5 Little Monsters: March 2017

Forgiveness Quote Printable #PrinceOfPeace



As I mentioned in my last post, I found quotes by LDS church leaders to go along with each of the 8 principles that are part of the #PrinceOfPeace campaign on Mormon.org. The first principle was Faith, then Compassion, and next is Forgiveness which is the principle for this post.

Free Printable Faith Quote #PrinceOfPeace


In my last post I talked about compassion, one of the 8 principles that are a part of the #PrinceOfPeace Easter campaign on Mormon.org. I made a printable of a quote about compassion and as I was working on it I thought, why not make a pretty printable quote to go along with each day. So, I found some quotes to go along with each of the 8 principles and over the next couple of days I will be sharing each of them. I'm not going to write a big long post like I did for the first one but instead I will just share the printable and maybe a little bit about why I chose the quote I did.

Examples of Compassion #PrinceOfPeace

-This post is sponsored by mormon.org and the #PrinceOfPeace Easter Campaign. All ideas and opinions are my own-

I don't often share a lot of religious stuff on my blog but around Christmas and Easter every year my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, does a campaign focusing on Jesus Christ. I love the campaigns that they do and I love to participate in any way I can. Last Year's Christmas campaign, #LightTheWorld, was awesome. I only wrote one post about one activity that my family did but it was really neat to spend the Christmas season teaching our kids to focus on what they can do for others rather than on themselves and the presents they want. It is something that we, as a family, plan to repeat every year. This year's Easter campaign is called #PrinceOfPeace. It is similar to the Christmas campaign in that it focuses on a different principle each day that we can focus on to become more Christlike in our lives. Each day of the week leading up to Easter has a principle with a scripture, a short video to go along with the theme as well as some ideas of things that you can do to live those principles. The principles are faith, compassion, forgiveness, repentance, gratitude, scripture, prayer, and hope. You can find out more on mormon.org.

Personalized Easter Buckets

-This post sponsored by Oriental Trading Company, all ideas and opinions are my own-



Easter is just around the corner so I have been trying to get some Easter projects finished up and posted. In one way I feel like it seems crazy to think that it is almost Easter, but on the other hand it seems kind of weird that it is still a few weeks away because it is a little later in the year this year. These Personalized Easter Pails are super quick and easy to put together so even with Easter coming soon you still have time to make them. All you need are some plastic buckets, vinyl, and a cutting machine to cut the vinyl.

Cricut 101: How To Use the Cricut Write and Cut Feature

-This post is sponsored by Cricut, all ideas and opinions are my own-



There are so many different things that you can do with the Cricut. The first thing that comes to mind is cutting, whether it be vinyl, iron-on, cardstock, or something else. It is a cutting machine so that is obviously the main thing that it does, but did you know it can do a lot more than just cut? It can also write, and score. You can even do one of those things at the at the same time as you cut, without ever stopping the machine. There are also other features like print and cut. If you haven't tried some of these features you may wonder how they work. Today I want to show the write and cut feature and how you can use it to make some little tags. It is a really easy project that has a lot of practical uses and once you learn how to do it you can use it to make lots of different projects. The tags come in handy for gifts. I have also use them to label crocheted hats with the sizes. Also, I will have a video showing how to do this soon, I was working on one but had some issues so as soon as I get it ready I will add the link here.

Free Printables for Easter and Spring



Spring is almost officially here but where I am the weather has already started feeling more like spring. At least most of the time. A few days ago we had a day with a high of 60 degrees, it was beautiful, then later that evening we had a big snow storm with crazy wind and lightning. But I guess that is what you get during springtime in Utah. A few days ago my daughter pointed out to me that our tulips are starting to pop up in the flower bed. Little signs that spring is on the way. Easter is a little later this year than it was last year, it isn't until April, but spring and Easter kind of go together in my mind. I decided to make a couple of printables to celebrate the coming of springtime.

Self Striping Yarn Cakes: A Comparison of Caron Cakes, Premier Sweet Rolls, Lion Brand Mandala, and Bernat Pop

self striping yarn cakes, what's the difference

Several months ago Caron Cakes came out and they were the new big thing in yarn crafts. Every crochet group I am in on facebook was going crazy over them. They were only available at Michaels and they couldn't seem to keep them in stock. I'll be honest, I thought it was a little crazy how excited everyone was about them and wasn't really interested in joining in on the hype. I wasn't crazy about a lot of the color combinations and I didn't really like the idea of such abrupt color changes. I didn't really have much of a desire to try them out and thought they would just be a fad that would last for a little while before disappearing. Boy was I wrong. Pretty soon Premier came out with Sweet Rolls and Caron came out with a new batch of colors. It looked like the cakes were here to stay and after a while I decided that if I wanted to be taken seriously as a crochet blogger I better make something using Caron Cakes, or one of the other similar yarns. I picked up a couple of Caron Cakes and started a project, I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked the yarn quite a bit and didn't mind the abrupt changes nearly as much as I thought I would. Not long after that I was trying to come up with a project to do for Fairfield World and decided to pick up a couple of Sweet Rolls. At that point I thought since I was trying both I would do some sort of comparison post about what I liked and/or didn't like about each yarn. Just days later I started seeing stuff on Facebook about Lion Brand Mandala and Bernat Pop coming out at Walmart. As far as I have been able to find it seems like the Walmarts around me are currently only carrying the Lion Brand Mandala, I have not seen Bernat Pop but I picked up some Mandala to compare to the other. I have information about each of the different yarns and have tried all but Bernat Pop. I made a little chart to compare all of them and will share my opinions on each. I purchased all of the yarns I tried myself so this is not sponsored by any of the companies, all of the opinions I share here are my completely unbiased thoughts on each type of yarn.

Crochet Carrot


A couple of days ago I shared the pattern for my little spring chick and in one of the pictures there was a sneak peek of todays project. I was wanting to make some springy crochet projects ans with Easter and spring one of the things that I always think of is carrots. I thought a little crocheted carrot would be cute with a little stuffed bunny or even just tied in a bundle or put in a basket as spring/Easter decor.