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Rebekah as “St. Elizabeth of Hungry” This cute costume was created with a princess costume from a local department store. We added a basket with some roses and fake bread. NOTE: This information and the images are meant to inspire you to make your own costume. I’m sorry, these costumes are not for sale.

Since we have so many little ones running around the house it has been hard to display projects that the older kids make. The little ones often get into things and disturb them or break them. However, I discovered that an old fish tank can serve as a perfect solution to the display problem. It works very well! The tank is just the right height so all the kids can see what’s in it, and they can tell each other and anyone who comes to the house about the things they found or made without fear of it being destroyed. Plus, the light makes it nice to see the items and the glass makes dust less of an issue. Only one problem: I can’t fit the really big stuff in the tank, but most of the things the kids make or find are small, so that’s not often a problem.

This is a project to decorate a blooming tree for the month of May. Because the month of May is the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary, decorating a flowering tree with images of Our Lady’s life and apparitions is certainly appropriate! Our kids had a grand time decorating the flowers for the tree! The tree turned out so lovely, but the my photos just don’t do it justice! Each flower has a center with an image of  Mother Mary, Mary portrayed in different nationalities, moments in her life, and her apparitions. The little ones loved learning more about Mary as we talked about each of the pictures. To make this tree you will need: small images of Mary  Flower shapes A tree to decorate ideas for a tree: indoor artificial or live tree, dead tree branches arranged in a flower pot or vase, tree shape cut out of colored paper and taped to a wall or bulletin board. Artificial flowers and leaves to decorate tree. (optional) Construction paper ~ purple, blue, pink, yellow, and orange for flowers (optional) Construction paper ~ Green for leaves (optional) Crayons, glitter glue, craft gems, and other craft items for decorating the flowers (optional) glue scissors thread needle Instructions: Once you have the tree to decorate and have added artificial flowers and leaves, if desired, decorate both sides of the flowers that have been cut out of construction paper using crayons, glitter glue, craft gems, etc. as desired. Then, glue a Marian image on both sides of the flowers. Use a needle and thread to make a looped hanger for each and hang the flower/picture on the tree. It so nice I’m not going to want to take it down after May!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ God Bless. ~Jen-Marie

A friend of mine sent me a link to this blog: Pondered in my Heart They are hosting a Marian Artist Trading Card swap. It’s open to all ages. Basically, You create 5 pictures of Our Blessed Mother and mail them to Kimberlee along with a self-addressed stamped envelop, and she will send cards from others of the same age. They must be postmarked by May 28. Sounds like fun, I’m sure some of my kids will love it!! Thanks, Kimberlee! Read her blog entry with all the information here: Our Lady Art Card Swap

Making a floral crown for a Marian statue Often, we like to make a crown of flowers for our statues of The Blessed Mother during the month of May. Making a crown can be a bit tricky, but this is the easiest way I found to make one…. You will need: variety of artificial flowers – appropriately sized for the statue you are crowning cloth ribbon – enough to tie around the statue’s head the statue you would like to wear the crown hot glue scissors Instructions: Tie the ribbon around the statue’s head and knot it in the back. Cut off the extra ribbon.  Hot glue the flowers onto the ribbon,  start from the back sides and work to the front of the crown. You may use a bottle or bowl of similar size (instead of the statue) to hold the ribbon while you glue on the flowers. This will help you avoid getting glue on the statue. Place the ribbon back on the statue’s head occasionally as you add the flowers just to check how it’s fitting and looking.  Mother Mary, Pray for us! God bless, ~Jen-Marie

Elizabeth and I made an altar for the Blessed Mother for the month of Mary. Unlike most Marian May Altars we tried to make it look more like Mary is in Heaven. First we took a cardboard box; cut, shaped, and taped it into a grotto that fit our Mary statue: Then we covered it with aluminum foil, secured it with clear shipping tape  and made a oval sun inside of it using permanent orange and yellow markers. We decorated it using flower shaped craft gems along the outer edge. Then, we added polyfill to the outside to create the look of heavenly clouds. The heavenly shrine for Our Lady turned out to be a fun and beautiful project! Enjoy and God bless!~Jen-Marie

Catholic Cultures wed site had a beautiful description of St. Rose that says: "Rose of Lima, a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, was the ’first blossom of sanctity that South America gave to the world.' Hers was a life heroic in virtue and penance…” Visit their site to read more about her. You can also visit Catholic.org  to read more, too. St. Rose of Lima’s feast day is Aug. 23 (new) and Aug. 30 (trad.). Elizabeth and I were going to add roses to a wreath for St. Rose’s ornament, but decided that it was a bit difficult to make all those little roses. So we made the flowers more simple.  We cut out pink and purple flowers and arranged them on a green circle/wreath. We glued two strips of dark brown felt into a cross shape and then glued it onto the wreath. Next we added a few green leaves among the flowers.  To make it pop, we added a few drops of silver glitter glue and it turned out to be a sweet ornament to honor St. Rose of Lima. St. Rose, oh beautiful saint so kind and loving, intercede for us. Ask Our Lord to grant us all that we need to enter into heaven.  St. Rose of Lima, pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth Visit our Etsy store to buy our St. Rose of Lima felt statue .

For the Coronation of Mary (Aug. 22 -new calendar), Elizabeth wanted to make a sparkly crown with gems.  While I’m sure this isn’t even close to being as pretty as Mary’s real crown, it is very sparkly! To make this Elizabeth first made a crown shape from a gold pipe cleaner. We then glued it onto a scrap piece of yellow felt.  Then we cut out around the pipe cleaner so the yellow was only seen on the inside of the crown shape.  Now for the fun part!! Elizabeth added glitter glue to the yellow felt. Then she used sequins and star sequins to make the gems on the crown. She also added a little bit of red glitter glue to the bottom! She was very pleased with her sparkly crown! ♪ ♫ Hail Holy Queen enthroned above…. Have a blessed day! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

For the birth of Our Lady (Sept. 8th), Elizabeth and I wanted to make a liturgical ornament that was filled with baby cuteness! So we made a pink baby and to confirm that this isn’t just any baby girl, we added an Immaculate Heart. This Immaculate Heart is a little different than the regular Immaculate Heart. We wanted this Immaculate Heart to look baby-like, so we made it pink! We also didn’t add the sword, since Mary wouldn’t have had any heart breaking experiences yet. To create this ornament you will need: Felt: pink, light blue, medium blue, yellow, and light brown/peach Permanent markers: orange, pink, green, and red markers. Glitter Glue: gold, silver, and a little red (optional)  Cut out the parts as pictured above. Make Mary first and size everything based off of her. You could glue Mary’s head on top of her blanket-body but it looks nicer if it’s seen through a hole in the pink blanket.  We used pink and red permanent marker to shade the pink blanket that Mary is ”wrapped” in. And we used orange marker on the edge of her halo. We also added gold glitter glue to make the halo sparkle. Glue it all together before you add the glitter or add the glitter to the halo and wait for the halo to dry before you glue everything together. (We used hot glue.) After Baby Mary and all the other parts are glued down, cut out a pink heart and flame. Use the pink permanent sharpie marker to make flowers. Just make 5 or 6 dots in a circle shape and add a yellow dot in the middle area. Then add a few green marker leaves around them. We used a red marker around the edge of the heart. Cut out a yellow flame for the top of the heart. We added gold and red glitter glue to the flame and silver glitter glue around the heart.   Personally, I love this ornament! I think it’s so cute! I hope you like it, too! Mother Mary, Happy Birthday!! God Bless, ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

The feast of Mary’s Holy Name is Sept. 12th.  There is great power behind Mary’s name! Read about this devotion HERE .  ”Men do not fear a powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary.” -Saint Bonaventure Elizabeth and I were trying to make this ornament look kind-of heavenly. So we have two sparkly clouds and a sparkly sun. Plus, we have sparkles all over Mary’s name which is written in the clouds.  We used white felt with sparkles, yellow felt, and light blue felt. We cut out two cloud shapes from the sparkly white felt, a half-circle from the yellow, and a rectangle which is big enough to fit the clouds and sun on.  We outlined the yellow with an orange permanent marker and we added gold glitter glue to it. We glued the two clouds together and used blue fabric paint to write Mary’s name on the clouds. Once that dried we covered it with clear-sparkle fabric paint. After that was dry we glued all the parts onto the blue rectangle. Next, we added silver glitter glue around the edge of the clouds. And we added gold glitter glue around the sun. We also created rays coming from the sun. Once it was all dry we cut out around the clouds and sun. These pictures don’t do this justice. It’s just full of sparkle! Most Holy Mary, Queen above, Pray for us! May every evil flea whenever we whisper the Holy Name of Mary! God Bless. ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Peter Claver is known as the ”Apostle of the Negroes”.  St. Peter dedicated himself to the service of the Negro slaves for over thirty-three years. He was devoted to saving the souls of the African slaves and to abolishing the Negro slave trade.  Read more HERE . His feast day is Sept. 9th,  the day after Our Lady’s Birthday . The ornament for St. Peter Claver is two hands and a cross. The lighter colored hand is giving the cross to the darker colored hand. This is a symbol of St. Peter giving the Catholic faith to the African people who were forced into slavery.  The ornament is made with white, peach/tan, medium brown and dark brown felt. Cut out two hands: one medium brown and one preach/tan. Then cut out two strips from the dark brown felt to form the cross. Glue them onto the white felt square. We used red, orange, and yellow permanent markers to add some color to the white felt. This is now hanging on our liturgical tree. St. Peter Claver, pray for us. May we understand each other and help each other grow closer to God even when we look and/or live differently. God Bless. ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

Here is a simple craft to color and create for the Solemnity of the Annunciation (March 25)! Download this Annunciation Craft Here: Just print the free PDF file (found above) onto stock paper or heavy paper. Color it and add a prayer list inside the blocks. (Using Crayons? Add the prayer list first and color over top with light colors. If you are making this with small children you may need to write the list on the back.) The list can be anyone you want to ask Mary to help and protect. Then cut along the outside edge of the shape. Fold along the lines marked with the arrows and stand it up. Now place it on a table or altar. Have a blessed Solemnity of the Annunciation! ~Jen-Marie