Search Results

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

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

One way I like to help my kids learn and retain knowledge of our faith is through Catholic picture dictionaries. Their simple design makes them easy to pick-up and read when you have only a few free minutes. To help them retain these words and meanings, I created a “Catholic Words” printable notebooking sheet. This page has space for: the name of the Catholic word they are learning the definition (some definitions may need to be shortened) a picture of the idea/item, if possible Each page has space for 3 words. My kids have these pages in a 3-ring binder and they add a word a day. They do this during the school day when they are finished all their other work and they are waiting on me to check/help them. Each night I write a Catholic word onto our blackboard. Then, during school time the next day, they pull out their Catholic dictionary look up the word and write it down, along with the definition. They also draw a picture of the item or idea if they can. These are the books we used to look up the Catholic words: This book is the one my older kids use: The Catholic Picture Dictionary – by S.J. Rev. Harold A. Pfeiffer (Author) This one was better for the younger kids: My First Catholic Picture Dictionary - by Lawrence Lovasik (Author) Has anyone ever use this book? I’m wondering if it’s good: A Catholic Child's Picture Dictionary - by Ruth Hannon (Author) Vocabulary Sheets Along with the “Catholic Words” sheet I created a “vocabulary” sheet. This one is for everyday words. My kids use this one when they come across a word they don’t know. They write it down and look it up. The word area on this page has space for: the word the definition antonyms synonyms a sentence and they can draw a picture, if possible These are also kept in the same 3-ring binder. They have a page with a tab between the two sections. Both these pages and a cover page are available below. Download these vocabulary pages here: Enjoy! Hope you have a blessed school year! ~JenMarie

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

St. Helena (aka: St. Helen) is the Mother of Emperor Constantine and found the true cross of Christ. Her feast day is Aug. 18 (traditional calendar). Read more about her HERE and HERE .  Elizabeth and I got a little glitter glue happy with this one! The design is simple, but the glitter glue made it sing! 😮 ♪ ♫  We made 7 rays from yellow felt and added a bit of orange permanent marker to them to make them look more interesting. We glued them onto a white oval which as a little bigger than the cross we had made from two strips of dark brown felt.  We added silver glitter glue to the white area and gold glitter glue to the yellow area. We also added a bit of red glitter glue to the yellow area and three drops on the cross.  St. Helena, pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

For the feast of the Holy Name of Mary we made a simple sugar cookie dessert. We used our sugar cookie recipe and our M-A-R-Y cookie cutters to make a super yummy dessert! To give our cookies a blue color we added blue sugar to the top of the cookies before we baked them.  Of course, we realized too late that we didn’t have any more blue decorating sugar. So we made some! Just place 3 or 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar into a zip-loc bag and then add a drop or two of blue food coloring. Zip up the bag and give it a good shake! If the sugar very wet you can spread it on out on wax paper to dry, but we just used our blue sugar as it was.  The cookies came out of the oven with a blue glitter look! Perfect for Mary! Once they were cool we used some whipped cream from a spray can to make a long row of cream. Then we added the M-A-R-Y letters to the front of the row. Here is Mary’s name written in the clouds!! *Don’t have the letter cookie cutters? That’s okay! If you don’t have alphabet cookie cutters, try making the letter by hand. Maybe roll out the dough and hand-cut the letters with a knife. Or make the letters by creating long strains or ropes of rolled dough (my kids call them snakes) and form the long strains into the letter shapes. It’s a great activity for kids of all ages! Super yummy and fun! Have a blessed day! ~JenMarie

If you would have known Joseph of Cupertino as a boy, you never would have thought he would become a flying saint! He was neglected and unwanted by his mother, so he became very slow,  hot-tempered, and absent minded. As a young man he failed at all the jobs he was given. He was not accepted by the Franciscans, he was turned out by the Capuchins, and so he returned home. His mother was not happy to see him. She managed to get him into the Franciscan monastery as a servant.  During this time Joseph began to change. He began to learn humility, penance, and he worked hard. He was then accepted into the Franciscan order. He struggled with learning but eventually became a priest.  After his priesthood, he began to perform miracles. He was seen over 70 times rising from the floor while he prayed or said Mass. Sometimes he flew very high. On one occasion he carried a huge cross through the air to a Calvary group, The cross was thirty-six feet high, but he carried it with ease! Talk about super hero power! 🙂  After word of his miracles spread, St. Joseph was often kept hidden. But people flocked to talk to him in confession. He converted many people before he died on Sept. 18 1663, at the age of 60. His feast day is Sept. 18 in the Traditional Calendar. Read more about him HERE . Our ornament depicts St. Joseph flying through the air!!  We used medium brown, peach/tan, yellow and white felt. We cut out the parts as pictured above. We used black permanent marker to make shadows on his robe – to look like he’s flying. Then we used brown and black permanent markers to make a face on the circle we cut out for his head. We also added orange to the yellow halo.  St. Joseph is proof that there is hope for every human being! We can all change and become true saints! St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us! God bless you all with joy! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. John was given the surname Chrysostomos,  meaning ”golden-mouthed” because he was said to speak with eloquence. He is often considered the most prominent doctor of the Greek Church and known for his beautiful homilies. He was exiled after being falsely accused and later died in exile. Read more HERE and HERE .  St. John Chrysostom wrote: ”The bee is more honored than other animals, not because it labors, but because it labors for others”. Bees, work unceasingly for the common good of the hive and obey without question their superiors, and above all their queen…. Finish reading on this idea HERE His feast day is Sept. 13th in the new calendar and Jan. 27th in the traditional calendar.  St. John was often pictured with a bee hive, because of his quote about the bees. So for his ornament, Elizabeth and I created a bee hive.  We used light blue, green, light brown/tan yellow, and white felt. We also used a little purple to add a few tiny flowers. The bee was created with the yellow felt, and we added black stripes and a black head with a black permanent marker. We also used a brown permanent marker to outline the hive. We used a pink permanent marker to create the center of the flowers. We glued the green ”grass” to the light blue felt. We also added a few blades of grass before we added the hive. Then we added the bees and then the bee wings. Next we added a few flowers, just to make it look more cute!  And now you have a cute little bee hive to add to your collection of saint ornaments! St. John Chrysostom, pray for us. May we find peace in our hearts even when others treat us bad, like you did in your life. God bless. ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Robert Bellarmine was born 3rd of 10 children. In 1560 he entered the Society of Jesus and after his ordination he began to teach at Louvain (1570-1576) where he became famous for his Latin sermons. In 1576, he was appointed to the chair of controversial theology at the Roman College, becoming Rector in 1592; he went on to become Provincial of Naples in 1594 and Cardinal in 1598. Continue reading about him HERE . It’s a very interesting read! His Feast day is Sept. 17th in the new calendar and May 13th in the traditional calendar. Because St. Robert is often pictured wearing his Cardinal’s hat (AKA: biretta) we made a mini red biretta. I have to tell you we had a hard time coming up with an easy ornament for St. Robert! This ornament may be a bit difficult for some of you. If so, consider creating a mini solar system – He was part of the Galileo case. (Read more in the above link) To create this ornament you will need red felt and hot glue. If you want to add the book you will also need maroon and white felt. We started creating the biretta by making the above shape from red felt. It was a 1 inch by 4 inch piece of felt. It was sectioned into 4 parts. Each of the 4 parts had two bumps. The end bumps were more of a triangle shape. Then we glued the ends together, so it was in a circle shape – like above. Now we glued the bumps together in pairs. The bump on the one section was paired with a bump on the section beside it. DON’T glue the two triangle bumps together yet!  So you should now have three paired bumps. The two triangle-shaped bumps should now be folded down to make that top portion flat. A biretta’s top only has 3 bumps and one flat part.  Now we added glue to the inside of the hat, to secure the bumped parts and the folded triangle shaped parts. We also added glue to the corners and pinched them together to make it more of a square shape. If you want to add a book for the biretta to sit on, create one by gluing three smaller rectangles into a larger folded rectangle. Then glue the hat to the book.  Add a threaded loop to the center of the hat to hang it on the liturgical tree.  Note: If you are having trouble understanding my instructions for the biretta, please watch the video below. His pattern in the video is a little different than mine, but it may help you make the above ornament. By the look of the video, I have a feeling paper birettas are easier to make than felt! The video shows how to make a human-sized biretta. You might like this for an All Saints day costume! There are many priest and bishop saints who wore a biretta. You might also like to make full-sized birettas for your kids to wear as you celebrate St. Robert’s feast day! Enjoy! Have a blessed day as you celebrate St. Robert of Bellarmine! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

The fast of the Archangels is on Sept. 29th, so Elizabeth made 3 ornaments for this feast day. The three ornaments include: Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel. Here are the details for how to create these three ornaments.  St. Gabriel Gabriel’s ornament was made with medium blue, light blue, yellow, white, off-white, and peach felt. Cut out all your pieces. We used a light-blue permanent marker to add detail to the robe. We used orange to add an outer edge to the halo. We also added brown marker to the banner edge and we used a black marker to make the ”Hail full of Grace”. I recommend that you make the letters by using a series of dots rather than drawing them like you regularly would. It helps give them a cleaner look. We also made a face and hair on the head with brown and black markers. Glue down the wings onto a piece of medium blue felt – the blue felt should be larger than all the other pieces. Add the robe and halo over top the wings. Then glue down the head and banner. Now cut off the extra blue felt from around the angel.  St. Raphael St. Raphael was made with medium blue, medium brown, dark brown, gray, white, yellow, and peach felt.  Black, brown, and orange permanent sharpie markers were used to add detail to the robe, fish, halo, and face. Glue down the wings onto a piece of medium blue felt – the blue felt should be larger than all the other pieces. Add the robe and halo over top the wings – don’t glue down the arm that will hold the staff. Glue the hand/arm to the back of the robe-arm and then glue that down. Then glue down the head and fish. Add the staff to his hand. Now cut off the extra blue felt from around the angel. St. Michael St. Michael was created using peach, medium brown, white, gray, medium blue, and yellow felt.  We used black and brown permanent markers to add detail to the face, feet and sword handle. The chest plate was decorated with black marker-dots in a fish scale pattern. We also used orange marker to add the edge around the halo.  Glue down the wings onto a piece of medium blue felt – the blue felt should be larger than all the other pieces. Glue down the shirt -only in the center and at the neck. Glue the arms onto the back of the shirt\’s sleeves and then glue down the arms onto the blue felt. Now add the brown strips to the skirt. Add the skirt to the ornament – glue it only at the waste – under the shirt bottom.  Now glue down his legs (under the skirt) and then finish gluing down the skirt, and finish gluing down the shirt, too. Add the halo and head over top the wings. Then glue down the chest plate and sword. Now cut off the extra blue felt from around the angel.  These guys are too cute! They have to be my personal favorite so far! But then again, Elizabeth and I have some really cute ornaments finished and ready to be posted for October! Hope you enjoy them! May God shower you with His blessings! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Jerome was a priest, Doctor of the Church, and translator of the The Latin Bible which was translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic)  His feast day is Sept. 30th (new and traditional calendars) Read about him HERE and HERE . We created a lion ornament for St. Jerome because he is often depicted with a lion. There is an old story told about him that tells how St. Jerome tamed a lion who’s paw was injured. After the lion was healed he became more of a pet for the saint. — Is the story true? I’m not sure, but it’s a fun story to help kids differentiate him from other saints. The lion was an easy ornament. We made the lion using only medium brown felt and yellow felt. We used black and brown permanent markers to add detail to the parts.  St. Jerome. pray for us! May God bless you all with joy! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth