Craft an All Saint's Day Treat Bucket

At my house, I work really hard to make being Catholic fun, and I like to make the fun of All Saints' Day rival the fun of Halloween!!! Are you with me?! To even the playing field, I think celebrating All Saints' Day should include candy. Whether you're going to an All Saints' Day party where candy will be used as prizes or if you're going trick-or-treating dressed as your favorite religious hero, you'll need a way to carry the goodies you collect.

This year, I decided rather than using the pumpkin shaped buckets you see everywhere, we would decorate our very own All Saints' Day candy buckets! I mean, if you can make it Catholic, why not? ;-) You could use any bucket, bag, or container, but we used sand pails because we had them on hand.

I started by writing messages on them with fabric paint. I wrote things like "Happy All Saints' Day", "Pray for Us", and "Our Heavenly Family". One bucket that has all pictures of Mary says "Queen of the Saints". I also thought about writing "When the Saints Go Marching In", but forgot to. I let the messages dry overnight.

Next, you'll need to get some saint stickers, or print some images from the internet. I printed out these adorable saint images from Happy Saints!

These are some of the Happy Saints I cut out with scalloped scissors 

to use as cupcake toppers for Lydia's CCD class this Sunday.

These pictures are so cute! Happy Saints is a great site dedicated to creating cute pictures of the saints to get kids more excited about their faith! There's actually a Happy Saints store where you can get these images on things like bags, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and you can even get stickers for crafting. You should keep this store in mind for future presents- the next time I'm a Godmother, my new Godchild will be getting a patron saint onesie as a present for sure!

We cut out the circles, and mod-podged them onto the buckets. If you don't have any mod-podge, you can just water down a little white glue. (One part white glue, one part water. Do NOT use washable glue.) Paint the Mod Podge on the bucket where you want the picture, and stick it on.

 

Once you have all of your images where you want them, take the Mod Podge and paint over the entire outside of the bucket. Yes, even Mod Podge right over your words.

For this one, I used Marian stickers that I got at the Dollar Tree. Even though they stuck by themselves, I still Mod Podged over the top to hold them on better and give the bucket a finished look. Plus, the Mod Podge helps keep the fabric paint on there, too.

My favorite part- on some of the buckets I used glow in the dark fabric paint. Check it out!

I found the glow in the dark paint with the rest of the fabric paint, and I'm glad I saw it because I wouldn't have known to look for it! My kids are really excited about their buckets, and they love the glow in the dark paint.

Here's some more pictures of the final product:

Have fun celebrating All Saints' Day, everyone!

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Our Lady of Sorrows Crafts

The month of September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, and the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is September 15. Earlier I rounded up coloring pages for each of Our Lady's 7 Sorrows, and today I'm sharing some crafts I found on awesome Catholic blogs :-)

This Our Lady of Sorrows Craft was made by

Filled with Joy. You don't need any special supplies for this one.

Knotty Pine Trails made this really cool

Our Lady of Sorrows Craft and posted excellent

directions on making it yourself. I love this craft!

Our Domestic Church made this 

Our Lady of Sorrows Bookmark and shares the template.

I love how the beads stand for Mary's tears!

Gray Family Circus shares a year's worth of Liturgical Crafts,

including this Our Lady of Sorrows Ornament.

Bless Us O Lord made This Cake for Our Lady.

Mary told St. Bridget that 7 graces would be granted to those who say 7 Hail Mary's each day reflecting on her 7 sorrows. You can read about these 7 graces over on Lord, Make Me a Saint. They are wonderful graces, and very comforting to read.  

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Ideas for Celebrating the Nativity of Mary (Mary's Birthday!)

Happy Birthday, Mary! Well...almost. Mary's birthday is celebrated on September 8. You can read more about the Nativity of Mary here. So here's the question: How do you celebrate the Nativity of Mary? What do you do at a birthday party for Mary? Well, I have a few ideas to share with you. :-)

Make a Craft!

You knew I was going to say that, right? I think crafting some simple rosaries would be a great craft idea for Mary's birthday!

We crafted some slices of cake for Mary's birthday. I found a cake slice template here, and printed several on card stock.

First, cut out your cake slice template. Next, go ahead and fold the creases on the lines, and unfold to make it flat again. Then color with markers, and paint on the "icing" with homemade puffy paint (recipe below). Microwave it dry, and assemble the slice of cake with glue.

Recipe for Homemade Puffy Microwave Paint:

1 tablespoon self-rising flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons of water (give or take)
a few drops of food coloring

Make a paste out of the flour, salt, and water. Color with food coloring. Paint on with a paint brush or a q-tip. When you're finished, microwave it for about 30 seconds, until puffy and dry. This was so much fun to do!

What To Do With Your Cake Slice Craft:

We are using our cake slice boxes to put our rosaries in and take to Mary's birthday party. You could make 5 of these cake boxes, set them out on a cake plate, and number them 1-5. In each box there will be a rosary, and a piece of paper telling with a mystery of the rosary. At Mary's birthday party, ask for volunteers to lead a decade of the rosary. At the beginning of each decade, the leader can come forward, take a rosary from the box, read the slip of paper with the mystery for that rosary, and lead the decade.

Make a Birthday Card for Mary

Make Mary a card for her birthday! We went ahead and used the same puffy microwave paint with a monogrammed "M" for Mary, a crown, and a birthday cake with a candle. Inside I wrote a prayer for the nativity of Mary (that I found here). At the birthday party, everyone can sign the card with promises of prayers as presents (aka a spiritual bouquet.)

Mary's Birthday Cake

Any cake would be a great cake for Mary's birthday! I would suggest icing your cake in white (to symbolize purity) and blue (Mary's color). If you're getting together with friends for a Marian celebration, consider making a cupcake rosary! You can have 3 families sign up to bring about 20 cupcakes each, iced white, and one family to bring the "Our Father" cupcakes iced in blue. You can use a real crucifix for the bottom, or assemble with a cake, cupcakes, or chocolate.

If you're only one family and 50-something cupcakes is WAY too many for you, you could make a "one decade" cupcake rosary, or assemble rosaries out of something smaller such as marshmallows and candy. Find some pictures and ideas for making edible rosaries here.

Put 10 candles on the cake. Pray one decade of the rosary, lighting one candle for each Hail Mary. When you're finished, sing "Happy Birthday" to Mary, and blow out the candles!

Decorate for the Party

You can decorate with anything blue! Be sure to bring out a Mary statue (or several) if you have some. Think party hats and streamers- it is a birthday party after all! ;-)

Sing some Mary Songs!

I love singing Mary songs! You can find lyrics and guitar chords for Haily Holy Queen here. I really need to find the time to post some more lyrics and guitar chords for Marian songs! Some other songs you could sing are the Hail Mary, Immaculate Mary, or Ave Maria.

 

Play a Game

If you're looking for a simple activity for celebrating with your family, check out this Hail Mary game from The Catholic Toolbox. (It's free to print!)

More Posts to Check Out:
Nativity of Mary
Cupcake Rosaries
Food Ideas for Marian Feast Days
Free Mary Printables for Kids


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