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Start a new Advent tradition or expand the Advent Saint Set from last year! Last year we sold a download which included instructions and images for you to create Advent Saint Ornaments . This year we wanted to expand our set! This new set is a great way to honor some of the other saints who have feast days during Advent as well as celebrate some of the Feast days of the Christmas Season! This PDF includes beautiful images that depict 13 Advent/Christmas Season Saints or other Feast days which are celebrated during the Advent and Christmas season. Each ornament image has the name and feast day clearly written below the image. These images are about 3 by 2 inches in size. The images for these ornaments: — St. Andrew – Nov 30 — Juan Diego – Dec 9 — Pope Gregory III – Dec 10 — St. Damasus I – Dec 11 — Solemnity of the Nativity – Dec 25 — St. Stephen- Dec 26 — St. John the Apostle – Dec 27 — Feast of the Holy Innocents – Dec. 28 — Feast of Holy Family – Sunday after Christmas — Mary Mother of God – Jan 1 — The Epiphany – Jan 6 — St. Francis and St. Clare with Baby Jesus — First Nativity Recreation How to create your own… This PDF also includes complete instructions to teach you how to create your own set of ornaments! After printing this PDF, you will need 4 -5 sheets of felt, Mod-Podge, and fabric paint. DON’T LIKE TO CRAFT? The images can be printed onto heavy paper. Cut them out. Then, add a hook and just use them with no extra work! Super easy! How to use them… In the evening, before the saint’s feast day, we read a short story or children’s book about the saint. Then one of our kids hangs the saint’s ornament on our Advent Tree . This allows the children to see the ornament all day on this saint’s feast day! Our children thoroughly enjoyed this and are looking forward to this newly expanded activity again this Advent!!  Care to join us in this activity, too? Purchase it HERE for $1.99. ●▬▬▬▬▬▬●✿●▬▬▬▬▬▬● COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:  Purchasing this download allows you to make paper copies of this activity for a single class or family. This is not meant to be used for profit and should not be distributed outside of a single family or class. Please, contact us if you have any questions about the use of this activity or if you would like to ask permission to use it beyond the copyright rules. Your purchase enables us to continue making more activities for you to enjoy! Thank you and God bless!

Hi everyone, This post is a “test” to see what all of you want and are desiring — Back in July Elizabeth and I started creating these Liturgical ornaments and sharing our creations with you so you, too, could make them if you wanted. Well, I’ve gotten a number of people asking if I have patterns for the ornaments. I’m sorry to say: no, I don’t. We free-hand all of our parts and I just take a picture of them before we glue them together. But I thought long and hard about the requests for patterns, and after a long discussion with my husband, I thought I’d run a test post on this topic to see if this idea is worth the time it will take to create. Please understand that it will take time to create patterns for the ornaments and sadly I don’t have a lot to free time. Homeschooling 9 kids is a full-time job as many of you know! But I want to help all of you if I can, so I’m offering a set of patterns to download, but I’m planning to charge a small fee for the patterns because if I take the time to create them I’ll need to order out for dinner, pay a babysitter, etc. I hope you all understand. Today’s “test” set is Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Juan Diego. The set includes patterns to create a felt ornament for each. It also has the instructions on how to assemble the felt ornaments. Just cut out the pattern, pin it onto the correct color felt and cut them out! That’s nice and easy for you! I actually discovered that cutting the felt along with the paper was easier than cutting the felt alone! So don’t worry that this will be hard to do. I’m amazed at how easy this makes the production of these ornaments! Printable Paper Ornaments  This printable set also includes 4 printable paper ornaments. Our Lady of Guadalupe in color Our Lady of Guadalupe in black and white (for coloring) St Juan Diego in color St. Juan Diego in black and white (for coloring) I didn’t originally plan to add these, but after I made the patterns for the felt ornaments I basically had them half finished. So I just decided to go ahead and create them for those who don’t want to mess with the felt. These would be great for teachers who want to have a craft that all the kids can easily make! Or your kids may want to make an ornament like mom! 😉Choose the set in full color or the black and white set, which the kids can paint or color. Here is a peek at the full download: If you like this idea and want to buy this set you can purchase it here for $1.99 You are free to make as many copies as you need for your class or family. Because this is a “test” post, I’d really like to have your thoughts on this. Please leave a comment or send me an email.  If you are not interested in the felt patterns and only want the printable ornaments, (or vice-versa) please let me know your thoughts. Your purchase supports this idea and if enough people seem interested I will continue to make the sets.

I received some very good feedback on “test” post for the Liturgical Ornament patterns, so I’m going to move forward and offer this St. Nicholas and St. Lucy set. This set includes: St. Nicholas Felt Ornament Pattern St. Nicholas Felt Ornament Instructions St. Nicholas Felt Ornament (Advanced Style) St. Nicholas Felt Ornament Instructions (Advanced Style) St. Nicholas Paper Ornament – Colored St. Nicholas Paper Ornament – Black and White St. Nicholas Coloring Page St. Lucy Felt Ornament Pattern St. Lucy Felt Ornament Instructions St. Lucy Paper Ornament – Colored St. Lucy Paper Ornament – Black and White St. Lucy Coloring Page This pattern set includes a smaller St. Nicholas ornament and a St. Lucy ornament pattern, as well as, a larger St. Nicholas ornament pattern! The larger St. Nicholas ornament would be great for those who would like a little more of a challenge! These would make GREAT homemade gifts for Christmas!! The set also includes the 4 printable paper ornaments. These are for those who don’t want to mess with the felt, or they are nice for younger kids who would like a simple craft to create. I also threw in a few of these simple coloring pages. There are lots of fun pages in this download! It’s only $1.99. Visit our download shop! Feel free to print out as many as you need for a single class or family.

This children’s craft project is a great craft for Holy Week and Good Friday. It uses clothes pins to create Jesus and brown paper for the cross. Materials: Printable instructions (below) 2 sheets brown construction paper small 1 inch circle of yellow paper small piece of white paper 3 clothes pins taken apart with metal center removed tissue (1”x 2” piece) tape glue (white glue and/or hot glue) colored pencils (brown, black, red and orange) scissors -*Download the Instructions Here*- Instructions: Fold the construction paper every 1 inch to make a flat 1” x 9” long stiff vertical cross section. (Fold in one direction, not back and forth like a fan ~ It’s like rolling up the paper but flattening the roll as you go.) Tape the end of the paper to one of the flat sides. This side will be the back of the cross. Cut the other piece of construction paper down to 9”x7”. Fold it like the first but to make a 1”x 7” horizontal cross section. With a brown crayon or colored pencil add some brown lines lengthwise to each section to create a wooden look to the paper cross parts. (This only needs to be done on the front of each cross part.) Tape the two sections together on the back side to create a cross. Glue two clothespin parts back to back to create Jesus body. Then add the two clothes pin parts to create his legs. (see image below) Hot-glue works best for this. White glue will work, but can be a more time consuming and difficult. With the brown pencil draw hair on the head of Jesus. With black, add two lines for his eyes, a smaller line for his nose and a longer line for his mouth. Also, add over-lapping x’s around his head to create a crown of thorns. Add some red for blood. Cut out a small 1” x 2” piece of tissue to rap it around Jesus hips. Glue it on the back side. Cut out a 1” circle of yellow paper and color the outer edge with orange and glue it down at the center of the cross sections where the two parts intersect. Glue Jesus body and legs to the cross placing his head at the center of the halo. Add the arms to the cross as shown in the pictures. Color some red on his feet and hands, then add a black dot for the nails. With a black pencil write INRI on the white paper and draw a brown square shape around it. Cut it out and glue it to the top of the cross. Your cross is complete! You can tape a looped string to the back to hang it up. Or just use some sticky putty or double sided tape. God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

Hi, everyone! Happy Solemnity of the Annunciation! I just wanted to let you know that we have two NEW coloring pages to share! Download them below. Download This Coloring Page Here: Download This Coloring Page Here: I hope you are all healthy and safe! I’m praying for you all! Please, pray for us! ~JenMarie

The month of January is dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus and Jan. 3 is the feast day of the Jesus’ Holy Name. I’m was excited to share an e-file which I added to our Download Shop . It’s a perfect project to help your children meditate on Jesus and His many names! I worked on this file for over a year. I collected names of Jesus and tested the sizes of the letters and the boxes to be sure that this is usable for many ages and levels. With this e-file children can create the name of Jesus which is covered with lots of other names of Jesus! Names like: Unchangeable One The Way Bread of Life Great I AM Light of the World and many more – it’s 122 names in all! This file is for purchase in our shop. Click Here to visit our shop and purchase it! The kids can cut out all the “Name of Jesus” boxes, arrange and glue them on the J-E-S-U-S letters. So what’s the goal of the teacher: To get the child(ren) to see beyond the typical names of Jesus and to be reminded of the many wondrous levels of God, both human and divine! The goal of the child: To fill the large letters that spell the name JESUS with as many “Name of Jesus Boxes” as they can. Who can do this:              Ages 6 years and up. Many young children will enjoy gluing these names onto the letters, but they will need adult help to read the names and some help to arrange the boxes on the letters. There are larger J-E-S-U-S letters included in this file for younger children. The “regular“ sized letters are for more skilled individuals, ages 10 and up. This can be used for a Religious Education class, a retreat, a youth group, or camp as well as, fun at home! It can be done in a group or alone. This is a fun puzzle for adults, too! After the puzzle is complete: This makes a great decoration when it’s complete. It can be used to decorate a shelf, wall, bulletin board, or other areas in your room or home! Here are few ideas on how to use it in your home décor: This file also includes an “Ice Breaker” game for youth groups and other religious functions, as well as, other ideas, like a daily devotional. This file is for purchase in our shop. Click Here to visit our shop and purchase it! Thank you for your support and God bless! ~JenMarie

The March winds are here! So for Saint Patrick’s feast day, I made a fun project that can spin in the cool spring winds. This St. Patrick Mobile is double-sided so it can spin around and it will always look good. The swirly snake (a symbol of St. Patrick driving the snakes from Ireland) will dance as the mobile twists from the gentle breeze that is blowing through your windows! To make this you will need: mobile printable crayons or colored pencils scissors hole-punch glue stick string, ribbon, or yarn (green is a great color to use for this) Here’s a peek at the printable sheets: Download this St Patrick Craft Here: After printing out the pages they will need to be colored. This is the fun creative part! The children can color and decorate the pieces however they want. (Do you like the St. Patrick drawing in this printable? My oldest daughter, Rachel drew it!) Color any design on the snake, too! After coloring the pieces, cut them out. Also, I recommend that you color the back of the snake. This just looks a little nicer on the finished product. Now, cut along the spiral lines of the snake to make a coiled spring.  Use the hole-punch to make a hole in the marked area on his head. Glue the two ovals – back to back. Then, glue the two Trinity clovers/shamrocks back to back. Use the hole-punch to add holes to the marked areas, on the top and bottom of each piece. Use your string/ribbon/yarn to attach all the parts together. Note: The pictures of our finished project show a white ribbon above the oval.  This was just something we add, but it’s not necessary for the project. Now, you have a two-sided mobile – Ready to spin in the March wind! Hope you enjoy it! My kids sure do! God Bless! ~JenMarie

St. Agnes’ Feast day is January 21! Today we have two printable pages to share with you! One is a coloring page and the other is a Word Search! Both have a short story about St. Agnes! This is a more “G” rated version of her life and is intended for younger children but is also great for any age! St. Agnes was born in 291 A.D. in Rome, Italy. She was very beautiful and kind. Agnes loved Jesus and gave herself to Him. Because of this, she refused to marry. Many men wanted to marry her but after refusing them they accused her of being a Christian. At that time it was illegal to be Christian. After being arrested she was treated very badly but still remained faithful to Jesus and kind to her captors. She was later beheaded and died joyfully as a courageous martyr at the age of 13. Feast Day: January 21 Patron saint of: Young girls, gardeners, engaged couples, those abused, and more. Symbol: lamb, palm branch The two printable pages are free to download. Download the St. Agnes Pages Here: I hope the kids enjoy them! God bless! ~JenMarie

For several years I’ve seen references to Jesse Trees. This year I felt it was time to check into the whole story behind these Advent trees and to see what they are all about. After reading up on the meaning and history of this Christmas tradition I created some printable ornaments. I did have A LOT of help from my oldest daughter, Rachel! She shared her artwork so I could create these little ornaments! Rachel’s Jesse Tree artwork will be featured in St. Mary’s Messenger Magazine , too! The beautifully colored samples in our pictures were colored by my daughter, Elizabeth, who was thrilled to help! Thank you, both! And now we have it in Spanish, too! All thanks to our huge helper, Dr. Luzondo! What is a Jesse Tree? A Jesse Tree represents the family tree of Jesus Christ. Each ornament represents a story from the Bible that tells about God’s people before Jesus was born. Each Story shows God’s salvation plan and tells how He guided humanity to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. The tradition of the Jesse Tree dates back to the middle ages. The name “Jesse Tree” comes from Isaiah 11:1, “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” Jesse is the father of King David. The savior was to come from David’s family line. What is the tradition? During the Advent season, a Bible Story is read which relates to Jesus family or God’s people. After the Bible story is read and discussed, an ornament is placed on a tree – the Jesse Tree. This was often done from the beginning of Advent to Christmas Day. Traditionally the Bible stories corresponded with the readings from Daily Mass so the number of ornaments and the stories that were read changed from one year to the next. This meant that new Jesse Tree ornaments needed to be created each Advent. Because of this, there are many versions of the Jesse Tree. Sadly our version does not follow along with the daily Mass readings, but our version was created to be simple and easy to use at home and in the classroom. Ours begins on Dec. 1, continues till Dec. 25, and it can be used the same way every year. You will need: printable ornaments – printed on stock paper (Download below) colored pencils or crayons cutting tools – scissors – OR – 2 ½ hole punch (perfect for cutting these ornaments) a tree – see tree instructions Hanger Material – one of these:  string and needle – tape or tack-putty-  stapler –  metal hooks a Bible ENGLISH - Download the English Jesse Tree Here: SPANISH - Árbol de Jesé: What tree should I use? You may like to hang your Jesse tree ornaments on your Christmas tree or you can create a tree just for these ornaments. If you want to create a tree, there are many different ways to accomplish this. For example: create a tree shape from paper and attach it to a wall (use tack-putty) or add a paper tree to a large bulletin board. You could also create a tree with evergreen branches or bare sticks and branches. Use an indoor fichus tree or branches from a craft store. The options are countless. Just look around and see what works for you in your situation. How do I create the ornaments? With these printable ornaments, the Jesse Tree can be a fun, easy craft! A group of children can divvy-up the ornaments and they can all color some!  After the ornaments are colored, cut them out. A 2 ½ inch hole punch is the perfect size to use on these circles! That would make this cutting job very quick and easy! How do I hang them? If you plan to hang these on a 3D tree, use a needle and thread to sew a short piece of thread through the top. Knot the two ends together. Then use the thread-loop to hang this on your tree. You could also attach metal hooks to the ornaments. If your tree is flat (on a wall or bulletin board) you can tape, tack-putty, or staple the ornaments to the tree. I saw different versions on other sites. Why so many versions? Historically, there are several different versions of the Jesse tree based on the Bible readings for the year. The version which we have here is just a simple home/school version that is meant to be used year after year during the month of December. The readings do not coincide with the Mass readings for the day. If you want a version that works with the daily reading this is not it. I’m sorry we can’t help you at this time. Each day from Dec. 1 to Dec. 25 read the Bible story and discuss it. Then add the corresponding ornament to the tree. Twenty-Five scripture readings are listed on the printable ! Just grab your Bible or find a website with a Catholic Bible! For the Catholic crafter who likes to work with felt… Elizabeth and I are currently working to make felt versions of some Jesse Tree ornaments! You know how we LOVE felt ornaments!! If you would also prefer to make felt ornaments you might like to hop over to Jen at Faith and Fabric ! Jen has just released an ebook with her felt Jesse Tree ornament patterns. These are gorgeous little felt ornaments! God Bless you all with a joy-filled Advent season! ~JenMarie

Hello! Just wanted to share a coloring page of St. Therese the Little Flower of Jesus! My daughter, Elizabeth (age 12), drew this image of St. Therese over a year ago. We used it on one of our Little Flower club meetings. The page also contains a quote by St. Therese: “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” I love that quote! It’s such a good reminder for us all! Download This Coloring Page Here: Enjoy! ~JenMarie

If you have been following our blog for the past few years you already know about our super fun Saint Themed Guess Jar games! Here are the jar ideas and labels from 2013 and 2014! This year I made a few new jars again! These jars were a great hit at our party again this year!! Download ALL of our jar labels (our old ones and our 6 new ones) below!! The Guessing sheet is also included in this download! Download All The Sets of these Guessing Jars Here: Here are our 6 NEW Jar labels! Our Lady Undoer / Untier of Knots – Twizzlers St. Dominic – Rosary Beads All Saints’ Halos – Butterscotch Hard Candies St. Lucy – Eye Candies (Ours were bubble gum, like those pictured here.) St. Tarcisius did NOT have butter-fingers!!! – Butterfinger Bars St. Lawrence – Red Hots Ironically, my daughter, Hannah won this one at our All Saint’s Day party- which is appropriate since Lawrence is our last name! 🙂 Enjoy!! May you all have a blessed All Saints’ day! ~JenMarie

It took several days of brainstorming, but I finally came up with a new table game for our All Saints day party – Saint-themed guessing jars! My first thought was to make a guessing jar that had “3 Musketeers” in it and call it a “Holy Trinity Guessing Jar”.  Then I (with my husband’s help) tried to think of all kinds of candies and crackers that could be a symbol or have a meaning that centered around a saint. We came up with several – some are not included here, but maybe I can add them to a future post. Basically, these jars are filled with candy or crackers that have a saint theme. The kids (and adults) can guess how many candies or crackers are in the jar. The person with the closest guess wins the jar! It’s simple, saint-inspired fun! These could be fun for any Catholic event, like youth groups or a CCD/RE class. Check them all out in our downloadable file!! Download ALL of our jar labels (our old ones and our 6 new ones) below!! The Guessing Sheet is also included in this download! Guessing Jar Label Set - Download Here: Our jar ideas included: The Holy Trinity Guessing Jar In my opinion, I think this is the tastiest jar listed here! To symbolize our 3 in 1 God,  I put 3 musketeers mini bars in this jar. St. Nicholas (Candy or Money) A jar for St. Nicholas could be filled with candy coins, but they can be hard to find so you may prefer to put Christmas mints in the jar. ~OR~  If you are doing this with older kids, teens, or adults you may like to add pennies, nickels, and dimes to the jar and have them guess the dollar amount. Choose the correct label below. This jar would be great for a Christmas party! St. Francis Guessing Jar The jar for St. Francis could be filled with animal crackers. St. Peter Guessing Jar St. Peter’s jar could be filled with fish crackers of Swedish fish! St. Isidore Guessing Jar St. Isidore could have a few different candies in his jar. Pumpkin candies, Runts , fruit-flavored candy, or any produce themed candy will work! Personally, I like Runts , but I didn’t have any so I used some cute Raspberry gumdrops! Our Lady of Mount Carmel Guessing Jar Yes, I know that Carmel and caramel are not the same things, but they sound much the same and they tend to wear the same color! 😉 So in this jar, I added caramels. You can use several different varieties of caramel candy: Rolos, caramel creams (like ours), or plain caramel squares. St. Kateri Tekakwitha Guessing Jar This jar was filled with candy corn and candy pumpkins. Doctors of the Church Guessing Jar In honor of all the Church Doctors, I filled this jar with Smarties – because the Doctors are known for being so smart about God and the faith! St. Andrew Guessing Jar For St. Andrew I added those fun waffle pretzels because they look like fishing nets! You could add Chex mix, too, since Chex can look like fishing nets also! St. Thomas Aquinas Guessing Jar Because St. Thomas Aquinas was called the “dumb ox” in his youth, I added Dum-Dums to this jar. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Guessing Jar St. Elizabeth Ann Seton started a school for girls in Maryland in the early 1800’s so letter cookies seemed to be appropriate for her jar! St. Catherine of Alexandria Guessing Jar St. Catherine was condemned to death on the spiked wheel, but, at her touch, the wheel was miraculously destroyed (although later she was martyred by beheading). Those little wheel pretzels seemed appropriate for her jar. The PDF files which include the labels for these jars. NOTE: The St. Nicholas money guessing label is only available in the image at the top of this post. It is not included in the PDF files. The other labels are in the above download. How I created these jars: After Jon (my husband) and I made our list of saint themed candies and crackers, I started cleaning out used peanut butter jars (We eat a lot of peanut butter at our house!).  I saved the jars for when I would need them. If you want you can buy some jars at the dollar store, Walmart, etc. Next, I created the labels for the jars. (Those labels are free to print above.) When I put these jars together for the party, I first added as many of the candies or crackers to the jars as I could (without cracking or breaking them). I counted them as I added them. For larger amounts of candies/crackers, I filled the jar then dumped it out onto a clean surface and separated them into groups of ten. Then after I counted them I put them all back into the jar. Each time I finished counting the contents for a jar I wrote the number down on a slip of SUPER SECRET paper so I would remember the number. After I added all the food to the jars, I closed the lid and I used clear shipping tape to attach the labels to the jars.  I also added a few strips of tape around the lid, too. (Just to be safe.)  I made one sheet for each of the jars so our guests could write down their name and guess. Our printable guessing sheet is available in the download above. Just write the name of the saint themed jar at the top so you know what jar belongs to that particular page. Anyone want to guess how many candies or crackers are in these jars? Sorry, but if you guess correctly, I’m not mailing the jar to you. You will just have the privilege of saying you got it right! 🙂 God bless! ~JenMarie *UPDATE* Nov 2, 2015 We added 6 more labels to the download! Here are images of those: