Craft Religious Medals with Kids

This is so easy to do and my kids have been loving it! On May 1, Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope John Paul II is being beatified! :-) So this week, we've been making Divine Mercy medals and JPII crucifixes!

This is easier to do than it looks. All you need is polymer clay, and a few religious medals. You can get polymer clay (like sculpey or fimo) from a craft store, or even Wal-Mart, and it's not that expensive. You can either order some religious medals, or you can get them from your local Catholic shop. Every Catholic shop I've been in has a set of these drawers with cheap religious medals. (Be sure to also check the rosary pieces section, which is usually in a different place, for crucifixes).

To make our molds, I used scrap clay that had all the colors mixed up because it's basically useless for anything else. Just press your object in and remove it, then bake according to package directions.

After you've baked your mold, you're ready to go. To prevent the clay from sticking to our mold, I dusted a little bit of flour on with a paint brush. Have your kids stick the clay in, and pull it back out. Voila! Instant religious medal! I used the same kind of clay for both the mold and the 'medals', but I'm sure there are other materials that would work.

Just trim around the edges with a knife (a job for mom, not kids) and then bake according to package directions. Here is a picture of me indeed letting my 5 year old do her own cutting- lol!

Don't forget to poke a hole with a paper clip, or add a medal jewelry ring thingy before baking if you want to use it as a bead. Here are some different Divine Mercy Medals we made:

We started with solid colors, and we tried pressing in glass seed beads for the red and blue rays. Then we made "marbled" religious medals by mixing some of the colors together before pressing it into the mold. These were all fun experiments! I also made these multi colored ones with rays by rolling little bits of red and blue clay and sticking them into the mold first. See the pictures:

Alternately, you could paint your "medals" after they are baked with some acrylic craft paint. Lydia made her Divine Mercy "medals" purple. I try not to stifle her creativity. ;-)

You could do this with any religious medal your heart desires to make! When we were done, we made ours into Divine Mercy Chaplets. You can either make easy chaplets from pipe cleaners and pony beads, or you can get really crafty with your polymer clay and make your own beads! It's totally doable! :-)

You can find more Divine Mercy Crafts and links here, including praying the Divine Mercy chaplet in song!

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Divine Mercy and St. Faustina Crafts, Printables, and More

Divine Mercy Sunday is coming up soon! If you're not familiar with St. Faustina and the appearances of Jesus, I would encourage you to read up! It's a great story and devotion. The most obvious things to do to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday would be to go to confession, and pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. If you've got that all under control, be sure and check out some of these ideas. :-)

 I LOVE this Divine Mercy Chaplet Craft I found over

on Making Music Praying Twice! So cute, and what a 

great way to teach your kids about praying the chaplet!

(The files are free to print for this, too!)

That Resource Site has lots of St. Faustina resources

including Printable St. Faustina Trading Cards! 

Find many educational Divine Mercy printables here

along with a great coloring page, a craft, and more!

Want to make a Divine Mercy Lapbook?

Find some examples and ideas here, here, and here.

Holy Reflections has some free Divine Mercy Prayer Cards

that you can print! Find the Divine Mercy Prayer and

how to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet on a rosary.

Catholic Online has a printable Fun Fact Sheet

for St. Faustina.

Catholic Online also has a 

Fun Fact sheet for Divine Mercy Sunday.

Relevant Radio has a St. Faustina Coloring Page

you can print with the Divine Mercy Image.

Print this Divine Mercy Prayer Ring

with Diary of a Sower.

An easy and fun way to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday
would be to make a Divine Mercy Sundae.

Consider tie dying a Divine Mercy shirt! We had
so much fun making these!!!

Don't forget about my printable Divine Mercy Craft

-you can make your own statue! :-)

 

Also, we are definitely listening to our Glory Stories CD

with the story of St. Faustina for kids! :-)

There's actually a song that goes through the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and you can listen to it here. You can also order a CD with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in Song. 

 

Also, reading the entire diary of St. Faustina 

is definitely on my to-do list!

 

Find last year's round up of Divine Mercy Sunday ideas here, including more printable prayer cards, desserts, and crafts! Also, since Pope John Paul II instituted Divine Mercy Sunday and is being beatified on May 1, you might want to check out my JPII round up, too. :-)

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Celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday...

... with a Divine Mercy Sundae!

Divine Mercy Sunday is always the Sunday after Easter, and was instituted by Pope John Paul II in the Jubilee year (2000) at the mass for the canonization of St. Faustina. This day is extra special this year because Pope John Paul II is being beatified on May 1, 2011- Divine Mercy Sunday!

Jesus appeared to St. Faustina, and asked her to have a painting made of this vision with the words "Jesus I Trust in You". Here is the image:

So we fashioned Divine Mercy ice cream Sundaes as a fun treat to celebrate this day! 

The ice cream was made to mirror the Divine Mercy image: "The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls."- St. Faustina's diary. If you're crious, read more about the Divine Mercy Image.

How to Make a Divine Mercy Sundae:

Scoop ice cream into a bowl, and create the rays with 2 long squirts of whipped cream. Embelish them with red and blue toppings of your choice. I sprinkled the whipped cream with red and blue kool-aid powder, but you could also use strawberries and blueberries, or make some red and blue sugar. Also, you could just buy red white and blue sprinkles. My grocery store carries these year round! 

Don't forget the cherry on top. ;-)

I'll be posting more about Divine Mercy Sunday and JPII soon. In the mean time, stock up on ice cream. :-)

Also, I want to start having Creative Catholic Link ups on the first Friday of every month, and I'll be starting that this Friday. Bring your creative Catholic ideas so you can share them with everyone!


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Printable Easter Countdown Calendar

Did you know that there are 50 days in the Easter season? Not one, but 50! That's even more days than there are in lent! The Easter season begins with Easter Sunday, and ends with Pentecost. In order to help my kids and I remember that the Easter season is an ongoing thing, I made this religious Easter countdown calendar which starts on Easter Sunday, and ends on Pentecost Sunday.

 

The best part about this Easter countdown calendar is that it's printable, and free for all of you!

Print for free in Black and White

Make sure you allow the image to download completely before printing, otherwise it may result in a half printing job. I'm sorry, but I cannot troubleshoot your printer problems with you- thank you for understanding. If you're having trouble printing, try downloading them first rather than printing straight from the doc.

This Easter calendar doesn't include calendar dates, so it's good for every year! Some days I included when drawing this calendar are Divine Mercy Sunday (which Pope John Paul II instituted as the second Sunday of Easter), all 8 Sundays of Easter, Ascension Thursday, and Pentecost. This is a great tool for teaching your kids about the liturgical year, so I hope you find a use for it!

How to use this calendar:
I'm going to have my kids mark off each day with a sticker. (I think I have a bunch of small Easter stickers left over from an egg dying kit around here somewhere). Other options would be coloring one square each day, or marking them off with "x's". You could also laminate the calendar with contact paper, or put it in a Dollar Store frame and then mark off the days with a dry erase marker. I also though about decoupaging it to a cookie sheet, and moving a magnet one square each day. It's totally up to you.

I'm definitely using these as a religious Easter basket stuffer at my house, too! ;-)

Just for fun, I'm also offering the Easter calendar in color, and it's also free!

The colored Easter calendar is available on a brand new special page for those who are subscribers of Catholic Icing! If you've already made yourself a friend of Catholic Icing by subscribing, just look to the bottom of this post in your reader or email, and you'll find a link to the "Subscriber Bonus Page". If you'd like to print the colored Easter calendar for free, but are not yet a subscriber, no problem! Subscribe here, or by entering your email address into the box below. After entering your email address, an email will be rushed to your inbox with access to the Subscriber bonus page!

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If you're looking for a countdown calendar that ends on Easter, you need to check out my printable Lenten calendar. 

If you're looking for more ideas on how to celebrate all 50 days of Easter, check out this post. 

These pages are my own artwork and are free for any not-for-profit use by individuals, families, or educational organizations. Copies may not be sold, reproduced for profit, or published by anyone but me. If you'd like to post this calendar for others to find, I would ask that you link to my post and rather than my individual downloads because their location may change. When printing or running copies, please do not remove my website from the bottom of the page. Thanks!
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Divine Mercy Jesus Craft

Catholic ABC's Week: 9
Letter of the week: D
Theme: Divine Mercy Jesus
Saint of the Week: St. Denis
Craft: Divine Mercy Jesus Statue

This week we are learning about the letter "D" and Divine Mercy Jesus. Jesus appeared to St. Faustina, and asked her to have a painting made of this vision with the words "Jesus I Trust in You". The two rays represent Blood and Water. If you're curious, you can read more about the Divine Mercy Image.

Materials Needed To Complete This Craft:

• Divine Mercy Jesus Printable (which I have made available here for free! :-)
• Crayons 
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Toilet Paper Tube
• Glitter

Have your child color the Divine Mercy Jesus however he or she wishes, but encourage them to color the rays red and blue to stand for blood and water. Then cut the image out according to the directions on the printable. (Help your child to cut if needed). You then use a glue stick to attach your image around a toilet paper tube.

After the rays are colored red and blue, use a glue stick to cover them in red and blue glitter. We actually used red and silver glitter at my preschool co-op because these colors were available at the Dollar Tree so it was very affordable. And the silver worked great- it's supposed to stand for water after all :-)

Optionally, fold the rays back and forth like a fan before attaching with a glue stick.

Here is what my 2 year old preschool co-op class was capable of. I'll admit that this craft was a little complicated for them. But they loved the glitter!

And here's what my 4 year old was capable of. This was a perfect craft for her! I love how colorful her version is! I think he looks like "Our Divine Mercy of Guadalupe" - which is totally not a thing by the way. :-)

Your children can make their own little Divine Mercy Statue to leave in their bedroom! 

We really enjoyed this craft and I hope to make more of these available in the future. I've also been informed that this would be a great craft for the Little Flowers Mercy badge. Maybe some of you lead some groups that can use this idea!


Grab Bag Ideas for the Letter Dd: (be sure to check out the Classroom Script for directions on using the grab bag.) Dog, Dragon, Dinosaur, Dress, Doughnut, Dice, Doll, Dolphin, Duck, Dime, Dove.

For More Resources, check out the Catholic Toolbox lesson plans for the Letter Dd.

Catholic ABC's runs here at Catholic Icing every Wednesday with the new letter of the week. You can get the details of this program by checking out the Classroom Script.

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Tie Dye Catholic Shirts- Sacred Heart, Immaculate Heart, & Divine Mercy

After finding these Tie Dyed Sacred Heart Shirts online, I just had to make some! We made a Sacred Heart shirt for my son, and Immaculate Heart shirts for me and the girls. Then my daughter insisted that "Daddy needs one", so I made a "Divine Mercy" shirt for him. (I didn't think my husband wanted to wear a shirt with a heart on it). For anyone who doesn't know, the feast of the Sacred Heart coming up on Friday :-)

Supplies Needed:

• A Tie Dye Kit with desired colors. (I got the tulip kit with fuchsia, yellow, and turquoise. It cost $10, and will dye around 7 shirts if you dilute the blue or are willing to skip the blue on some of the shirts.)
• White shirts (Or you can tie dye a sacred heart onto something else like a white bag or a pillow case. Think creatively!)
• Black fabric marker or sharpie (for the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy Shirts)
• Fabric roses or rose stamp with white acrylic paint (for the Immaculate Heart Shirt)

How to tie dye a Sacred or Immaculate Heart:

Before starting, it might be helpful to watch this video on how to tie dye a heart. 



1. Start with a damp shirt and fold it in half as shown.

2. Sketch half of a heart onto the shirt with a pencil. Draw the "dip" in the top of the heart extra deep for a good final heart shape.

3. Gather the heart shape right on the pencil line- accordion style. Keep the pencil line as straight as possible. Start at the bottom corner of the heart and work your way around. This is what makes the heart shape, so do your best. As soon as you've gathered it all the way around the heart, rubber band it on the pencil line to secure it.

4. Place 2 more rubber bands down the shirt for color separation.

5. Prepare dye according to the directions, and dye the shirts making sure to get into the fabric crevices. Let the yellow overlap the red a little to let it bleed and create the orange "flames" around the heart. The colors go on in the order shown:

6. Finish your shirt according to the directions on your dye. (For mine, we put the shirts in plastic bags for 8 hours and then washed them in hot water).

7. Let the shirts dry.

When the shirt is dry...

You can decorate it to be a "Sacred Heart" by drawing on a crown of thorns and a cross. I used a sharpie, but I suppose an actual fabric marker would also do the trick ;-) Either way, put a piece of paper under where you are working to prevent the marker from bleeding through to the back of the shirt.

 

You can make an "Immaculate Heart" by decorating the heart with roses. I did this 2 different ways:

1. Use a rose stamp to create the roses using white acrylic paint. I think acrylic paint is best because it dries so quickly, and lets face it- you've already had to wait for these shirts to dry once! This is a great way to go if you're making these shirts for a whole youth group or something. I found my rose stamp in the one dollar bins at Michael's.  
 

2. Or, you can sew on little fabric roses. At Michael's, you can get 10 of them for $0.99! :-)

About the Sacred and Immaculate Heart Images:

Both hearts are surrounded by light and flames. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is depicted surrounded by a crown of thorns, and has a cross on top. The Immaculate Heart of Mary is surrounded by roses. Sometimes (like on the miraculous metal) it is also pierced with a sword. I was sure my girls would rather have just roses on their shirts ;-)

How to Tie Dye a Divine Mercy Shirt 
*a masculine alternative to a heart t-shirt ;-)

1. Fold shirt in half down the middle.

2. Mark a diagonal across the shirt with a pencil. In St. Faustina's vision, the rays were coming from Jesus' heart, so I tried to make the top of this line end at at "heart height".

3. Gather the shirt on the pencil line accordian style, keeping the pencil line as straight as possible. When you've gathered it all the way across the shirt, rubber band it to hold it in place.

4. Add 2 more rubber bands, one on each side of the original. (This will keep the best "V" shape).

5. Dye the 2 rubber-banded sections with the red and blue dye. Then, dilute the blue dye and use for the remainder of the shirt. (For the diluted dye,  I added 3 parts water to 1 part prepared dye). Alternatively, you could leave the remainder of the shirt white, but I had too many accidental blue splatters on the shirt to make that possible for mine.

6. Finish your shirt according to the directions on your dye. (For mine, we put the shirts in plastic bags for 8 hours and then washed them in hot water).

7. When the shirt is dry, use a sharpie or fabric marker to write "Jesus I Trust in You" on the shirt. Put a piece of paper under where you are working to prevent the marker from bleeding through to the back of the shirt.

About the Divine Mercy Image:

Jesus appeared to St. Faustina, and asked her to have a painting made of this vision with the words "Jesus I Trust in You", so that's why I put it on the shirt. "The two rays denote Blood and Water. the pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls."- St. Faustina's diary. If you're crious, read more about the Divine Mercy Image.

I think these shirts would be a fantastic for a youth group or vacation bible school project where matching shirts were needed. When I went to World Youth Day with my youth group, we wore matching shirts the whole time so we could keep up with our group. These certainly would have been fun!

If you make any and put them up on your blog, please leave the link in the comments so we can all see them! :-)

Here are my kiddos enjoying their shirts! 

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