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My little Naomi, had the hardest time deciding who to dress as for All Saints day. I was very surprised when she finally decided on St. Catherine of Siena – but what a cute little Saint Catherine she is! To create this costume we used: white robe – like THIS white veil which was just a small sheet white string – we used a shoe string rosary mock turtle neck grapevine wreath – just big enough for her head washable marker for her hands (stigmata)  I personally thought that getting the wreath was the worst part of make this costume. I had to find just the right wreath for her to wear – so she felt comfortable. St. Catherine wore a crown of thorns, but even a grapevine wreath can be a bit uncomfortable. So take your little one to the store with you when you go and test them out.  The rosary was looped through her waist string. The washable red marker was used to make the stigmata. And my little lady – made one silly little saint! Unlike St. Clare  she was NOT camera shy! St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us. ~JenMarie

Have you ever heard the story about St. Leo the Great and Attila the Hun? If not Click Here  to read about him and this story. St. Leo’s feast day is November 10th in the New Calendar, April 11th in the Traditional Calendar.  To make this you will need: light blue felt gray felt medium brown felt yellow felt white felt black permanent sharpie marker brown permanent sharpie marker  yellow permanent sharpie marker orange permanent sharpie marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger Cut out the parts like those shown above. (More parts are shown in the photo below, too.) Use the black maker to add an edge to the gray parts and to add detail to the brown fuzzy part of Attila’s hat.  Use yellow and brown to make an edge and to add detail to the pope’s miter. Glue them all onto the light blue background as shown in the next picture. Now cut out the three shapes shown above to make a glowing cross. Use the orange marker to add an edge to the yellow circle. Glue them onto the blue background as pictured below. Cut out around the edges to remove any extra blue background. Add a threaded-loop to the top to hang it up. St. Leo, pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

In the Catholic Church,  November is dedicated to the Holy Souls. So I thought I’d share a few simple and meaningful activities you can do with your kids. Before I talk about what we can do for the souls in purgatory, I want to talk about who these souls are and why it’s important for us to help them. Purgatory is filled with the souls of people who have died with God’s Grace on them but they are not yet holy (aka: sanctified) enough to enter into Heaven. They are in a middle spot between heaven and hell. In Purgatory these souls are meant to be purified so they can enter into eternal life in heaven. Our prayers and good works are the key that they need to enter heaven. There are countless ways to help the souls through prayer and sacrifice. I’m going to share just a few that you can do with your kids so they can see how they can help, too: 1. Take a trip to the cemetery to pray: Take a trip to your parish cemetery to pray a Rosary. This is a great visual reminder of who we are praying for. It helps to make an imprint in a child’s head and it makes the reality of who they are praying for more real.  This trip can be made at anytime, but we like to go on the feast of All Souls (Nov. 2). Feel free to go several times during the month of November – remember the entire month is dedicated to the Holy Souls. (Not that you can’t pray for them after November – they ALWAYS need prayer.) Don’t let bad or cold weather bother you. If you plan to go an a specific day and it ends-up being cold or rainy, go anyway. You can pray in your vehicle while you are parked at the cemetery. Its better to go and stay in the car than not go at all. Also, going on an extra cool and windy day is an extra special sacrifice! 🙂 2. Take time each day to say an extra prayer: Make a list of your family and friends who have died and be sure to add” all the other souls in purgatory” or ”for the least prayed for souls” to your list. Then each night, say an extra prayer for them. I highly recommend that you pray the St. Gertrude prayer. Our Lord told St. Gertrude that this prayer would release 1000 souls from purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extended to include living sinners as well. Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen. 3. Light a candle in November for the Holy Souls: Take a few minutes after Mass to light a candle for the Holy Souls. You can do this each weekend during November. You can also decorate around a special candle at home or school for the souls. Add some pictures of your deceased relatives and friends around it. If you don’t have pictures, just make a list to set beside your candle. 4. Offer it up! Don’t forget to offer up your bad days, your difficult events, or your painful or uncomfortable times. These may be sad times, but you can use these sad times for good. The souls in purgatory need our help. If you offer these bad things as a prayerful sacrifice to Jesus, He can turn them into good. So remember to ”offer it up.” each time you have something bad to deal with. You can also go to Mass and offer that as a sacrifice for these souls. The Mass is the most perfect prayer and a wonderful way to help the souls in purgatory! So make a special trip to Mass for these souls. 5. Give it up! Another way to sacrifice is to give up something you love. For example, don’t take a desert and offer that up as a sacrifice for the souls in purgatory. Or give up your seat for someone. Let your brother or sister have your turn to pick a movie. These are just a few ways you can give something up to help the souls in purgatory. Remember: **Do to others as you would what want them to do for you.** I’m sure that if you were in purgatory you would want the help of those who could help you, so please try to help these poor souls who need your help so desperately! God bless you all with joy and peace. ~JenMarie

St. Catherine was a very smart young girl who converted many people with her words of truth. After angering the emperor, she was beaten, imprisoned, and not allowed to eat for 11 days. During this time she converted the emperor wife and many of the solders (who later where martyred). Then she was to be tortured with a spiked wheel, but, at her touch, the wheel was miraculously destroyed. This also converted many watchers. After this she beheaded and legend says that angels carried her body to Mt. Sinai.  Her feast day is November 25th (new and traditional). Read more about her HERE .  To make this ornament you will need: pink felt green felt white felt yellow felt brown felt scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger Cut out the parts as shown above.  Glue the large circle on the pink background and add the small circle in the middle of the large circle. Add the spokes to the wheel. Glue them down and cut off the extra length, as needed.  It will look something like the wheel in the above picture. Now create the lily. Above is a step-by-step image to show you how. Now, glue down the palm, lily, and leaves. Cut out around the wheel and remove the extra pink background. Add the threaded loop to the top and hang it up! St. Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us! God bless you all with joy! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

Joshua is dressed as St. Rocco (AKA: St. Roch).  To create this costume I used: brown robe – like THIS or THIS   – OT is cheaper HERE twine, rope, or other string stuff dog – like THIS walking stick with a small rag-sack tied to it (optional) This costume is fairly simple to compile. It’s just a brown robe tied at the waist and a stuffed dog. The walking stick is optional. Ours is just a straight stick with a white scrap piece of material tied to the top. It’s filled with a few paper napkins to make it puff out.  Really the dog is what makes the costume. St. Rocco, pray for us. ~JenMarie

Elizabeth, my Liturgical Ornament making buddy,  dressed as St. Clare of Assisi. We already had the costume from when she dressed as St Therese . The only thing new was the monstrance.  To make this costume we used: habit from THIS nun costume — a few more options: HERE : HERE : HERE The long black nun rode was actually used by her older brother for a St. Peregrine costume. brown robe like THIS or THIS  – OT is cheaper HERE tan sheet or material (light weight) string for cloak (we used a shoe string) monstrance (which we made – I’ll be posting instructions for this in the future) We used the nun habit and the brown robe for the main part of the costume. We created the cloak by folding a tan piece of material over a string and then tie it (loosely) around her neck. Our St. Clare was kind of camera shy, but I took the opportunity to get a good picture of the monstrance. 🙂  I will post instructions for this later. St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us. ~JenMarie

St. Luke, evangelist, is the patron saint of doctors, painters, and sculptors. Not much is known about him, but it’s believed that St. Luke was the first icon painter. He is said to have painted pictures of the Virgin Mary and Child, in particular the Hodegetria image in Constantinople which is now lost. Some believe that he never painted at all, but ether way he is now the patron of artist. He is also the patron of doctors because it’s believed he had an education as a physician. One thing we know for sure is that he wrote the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. His feast day is Oct. 18th on the new and traditional calendars. Read more about him HERE and HERE . To make this ornament you will need: white or off-white felt light blue felt maroon felt tan felt lots of different colored permanent sharpie markers: red, orange, yellow, green, blue. purple, black, etc. scissors (these kind work well) glue (hot glue, felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like this or this ) needle and thread for the looped hanger Cut out the parts as pictured above. Add the many different colors to the pallet with the markers. Add one of the colors to the tan brush-bristles. Add a black line to the end of the brush handle (optional). Glue down the pallet to the blue background. Then glue down the bristles of the brush, then the brush handle. Now cut out around the art image to remove all the extra blue background.  Add a threaded loop to the top so you can hang it up.  St. Luke, pray for us. ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Jude, apostle and martyr, shares his feast day with St. Simon on Oct. 28th. Read about him  HERE . To make this ornament you will need: green felt yellow felt (we had two shades of yellow and we used one shade for the medallion and the brighter shade for the tongue of fire. – but it will work fine if you only have one shade of yellow.) brown permanent sharpie marker orange permanent sharpie marker red permanent sharpie marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) needle and thread for the looped hanger Cut out the tongue of fire and the medallion from yellow felt. Use a brown marker to make Jesus\’ face on the medallion. Use orange and red to add color to the yellow flame. Glue them onto the green background. Cut out around them to remove any extra green background.  Add a threaded-loop to the top to hang it up. St. Jude, patron of hopeless situations, pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, was born in Italy, but she came to America as a missionary and she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. They cared for poor children and formed schools, hospitals, orphanages, and more. She is the first American citizen to be canonized. Her feast day is November 13 (new) and  December 22 (traditional). Read more HERE . To make this ornament you will need: black felt very dark gray (charcoal) felt (if possible – otherwise more black is okay) yellow felt light blue felt peach felt orange permanent sharpie marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger Cut out the part as pictured above. The only part that is true black is the half oval shape (the body). All the other parts are dark gray/charcoal. This slight color difference helps distinguish the parts better when they are all together, but is not necessary.  An orange marker was used to add the edge to the halo. And I do recommend that you make the veil longer than ours is. I think it would look nicer.  Add the black body and halo to the light blue background.  Now add the ”back” of the veil and the head. Next add the veil, (again I recommend you make yours longer then we have shown.) Add the bow tails, too.  Now glue down only the center of the bow-top. The sides should be free to move. Fold the sides in and glue them to the middle. Add a small rectangle to cover the center of the bow.  The finished bow will look like the one above.  Add two strips of yellow felt to make a cross. This is located just below the bow.  Cut out around the figure to remove any extra background. Add a threaded loop to the top so this ornament can be hung up.  St. Frances, Pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

Creating a  Liturgical Ornament for All Saints day proved to be a little more challenging than I thought it would be. I just had a mental block trying to come up with an easy way to depict ALL the saints in heaven, so I just created the gates of heaven and the symbols of the Holy Trinity – because when the saints enter heaven they are finally able to see God’s full glory for the first time. To create this you will need: yellow felt — with glitter* white felt — with glitter* plain white felt brown felt scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) a needle and thread for the looped hanger Glitter glue — *if you can’t get glitter felt you can use glitter glue on the felt and wait for it to dry. We used gold and silver glitter glue Cut out the parts for the cross, dove and crown. The crown is in two pieces so it looks more 3-D, but you can make one (2-D) if it’s easier for you. Cut out the gate from yellow felt and cut a piece of white felt big enough for the gate and Trinity symbols. If you don’t have glitter felt, you may like to cover the crown, gate, and white background with glitter glue. We used gold on the yellow pieces and silver on the white. Spread it around with your finger, popsicle stick, or paint brush. Allow all the glitter to dry before moving on to the next step. Glue the gate onto the white background. Over-top of the gate add the Trinity symbols. We added gold glitter glue around the cross and dove (mostly because the dove was kind of hidden on the white background.). After that dries, cut out around the gate and make a cloud-like top above the Trinity.  Now add the threaded-loop hanger to the top. God Bless, ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Martin de Porres, also known as, the Saint of the Broom, celebrates his feast day on November 3 (new and traditional calendars). He lived from 1579 to 1639 and he’s the patron of African-Americans; against rats; barbers; hair stylists; hotel-keepers; mixed-race people; poor people; public education; public health; racial harmony; etc. Read more HERE .  To create this ornament you will need: yellow felt white felt black felt dark brown felt medium brown felt light blue felt black permanent sharpie marker orange permanent sharpie marker  brown permanent sharpie marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger Cut out the parts as pictured above. Use an orange marker to add an edge to the halo. Use a brown and black marker to add detail to the broom. And use black marker to make the hair and face on the head. Glue the robe and halo to the blue back ground add the black scapular to the front of the white robe. Glue the black collar to the top of the robe – only glue it in the middle. Lift the sides to add the arms. once you see the arms will be covered and look good, glue down the arms and outer edge of the black collar.  Add this head. Add the broom to one arm and a cross to the other. Cut out around the edge to remove any extra blue background. Add a looped hook to the top to hang it up. St. Martin de Porres, pray for us! God bless. ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Josaphat, an Eastern Rite bishop, was martyred as he was trying to bring part of the Orthodox Church into union with Rome. He was killed by an angry mob with a gun and ax. Josaphat’s body was thrown into the river but emerged, surrounded by rays of light. Read more HERE . His feast day is November 12th (New) and November 14th (Traditional).   To make this ornament you will need: gray felt medium brown felt red felt black permanent sharpie marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger This ornament is very simple once you cut out all the parts. We used a black marker to add detail to the ax head and gun. Then, we just glued them all down onto the red background. We cut out around the background to remove any extra. Then we added the threaded loop to hang it up.  That’s it! 🙂 St. Josaphat, pray for us! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth