouge inspired Valentines in the past, but I’m re-posting the download here for the new year.

And I actually have a couple of 24-count packs left over from my Etsy shop days that I’d like to give away if you’re interested. Just leave a comment, and I’ll pick two winners a week from now!

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And congrats to Jocelyn, comment number 40 and winner of the Paper Coterie giveaway!

The few felt animal shapes in the kids’ church bag I had made sometime back was dwindling and looking pretty sad. I think we were down to just a single dolphin, a cloud, and a sun. I thought some geometric shapes would be fun and encourage some abstract design, so I cut out simple triangles and made a couple of felt boards for the boys’ laps.

Then I got to thinking that robot shapes would also be fun. And a lot cheaper than those magnetic sets I see at places like Cost Plus. Though those are really cute, too.

Here is a template you can download if you’d like to make some felt shapes for your little ones (although I enjoy the triangles myself). I’ll forewarn you, however, trimming out the robot pieces gets tedious. I modified the file from my original design, hoping it’ll make the cutting process a bit easier. A pair of small, sharp scissors helps too.

(As a kind reminder, all downloads are strictly for personal use only. Thank you!)

I threw put together these service coupons for an activity today in Primary. Mother’s Day is already upon us, but acts of service can be rendered any day!

Download a sheet of fill-in coupons here.

{‘Buttermilk’ typeface by Jessica Hische}

Posted a quick tutorial over at Good Look Cookbook today.
Also, here’s a download of my handwritten type used in the design:

(PDF vector file. Can be opened in Illustrator.)

If you’re in Primary and could use some birthday coupons for the kids, here’s a printable. I tuck these into the birthday cards we hand out.

Designing for Primary is a lot of fun. Much less pressure than designing for Relief Society, that’s for sure.

Click on pic to download PDF

I had the opportunity to teach Sharing Time in Primary last Sunday, and as I was preparing my lesson the night before, I had an 11th hour idea (because that is when the best ones come) to make bookmarks for all the kids. This posting is a bit after the fact, since this was the scripture for the month of June, but in case you’d like one — or four — for yourself, download…

…here!

On my way out the door last Sunday, I had a last minute idea to cut up a past design of mine into little robot tickets to use as little “prizes” at church. I then got to thinking how circles would be a much nicer shape for the boys’ little hands, thus the robot coin was born!

Click on the image below to download robot coins for yourself.

And secondly,

…the Mother’s Day card I designed last year. Download here.
Have a happy day!

The first Primary (the children’s organization of my church) download of many more maybe? With my new calling as Primary secretary, I imagine I’ll be regularly designing little things here and there.

These are assignment cards for the children I made a few weeks ago. Card assignments include opening prayer, Article of Faith recitation, scripture reading, and talk. These are given to assignees a week ahead of time so they can prepare for the following Sunday.

If you’re serving in a Primary presidency and could use these cards, download the PDF by clicking on the image below.

A little last minute, like many things, but a new card design for the shop is in the works. I’ll also soon be listing these cards from last year, precut and professionally printed. I’m sort of on an ink cartridge strike right now (replacing ink every couple of months is kind of ridiculous, and I’d rather spend the money on sushi or downloading Battlestar Galactica episodes because I’m too impatient for my Netflix, you know?), but the cards are still available here.

Hope the free download makes up for the wonky blog as of late. Ryan moved everything to a new server, and the blog said, no way –  I am now going to bombard all your reader subscribers with random comments. And then I said, oh no, how could you? Can we just go back to the way things were? So I think things are now on the mend.