No Need for a Lamb Mold!

In keeping with our "Focus on the Lamb, not the Bunny" Easter theme, I wanted to make some actual edible lamb treats of some kind for Easter. The food industry would like to pull the wool over our eyes and lead us to believe that we can't make a lamb cake without store bought mold, but we know there are greener pastures, right? Because I don't have a lamb cake mold, I started thinking... what kind of ba-a-a-rillant lamb desserts or Easter food could you make without a lamb mold of any kind? The internet actually turned up many answers to my sheepish question, so I herded some of them together for ewe! (Ok, ok, I'll stop with the ba-a-ad lamb puns and get on with the ideas now). ;-)

For you ambitious bakers out there, I just love

these lamb cake pops from Bakerella! :-)
Here's a cute lamb cake from Family Fun.
Again- there is no lamb mold needed to make this cake!

Make marshmallow "lamb tails" and package them with
these adorable printable labels with Can't Stop Making Things.
What's easier than that? I made these for an Easter basket stuffer.

Baby Club has directions on how to make these
adorable lamb cupcakes.

These cauliflower sheep were on flickr. So cute with
their black olive heads and black eyed pea eyes!
Wouldn't they be the cutest centerpiece to a veggie tray?


 Rosa's Yummy Yums made these Lamb Rolls.
Wouldn't these be cute at Easter dinner?

Also, check out these Lamb Cinnamon Rolls!
What a great idea for Easter Breakfast!

These lamb cupcakes come from Family Fun.
I made them for Lydia's baptism (over 5 years ago! *sniff!*)

These lamb cupcakes from Cookies and Cups are super cute,

and you could totally skip the cupcake if you wanted!

Not only do I not have a lamb cake mold, but I don't have a lamb butter mold either. If you want a butter lamb and don't have a mold, you still have a few options.

 First, find directions on making a 

free form butter lamb on Taste of Home.

Also, check out your local grocery store because

it turns out they sell butter already shaped like a lamb!

I found these at Giant, and heard they were at Wegman's, too.

I can think of many foods that seem ideal for decorating edible sheep, including popcorn, marshmallows, shredded coconut, and squirty whipped cream. Hope your Easter prep is going well! Worthy is the Lamb! :-)

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Holy Spirit Craft - Handprint Dove

Catholic ABC's Week: 13  
Letter of the week: H
Theme: Holy Spirit
Saint of the Week: St. Helen
Craft: Holy Spirit Handprint Dove

As you all know, I love handprint crafts! For this one, start with a red piece of paper (the symbolic color for the Holy Spirit) and make a white handprint. Run glue up each finger (not the thumb) and attach a white feather. Add a yellow triangle beak and one googly eye- voila! A Holy Spirit Dove. The one above was made by my 4 year old daughter. The one below was made by my 2 year old son. 

Grab Bag Ideas for the Letter Hh: (be sure to check out the Classroom Scriptfor directions on using the grab bag.) Horse, Hat, Hairbrush, Happy face, Hippo, Headband.

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

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. We will be taking a few weeks off from this at Christmas, but I decided to go ahead this week even with Thanksgiving. God bless!
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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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Catholic Baptism Video

As most of you know, I have a 3 week old baby who was baptized yesterday! I thought I would share this video we made of my other daughter's baptism. (She is now 4). My mom and I used to make wedding videos together, so sometimes we get a little carried away with our home movies. :-) 




If you like the "Tiny Hands, Precious Feet" song that we used, you can order the album from Catholic Child. These are beautiful lullabies for Catholic babies!

This baptism was a really big deal to our parish because we were college students at the time and were very involved in our on campus church. As you can imagine, it was not a parish that saw many babies or baptisms. :-)

Hope you all had a wonderful Pentecost!
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Gifts of the Holy Spirit Teaching Tools

Pentecost is coming up on Sunday, which is a great time to learn about the Holy Spirit! You might also want to teach your kids about the holy spirit around a baptism, confirmation, or when studying the trinity! Here are some crafts to help teach your kids or class about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit:

Ten Kids and a Dog made this

Gifts of the Holy Spirit Windsock!

For directions on making the windsock, see

Dawn's Post at By Sun and Candlelight.

If you need a dove template for the windsock

project, you can find it at Woman's Day.

This Gifts of the Holy Spirit Craft was made by 

Busy with Blessings. Find directions on her site!

Here is a Printable Gifts of the Holy Spirit book

according to St. Thomas Aquinas.

This Holy Spirit Game is free to print from The Catholic Toolbox! 

Make learning fun by answering questions about the 

Holy Spirit to work your way around the board!

On Catholic Mom, find a Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Crossword Puzzle, Word Search, and Double Puzzle.

Just scroll down to "Holy Spirit".

Check out this Gifts of the Holy Spirit activity!

There is one symbol for each gift, starting with

"smarties" for "knowledge". I remember my confirmation

teacher making us these gift bags. :-)

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Candle Crafts and Food Ideas

Candles are very important for many reasons in the Catholic church. We have Baptism candles, Paschal candles, Easter candles, and Advent candles. We celebrate Candlemas (coming up February 2) and the feast of St. Blaise is coming up on February 3. On St. Blaise's feast day, we have our throats blessed with candlesticks. To read more about St. Blaise, click here.

To see my other posts involving candles, click here!

These edible cake candles look like too much fun!
The directions are not in English, but
the pictures speak for themselves.

Find some great directions on Family Fun for making
these ice candles that turn out with a lacy look to them.

I love this rolled felt candle ornament from Kaboose.
Make candles out of old crayon pieces with
No Time for Flashcards.
Kaboose also has directions on how to make
this candle from a ribbon spool.
Make your own dipped candles with
Fun in my Backyard.
I love these adorable edible candles from
Family Fun! And they're easier than they look!
I also found these great rolled beeswax candles
on The Crafty Crow.

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St. Agnes Crafts- Feast Jan 21

Saint Agnes has a feast day coming up on January 21. Her symbol is the lamb, so I've included a lot of really cute lamb crafts. The lamb crafts would also be useful for a lot of religious reasons (like for Easter etc.) Read more about St. Agnes here. Enjoy these fun ideas for celebrating her feast day with kids! Click the links for full directions on each craft.

I just love this glittery paper plate craft from
By Sun and Candlelight. So beautiful!
Love these little mini sheep you can make
from cotton balls with busy bee kid crafts.
This lamb note card holder from Family Fun
would certainly make a great holy card holder!
These handprint sheep from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman
would be perfect for preschoolers! I love the use of office stickers.
Here's a lamb you can make out of a toilet paper tube.
The Best of Times had a wintertime tea and
did a craft for St. Agnes.
I love this lamb made from cotton swabs, and it
would also make an adorable holy card or prayer holder.
And last but not least, this paper chain lamb
is just absolutely adorable!

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