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Hi Everyone! Hope you are all having a great summer! I’ve been keeping very busy painting, cleaning, and reorganizing the house. My goal this summer is to clean up and clear out! My summer motto has been: “Use it or trash it!” So far my house is a lot more organized and I’ve trashed a mountain of stuff from our shed! As I was cleaning out some of my craft supplies I found a bag of large wooden beads. I discovered I had enough to make a large Rosary. So after finding a large wooden cross I thought I’d go ahead and use these beads instead of trashing them. I’m so glad I did… My 6 year old daughter, Naomi, helped me to make one!  She counted out all the beads and then we strung them on the ribbon one at a time. These are the beads that where in my bead bag. You can buy beads similar to these at your local craft store.  I bought the cross in the wooden cut-out section of a craft store a few years ago. They do still have similar crosses today. We strung the beads on thin satin ribbon. First add your ten “Hail Mary” beads. Then add the “Our Father” beads. We used long thin beads and small round beads to separate the “Hail Mary” and “Our Father” beads. This is what the “Our Father” bead set looks like on our Rosary. If you have trouble with your ribbon or string fraying use a match to melt the end together. Note: This only works if the material of the string/ribbon is a synthetic material. After you have the 5 Hail Mary decades and the 4 Our Father beads on the ribbon you can begin the next step! Be sure you leave each of the ribbon ends very long. You will use both to create the end of the Rosary. We used the long beads and a small round beads for the center. Push both ends of the ribbon through the round bead and the long beads. Use both ends of the ribbon to string on the rest of your beads. This will allow you to tie on a cross. Using this method creates only one knot on the rosary, so it will be much stronger.  After knotting the ribbon around the top of the cross, I hot glued the knot so it would hold-up better to the abuse of children. I\’m sure you will need to adapt your rosary to fit the beads you have. So feel free to create your rosary a little different than ours. Our large Rosary has been well loved. The kids have been taking turns using it while we pray our daily Rosary. They even gave Dad a turn! I think our kitten, Milkshake, wanted a turn with the Rosary, too! She kept hopping in while I took these pictures – I had to share! 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your summer! May God bless you with joy and peace! ~Jen-Marie

Hi, everyone! For the month of June and August – the months of the Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart – I created this new download... This download is a set of printable hearts which depicts the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. I modeled these hearts after some old antique prayer cards . Those old holy cards often gave a decorative lacy border to each card. I always found those cards to be so beautiful. These fancy hearts make an amazing decoration for your home, church vestibule, or class room!  We used them to decorate our Marian Tea Party this past May. I also reused some to decorate our home for the month of June – since it is the month we celebrate the Sacred Heart. The download has a selection of sizes to fit your needs... Download The Lacy Hearts Here: While these hearts look great when colored with bold colors, they also look lovely when colored lightly. But if you are not fond of coloring, they look just as gorgeous uncolored!! They add a sweet pale-white splash to any wall or display! How to make and use these hearts: These are so easy to make! Just print them off, color them (if you want), and cut out around the hearts. They each have a thick gray border. Cut anywhere inside this gray-border area for a perfect and beautiful cut! It’s so easy! Use a hole puncher to create a hole (or holes) to hang these up. Depending on the way you want to hang them, you can make two holes or just one hole in the flame area. Hope you enjoy them! God Bless. ~JenMarie

Mother’s day is coming during the month of May – which is also the month we honor our heavenly mother, Mary. It’s a great time to think about flowers! So with this in mind, I created this printable bouquet and vase! It has beautiful flowers and a sweet image of Our Lady holding the infant Jesus. This paper bouquet is easy to make and could be a beautiful gift for mom or grandma. It also would be a beautiful decoration for your May altar or use it as a centerpiece for your table! I know we will be using ours as decorations for our Mother Mary Tea party this year! Although we made ours for the month of May, these are 100% perfectly usable on any Marian feast day!  So feel free to create this project anytime! To create this you will need: the printable pages - Download below colored pencils or crayons scissors stapler or tape (we used a stapler) glue or glue stick 7 oz disposable plastic cup – ours were 3 1/2 inches tall. a sheet of green tissue paper a sheet of green construction paper Download the Vase Craft Here: First print the pages (regular paper is fine). Color the Mary and Jesus image, the butterflies and flowers. If you are giving this as a gift, you can write a message to the recipient in the boxed area below Mary. Note: the printable does not have the writing under Mary as it’s pictured in the image above. We added that to this sample. Once you have colored it the way you like, cut out all the parts. Staple (or tape) the one end of the Mary box to the other – to form a tube. Add the 7 oz plastic disposable cup to the inside of the tube and staple the top of it to the top of the paper tube (in the back) Be sure it’s sitting level before you staple it.  Note: The paper tube is not tight around the cup. If you make it tight it is more likely to wrinkle and/or fall over. The plastic cup will help keep your flowers and greens from falling out. Now, fold the butterflies in half and open them up again. Staple the middle of the butterfly to the area around image of Mary. (or tape it down) This will give them a flying-3D look. Cut your sheet of tissue paper in half. Then cut each half in half again – diagonally. Take the middle of each part and form a point. Stuff the point into the cup along with some green leaf-like strips, which were cut from the green construction paper. If you don’t have green tissue paper you can just fill the cup with green strips of paper, but the tissue is a much better filler. Now fluff-out the greens and add your flowers.  Some of my kids fluffed theirs out so much it made these kind-of top heavy. When they finished creating them they sat fine, but if it’s frustrating to the child, add a few small rocks to the bottom of the cup. Use a glue stick to attach the flowers to the greenery. There you have it – a beautiful bouquet! You’re ready to be a florist!! 🙂 This bouquet craft can be enjoyed by a wide variety of ages. Obviously, the quality will not be as great for younger kids, but they can still enjoy it. Here is one my 4 year old made. My 4 year old, Caleb, was thrilled with his! He sat and admired it for quite awhile before he moved it into his special place in his bedroom. 🙂 Here are a few more examples which my girls created: We had light and dark green tissue paper. I thought I’d show you both so you can decide which shade of green you like best. This could be a small group activity! A small group of kids could make one bouquet together. There are 9 flowers, 2 butterflies, and the Mary vase which all need colored. Allow the children to pick the part they want to color. Then they can all share in the assembly of the bouquet. This is great way for a few siblings to create one of these bouquets for Grandma or Mom! Enjoy! ~JenMarie

I thought some of you might like to see the banners that my kids had done for their First Communion. This banner is one that was done by my oldest daughter, Rachel, 6 years ago. The background and all the parts I helped her cut out from various colors of soft felt, but she did most of it herself. At the time she LOVED sewing, so she did a lot of sewing on her banner. She used the string that you would use for cross-stitching. Rachel first sewed the rays of light that are coming from the host. Next, she sewed on the host and wheat. The lines you see on the wheat and the cross on the host are her large stitches. The stems of the wheat we hot glued down. She then sewed on the Chalice. We hot glued on the red string of sequins. She sewed on the grapes, which were just purple circles. The leaves were hot glued on and the leave’s veins she sewed. We also hot glued on some blue strings of sequins to the top and bottom of the banner.  The front may be beautiful, but the back is a mess! Since she used a softer felt on her banner (because she was sewing) we had to hot glue stiff cardboard across the top on the back. We also hot glued the string to the cardboard so she could hang it up. She was very proud of her banner, but she was rather tired of sewing by the time she was done! Want to see more banners? Click here to see banner #2 Click here to see banner #3 Looking for a few templates? You could use the printable from my Eucharist Art project God Bless!~Jen-Marie

Fairies have been all the rage the past few years and of course my kids don’t live in a hole so they know it!But instead of making little outdoor houses for fairies to live in we made MARY HOUSES!!! Okay, I have nothing against fairies and a little make-believe play, but it just seemed better to have my youngest girls play act about Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and Jesus than fairies! It helped to stretch their little minds and think more about what the Holy Family’s home-life was like. So out in our back yard stands a large tree that all 9 of my kids love to play around; a perfect spot for our little village of Mary houses! After collecting moss, stones, sticks, and flowers my little girls each built a home for their little Holy Family dolls. We had houses made from a nook in the tree’s root… It could be a Resurrection set, too! Sticks…… and rocks! Then they got to pretend play! Here is Mary and Jesus sleeping (with their eyes open)! My girls had lots of fun making and creating these little Mary houses!! Give it a try; create a Mary house with your kids!!! We had a BLAST!!!! ~Jen-Marie

I had two little ones receive their First Communion this past weekend and I just wanted to share our First Communion celebration cake with all of you! To make this cake you will need: 9″ round cake pan cupcake pan enough for 12 cupcakes with paper liners large sheet of heavy cardboard  covered in foil or a jellyroll pan ruler one box of cake mix made as directed enough white icing to cover everything (I used about 2 containers) yellow food coloring red food coloring chocolate syrup two or three red gummy bears toothpicks large sheet of paper or wax paper pencil If you decide to make the  cupcake sheep with the extra cupcakes you will need more… Click here for those directions.  Instructions: Trace the outline of the 9″ cake pan onto a large sheet of paper or wax paper.  Measure and cut the paper as directed in the picture below:     Make the cake. Pour half of the mixture into a 9″ cake pan and make cupcakes with the remaining half. Bake it as directed. After the cake is cool, use the paper template to cut the cake. Use the paper templates to decide what size cardboard or pan will work best to place your cake on. If you are using cardboard, cover the cardboard with foil. Design the cake on the pan as shown below. You will have a leftover piece of cake, eat it or share it with your help! 😉  Also, you may need to squish the rectangle section of cake so it’s the same height as the rounded edges of the chalice’s cup and base. Remove the paper from the *one* cupcake you are using as the host.  I often put my cakes in the refrigerator at this point to make sure they are stiff before I add the icing. (about a half-hour) Mix 7 or more drops of yellow food coloring into 1 1/2 cups icing. Spread it over the top and sides of the chalice. I also added a little bit of white icing in a few areas to make it look like the chalice as a light glare. Then I added red icing to the “inside” of the cup, so it looks like it has wine in it. Cut up the Gummy bears and stick them into the icing on the chalice to make “gems”. Add some icing to the bottom of the cupcake-host to help it stay in place. I stuck a toothpick in the top of the cupcake so I could use it to hold the cupcake while I covered it with white icing. Put it back in the fridge so the icing will harden. (about an hour) Now with a toothpick “carve” decorative details into the chalice and make a cross on the host. After you have added the cross to the host you can use chocolate syrup to the indentation so you can better see the cross. You may need to occasionally place it back in the fridge for a few minutes it the icing gets soft as you are working on it. That’s it your done!! Put it back in the fridge for a half-hour before you cover it with foil to store it. This will make the icing hard enough so it doesn’t get messed up when you cover it. Now, what do you do with the extra cupcakes??!?!?!  Well, how about making sheep!!! Click here to see how to make these cute little sheep! Just for fun… If you ever watched “Men in Black” you might like Joshua’s joke! Fluffy is now neurolized!!!  😉 ***BTW: If anyone is worried that our kids are watching questionable movies… My husband is  excellent at editing! He can take an (R) rated movie and turn it into a (G) or at least a (PG) rated movie!!! 😉  I just wish the movies didn’t need editing! 🙁 Hope you are all having a wonderful week! God Bless, ~Jen-Marie

On the feasts of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts we made paper hearts. These are made with nothing but paper, markers and glue. They are simplistic but very pretty. You will need: a full sheet of red paper pieces or sheets of yellow, brown, orange, green, and pink markers: red, brown and yellow glue scissors Let’s start with the Sacred Heart of Jesus…  Cut the sheet of red paper in half and fold each half  long ways. Cut out a half heart so that when you open it to will be a whole heart. Cut out a larger yellow “flame” and a smaller orange “flame.” Cut out two strips of brown for the cross. Cut our short pointy brown strips for the crown of thorns. Glue the orange flame on top of the yellow flame and the cross on top of the orange flame. Glue that onto the top of the underside of the heart as pictured. Now make “X” shapes where the crown of thorns should be, all the way across. Now use a brown (or black) marker to make a curved line for the spear wound. Add red around it and a blood drop. That’s it for the Sacred Heart of Jesus! ~*~ Now for the Immaculate Heart of Mary! Do the same as above to make the heart and flames. Glue the flames to the top-underside of the heart. Cut out simple pink flower shapes and add those across the center of the heart. They don’t need to be perfect. When you place them beside each other you won’t see the mistakes on the flower shapes. Use a yellow marker to create the flower’s center. We added small green leaf shapes around the flower, too. This is the “hard” part…making the sword: Cut out a cross shape and round the ends on the handle parts. Use a brown marker to create the look of a handle. Use a red marker to make a curved line for the cut onto the heart and use scissors to put a slit in the red cut. Slip the sword through the cut and glue it on the under side. That’s it!! So paper simple! Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! May God Bless you all! ~Jen-Marie

Here is another one of our Felt Doll Statues. This is Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. She turned out so nice! Again this project requires the use of hot glue, so if you plan to make these with small children they will need help. Older children may be able to do these on their own if they are accustomed to using hot glue. Materials you will need: dark brown felt dress * (see felt cutting instructions below) white felt head covering (habit) * light brown felt cloak * white felt collar * wooden old fashioned clothes pin 4 inch piece of string (for waist) 2 inch piece of string (for scapular) small scraps of brown and white felt for mini scapular  mini old fashioned clothes pin (for baby) scrap piece of white felt for baby wooden ring (to help the doll stand, if it needs help) Gold ribbon for crown hot glue and gun Felt Cutting instructions: After cutting out your felt pieces, (as directed in the cutting instructions above) slip the round clothes pin head into the hole of your dress. You may need to add a drop of hot glue at the upper chest and upper back of the doll clothespin to keep the dress from sliding down the clothespin.  Pull all the dress parts down against the clothes pin and tightly knot a string around its waist. You may need an extra hand to hold the dress down while you knot the waist string. Now, cut off the extra sting ends. If the dress is too long, cut it to the correct length. If the opening on the sides of the dress are showing, hot glue it together.   Now, wrap the collar around the neck and hot glue it in place. Make sure the collar’s opening/seam is in the back.   Take your cloak and fold the corners in. Be sure to test it to see if the neck size and the length is correct for your doll.  When the size is correct, hot glue the corners down, (see pic above) and hot glue the cloak to the doll’s neck, leaving the front of the dolls neck uncovered.  Be sure the folded corners are inside against the dolls dress. Add hot glue to the top and sides of the dolls head and cover the top of its head with the WHITE  (NOT black, as pictured) felt habit.  Note: You may have to cut a slit in the back of the habit, (from the bottom of the habit up to the head)  so it will lay down properly. Then hot glue the back of the habit together so you don’t see the cut.  If the doll has a hard time standing on its own you may need to buy a wooden ring to help it stand. If you can’t find wooden rings, you may be able to hot glue the doll to a small wooden flat shape.  Now for baby Jesus: Cut or break the bottom of the mini clothes pin off so it is the correct size. OR if you don’t have a mini old fashioned clothespin you can use a craft stick. Break the craft stick in half and hot glue them one on top of the other. Now add some hot glue to the top and side of the baby’s head wrap the edge of the felt piece around the top of the baby’s head. Then wrap the rest of the felt around the baby, covering it completely. Hot glue the blanket in place. Then hot glue it to the doll of Mary. If possible, try to use the cloak as an arm so it can look like she is holding the baby. Now make four brown squares and two smaller white squares to make the mini scapular.  Glue the string between the two brown squares and add the two white squares to the front. Now, glue the Scapular to the other “arm” of Mary’s cloak.  Finally add her crown. Use a small piece of gold ribbon to make a circle. Hot glue the ends together and hot glue the gold ring to Mary’s head. That’s it! She’s finished! I hope I explained this well enough, If you have any questions please post a comment and I will respond. I hope you enjoy making this little doll/statue as much as we did!!   Take care and God bless. ~Jen-Marie

I love the imagination of God! He is Awesome!!!!!! All of us were individually created by this amazing God with an unending creativity! Every one of us is so different! Our personalities, our appearances, the way we walk, the way we talk. The talents we have and the abilities which our wonderful God has given us are truly mind boggling! We are all so different and yet we were all made by this same perfect Creator! I did this art project with my Art Co-op this past school year. It was such an eye opener to me about how different we all really are. Not that I didn’t know it, but this really proved it!! You will need: large paper some type of spot light  pencil, pen, or marker painters tape (low adhesive tape) magazines glue  scissors In a darkened room, tape the large paper to a wall and have the child(ren) stand/sit between the paper and a light source, such as a quartz light, a spot light, or a lamp with no shade.  Using their shadow, draw each child’s profile silhouette onto the paper. Just seeing the different shaped heads, noses, lips, and chins was very fun to see. The kids loved sharing them with each other!! The kids carefully cut out the silhouette and took it home to make a collage of things they like. They used magazines to cut out pictures of things they liked. After gluing on their pictures they had to cut the edges of their silhouette again so you could see the shape of the head. (cut from the back side at this point) When they came back to the next class I was amazed to see so many different projects! Everyone had different things to show and tell about!  Even the way they organized (or not) showed more about their differences! They  all looked wonderful in their own awesome way! I know this project is not as Catholic as I typically create, but it was such a great project to show God’s creativity I had to share it!!  It would work well if you are talking about creation, so kids can see how God can have an unending imagination -for He created everything from nothing, from the tiniest germ to the tallest mountain, and all the different plants and animals, even down to our own personality.  No one is more creative than God!! Praise be to God!! God Bless!! ~Jen-Marie

This cross is a fun, simple and FREE activity to create at Bible camp, while sitting at a campfire, or on a nature walk. It’s also great for Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha’s Feast day (July 14) All you need: (all free!!) two sticks (one shorter – one longer) a long stem of green grass. (about 1 to 2 feet long)You could use twine if you wish. Carefully tear off the grass blades from the grass stem. Criss-cross the two sticks so they are in the shape of a cross. Place the long grass stem behind the criss-crossed sticks.  Leave about 3 to 4 inches to use to tie a knot when finished.  Wrap the long end around the criss-cross sticks about 3 times. Then switch directions and wrap it around the opposite corners 3 times. Take both grass stem ends and knot them together. Use a knot like you use when you start to tie your shoe.  Use this knot two or three times. Break off the extra stem. That’s it! It’s great for bored kids on a camping trip! Hope you can use this idea! God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

I’m going to share a few pictures of an old toy box my kids have been using for many years! It was one I decorated for the kids years ago and has been used by all 9 of my kids. The toy box was handmade by a friend who used scrap wood to create this sturdy little box! The stencil design is now a little outdated, but it’s the idea of adding Catholic images to furniture that I wanted to share more than anything….. Before I explain my reasons for adding Catholic images to this toy box I want to tell you a few of my thoughts…. I’m sure most of you heard about the shooting in Colorado at a movie theater. The shooter, who was idolizing the Joker from the previous Batman movie, shot and killed 12 people and injured 60. Now, I have to tell you that our family loves a good superhero movie, but we would not let our kids see that last Batman movie with the Joker. Don’t get me wrong, superheroes are okay, but be sure it’s clear to kids who the villain is and that they are  hurting people when they do the things they do in the movies.  I think it’s important that kids want to imitate the good guy and not the bad guy. The main reason we didn’t let our kids watch the last Batman movie was exactly that! The Joker was evil and as a “joker”, he made evil look fun which is very dangerous for young minds! So why am I bringing up this horrible event? I want to point out how important it is for us as parents, teachers, and guardians to make sure that kids idolize good and holy people! Surround your kids with stories and images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints!  Which brings me back to the toy box…..The neat thing about this toy box is that my kids get to see Jesus and Mary every time they play! And it will always be a reminder of how it is they should act. It may not seem like much, but little things like this can make a difference in a child’s head. So how did I add Catholic images to this toybox? As you can see it has religious pictures on each side. These pictures were ones that I cut out from Catholic magazines. The decorative borders around the pictures were from old wallpaper. (The  original picture which was in the middle was of naked angels -not very kid friendly) So I replaced the original picture with family friendly images of Mary and Jesus! And the green leaves are painted from an ivy stencil. After gluing the images onto the toy box I used a clear sealer to keep the images protected from the kids. Modge-podge will work, too, but be sure to add about 3 coats. Please, say a prayer for the victims and their families. And don’t forget to pray for the shooter, too. Look for a Novena for the victims of the shooting at Life of a Catholic Teen  ~ Click here It’s the 22nd!!!! Time for another Link-up party!!!! * * * L I N K – U P  P A R T Y ! * * * Feel free to share your faith-centered home posts with us! This is an especially important Tea with St. Anne Link-up because St Anne’s feast day falls during this link-up party!!! (July 26th)St. Anne, pray for us, may we create a holy domestic church! The Rules: Please add posts about   anything that can help Catholic families in our every day life . This includes: Catholic décor, crafts and activities we can do with our kids, home-school ideas, organization ideas, etc. Link to me on your blog/post so others can come and join in too! You may use one of my buttons if you li ke, or just make a text link of your own. I can’t wait to see your posts! God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

Here’s a fun, simple, craft for girls to create. It would be good for Kateri Tekakwitha’s feast day! My little girls love necklaces so it was a hit, but they did need help cutting the felt crosses and using the needle. You will need: brown felt string (we used embroidery thread) pony beads  scissors needle (large enough to use on your string) Cut out a cross shape from your felt Thread your string through the top of your cross. Try to keep the string’s entry and exit close to the edge of the cross. That helps to prevent the cross from bunching up when you add the beads. Now add your beads to the string on each side of the cross. Tie a knot in the ends to create a necklace.  Bl. Kateri, pray for us!! Remember she’s being canonized in Oct. 21, 2012!!!!!!! YAHhhhh!!!! 😀 God bless. ~Jen-Marie