How to Make a San Juan Diego Costume

When it was time to pick saints for All Saints' Day costumes, there was no doubt who my 3 year old wanted to be- Saint Juan Diego!

He absolutely adores the movie Juan Diego, Messenger of Guadalupe. I don't love all of the CCC movies, but this is one of my favorites! It's so sweet, I like the animator they used for this movie, and it actually made me cry the first time I watched it. You can buy the movie here, or you can rent it from Pius media.

The real challenge to being San Juan Diego for All Saints' Day is creating a tilma with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it. You can make a simple tilma from paper bags, or you can get more complicated with it. I was thinking about printing an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on iron transfer paper, and ironing it onto a make-shift tilma. Ultimately, I decided to paint it on myself!

Here's what you need to paint your own tilma:

• Black Fabric Paint
• Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe (I printed mine from Paper Dali- Vee has some great Our Lady of Guadalupe coloring pages)
• Stiff fabric of some kind (I bought tan upholstery fabric on clearance at Joanne's Fabrics)
• Assorted colors of acrylic craft paints. I used Apple Barrel Paints. (See a great explanation of the colors and symbols of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Paper Dali)
• Scissors

I started by folding the fabric in half, and cutting a head hole in the top. Trim your timla to be the size you need for your particular child.

Next, I printed the Our Lady of Guadalupe coloring page the right size I needed for my tilma.

To transfer the image, darken the back of the print-out with the side of a pencil.

Tape the picture onto the fabric in place, and trace (with plenty of pressure) over all the lines.

This will impress a faint pencil drawing on the fabric. I had trouble getting a good picture of this.

Trace over your pencil impression to darken it.

Now you're ready for the fun part! Go around all of your pencil lines with black fabric paint.

Let your outline dry overnight.

Once your outline is dry, paint the sections in with acrylic craft paint. I used the cheap Apple Barrel paints.

I had fun painting this in! I did a little bit of shading, but you wouldn't have to. Don't let this project scare you- if you can paint inside of lines you can do this! The last thing I painted on was the stars on Mary's veil.

I took a strip of leftover fabric one one of the tilma shoulders to make it look more like the tilma from the movie.

Have your child wear some neutral colored pants and a shirt. Put the tilma over their head. Paint on a little mustache and goatee with some face paint, and add a sombrero-type-cowboy-hat. 

Julian is so proud of his costume! He keeps telling everyone that he's going to be "San Diego" for All Saints' Day... he's just forgetting the little "Juan" part in the middle. ;-)

Related Posts:

All Saints' Day Costume Ideas for Boys

All Saints' Day Costume Ideas for Girls

How to Make a Nun Costume

Juan Diego Craft and Fun Food Ideas

How to Make a Mother Teresa Costume

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Grotto Craft for Our Lady of Lourdes

Have you guys seen these Catholic grotto craft kits yet? You can get them for Our Lady of Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe. I personally feel like they make most since for Our Lady of Lourdes because the grotto from that apparition is very famous! The feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is coming up on February 11. Here are the grotto craft kits Lydia and I made:

This craft would be a great pair with the children's movie Bernadette, Princess of Lourdes.(I have and love that movie by the way- one of my favorites of the CCC collection!). I just love the story of St. Bernadette! (And if you're looking for an adult movie, you can try The Song of Bernadette). 

The grotto kits we made were soooo much fun, so easy, and the results are striking! I couldn't tell from the pictures in the catalog, but the finished project is actually very 3 dimensional and stands on it's own! Also, it came with a great explination of grottos and information about Our Lady that was awesome! The instructions were very easy to follow. This craft kit would make anyone look like a professional crafter.

What I also couldn't tell from the other pictures of this craft- these gem stones it comes with are just beautiful! Lydia loved them! (And I did, too!)

It was so nice to have everything ready to go for me. I think these kits would make excellent gifts for Catholic children (especially from Godparents) for sacraments and Baptism anniversaries! So cute! They recommend coloring the pictures with colored pencils, so I pulled out my all-time-favorite colored pencils... Prismacolor! They are a little pricey, but man are they awesome! I have been using them for more than 10 years and I would never pick up another crayola or rose art brand colored pencil. They're great for kids because you can get such rich colors from them without too much pressure. They're also great for blending and mixing.

Even though it said for ages 6 and up, Lydia is only 4 and this was an awesome craft for her! She did need help keeping the bottom flat, but she did the majority of this herself.

This craft kit was so much fun and kept Lydia busy for over 2 hours. We had a great afternoon making these together! I would fully recommend getting these kits for your kids! It's very relaxing to have everything ready to go without a million trips to the craft store- a real luxury! For more ideas for celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, see my post from last year.

Disclaimer: I was not paid to write this post, but I was provided with these kits for free from Catholic Child Catalog. Every recommendation you see on this site is 100% honest from me. This post does contain affiliate links which help support the costs of running this site. Thanks for your support!
If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe Crafts and Feast Day Ideas

The feast of San Juan Diego is December 9, and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is December 12. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to San Juan Diego many times. She gave him roses as a miracle when there were none in bloom and he carried them in his tilma. When he opened his tilma, Our Lady of Guadalupe's image was left behind! Such a great story for kids! Now here are some ways you can celebrate these upcoming feast days with your kids.

How cute are these Sombrero Cookies from Family Fun?

Paper Dali has a Printable Our Lady of Guadalupe, 

and a Juan Diego Paper Doll - tilma included! ;-)

Click here to print yours!

Famila Catolica made liturgical folders with the printables

from Paper Dali and has printables of her own in Spanish!

(What a great time to throw in some Spanish!)

Find this great Juan Diego coloring page for free

from Relevant Radio.

Our Little Catholic Corner made this craft for the

Assumption, but she says it would make a great

Craft for Our Lady of Guadalupe and I think she's right!

Request paper bags the next time you shop in preparation

for paper bag tilmas! Find directions from Domestic Church.

The picture is from Bountiful Blessings. They also made cookies!

I LOVE this Juan Diego movie from CCC.
We will be watching it on his feast day!

Don't miss my post on Our Lady of Guadalupe from last year. Also, Homeschool Goodies is having an Our Lady of Guadalupe Link Up starting on St. Nicholas Day. I'll be linking! Happy celebrating everyone!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Our Lady of Guadalupe- Dec 12

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is coming up on December 12. Here are some fun ways others have celebrated this day!

Check our this tutorial for Our Lady of Guadalupe

Tin Ornaments from O Night Divine.
Celebrate by making a Mexican Eye of God
Craft with these directions.

Cottage Blessings had an amazing Our Lady of Guadalupe
Tea! Many great ideas here including San Juan Diego's
"Tilma of Roses" given to him by Our Lady :-)

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.