Liahona

You know you are a Seminary teacher when you are walking through Michael's Arts & Craft store for a completely different purpose and you spot an intricately carved metal pumpkin that would make a great liahona...
Immediately, your mind goes in to high gear trying to turn that pumpkin in to a liahona.
And that is what I did.
That very afternoon.
I bought the pumpkin and used supplies I already had.
My first obstacle was getting this thick metal stem off. Finally it would not budge, hence, I used the styrofoam cone to cover it up. I would have preferred to not use that tall of a cone, but in the end, it was ok.

The Pumpkin before painting and removing the leaves...

 The styrofoam cone covered with newspaper. I know that if I had applied spray paint directly to the cone, it would have disintegrated 

(voice of experience after my son spent days carving a pyramid out of styrofoam 

only to have it dissolve right before his eyes as he sprayed spray paint on it)

 My daughter followed me outside with the camera 

(she is well-trained, glad she thought to snap a few pics of the paint stage)

 More paint layers

 The 2 Spindles

 More ...

 Jewels attached and the liahona is ready to be found outside 

the door of our "tent" aka classroom

 Lots of pictures...

 And More...

And that is a typical afternoon in the life of an early morning Seminary teacher. 

When the day started, 

I was thinking about copying a picture of a liahona rendering from the internet.

By late afternoon, I was painting, gluing, and planning how to have my students

find the liahona outside our "tent" aka classroom door.

If you are a Seminary teacher, you understand.