Star of Wonder, Star of Night

This year (2011) the epiphany is being officially celebrated on January 2, but the traditional day for the epiphany (and the end of the 12 days of Christmas) happens on January 6, so you still have some time to celebrate the epiphany with your kids. Try celebrating with stars!

 This Beautiful Star can be crafted out of leftover

wrapping paper! Find the directions on Family Fun.

Make these Paper Stars with The Magic Onions. 

Make these Crispy Cheese Stars with Family Fun

as a fun epiphany snack! 

Craft these Fold and Snip Paper Stars with Family Fun.

I love these little 3D Paper Stars from Family Fun!

Craft Stars from toilet paper tubes with Muffin Tin Mom.

Find directions for making this Wired Star over on Family Fun.

Combine your crafting skills with a little science to Craft these Stars.

Directions on Family Fun.

You could even give you daughter a cute Star Hairdo

with Princess Hair Styles. Isn't this so cute?

Or you could try making these Northern Star Cupcakes.

If there's one cookie cutter shape I'm willing to bet you all have,

it's a star. So just take your star cookie cutter and go crazy on 

whatever you're eating. Like these Star Sandwiches from Ideals to Life.

If you're looking for some different epiphany crafts, don't miss my round ups of King Crafts, Crown Crafts, or Crown Cakes. Happy celebrating, everyone! 

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Religious Christmas Dinner Ideas

Looking for a way to Keep Christ in Christmas as you serve your roast beast? Well, here are a few cute ideas I have found on the internet.

Cleverly share a Reading of the Christmas Story with your

dinner guests- check this out on Inspiring Ideas. 

Jeanne from Inspiring Ideas also prompts us to remember our true

guest of honor at our dinner table this Christmas.

Cut Out and Keep has directions on how to make

Baby Jesus Buns as your dinner rolls.

For your centerpiece, use your advent wreath, but add a white 

Christ Candle to the middle. You can make this as easy or as hard 

as you'd like, from a plain white candle to a very decorated one.

Keep using your Christ Candle through the entire Christmas season.

I absolutely love these Nativity Candles from My Little Flower!

I'm hoping to decorate our Christ Candle using this technique!

I almost forgot! Be sure to Make Jesus a Birthday Cake
for your dessert! This one is from Jeanne at Inspired Ideas.
Click here to see a round up of Happy Birthday Jesus
cakes that I put together last year.

I'm hoping to use all these ideas at our Christmas dinner table, but we'll see what I have time for! ;-) We're definitely having at least a plain white Christ candle, and I'm really going to try to include the reading of the Christmas story! Also, the birthday cake is s must for us. ;-)

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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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Craft a Nativity Set

I couldn't help but share a round up of different nativity sets you can craft! I wish I could make them all! Little Catholic nativity fact- St. Francis created the first nativity scene. Isn't that really cool?! Ok, here are some nativity crafts from around the internet:

Super easy block nativity from I 

Am Momma Hear Me Roar!

Make Nativity Hand Puppets

with Ehow.

Under My Umbrella shares the 

Patterns to make this Wooden Nativity Set.

Craft Stylish has directions on how to create

This Modern Creche.

I found this cool Puzzle Nativity on

Bug a Boo Corner.

And here's another Nativity Puzzle from

LaPaz Home Learning.

I also found some directions for building

an entire Creche from Legos!

The Pioneer Woman made this cute

Wooden Block Nativity Set.

I think there's something charming about this

child made Rock Nativity from Roper5.

Suite 101 has directions for crafting a nativity from flower pots!
This one would be great for your front porch!

And don't forget about the 

Printable Nativity Set Craft that

I drew last year. It's free!

Have fun crafting your creche!

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Advent Wreath Craft for Kids

I've been crafting Advent wreaths with my preschool co-op, my own children, and, well, pretty much every Catholic child that I come in contact with! :-)

As I'm sure you can instantly tell, this advent wreath is child sized, and crafted with pink and purple birthday candles. This is a great way to have fun with kids for advent!

These wreaths can be made for about a dollar a piece. The Styrofoam circles I got 2/$1 at the Dollar Tree, along with the "wired pine". I cut the center of the circles out ahead of time with a seraded steak knife to make it a wreath shape. (Use caution when you do this please!) You can buy small pre-made Styrofoam wreaths at AC Moore for $1.50 each, but I needed several for my preschool co-op class. I also got enough red berries at the Dollar Tree for all the wreaths for just $1. The birthday candles came from my local grocery store for .99/box. Obviously, you need pink and purple, so you will need 2 boxes.

Have the children paint the wreaths green. They love this! I know you could start with floral foam which is already green, but that stuff is super crumbly and will make a big mess with small kids. It also won't be durable. It doesn't matter if they don't paint it perfectly, but try to encourage them to paint the inside and outside of the circle as well as the top. As you can see, we used foam brushes. I think foam brushes are especially handy for small children.

After painting, allow to dry.

The wired pine we used as kind of a lacing exercise. It's not glued at all, just wound around the wreaths and twisted together at the ends.

We let the kids squeeze on their own glue and stick on the clusters of berries. It's ok if they use a lot of glue - it will dry eventually! :-)

Because the regular Styrofoam is stiffer than floral foam, you can't stick the candles right in. First, poke the holes with a Philips head screw driver, and have the kids insert the candles themselves.

Here's one that I made where the pine stuff was all glued on top of the wreath with a glue gun. We're going to be using this as my class's advent wreath on our prayer table.

The kids in my class had such a great time making these! :-)

Here's Julian's. He is so proud of it!

You can substitute other Christmas greenary for the wired pine.
Just attach with glue.

Yes, these are working advent wreaths, so they can be lit. But please use caution and don't burn your children... or you teddy bear. ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'll see you back here on Monday with a very special (and unprecedented) Cyber Monday post!!! :-D Don't do any of your Catholic holiday shopping before then!!!

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Make Pink and Purple Advent Candles

As anyone who follows my facebook page knows, I've had trouble finding pink and purple candles for Advent this year. But really, this is nothing new- it's hard every year. Sure, I could order them, but crafting them for super cheap is more my style ;-)

I started with regular white pillar candles from the Dollar Tree. See? (For the record, this green wreath is also from the Dollar Tree. I embellished it with this awesome glittery stuff I got on clearance after last Christmas and attached them with a glue gun. It cost me $3 to make the wreath, so with the candles it cost a total of $7).

Then I "painted" the candles with pink and purple crayons. I know a lot of people are into beeswax, but I hear crayola is on it's way in. If your house is anything like mine, you probably have a bucket of broken crayon bits somewhere. Just peel them and discard the papers. (This is a great job for the 4 year old in your life.)

Painting with wax is actually called encaustic painting, and I did a little of it in college. That's how I knew it wasn't going to be the big pain-in-the-booty you might be thinking it is. All you do is put your wax in a shallow can (like a tuna can) and set it on you griddle on low. By the way, totally leave it to me to find craft uses for all of your kitchen stuff. It's soooo much more fun that way!

It doesn't take long for the wax to start melting this way, and you just leave it on the heat while you work. Little disclaimer to say this is really not a craft for small kids, and please don't burn anyone.

You can stir it a little as it melts with a metal spoon. Don't worry, all the wax will chip right off the spoon when it hardens, which won't take long. Begin painting the wax onto your candles, but don't use your favorite paint brush. 

Don't try and make it look perfect, because you can't. Just enjoy that home-crafted look. It's fancy to have a hand crafted feel, like hand made soap or something, and I love it the personality it adds!

It covered very nicely for me in one coat, and it was very fast and easy to do. I would suggest painting your pink candle first so that you can use the same brush without attempting to clean it. A little bit of pink on your brush won't contaminate your purple paint. 

Here's my wreath with my newly painted pink and purple candles!

I'm aware that I'm posting a lot of pictures, but I'm really in love with my advent wreath this year! We're traveling for Thanksgiving, so I wanted it to be ready to go as soon as we get back. I got the pink place mat under the wreath also at the Dollar Tree. I love that store!!!

For the pink one I painted the wick and everything, but I don't like the look as well as leaving the wick white. And yes, I did try coloring with the candles, and yes- it totally worked! ;-)

I hope you guys aren't advented-out yet because I have another advent wreath craft coming your way soon! And anyone who missed yesterday's edible advent wreath should go check it out!

*Updated to Say* Here's how they're burning:

 

The candle had a little trouble burning through the layer of crayon. I absorbed a little of the melted wax away from the wick with a paper towel, and now it's burning beautifully! Other readers say that theirs are burning fine although the crayon seems to burn slower than the rest of the candle. I guess it depends on what kind of candle you start with. Mine are just super cheap candles from the Dollar Tree. Hope this answers your questions! :-)

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