The Gift of Service

I recently received a new calling in church. Relief Society enrichment coordinator. This is both exciting and intimidating to me. I have so many ideas for great enrichment nights but at the same time there is a lot of hard work, supervising, delegating, and preparing. I am great at the preparing and hard work but I have a tendency of doing everything myself. Mainly because I have found that often people do not follow through with their duties or they do not complete their assignments satisfactory to me and I end up having to redo everything anyways. But now this calling is going to force me to rely on others for help.

Last night was my first event, our Relief Society Christmas party. We had a very traditional party with a ham dinner, short program, and then we finished our night with a service project white elephant gift exchange. Instead of a white elephant gift we exchanged service that we would like to share. People donated everything from baked goods, to babysitting, to specialty talents like a photo session, music lessons, vinyl lettering, and even a day of organizing. It was a great way to get to know the other sisters in the ward and share our talents with each other. Then all the sisters took home a hand painted Christmas star ornament that I made using air dry clay.

Here is how to make your own ornaments:
-air dry clay (found at any craft store)
-stamps
-cookie cutters
-string
-craft paint
-craft glaze (found in the paint section)

Roll out the dough to about 1/8th inch. Then stamp all the dough with your decorative stamp. Next use your cookie cutter to cut out your ornaments. Then poke a small hole where you will loop the string through. Let it dry overnight. Now mix some of the paint with the glaze to thin it out and apply to your stars. I used glitter glaze to give it a bit of pizazz.

These are so easy and there are so many options for quick dry clay. 1 container of clay made about 70 ornaments and cost me $10 (with a coupon).

I also made the center pieces using jars, cranberries, and LED candles. They are simple but beautiful. Finish the jars off with garlands around the base to add some Christmas color and flair.