It's Great to be Eight!

"It's Great to be Eight" is a baptism preview for children turning 8

in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

This passport-themed night will make it all the more memorable!

 

While listening to a talk about the importance passports when traveling, the Primary president in our ward (church group) came up with this idea to have a passport-themed night for the children turning 8 years old.

 

Since I am the Sunday school teacher for that age group, I was happy to help put it together.
I started by scouring Pinterest for ideas (check out my board here).
I also took a picture of each student to put on their "passport".

{This adorable darling's mom works with I Heart Naptime and
gave me permission to use the items I created for her daughter.}

I found a passport graphic online (no source) and just tweaked it for our purposes.

{Print blank ones here}

We had them printed double-sided at a UPS store.

I made these postcard invitations and had 4x6's printed at WalMart.com's one-hour photo.

You'll find a blank PDF version HERE that you can use to put your own info on the lines.
The fonts I used are Academy Engraved and Meddon. The font for the giant number 8 is called Cast Iron.

We used old-world décor: trunks, maps, globes, pillars, etc. to decorate the room.

I basically packed up my house and brought it to church!

We set up a table outside the main room for the programs and personalized passports.

I made 5 banners with my Silhouette Cameo.
Since a silhouette will cut any font, I use wingding fonts to create banners.
The "WELCOME" banner is made from KG A Little Swag font with Cast Iron letters.
I backed them with some world map paper I found at my local JoAnn store.

 The other banners are made with the KG Flavor And Frames Four font's lower case "e" since it's represented by a pennant. I put 2 pennants per 12x12 page, one pointing up and one pointing down.
I taped jute to the back to string them up.

We covered the chalkboards with navy material to hide the stuff behind it without taking it down.

I taped together the small side triangles that were left to make pennants for the banners to decorate the tables we used for refreshments.

I made a cupcake topper to match the postcard and program.

{Print a sheet of 2-inch cupcake toppers here.}

To bring the passport theme into play, we set up a small "Customs" table
where the children could get their passports stamped.

My bestie, Brit (also in the Primary presidency) has TONS of stamps from Close to My Heart.
We went through them and chose stamps that we thought represented the topic of the 5 speakers for the evening. After each speaker finished their talk, the children lined up at the stamp station for Brit to stamp their passport.

It was so fun to watch the children's faces as they learned
and then earned each stamp in their passport.

I hope this helps make your event
GREAT!