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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Craft for Catholic Kids - Make a Monstrance!

April is the month dedicated to the Holy Eucharist! We've been learning about the mass and Eucharist around here, plus I've been teaching my kids about adoration, so this is perfect for us! :-) My daughter has been pretty fascinated by monstrances ever since "M" week around here, so we recently crafted these monstrances.

What you need to make this Catholic Monstrance Craft:

• A Pool Noodle (yellow)
• Pipe Cleaners (yellow or gold)
• White Paper
• Popsicle Sticks
• Craft Glue
• Gold glitter and or glitter glue

This is so incredibly cheap and easy to do that it would be a great craft for a whole class of kids, like for instance a first communion class. I actually had enough pieces left over from our pool noodle rosary make several of these! This is also a good craft to do in preparation for adoration for kids. Here's what you do:

Before you begin, slice the pool noodle up. I got our pool noodle from the Dollar Tree, and it was flower shaped, but I have confidence that the craft would be cute with regular round pool noodles, too. I like to slice pool noodles with my bread knife- just be careful! You'll also need to make 2 cuts for inserting the popsicle stick. You can do this with scissors. Each monstrance you make will need one pool noodle to have a cut in the bottom, and the other one in the side. See the picture:

Each child will need 2 slices of pool noodle, and 1 Popsicle stick. (We happened to have yellow popsicle sticks, but a regular one would work, too. You could also color them yellow with a marker.)

You can cut the pipe cleaners in fourths with scissors. Have the children insert them around one pool noodle slice- they will stick right in. My 5 year old and 2 year old were both able to do this.

 Decorate with gold glitter and/or glitter glue. Lots and lots of glitter makes children very happy! Plus, monstrances are supposed to be special for Jesus. :-)

We also added jewels with red and green glitter glue. (You can get packages of gold, green, and red glitter and glitter glue at most Dollar Trees).

Put a little glue on the ends of the popsicle stick before inserting them into the pool noodle to keep them secure. Cut a white circle from paper and insert it in the middle for the "host". If you stick the popsicle stick all the way through, you should be able to glue it right onto the stick. Cover anything that's still visible in yet even more glitter. :-)

We made our top pipe cleaner piece into a cross with another section of pipe cleaner, because monstrances seem to have crosses on top. This was super fun and easy, plus they came out pretty cute. Even the one 2-year-old Julian made. :-)

If you're looking for something even easier, don't forget

about our Gold Doily Monstrances we made!

Happy Catholic Crafting, everyone!

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First Communion Craft - Make a First Communion Banner

Either I was the last Catholic on the planet to hear of first communion banners, or some of you also aren't familiar with this popular first communion tradition. Some parishes have all of their first communicants make banners. If this is the case at your church, you'll need to check and see if there are "rules" you need to follow (for instance, they want everyone's banner to be the same size, etc.) The rest of you may feel free to fly by the seat of your pants! :-)

Believe it or not, it's pretty easy to make a first communion banner, and there is no need for sewing! If you're feeling like this might be too crafty for you- think again! I'm going to show you exactly how to make a first communion banner and I promise you it's not as hard as you think! ;-)

Materials Needed to Make a First Communion Banner:

• Big piece of felt or other fabric for background (don't shy away from bright colors!)
• Wooden dowel
• String
• Glue
• Assorted colors of felt (the stiff kind works best)
• Sharp Scissors
• Glitter glue or Fabric paint and craft jewels (optional)

Start by having you child sketch out what they want their first communion banner to look like. Let them design the first communion banner themselves- it will be more special to them that way! Some different symbols you can suggest for their first communion banner could include a chalice, dove, host, monstrance, lamb, grapes, wheat, cross, angel, bible, Jesus fish, or even a rainbow. Don't forget to leave room for your name and possibly the date.

When they're ready, have them cut their symbol pieces out of felt. We found that the stiff felt was easier to work with than the floppy kind, and I love the felt with glitter! :-)

Have them keep arranging their pieces and designing their first communion banner until everything is where they want it. Then they can glue the pieces down. You can either make an attempt to cut the letters of your child's name out of felt, or you can look for pre-cut felt letters at your craft store. You can even buy iron-on letters. You could also just use your fabric paint to write on the name and date, which would be a lot easier than cutting the letters out.

Once the felt pieces are all down, your child can embellish their first communion banner with glitter glue and fabric paint or even fake jewels! The possibilities are endless, so be creative!

When your child is finished decorating the front of their banner, let it all dry before moving on. Now you need to be able to put the dowel through the back so it can hang up. Here's how we went about doing that- and yes- a picture is worth a thousand words.

We let it dry like this.

It worked really well!

Tie on your string to your dowel and you're all finished!

Now that wasn't so bad... was it? ;-)

What do you do with a first communion banner? Well, it's generally displayed at the first communion mass. Some churches hang them all up on strings, some hang them off the sides of the pews. After first communion, taking your child's picture with their adorable banner is a must!

When you get back home hang it up in their room as a memento of this important day! (By the way, this is my little brother. He is so proud of his banner!)

If you'd like to see more first communion banner examples, Angie at Many Little Blessings has a pictures of more than 40 child-made first communion banners. Of course, all inclusive first communion banner kits are available if that's more your speed, and some of them are quite striking when completed!
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Craft a Monstrance with a Gold Doily

Catholic ABC's Week: 18
Letter of the week: M
Theme: Monstrance
Saint of the Week: Mother Teresa
Craft: Monstrance Craft

Supplies needed to complete this craft:

• Gold Doilies (Available in the cake decorating section of your local craft store. I got a package of 12 for about $2.50)
• Gold Paper (I bought just one sheet in the scrapbooking aisle for 60 cents. It was enough for about 10 monstrances.)
• Glue Stick
• Stick on Jewels (also available in a craft store)
• Foam Board and/or Paper (You can get foam board at the Dollar Tree, and each board will yield enough to make 4 of these).
• Marker

This week in my preschool co-op class, M is for "Monstrance". This was a great craft for my class!

I cut the pieces out ahead of time so the kids could put them all together. If your kids are good with scissors, I would let them cut the pieces themselves. I first had them glue down a piece of green paper for the table (so the monstrance wouldn't appear to be floating). We used green because we are currently in ordinary time. Next they glued on the golden sticks for the monstrance, and then the doily. The "host" I just cut out of white paper and drew on a cross with a marker- have them glue it in the middle and decorate with jewels however they want.

As they're working on their craft, talk to them about how the monstrance is gold and decorated with precious jewels because of how special Jesus in the Eucharist is to us.

I really like the one my 4 year old, Lydia, made on purple paper! I would have liked to offer the kids in my preschool class to make them in different colors, but it wasn't feasible with so many kids.

 

Because Lydia is older than the kids in my preschool class and she is learning to write her letters, I wrote the word "Monstrance" lighly with a pencil and let her trace over it with a black marker- then erase the pencil marks. 

We also talked about circles at preschool this week, so this craft went along perfectly as a Catholic circle craft! Also, consider a field trip to adoration this week for your child to see a real monstrance. Our church has a special hour for children's adoration, and I'm taking them tomorrow (weather permitting...).

Grab Bag Ideas for the Letter M: (be sure to check out the Classroom Script for directions on using the grab bag.) Monkey, Money, Man, Monster, Moon, Moose, Mother Teresa holy card, Motorcycle, Mouse, Mug, Magnet, Marble, Mouth (from Mr. Potato Head), Monk.

For More Resources, check out the Catholic Toolbox lesson plans for the Letter M. (Her M lesson is on Moses.)

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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First Reconcilication Gift Ideas

Today I decided to tackle a reader question from Julie in Minneapolis:

I have a 2nd grade son making his first reconciliation soon..do you have any ideas or gifts (do you give gifts for that???) on how we can celebrate it? document it? they are just doing it during the school day so there is nothing sponsored by the church ..just wondering what people do for that..thank you!!

I was reading this email and thinking that as Catholics, we tend to wait for first communion to celebrate. I consulted this topic with my favorite Catholic forum and on my facebook page. I got some response that first reconciliation was more of an "inward accomplishment" so therefore not calling for the same celebration that other sacraments do. Given that I've never heard of a "First Reconciliation Party", I thought most other Catholic must feel the same way. Even so, first reconciliation is a sacrament, and could still be recognized as a mile stone... no?

Have you guys heard of first communion banners? (I'm pretty sure I was the last Catholic on the planet to hear of them). Anyway, I think it would be super cool to give your child a craft set to make his or her own First Communion Banner as a gift after their first reconciliation. That way, it can be a gift, but because they also use it at the First Communion it becomes a memory item for both! Catholic Child Catalog has quite a collection of first communion banner kits you can order. I like this "Lamb of God" one! Isn't it beautiful? Everyone can be a successful crafter with these easy-to-use kits!

A First Reconciliation certificate would certainly be a nice way to commemorate this special occasion, and you can print a free first penance certificate here! (Isn't it great to find stuff for free online?!)

I got sooooo many replies from families that went out for ice cream after their child's first reconciliation that I'm going to go ahead and proclaim it a Catholic tradition! (Do I have the authority to do that?) No matter. Whether you spring for Baskin Robbins or make Sundays at home with the kids, take it to the next level by making it symbolic- eat vanilla ice cream because it's white for "purity". :-)

Ok, I'm excited about this first reconciliation gift idea that came from a facebook fan- Give your child an eraser! I thought this was such a cute idea! I've seen these erasers "for big mistakes" at the Dollar Tree. This is a great way to recognize the sacrament in a symbolic way without filling your house with more dust collecting trinkets, or breaking the bank. This might be a cute gift idea to send to your God child for their first reconciliation. Let them know you haven't forgotten their important religious day!

If you're more of the "trinket kind", (and I know us Catholics like our trinkets) I like this Act of Contrition Wall Cross. It's classy looking and keeps the Act of Contrition in mind, which is awesome. :-) Anything with the act of contrition on it would be a great idea (such as a holy card or a wall plaque).

If nothing else, make your child a special dinner. You know, lay down a nice table cloth, put out some pretty china, the works! Just because you're waiting to break out the cake and balloons for your child's first communion doesn't mean you can't celebrate your child's first reconciliation. Anyone have one of these red plates? Crack that baby out of the china cabinet! Whoo hoo! ;-)

How does your family celebrate first reconciliation?

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