Our Lady Star of the Sea ~ Candle or Bottle Craft

I have always loved the ocean. Although I have never lived very close to the ocean, I have always (even as a child) enjoyed painting pictures of the ocean. I feel that God is portrayed so well in an image of the ocean: for God is unending, wide reaching and can be peaceful, yet powerful!! -For He is Almighty, and yet a loving Father!

Have you ever heard the phrase ”Stella Maris”? That is Latin for ”Star of the Sea”. This name has been given to Our Lady. Many sailors have prayed to ”Stella Maris” to ask her to pray for protection. What a beautiful thought: Our Lady watching over theses men and women as she asks Jesus to calm the storms and give these faithful travelers safe passage across the wild waves in the ocean.

Even as we travel through our daily lives we can ask Our Lady to intercede for us and ask Jesus to guide us and protect us as we journey on our way through life. For Mary’s love is a wide as the ocean and she would be willing to ask Jesus to help all those who have requested her intercession. Jesus will listen to His mother!

I have created a craft that depicts Mary asking Jesus to protect travelers on the ocean.

Our Lady Star of the Sea ~ Candle or Bottle Craft

I made two versions of this craft. One is made from an old spaghetti sauce jar and holds a candle. The other is in a empty wine bottle. Depending on how you like to decorate, you may like one version over the other.

You will need:

a jar (wide mouth) or bottle (with cap)
candle / tea light ~ if you are using a wide mouth jar
sand (dry)
small stones
different sized sea shells
Mod Podge and brush
clear-glitter nail polish (optional)
twine or raffia
hot glue
picture of Mary (click here)

Print out the correct size image to fit the bottle/jar you are using. Cut out the image and place it in a sheet of scrap paper. Using a brush, lightly cover the front of the image with Mod Podge.

Place the image face-side against the bottle. Be sure to pay attention to the bottle’s seams. The seams should be on ether side of the image (So you can see the image clearly.) Press the image down onto the bottle. Start pressing from the middle of the image out to the edges, so you don’t get air bubbles. Then you can roll the bottle over a folded towel to help press the image down.

Now you are ready to cover the back of the image with Mod Podge. Cover the whole image and the very edge of the image. This will help to hold it in place and seal it. Allow that to dry.

Once the Mod Podge is dry you can add a little glitter nail polish to the edge of the image. This is optional. I just liked the look it created. Plus it helped to insure the image doesn’t peel away from the bottle.

Then I added some twine to the neck of the wine bottle. (as pictured)

I wrapped the twine around the wide mouth jar several times to cover the ridges in the glass cap area.

After I added the twine, I hot glued an arrangement of shells and a medal on to the twine.

A Stella Maris medal would be great!!

I added a little glitter nail polish on my shells to make them glitter, too.

Now it\’s time to add the sand! I rolled up a sheet of paper to make a funnel and I poured in about a cup of sand. This will create dust inside jars with tall necks, like a wine bottle.

This dust will eventually settle, but some may rest to the sides of the jar. This dust can be wiped off with a long bent stick (I used a bent skewer) Tape a piece of tissue to the end of the stick.

The spaghetti sauce jars didn’t seem to collect the dust so this won\’t be necessary if you are using a wide mouth jar.