St. Joseph Feast Day ~ Flowering Staff Craft

Elizabeth and I had a great time creating this staff!

It was fun one-on-one time for us!

And now she won’t quit making lilies of every color!

A Story about St. Joseph’s Staff

Some images and statues of Joseph show him with a staff which is topped with lilies. This is a symbol to remind us of a possibly true story which told of how Mary’s spouse was chosen:

Walking sticks of widowers in Israel were collected and one was to be chosen from among them. The owner of the chosen staff was to marry the young virgin Mary. Joseph’s staff burst into blossom, thus identifying him as divinely chosen.

The Craft:

Supplies:

5 or more green pipe cleaners
5 yellow pipe cleaners (orange will work, too)
5 sheets of white paper
1 sheet of green paper
A walking stick from outside (A wooden rod from a craft store will also work, but you may want to paint/stain it brown.)
Pencil
Scissors
Tape and/or Glue
Hot Glue (maybe)

Download printable instructions here.

Instructions: The yellow pipe cleaner will be the center of the lily flower. Cut the yellow pipe cleaner in half (should be about 3 to 4 inch pieces). Crisscross and twist the two halves together at the center. Curl the ends down just a little to make a small ball on each of the 4 ends.

The green pipe cleaner will be the stem. Take the green pipe cleaner and twist one end around the yellow pipe cleaners at the center. The yellow pipe cleaners should be up and the green down.

Trace two hand prints side-by-side on a sheet of white paper and cut them out. (I stacked the 5 white sheets together and cut them out at the same time.) The fingers are the flower’s peddles.

Wrap one hand cut-out around the yellow pipe cleaner with the green coming out the bottom. Tape it together. Then wrap the other hand cut-out around in the same way.

Use a pencil to carefully curl down some of the peddles of the lily

Repeat the above steps to make more lilies. Make about 5 lilies total.

Wrap/twist the green pipe cleaner stems of your lilies around the top portion of the walking stick. You may need to hot glue them to the stick or use an extra green pipe cleaner to help secure the lilies to the staff. If you have any extra pipe cleaner ends hanging out, it looks best if you curl the ends using your finger or a pencil.