Pro Life Activities for Kids

With the National March for Life coming up in a few weeks, I've got pro-life stuff on the brain. I live in the DC area and would love to go to the march, but I always end up wimping out because I don't think I can handle my kids in the cold downtown all by myself. Still, we're going to be working on some pro-life crafts and such the week of the march, so I thought I would share some ideas with you! :-)

I LOVE this printable pro-life activity from Paper Dali 

to help children pray a novena for the unborn. It's free!

Learn to Draw Umbert the Unborn.

(I'm sure most of you have heard of Umbert- 

a pro-life comic strip).

Find directions on making these Pro-Life Signs with your

kids- this is something I came up with last January.

Your family could also donate some items to a crisis pregnancy center, visit a tomb of an unborn child, say a rosary for the unborn, or even spiritually adopt a child. You can see all my Pro-Life posts here. I'm not going to allow comments on this post because of the nasty comments I got on some of my previous pro-life posts.

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Religious Candy Cane Craft

Catholic ABC's Week: 15
Letter of the week: J
Theme: Jesus
Saint of the Week: St. Joseph
Craft: J is for Jesus Candy Cane Craft

This week at my preschool co-op, we're learning about the letter "j". It was pretty easy to pick what "j" is for... Jesus! Last year I saw this craft over on Muffin Tin Mom and I've just been waiting for a chance to make it! Isn't it the cutest? I wish I had some pictures of my preschool kids making this one, but we didn't get to go yesterday due to many factors, including the fact that one of our cars is currently broken down :-P

Materials Needed to Complete This Craft:

• White paper
• Red Paint
• Shredded Paper
• Glue
• Felt (or colored paper)
• Manila File Folder

For little kids, you'll need to do the cutting ahead of time. Cut out the candy cane shape from white paper or card stock, and ovals from felt for Baby Jesus' blanket. Cut circles from manila file folders for Baby Jesus' head and draw on a little face.

Start by having the kids paint red stripes onto their white candy canes (try to make sure the paper is turned like a "J"). It's more important that they do it themselves than it is for the stripes to be perfect. (I made the one above. A toddler's candy cane will not look like that- when I have a picture of the one my 4 year old made I will post it). Have them put glue at the bottom of the candy cane and attach the shredded paper. Glue Baby Jesus together and add him to the "hay".

 

That's it!

Grab Bag Ideas for the Letter Jj: (be sure to check out the Classroom Script for directions on using the grab bag.) Jingle Bell, Jacks, Jello, Jack O Lantern, Jar, Joker, Juicebox, Jerky, Jet, Jump Rope, Jaguar, Jelly, Jellyfish, Jellybean, Jug, Juicer.

For More Resources, check out the Catholic Toolbox lesson plans for the Letter Jj. (Her Jj lesson is also on Jesus!)

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.

Remember that we will be taking a few weeks off from Catholic ABC's at Christmas. God bless!

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Emmanuel Craft for Kids

Catholic ABC's Week: 10
Letter of the week: E  
Theme: Emmanuel
Saint of the Week: St. Elizabeth
Craft: Emmanuel Craft

This craft is so cute and children of just about any age can make it! This Baby Jesus craft would obviously also work well for a Christmas craft.

Supplies Needed to Complete this Craft:

• Popsicle Sticks (we used jumbo popsicle sticks)
• Shredded crumple paper (you can get this by the bag full at the Dollar Tree)
• School Glue (not a glue stick)
• Manila File Folder
• White Felt (you could substitute white paper)
• Construction paper

Before you begin, trace around a milk cap on a manila file folder and cut it out. Draw on a face for Baby Jesus. Also, cut out a rectangle of white felt for his "swaddling clothes". If your kids are older, they will be able to cut out Baby Jesus on their own. Now you're ready to begin. Have your kids run a line of glue down each popsicle stick and glue them in the middle of their paper in the shape of an "X". This is the manger. Then put lots and lots of glue on top of the X and stick the crumpled paper on it. Lastly glue on Baby Jesus' blanket- then his head.

To make this your "E" craft for the Catholic ABC's, Use a foam "E" sticker for "Emmanuel" and also write "God With Us". (Emmanuel means God with us).

Grab Bag Ideas for the Letter Ee: (be sure to check out the Classroom Script for directions on using the grab bag.) Envelope, toy Elephant, Eagle, Mr. Potato Head Ear, Egg Egg (I used several varieties including a play Egg, a plastic Easter Egg, and an Egg shaker)

For More Resources, check out the Catholic Toolbox lesson plans for the Letter Ee. (Her Ee lesson is on "Elijah")

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.




Advent is coming up fast, so hopefully this craft will be useful to you whether or not you're following Catholic ABC's. ;-)
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Make a Mother Teresa Costume

Any of you looking for last minute costume ideas for All Saints' Day? I know I am! How about making a Mother Teresa costume from a pillow case, a single bed sheet, and a roll of blue painter's tape? Read on my friends, read on!

Little Violet is going to be Mother Teresa for our All Saints' Day party tomorrow. She's too small for a sheet, so I cut down some white fabric. The best part??? This costume doesn't involve any sewing!!! (Now that's my kind of costume!)

All you need is some white fabric and some blue painter's tape, scissors, a safety pin, and either some bobby pins or a headband. You'll also need one adorable child for inserting into the costume.

I have found that a veil falls more evenly around your head if it's the shape of a half circle rather than a rectangle. Mother Teresa's order (Missionaries of Charity) have one wide blue stripe and then 2 more narrow blue stripes on the edge of their white garments. So I ran one strip of blue painter's tape and then cut another one length wise for the 2 more narrow strips. I hot glued the veil onto a headband for baby Violet to keep it on her head because she has no hair for pinning it into.

 

This piece I made for wrapping around her body. I put her in a white long sleeved shirt and white tights, then wrapped this around her (over her left shoulder and under her right arm) and then safety pinned it to the top of her shoulder. 

 

She's ready to go!

For an older child, you could use the painter's tape on a white pillow case for the veil and a white single sheet for wrapping around the body. Use a safety pin and don't cut the sheet, and pin the pillow case into her hair with some bobby pins. At the end of the day remove the tape and return your sheets to your linen closet! :-)

As always, supervise your children at all times and always take necessary precautions. In other words, don't let your children choke on painter's tape and then try to sue me. I promise you'll find I don't have much to sue me for anyway ;-)

Hope this last minute costume idea helps you guys out! I still have 2 more to come up with before tomorrow. Suggestions???
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Printable St. Gerard Note Cards

St. Gerard's feast day is on October 16, which is this Saturday. When I was in high school, I painted a whole series of Saint pictures that were supposed to "modernize" the saints. St. Gerard is the patron saint of expectant mothers and the unborn, so I did a mixed media piece of him in an ultrasound picture. I've always liked this piece a lot, and I like to have it hanging in our home- especially when I'm pregnant.

I thought this piece would make really nice Catholic note cards for expectant mothers. These could be great for telling anyone that you are praying for their unborn baby! I thought that these would be especially useful to send to someone having trouble with their pregnancy. Sometimes it's hard to find the right thing to send, but if you know a pregnant Catholic lady, you really can't go wrong with this one ;-) So I've made these simple printable note card for all of you to enjoy for free!

Printable St. Gerard Note Cards

*Printing the Cards*
I've been having some emails about the cards not printing, but I just printed some from my computer as a test and it worked just fine. Click the link above the cards. On the google docs page there's a link in the top left corner that says 'print'. When it takes you to the printing screen use the little printer icon to the left of the picture. If you're still having problems shoot me an email and I'll send you the jpeg image for printing. :-)

I also think this could be a neat image for an NFP only OB/GYN to use in the office. I'm hoping to have some prints of these available in the future, so be sure and let me know in the comments if that's something you'd be interested in :-)

*If you're looking for a card to send to someone who has lost a baby, try This Printable Miscarriage Card from Vee at Paper Dali. 

The St. Gerard mixed media piece was completed using colored pencils, watercolor paint, and acrylic paint on watercolor paper. It's meant to be St. Gerard actually inside of an ultrasound picture, so that's why all the white dots and words etc. The baby in the ultrasound is actually my little brother. He was born when I was 16.

I hope you enjoy these note cards! As soon as I have some printer ink I am going to print them and send some out myself! Here I am with the original:

*These printable note cards are my own artwork and are free for any not-for-profit use by individuals, families, or educational organizations. Copies may not be sold or reproduced for profit. If you'd like to post these note cards for others to find, I would ask that you link to my post and rather than my individual download. When printing or running copies, please do not remove my site name from the page. Thanks!
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Catholic Baby Shower Idea- Shower of Roses!

Are you looking for a Catholic baby shower idea? Well, here's a baby shower I just threw for my sister-in-law! It was "Shower of Roses" themed, honoring St. Therese. "After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses" - St. Therese of Lisieux.
 
So welcome to this "Baby Shower" of Roses! A baby shower thrown in celebration of new life, and also in theme of St. Therese! :-)

The Invitations

 I made umbrella invites from rose scrapbooking paper.
They open up into a circle with the info on the inside.

They were mailed with a St. Therese novena prayer card.

The Corsage

Here is the new Mommy getting her baby corsage! I made the corsage from a bib, and 2 no-scratch-mits. I rolled them into "roses" and secured them with green electrical tape, then hot glued them together. I completed the corsage by tying a purple pacifier on with a bow, and adding some fake greenery.

Creating the "Shower of Roses"

To create a rose showering effect, we dangled fake rose buds from helium balloons. This was very affordable (you can get fake rose bouquets at the Dollar Tree). We had trouble with some of the rose buds being too heavy to float, so we tied 2 balloons each to those. The whole living room seemed to be showering roses!

The Centerpieces

The centerpieces were made from baby onesies, washcloths, and bibs rolled into "roses", secured with rubber bands, and stuck onto the greenary left over from the rose buds dangling from balloons. I arranged them with floral foam into flower pots from the dollar tree. We used these on the food table, and the gift table! (Find some directions for making baby rose bouquets here.)

Baby Shower Food

I wish I could take credit for this adorable watermelon baby carriage, but it was made by my other pregnant sister-in-law. We also made smoked salmon pinwheels (the whimsical swirl shape going quite nicely with the rose theme) and pink lemonade (keeping things as "rose colored" as possible).

Rose Cupcakes

The rose cupcakes were one of my favorite parts! I did put some time into making them, but it was totally worth it! Find the directions on how I made these rose cupcakes here.

"Little Flower" Shower Game

Any way that you can work flowers into this shower totally goes with the St. Therese theme because her nickname is the "Little Flower". I found these free printable shower bingo cards, but I had to block out the "bridal shower" part before printing them. You write in what you think Mommy will receive as gifts, and mark them off as she opens until you have bingo. This was a lot of fun!

More Decor

We filled the room with flowers as much as possible (pulling from other rooms around the house). Everything was sprinkled with fake rose petals (again, 200 for $1 at the Dollar Tree) and even this awesome rose tissue paper came from the Dollar Tree! Pink and purple in the same bag, too :-)

The Prizes

St. Therese invented sacrifice beads, so I thought they would make awesome prizes in keeping with my theme! I made the rose beads myself (as taught by the Clay Rosary Girl). Some of the strings are sacrifice beads, others are one decade rosaries. I love these little baby feet charms I found to put at the end of the strings! Find directions for making sacrifice beads yourself here.

Don't forget to have your guests use their new sacrifice beads to pray a decade of the rosary for mother and baby before leaving!

The Gifts

I made these Catholic baby novelty shirts for both of my pregnant sister-in-laws, and they were a huge hit! I posted directions on how I made the Catholic baby onesies here.

The Guests

We had a great turn out for this shower, and I think everyone had a pretty good time! What's a party if you don't have great friends to celebrate with you? 

Everyone wore such great colors!

(Y'all might recognize the 2 girls on the far right- 

Clare and Virginia, your 'guides' from the holy heroes videos!)

The 3 new baby girl cousins all together!

(The one in the middle is my little sweetheart!)

More Pictures

Click the link above to see more pictures of this shower! I wish I could run them all right here on the blog, but I have so many I know you'd get tired of scrolling! :-) Hope you enjoyed the shower- I know we did!

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Make a Catholic Baby Present

By the end of the year, I will be and Aunt 3 more times! Yay! I wanted to make some Catholic baby gifts for the Mommies-to-Be, so I made these Catholic Novelty shirts:

You can get plain white onesies in packs of 5 at Wal-Mart. I actually found these 2 at the Salvation Army.

What you'll Need:

• Onesies
• Pencil
• Fabric Paint (assorted colors)

Once you choose what you want your shirt to say, sketch it on the shirt with a pencil. (Extra pencil lines you make will wash out when you're done, so don't stress over them.)

Once you have it like you want it, draw over your pencil lines with fabric paint.

I decided that I wanted the onesies to have a little more personality, so I added some "extras"- like this Jesus fish!

If you want to add a rosary around your design, then make your biggest dot right at the bottom (where the rosary 'splits') and then 4 more big dots evenly spaced at the "4 corners" of your design. Then you can just fill in between each one with 10 small dots. Add the "beads" that hang down and the cross last. Ta da!

I also love adding little halos with gold glitter fabric paint. I think the halos are cutest when they're oval shaped and a little crooked.

Here's my little angel in her new "Cradle Catholic" onesie!

Here are some other things your Catholic novelty shirts could say: *I'm going to keep updating this list whenever I find other cute phrases*

• Catholic Girl
• I Love my Godmother (or Godfather, or Godparents)
• World's Best Goddaughter! (or Godson)
• 100% Angel
• Born to Love Jesus
• Jesus Loves Me
• Jesus was Breastfed 
• Mommy's Answered Prayers

Know of something else cute to write on the shirts? Leave it in the comments! :-)
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Celebrate a Baptism Party!

I have something special planned for today- I'd like to invite you to join me in celebrating my daughter's baptism! It's actually a triple baptism, so that's triple the fun ;-) So come on in, and enjoy the party- you're invited!

 These beautiful invitations were made especially for Violet's baptism by Alicia from Through My "I"s. I love how she made them purple to go with her name! You can special order cards and invites for your Catholic occasions (or any occasion for that matter) from Alicia's Etsy Shop :-)

Are you hungry? Please have a piece of cake! It would have been cool to make it myself, but with 8 house guests staying with us, it seemed easier to just order one. This one came from Costco.

Now that you have some cake, pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable! And look at these custom holy cards my mom ordered for the party. Here, take one! They're for the guests. :-)

Check out this hankie bonnet my mom got for baby Violet! She wears it as a bonnet at her baptism, and then with the snip of a string it becomes a hanker chief for her to use at her wedding as "something old". Isn't that a great baptism gift idea? It's pretty easy to make a hankie bonnet yourself.

I forgot to introduce you to my friends! How rude of me. To my right is Violet's Godmother. This is also her baby's baptism party. To my left is a great friend of mine- her daughter was baptized today, too! Can you believe we all had baby girls at the same time? We're so lucky! 

Look at her baptism gown! It's been in my family for 5 generations. It was made by Violet's Great Great Great Grandmother (yes, that's 3 greats) and worn by her Great Great Grandmother, and every generation in between. I have no idea how many family members have been baptized in this gown, but it's a lot! Including me :-) You don't have an heirloom like this? Why don't you sew a gown?

Here, would you take my camera and click one of Mark and I with the baby? Thanks!

I sure hope you enjoyed yourself! I know I enjoyed sharing this very special day with you. I just love having great Catholic friends! :-)
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