Celebrate World Youth Day With A Craft!

Today is the first day of World Youth Day 2011! Whoo Hoo! I have such a soft place in my heart for WYD since attending WYD 2002 in Toronto, Canada. We rode on a bus, slept in church gyms all the way there and back, saw Pope John Paul II, met Catholics from all over the world, ate some seriously weird food, carried everything we brought for more than 8 miles, slept in a field, attended a Papal Mass, and made memories to last a lifetime!

As a teenager, I attended Catholic youth conferences at a diocesan, state, national, and world level. I know that these conferences made me the Catholic that I am today!

World Youth Day, 2002

Everywhere we went there were flags, flags, and more flags!

Everyone was proudly waiving their country and state flags everywhere you went! It was beautiful! On the way walking back to the church one night, I stumbled on a Canadian hot dog vendor that was selling World Youth Day trinkets, and he had  Papal flags. I thought "Even though we are all here from so many different countries, we are all united as Catholics under the Papal flag!" So I haggled with him and I bought one. :-)

How to Craft a Papal Flag for World Youth Day

Materials Needed:

• Markers
• Masking Tape
• Pipe Cleaner
• Clay

Start by educating yourself a little bit about the Vatican (aka Papal) flag. The Vatican is one of the only countries in the world with a square flag! The yellow and white bands symbolize gold and silver. The keys on the flag represent the keys to the Church given to St. Peter by Jesus. You can also see the papal tiara on the flag, and a red cord connecting the keys.

Start by cutting your pipe cleaner into a small flag pole. Wrap a piece of masking tape around for the flag at the top.

 Once you stick the masking tape together, decorate with markers to be a simple Vatican flag design.

Stick a small ball of clay at the bottom to hold your flag up. You're all finished! 

Of course, you can make any flag this way. We also made some USA flags while we were at it. 

And now to move onto the bragging (ahem) 

here are some pictures I took of John Paul II at World Youth Day!

These pictures are so old they were actually taken with film! Lol! ;-)

World Youth day 2011 is in Madrid, Spain! 

Say a prayer for all the youth attending! :-)

And here is a seriously random picture of myself under a sign somewhere in Canada that said "Lacy". :-)

For nostalgia's sake, I leave you with a piece of the theme song from World Youth Day 2002: "The Light of the Wolrd, Christ is our Light, We shine with His brightness, the reflection of His Light from day to day!" That song was sung so much that week that I can actually still sing it in French! (Although I would NOT attempt to type it in French- lol!) Any of you ever been to World Youth Day?

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

Pope John Paul II Mitre Craft for Catholic Kids

Pope John Paul II is being beatified on May 1, 2011- Divine Mercy Sunday! Yay! JP2, We love you!

Did you know a pope hat is called a miter? You probably do, but maybe your kids don't! Here's a way to make an easy miter craft out of a toilet paper tube. (Never never throw away your toilet paper tubes, ok? They're just way too handy!)

Just push down the top of your tissue tube with your finger on each side, and it will come to a point like a pope hat.

It will be too long, so trim off the bottom with some scissors.

Show your kids some pictures of Pope John Paul II and let them decorate their miters with paint, stickers, markers, or whatever you happen to have on hand. We used some washable paints and sharpie markers.

Didn't Lydia's come out so cute? I love the crafts she makes! (Lydia is currently 5)

We also made some of JPII's crucifix's to go with the hats. You can mold them yourself- I posted directions on how to make these crucifixes here.

If you punch a hole in the top of the miter with an ice pick or a paper clip, you can stand your crucifix upright with the hat. Ta-da!

We really enjoyed making these, and plan to use them as a centerpiece on Sunday- his beatification day! Even though I'm not a cook, Alicia convinced me that I can indeed cook a Polish meal on Sunday as well, so I'm going to give it a try! At my house, you always know dinner is ready when the smoke detector is going off. ;-) For dessert, you could either try making Pope John Paul II's favorite cake, or you could make Divine Mercy "Sundaes". Anyone want to guess which I'm planning to serve?

Earlier this week I said I was going to start having monthly Creative Catholic link ups on the First Friday of each month starting today! Anyone see the problem there? Oh, that's right- First Friday will indeed be next Friday, not today- lol! So I'll see you here with your Creative Catholic links next Friday, k?

By the way, Our Sunday Visitor has a great printable tribute to JPII for free! I just love free! :-)

Find a round up of Pope John Paul II crafts here, and a round up of Divine Mercy Crafts and ideas here.


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

Pope John Paul II Crafts, Lesson Plans, Printables, and More!

Are you ready to celebrate the Beatification of Pope John Paul II, May 1, 2011? That's right- the beatification of JP II is coming up fast! It's actually on Divine Mercy Sunday. Beatification is the second to the last step to sainthood, and will give him the title of blessed. "JP 2, We Love You!!!" (Wow, yelling that brings back some major memories of World Youth Day, Toronto!) Ok, on with the JPII crafts and ideas for kids. :-)

Find a printable JP II stained glass pattern 

from Chantal's Stained Glass.

The Bishops of Rome has made a lot of cool

JP II stuff for kids, including these sun-catchers!

Print this Pope John Paul II coloring page

from the St. Faustina kids page.

The Bishops of Rome and Catholic Family

used the coloring page above to make these

JP II crafts- I love these little statues!

Check out this Ty doll converted to a 

Pope John Paul II doll on Arma Dei. Too cute!

Remember what's going on at the Vatican for the day

with my edible Papal flag treat for kids!

Find Pope John Paul II lapbooks here and here.

Print a coloring page of JP II's coat of arms and
learn a ton on Catholic Family. I love this project!

Also, find this JP II Coat of Arms Cake on
Keeper of the Keys. What a neat idea!

Craft a "Pope Hat" or a "Miter" with Catholic Missionary Family.

Did you know you can buy a
Pope John Paul II Comic Book? Pretty cool, huh?


You can also get Pope John II paper dolls!

Lesson Plans and More for JP II:
If you're looking for educational ideas for Pope John Paul II for older kids, check out this JP II unit study, and also these word searches. I also found this amazing printable unit study on Pope John Paul II from Mater et Magistra on 4 Real Forums. 

Another idea for celebrating the soon to be Blessed John Paul II would be to make a Polish dinner (since he was from Poland). If you're like me and you don't cook, perhaps you could celebrate with "Papa John's" pizza??? ;-)

Don't forget to check out my posts on celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday, because they'll all be handy for this special occasion, too! ;-)

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