Girls’ Camp Activity – Minerva Teichert Paint by Number Pointillism

When I saw this Girls’ Camp Activity, I immediately asked if I could share it. It is such an incredible object lesson. The young women had no idea what they were creating. Each girl was asked to complete a small paint by number on a piece of paper. Each paper looked like nothing but colored dots. But when it was all put together, the picture became clear. It was a gorgeous pointillism portrait of the Savior.

Allen Berg created the pattern and tiles, and then Miko Baca was nice enough to give further instructions on how she put it all together. Some other stakes have done this same activity as well. If you have done this project before, I would love to include any other tips or advice.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide or distribute the downloadable files for this activity. Thank you for your understanding. I suggest visiting some of the Girls’ Camp Groups on Facebook.

See additional tips for other groups who did this activity at the end of the post. 

Girls’ Camp Activity Minerva Teichert Paint by Number Tutorial

Materials:

• Color copy of the template on card stock paper
• 3 bottles of acrylic paint per color (2 oz. size)
• Q-tips or small brushes for each girl
• Mini sauce cups with lids
• 6×4 foot plywood, foam board, corrugated plastic, or cardboard for the base
• Spray adhesive

Instructions:

1. Allen Berg created two paint-by-number templates—one for “Christ in a Red Robe” and one for “Rescue of the Lost Lambs.” You can see the “Christ in a Red Robe” one above and the “Rescue of the Lost Lambs” is shown below. Unfortunately, the links stopped working awhile ago, and I cannot provide or distribute the downloadable files for this activity. But if you go on Etsy, you can find some digital files for sale under “Paint By Number group craft” that might work for this activity. I also suggest visiting some of the Girls’ Camp Groups on Facebook.

2. Print the PDF in color on regular card stock. The youth will need the color key on the side to know which colors to use. For this activity, Miko had them printed at Office Max to keep the colors consistent instead of using her home printer. There are 108 tiles (squares). PRO TIP: When printing on cardstock at a copy center, you can save a ton of money by bringing your own cardstock for them to print on instead of paying their cardstock rate.

3. After they are painted, each tile will be cut out and you will lose the labeling on the front. So make sure to label the grid letter and number on the back of each one.

4. Buy acrylic paints at your local craft store. They used the following colors, but you may need to substitute depending on what is available. The first page of the PDF includes swatches of all the colors that you can use to find alternative colors if needed. If you buy three 2oz. bottles of each color you should have plenty. When Miko did it, she spent about $48 on paint. To make things easier, here are some color lists that others have used.

“Christ in a Red Robe” Colors
A – Nutmeg, espresso bean/burnt umber
B – Teddy Bear Brown, Rusted Pipe, charcoal/grey storm/pewter grey
C – burgundy, Burnt Siena
D – black, Burnt Umber Brown
E – latte, Coffee Latte
F – rainy day grey, Butter Pecan, Honey Comb
G – dark red,
H – coffee, Cinnamon, Raw Sienna
I – vivid pink,
J – burlap,
K – toile, Earthy Ocre, Wild Truffle
L – pale grey, French Vanilla, Parchment, Sand Dollar
M – earth brown, Bark Brown
N – taffeta pink,
O – Christmas red,
P – royal fuschia,

“Rescue of the Lost Lambs” Colors Using Joann’s Top Notch Brand
Dana Bone was kind enough to figure out colors for “Rescue of the Lost Lambs” and share them with us. She said most of them were Top-Notch brand from Joanne’s. All the colors were a matte finish except for M because that’s the closest match she could find.

A – Top Notch Moss Green 1743-6007
B – Top Notch Khaki 1743-6288
C – Apple Barrel Pure Gold (This paint ended up having too much of a shine to it. When it got totally dark and light shone on the painting, it distorted Jesus’ face. She suggests going with a darker tan or a gold without a shine to it)
D – Top Notch Light Grey 1743-6320
E – Top Notch Grey 1743-6338
F – Top Notch Beach Glass 1743-6098
G – Apple Barrel Granite Grey 21392E
H – Top Notch Light Cream 1743-5678
I – Top Notch Buttermilk 1743-5686
J – Americana Cocoa DA259
K – Folk Art 609 Thunder Blue
L – Folk Art 923 Clover Trefle
M – Folk Art Multi-surface Satin 2979 Skyline
N – Ceramcoat Hunter Geeen 02471
O – Apple Barrel English Ivy Green 20756E
P – Top Notch Green Velvet 1743-6031

“Rescue of the Lost Lambs” Colors Using FolkArt Brand
These are the matches using FolkArt, several possible variations of the colors have been included if you can’t find one of the colors.

A – Coffee Latte, Gilded Oak, Rusted Pipe
B – Butter Pecan, Iced Coffee, Wild Truffle
C – Mango Mambo, Yellow Ocre
D – Camel, Country Twill, Teddy Brown Tan
E – Dove Grey, Grey Frost, Pale Grey
F – Green Sea, Faded Jade, Villa Green
G – Barn wood, Linen
H – French Vanilla, Parchment, Sand Dollar, Vintage White
I – Daybreak, Lemonade, Sunflower, Buttercup
J – Cinnamon, Coffee Bean, Nutmeg, Raw Sienna, Teddy Bear Brown
K – Thunder Blue, Blue Odyssey, Galaxy Blue
L – Clover Trefle, French Fern, Fresh Cut Grass, Hauser Green, Secret Meadow
M – Skyline, Ash, Classic French Grey, Medium Grey
N – Clover Green, Sap Green
O – Crocodile Green, Fern Leaf
P – Hunter Green

“Rescue of the Lost Lambs”
Variation using lighter colors

A – Desert Sand Deco Art
B – Fawn Deco Art
C – Antique Gold Deco Art
D – Camel Folk Art
E – Morning Mist Deco Art
F – Faded Jade Folk Art
G – Linen Folk Art
H – Sand Dollar Folk Art
I – Sunflower Folk Art
J – Honeycomb Folk Art
K – Galaxy Blue Folk Art
L – Mossy Meadow Folk Art
M – Navy Blue Folk Art
N – Thicket Deco Art
O – Hauser Medium Green Deco Art
P – Crocodile Folk Art

5. Label each bottle of paint with the paint letter from the color key.

6. Get Q-tips for painting or small brushes. Miko bought two packs of Q-tips and then stuck them in plastic cups at the paint station.

7. Buy mini sauce cups with lids (Target, Amazon) to divide paints up for paint stations.

8. Label each mini sauce cup with the paint number. This worked out great because they had a big group and about 30 leftover tiles to finish. This allowed them to hand out the right paint color to each individual.

9. Have each girl paint the tile by dipping the Q-tip in the paint and making a dot on the corresponding paint letter. They had over 120 girls at Girl’s Camp for the 108 tiles. They set up 3 paint stations with the mini sauce cups, Q-tips, and tiles. It takes about 45 minutes to finish a tile. Not all the girls wanted to do one and some didn’t finish.

They broke the project up to give them time in between to finish the tiles and glue everything on. However, other Young Women groups who have done this and had each girl come up one by one to add their tiles to the plywood.

10. Once the tiles have dried, cut out each tile. Since the edges are jagged, this takes forever. It will be easier if you have each girl cut out their own tile.

11. Buy a piece of 6×4 foot plywood, foam board, corrugated plastic, or cardboard to use as the base. Miko used plywood and spray painted around the edges first to give it a frame.

12. Assemble the tiles in the right order using the key. Use a can of spray adhesive to glue the tiles to the board. As you glue and place tiles together, fill in any bare spaces with paint.

The Big Reveal

They didn’t tell the girls what they were painting, which made for a fun reveal later on. However, some girls threw their tiles away in the trash because they didn’t like how they turned out and didn’t know each tile would be needed. They had to count them all after they collected them and reprint the ones that were thrown away, about 7 or 8.

But they used the missing tiles as part of the object lesson at the reveal. They revealed the painting at the Girls’ Camp evening program with 4 empty tiles and then added the missing tiles as they spoke about how sometimes we feel like what we contribute doesn’t matter, won’t make a difference, we don’t show up or we get frustrated when we can’t see the bigger picture/plan of what God is doing in our life.

Miko said it was a TON of work, but definitely worth it. There were so many powerful lessons they were able to teach from it.

Rescue of the Lost Lambs

Natalie Jacobson did the “Rescue of the Lost Lambs” painting for her girls camp and it came out great!

Natalie said, “It was an incredible experience for the girls to paint and assemble. And then we literally had the Savior with us for the remaining days at camp, it was awesome! It added so much to our camp experience!… We displayed the picture in the church foyer a couple Sundays ago when I spoke in Sacrament Meeting, along with a few of the young women and another leader. It was awesome to have it there and for members of the ward to see something that we had worked so hard on!”

Thank you so much for sharing with us Natalie!

A Single Person Lost is Too Much

Dana Bone is the sister who helped provide the paint colors of the “Rescue of the Lost Lambs” painting above. They also had a neat learning experience when they lost a tile in a windstorm. She shared, “The girls were confused why they were painting so many “ugly” colors together until they saw the big reveal. We tied it into perspective during trials and times when life gets ugly that when you look back or at a broader perspective you see that Christ was there the entire time. Each little dot made a difference and we taught the message of the 99 and the lost 1. We actually did lose 1 tile during a windstorm and it was a perfect way to see how much a single person lost is too much.”

A Message of Inclusion

Last year, Gina’s daughter was a YCL and was in charge of leading up this project for Girls Camp. The stake leaders wanted to focus on inclusion and Gina’s daughter, who is autistic, thought this was a perfect fit. I asked if her daughter wanted to share anything about her experience and she was kind enough to share the following.

So, we brought 8 fl.oz. of each color of paint, and that was more than enough for the lost lamb painting. I don’t know if this was just random, but we had quite a few girls using the paint and q-tips to give themselves war paint. So maybe tell them not to do that. Also demonstrate that each dot needs to be filled with paint, not just covering the letter. I used a sharpie to write the letter color on the lid and the cup. I wrote the location (A3, B9, etc) ahead of time on the back of each paper. After the papers dried, the leaders did ‘touch ups’ on the papers, filling in dots and finishing the half done papers. (They quite enjoyed it and said that it was very relaxing) I opened this up to the girls during free time, so some of them came to help cut the tiles. My dad made a frame of wood and poster board that came apart for easy transport. Some of the adult leaders glued the tiles onto the frame. We displayed the finished painting in the mess hall on the last morning, so it greeted the girls when they came for breakfast. After camp, my YW president arranged for it to be transported to the Young Women’s room. She wants to get it a frame and hang it on the wall in there.

President Nelson’s Birthday Challenge, the 99 + 1

For President Russell M. Nelson’s 100th birthday on September 9, 2024, he has invited us to reflect on the parable of the lost sheep—where Jesus Christ teaches us to reach out to “the one” in need, just as a shepherd would seek out one lost sheep from a flock of 100.

On September 5, 2024, the sisters in Lisa Nelson’s ward embraced this invitation with this incredible object lesson. Lisa gathered them together to complete a paint-by-number project, where each sister painted a tile without knowing the final image.

Once the tiles were done, a sister spoke about President Nelson’s life and his birthday challenge while Lisa assembled the picture in the background with the help of Christy and Tammy. When Lisa finally turned it around, revealing the image of Christ, it was a powerful reminder of what we can achieve together when we each do our part. No matter how small it might seem at first.

Lisa then shared how each dot—just like our small, individual efforts to serve and lift others—builds up the body of Christ. We are His hands, His feet, His eyes, and together we create something truly breathtaking.

What a wonderful way to celebrate President Nelson’s birthday and a touching symbol of how our small acts of kindness can “spread the love of Jesus Christ throughout the world.”

Lisa’s Tips For Doing This Project Faster

Lisa is the first one I have talked to who has done this activity all in one night! So I asked her for some of her tips. Thank you for sharing Lisa!

She had about 40 sisters working on this that night, but because she didn’t know how many sisters would show up, she had the Relief Society committee help her paint some ahead of time just in case. They planned for a two-hour activity and they finished right on the dot.

1. Draw a grid on the plywood or mounting board you are using. This allows you to make sure you have enough room on the board and to quickly line up all the tiles.

2. Instead of placing the paint in individual cups, Lisa created a grid on a piece of heavy paper with the paint letters required for that tile. She then wrote the corresponding letters on the paint bottles so that the sisters could squirt what was needed on their grids.

3. By using the erasers at the end of pencils to do the dots on the tiles, they were able to get more robust dots than the q-tips. They used baby wipes to wash them off between colors.

4. To dry the paint quickly, Lisa set up a drying table with blow dryers.

5. Instead of painstakingly cutting out all the zig zags around the tiles, Lisa had the sisters cut them out in a straight line. They used a paper cutter or a cutting mat, razor and ruler to get a straight edge. Lisa instructed the sisters to “pull” the paint out on the edge to make a straight edge. Then when they cut them out, they made the tiles a little bit more narrow. She said that there were some gaps where too much was cut off, but she went back later to touch them up.

Tips For Doing This For Small Groups

If you are working with a small group or not much time, it is good to know that “Christ in a Red Robe” is only 108 tiles, whereas “Rescue of the Lost Lambs” is 120. So picking “Christ in a Red Robe” might be better for smaller groups. Annalyse Erickson also came up with a really good idea, crop the painting to reduce the tiles. The tricky part is figuring out which tiles you need.

So I took one of the finished paintings and overlaid the tile layout over it. You an also find this without the photo under it on the second page of the templates. So if you only wanted to do Christ’s head and Him holding the lamb, then it would be a good idea to do tiles B3-B7, C3-C7, D3-D7, E3-E7, and F3-F7. This would only give you 25 tiles you would need to do. You can decide what you need to crop out based on how many tiles you want to do.

However, I haven’t tried this personally and I haven’t heard from anyone who has tested it out yet. But as long as the layout is accurate, this should work.

Looking for more ideas like this Girls’ Camp Activity?

See Young Women’s Activities