When my oldest two daughters were about 7 years old, my sister, a few other ladies, and I organized a Little Flowers Girls Club at our parish. Oh, we had such fun! But over the course of time the members all fell away for various reasons and the club meetings happened less often. Eventually they stopped all together.  My girls really enjoyed those meeting so as my younger girls grew to the right age I longed to join another Little Flowers Club with them. I had recently discovered two groups within an hour of our home however both had meeting times that just wouldn’t work. I was so upset. While I was still struggling with whether or not I should try to join one of these groups, I was approached by my cousins, who asked if I was interested in helping them organize a new group. (They were having the same problems as me.) I jumped at the chance! 🙂 So that means I’ll be posting about our Little Flowers activities which we will be doing! Yay!! How cool is that! What is a Little Flowers Girls’ Club? Before I continue, I want to give a little background on this wonderful Catholic club! It’s designed for girls ages 5 and up. While it’s similar in design to Girl Scouts, it’s made for Catholic girls. It’s meant to be a mother and daughter club. The girls are able to get together and learn about saints and virtues from the moms! I know some groups have a single leader and don’t include the mothers, and that’s okay, but I love how this program encourages the mother/parent to work with the girls to earn the badge. It’s a wonderful bonding challenge for the mothers and daughters! This is not a religion course, but it teaches girls about the saints and virtues. It reinforces prayer, kind actions, and good manners. When the girls are able to see other girls who are attempting to grow in faith, it encourages them as they travel on their journey of faith! Visit Behold Publications to learn more: HERE So as we begin our new Little Flowers Girls’ Club adventure, I thought I’d take the time to share the items I bought to help us take the first few steps. This is just a little information for anyone who is thinking of buying some of these items or starting a new LF group, too. Vests and Sashes Of course the girls all needed a vest or a sash. I had bought sashes for my older two girls – many years ago at our first LF club. Rachel and Rebekah had often complained that the sashes didn’t stay in place, so I thought I’d go ahead and try the vests this time. The vests seem fine for my smaller girls. perhaps a little bulky, but my younger girls are small in stature.  On the other hand, Elizabeth (11 years old) thought the vest was too tight.  She has a hard time taking it off. I may decide to buy her a large sash to replace the vest. She tried on her older sisters’ sashes (They are the large deluxe) and that fit her well. Since I have 3 (possibly 4) girls with matching vests. I wanted to be able to tell which vest belonged to whom. So I added a decorative button to the inside bottom corner of the vest. My daughters picked out a button they liked from my button jar and I sewed it on.  Now we can easily avoid a mix-up! 🙂 When my older two daughters had matching sashes I ironed their names on the inside of the sash with iron-on letters. That worked well, too! The Books: First, I bought a for each of my girls. This book is the Member’s guide so the girls can follow along and see what saints and virtues they will be learning about. It also gives the list of requirements that the girls can complete to earn the badges. Using a permanent marker, we wrote the name of the owner on the bottom outside cover, so we could easily tell who owns the book. Since my sister already owned the (from our previous LF club), we did not order this book. But I highly recommend that at least one mom-member of the club has the book to help guide the group. My sister already owned the from our previous LF Club, too. While we did use this to help inspire us years ago, we did not use it a lot. This was mainly because we created crafts of our own which were not in this book. If you are not a crafty person and have no idea what to do, then you may want to buy this book for the group to share. I also ordered the book. This seems like a handy book to help us with all sorts of ceremonies – from badge ceremonies to May Crownings! I’m sure I’ll be making use of this! I decided to purchase the book because (as some of my followers may recall) we have a Marian Tea party at our house every May. So I thought our club could join us this coming May! I thought perhaps this book might have some ideas to help us along! I’ll let you know when we start planning for this! The book seems to be a cute book with sweet stories to help the girls understand the virtues. While I’m not sure exactly how we plan to use this book yet, I’m sure it will fit in nicely some how. I’ll let you know how we decide to use it! ●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●✿●▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬● Well, this is our start to this new Little Flowers adventure!! I know my girls are looking forward to it! Hope you will enjoy the upcoming Little Flowers Club posts! I hope they will be useful for those who are planning Little Flower meets, as well as, those who are just looking for fun activities to do and/or create! God’s Blessing! ~JenMarie

Hi, everyone! How is your Advent going? I hope well! Ours is just as busy as always! I had promised to post about our Little Flowers Girl’s Club meetings. We have had three meetings now and I still haven’t posted any of them! Well, I’m going to jump to our third meeting and post about it since it was all centered around Our Lady of Guadalupe. I thought you might be more interested in seeing this now than in a month – just because it’s Our Lady’s Feast day! Our meeting started out with a adorable on-the-spot play of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe. No prep or planning, just a fun spontaneous acting. The play was acted out by our club’s oldest member who was Our Lady of Guadalupe. The other parts were done by some of the Little Flowers’ older siblings. A simple story was read and the kids just acted out what was being read. They had no practice, nor did they read the story beforehand. It made for a funny and easy activity! The Little Flowers all LOVED it! I prepared the costumes before the meeting. The only fancy costume was Our Lady’s. This is the costume which I created as an All Saint’s Day costume for Rebekah a few years ago. See it HERE . Juan Diego’s Costume was just a sombrero and a raggy piece of material for his tilma. The other costumes were simple robes, and pieces of cloth. It was a very simplistic activity, but boy did they all enjoy it!  I printed out an image of Our Lady to put on the tilma. I stuck velcro on the back of the image so it would cling to the material that we used for the tilma. Then during the play, Our Lady secretly placed it on Juan’s tilma as she “arranged” the roses. Surprise! There it was when Juan showed the roses to the bishop! After the play the girls made the Liturgical Ornament of Our Lady of Guadalupe . This took a little prep-time, but it was well worth it! My mother and Elizabeth helped to cut the pieces out. We laid them out to be sure we had all the pieces for each one and then I bagged them up in little baggies so I could easily pass them out to the girls. Note the coffee cup in the picture!! Totally need that! So don’t forget it! I did decide to add the gold and red glitter fabric paint to Mary’s veil and the sun before the meeting. I thought about having the girls do this themselves but I thought it would be less stressful for the moms if this was done beforehand. All of the Little Flowers’ had a great time making these! They all turned out so beautifully! After that, we all had a snack and had a great time talking and playing together. Perfect party and meeting! Have a blessed Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!! ~JenMarie

Sept. 23 is the feast day of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Here are a few copywork pages you might like to use after discussing this wonderful saint! I created 6 different sheets with 2 different quotes.  The levels range from early writing to cursive writing. So you can choose the learning levels you need. The two quotes are: “The devil is capable of confusing the most brilliant mind.” – St. Pio  “Don’t allow any sadness to dwell in your soul, for sadness prevents the Holy Spirit from acting freely.” – St. Pio St. Pio was such an amazing man. These two quotes are so down-to-earth and give us such a great perspective on our need to stay alert and God-centered  during our lives. We need to keep joy in our hearts and we need to be humble. Without joy and humility the devil will win over us.  Joy and humility do not come easy. They are a mindset that we must work hard to gain – during every moment  of each day. In order to gain them we must realize that God is in control and His plan will always be the right way – We must TRUST at all times .   – Be still and know I am God. –Psalm 46 Download This Work Sheet Here: May God bless your day with His joy and peace! ~Jen-Marie

Earlier this summer my older teen daughters had their cousins over for a sleepover. The girls were looking for a craft to do, so we quickly whipped together a simple- yet useful – project. These are upcycled boxes covered in Catholic images from old cards, magazines, and catalogs! To make these you will need: boxes – We used cardboard craft boxes ($1.00 at AC Moore), but you could also use paper mache boxes or wooden boxes. images from, old cards, religious mail, religious catalogs, etc. scissors mod-podge paint brush Just cut out a bunch of images and arrange the images on the box. After you are happy with your design, use mod-podge to the back of the images and attach them to the box. After the glue has dried decoupaged the boxes – covered the images with a few thin layers of mod-podge to make them smooth and strong enough to withstand use. Allow the mod-podge to dry between coats. The girls created lots of different faith-centered designs! Some of the decorations they even added to the inside of the box lid. Our boxes were bought at AC Moore. Most craft stores have lots of boxes to choose from. You could upcycle tissue boxes, cereal boxes, and other boxes, too! Cover them with paper first if needed. Happy Catholic crafting!! God bless you all with joy! ~Jen-Marie

Mother’s day is coming during the month of May – which is also the month we honor our heavenly mother, Mary. It’s a great time to think about flowers! So with this in mind, I created this printable bouquet and vase! It has beautiful flowers and a sweet image of Our Lady holding the infant Jesus. This paper bouquet is easy to make and could be a beautiful gift for mom or grandma. It also would be a beautiful decoration for your May altar or use it as a centerpiece for your table! I know we will be using ours as decorations for our Mother Mary Tea party this year! Although we made ours for the month of May, these are 100% perfectly usable on any Marian feast day!  So feel free to create this project anytime! To create this you will need: the printable pages - Download below colored pencils or crayons scissors stapler or tape (we used a stapler) glue or glue stick 7 oz disposable plastic cup – ours were 3 1/2 inches tall. a sheet of green tissue paper a sheet of green construction paper Download the Vase Craft Here: First print the pages (regular paper is fine). Color the Mary and Jesus image, the butterflies and flowers. If you are giving this as a gift, you can write a message to the recipient in the boxed area below Mary. Note: the printable does not have the writing under Mary as it’s pictured in the image above. We added that to this sample. Once you have colored it the way you like, cut out all the parts. Staple (or tape) the one end of the Mary box to the other – to form a tube. Add the 7 oz plastic disposable cup to the inside of the tube and staple the top of it to the top of the paper tube (in the back) Be sure it’s sitting level before you staple it.  Note: The paper tube is not tight around the cup. If you make it tight it is more likely to wrinkle and/or fall over. The plastic cup will help keep your flowers and greens from falling out. Now, fold the butterflies in half and open them up again. Staple the middle of the butterfly to the area around image of Mary. (or tape it down) This will give them a flying-3D look. Cut your sheet of tissue paper in half. Then cut each half in half again – diagonally. Take the middle of each part and form a point. Stuff the point into the cup along with some green leaf-like strips, which were cut from the green construction paper. If you don’t have green tissue paper you can just fill the cup with green strips of paper, but the tissue is a much better filler. Now fluff-out the greens and add your flowers.  Some of my kids fluffed theirs out so much it made these kind-of top heavy. When they finished creating them they sat fine, but if it’s frustrating to the child, add a few small rocks to the bottom of the cup. Use a glue stick to attach the flowers to the greenery. There you have it – a beautiful bouquet! You’re ready to be a florist!! 🙂 This bouquet craft can be enjoyed by a wide variety of ages. Obviously, the quality will not be as great for younger kids, but they can still enjoy it. Here is one my 4 year old made. My 4 year old, Caleb, was thrilled with his! He sat and admired it for quite awhile before he moved it into his special place in his bedroom. 🙂 Here are a few more examples which my girls created: We had light and dark green tissue paper. I thought I’d show you both so you can decide which shade of green you like best. This could be a small group activity! A small group of kids could make one bouquet together. There are 9 flowers, 2 butterflies, and the Mary vase which all need colored. Allow the children to pick the part they want to color. Then they can all share in the assembly of the bouquet. This is great way for a few siblings to create one of these bouquets for Grandma or Mom! Enjoy! ~JenMarie

My daughter, Rachel, created a set of coloring pages that focused on the Sorrowful Mysteries.  I shrank them all down and added them to one page. I felt that having 5 coloring pages for the kids might be a bit much for them to handle. It seemed like it could be time-consuming and potentially boring for my kids to color one page for each mystery. Having all 5 on one page seemed to be more interesting and less mundane. One of my other daughters, Elizabeth, colored the sample I have shown here. (She used colored pencils.) Download This Sorrowful Mysteries Coloring Page: Thanks again to my daughter Rachel for sharing your artwork with us! And thanks to Elizabeth, too! Enjoy! God Bless. ~Jen-Marie

Many Catholic families try to say a Rosary daily during Lent. I know that was how our family started saying a daily Rosary. It was a great way to begin a good habit! But one of the hardest things to do while saying a family Rosary is keeping young children quiet and happy while you pray. I’ve tried many different ways to keep my kids interested and involved. I’ve posted a list of ideas HERE and I’ve also created Rosary Sheets and Rosary Mats . We even made a Giant Pro-Life Rosary ! All were great ideas, but, as all things do, they can get old and the little ones begin to get wiggly again! So here is another attempt to keep them happy! 🙂 I created Lacing Rosaries! These are just right to keep little ones happy, involved, and interested! To create these you will need: the download (available for purchase HERE ) your printer stock/heavy paper laminator and 4 laminating sheets Note: the laminating step is not necessary, but without laminate, the lacing holes will break very easily. scissors hole punch yarn, shoestrings, thin ribbon, or other strings to use for lacing This file is for purchase in our shop. Click Here to visit our shop and purchase it! First, print the downloads onto heavy paper. Then cut them out. Next, use a hole punch to punch out the “Hail Mary” and “Our Father” lacing holes. We only punched the holes on the outer edge of the circle, not the ones between the crucifix and the Mary heart-center. Now laminate each sheet. Next, cut them out again and hole-punch them again. Leave about 1/4 inch (or more) of laminate all the way around the outer edge of the circle. This helps to keep the laminate from peeling apart. Cutting and hole punching 2 times may seem redundant, but they seal better if you do this step before and again after the laminating. It will help them hold up longer to the lacing and unlacing. Now they are ready to use! These are a great Rosary if you can’t say a Rosary all the way through in one sitting – you’ll never lose your spot!! Also, it may be a good idea to lace the Rosaries in one use and unlace them the next time you use them! Save the trouble of unlacing them after each use! It seemed to work best if the kids used one lace per decade. Attach the laces to the Our Father beads and then the child can start from there. They’ll lace with one string till they get to the next Our Father and then they can use a new string. The PDF includes:  Joyful Mysteries  Luminous Mysteries  Sorrowful Mysteries  Glorious Mysteries  All 4 on 1 Rosary Sheet (If you don’t want to make all 4 – just make 1!) This file is for purchase in our shop. Click Here to visit our shop and purchase it! I hope you and your little ones enjoy them! ~JenMarie

In the hopes of preparing my kids for Ash Wednesday Mass, we discussed what Ash Wednesday is and what it means. If you are looking for a good article to read about the topic, I recommend this article from LifeTeen . It’s funny and informative!  🙂 After talking about Ash Wednesday we completed a simple activity: This printable activity allows the kids to draw a picture of themselves and then add an ash cross to their forehead. First, the kids drew a picture of themselves.  Then they rubbed some charcoal on a piece of scrap paper and pressed their thumb into it. You could just use lead from a pencil, but charcoal is darker. Next, they used their dirty thumb to make a cross shape on the picture’s forehead. The kids had a blast adding the crosses! This was fun for many age levels. My younger kids enjoyed it and so did Rachel, my 16-year-old. She’s always looking for a way to satisfy her artistic cravings! Here is the face my 3 year old, Caleb, drew: He told me, “I can make beautiful, smiley, cross faces, too!” Yes, he sure can! 🙂 Download this Ash Wednesday Page Here: Have a blessed Lent! ~JenMarie

Many months ago I stumbled onto an article that I knew I needed to remember for this time a year! The article was originally published in Mail Online  and tells of a mystery giver that scattered hundreds of pebbles which had baby Jesus hand painted on them. The anonymous artist said he “simply wanted to bring joy and the real message of Christmas to people.” I thought this was the coolest idea, so this year I did something similar with my kids! Obviously they don’t have the ability to hand-paint baby Jesus on the stones, so I made an image of the baby Jesus and added 45 of them on a printable page. I printed the page off and the kids did the rest! It was fun and easy project for them to do. 🙂 If you want to do this too, you will need: flat river stones (we bought a few bags at the dollar store) mod-podge printable sheet (download below) paintbrush Download This Baby Jesus Page Here: First cut out the images of Jesus. Lightly brush the back of the image with mod-podge and place it onto the stone. Press it down to help remove any air bubbles or ceases. Now paint over top the image. Be sure to cover the entire image. Also paint over the edges of the picture and around the picture. This will help seal it so the image is protected from the weather. NOTE: This is NOT waterproof, but it does help a lot! You could buy waterproof sealer, too! Now let them dry.  Once they are dry they are ready to use! How to use these Jesus pebbles: Secretly, place them around your town! Place them on window sills, porches, sidewalks, steps, street furniture, or anywhere a passerby can find them. Place them around your house or party room before your Christmas party! Your guest will delight in seeing these little baby Jesus stones. At your Christmas party play a hid-n-seek game. Simply hid them and let the kids try to find them! Teachers: place them around your classroom or school for the kids to find. Youth groups can make and place these throughout town, church, the mall, etc. Give them as Christmas gifts! I’m sure there are countless ways to use these to remind others of the true meaning of Christmas, Do you have another idea or way you plan to use these? God bless you all this Advent Season! ~JenMarie

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all having a great summer! I’ve been keeping very busy painting, cleaning, and reorganizing the house. My goal this summer is to clean up and clear out! My summer motto has been: “Use it or trash it!” So far my house is a lot more organized and I’ve trashed a mountain of stuff from our shed! As I was cleaning out some of my craft supplies I found a bag of large wooden beads. I discovered I had enough to make a large Rosary. So after finding a large wooden cross I thought I’d go ahead and use these beads instead of trashing them. I’m so glad I did… My 6 year old daughter, Naomi, helped me to make one!  She counted out all the beads and then we strung them on the ribbon one at a time. These are the beads that where in my bead bag. You can buy beads similar to these at your local craft store.  I bought the cross in the wooden cut-out section of a craft store a few years ago. They do still have similar crosses today. We strung the beads on thin satin ribbon. First add your ten “Hail Mary” beads. Then add the “Our Father” beads. We used long thin beads and small round beads to separate the “Hail Mary” and “Our Father” beads. This is what the “Our Father” bead set looks like on our Rosary. If you have trouble with your ribbon or string fraying use a match to melt the end together. Note: This only works if the material of the string/ribbon is a synthetic material. After you have the 5 Hail Mary decades and the 4 Our Father beads on the ribbon you can begin the next step! Be sure you leave each of the ribbon ends very long. You will use both to create the end of the Rosary. We used the long beads and a small round beads for the center. Push both ends of the ribbon through the round bead and the long beads. Use both ends of the ribbon to string on the rest of your beads. This will allow you to tie on a cross. Using this method creates only one knot on the rosary, so it will be much stronger.  After knotting the ribbon around the top of the cross, I hot glued the knot so it would hold-up better to the abuse of children. I\’m sure you will need to adapt your rosary to fit the beads you have. So feel free to create your rosary a little different than ours. Our large Rosary has been well loved. The kids have been taking turns using it while we pray our daily Rosary. They even gave Dad a turn! I think our kitten, Milkshake, wanted a turn with the Rosary, too! She kept hopping in while I took these pictures – I had to share! 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your summer! May God bless you with joy and peace! ~Jen-Marie

My girls and I like to wear medals – all kinds of saint medals! But when you hang a medal on a necklace it often looks so lonely. By itself, it seems so easy to over look and can appear not very classy. But recently I had an idea… My girls all love charms! They like the tiny, cuteness in these shiny miniatures. So why not combine medals and charms together to make a jewelry statement that is eye catching, beautiful, and meaningful? My girls just love these! So I’m making some more of them to sell on my Etsy shop . I thought you might like these, too. I named the new charm/medal jewelry “Saint-Symbol Jewelry” because all the charms are symbols that relate to the saint medal that they are with.  For example, here is the St. Therese Saint-Symbol necklace: The St. Therese Necklace includes a 5 flower connector, a rose, and a heart/rose charm. I think they just look so gorgeous together! St. Francis is hanging on a dainty looking branch with his woodland friends. It’s makes you feel so peaceful! This St. Joseph necklace was a favorite of my daughter Elizabeth. She was born on his feast day and loves to work with wood! Win, win! 🙂 Our Lady Star of the Sea (Stella Maris) is accompanied by a light house – the symbol of God’s guidance- and an anchor -the symbol of hope.  (I have two variations of this listed.) The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Charm Bracelet has a school theme. Look at all those cute little school charms!! The St. Gerard bracelet is perfect for a mom-to-be or a pro-life advocate. It includes lots of baby items and a pro-life rose! Here is the charm bracelet with a First Communion theme. It has a church, wheat, chalice, grapes, Bible, wheat cross, a Blessed Sacrament medal, and a 2015 charm to commemorate the year that your daughter/granddaughter/niece received her First Communion. On this necklace, St. Philomena is flanked by two of her symbols of martyrdom. There are more Saint-Symbol Jewelry listed in our Etsy shop . Drop in to see them all … I will be adding more! While you are there you also might like to see our other Jewelry gems. Above is a pair of earrings which are a crown of thorns and a crucifix. We also are selling a matching necklace! My oldest daughter Rachel designed these.  Click Here  to see them. You might like to look at our corded necklaces, too!! We have two different Mary images available. Click here. I have been blessed to have wonderful followers such as you. I would like to share that blessing back by offering 10% off your purchases of $25 or more. Use the code FOLLOWER at the check out. This code is good for all items in our Etsy shop! Check out our  Etsy shop to see the entire collection and visit often, because I will be adding more! We have lots of items which would make great gifts for First Communion, Easter, Mother’s day, and birthdays! Here are some general links to our new listings: Saint-Symbol Necklaces  (more saints coming) Saint-Symbol Charm Bracelets  (more saints coming) Corded Necklaces with Images of Our Blessed Mother Jewelry items with a crown of thorns and a crucifix First Communion Jewelry May God Bless you all with a wonderful joy-filled day!~Jen-Marie

Do you have one of those weaving looms at home? I loved those when I was a kid and my kids love it too! BUT what do you do with all those pot holders – which really don’t work anyway!? Well, my daughter, Elizabeth, (age 10) showed me her creative way to use those woven pot holders. She makes Rosary bags!! I thought her idea was quite clever!! So I thought I’d share it with you all! All you need is a weaving loops kit! If you don’t own one you can buy a variety of different brands from craft stores or on Amazon – HERE Here’s how to make the Rosary Bag Step 1: Just make a woven square as the weaving loops instructions show in your package. Step 2: Choose two loops of equal size to create the bag. Step 3: Fold the square in half and “sew” one of the loops through the ends to join them together. Be sure to close-up any holes on the end so the rosary doesn’t slide out. Also, knot the loop so it won’t unwrap. Step 4: Do the same to the opposite side. You should now have a pocket. Step 5: Choose two more loops to add to the top opening to use as handles and to tie it shut. If you want more security so the rosary won’t slide out you may want to add a few more tying loops to the ends, too. Isn’t Elizabeth’s idea clever!? These sure help to keep our huge pile of Rosaries from getting all tangled together! They could make great gifts for Grandma, too! 🙂  -Hope Grandma’s not reading!! Thanks, Elizabeth, for sharing your idea with all of us! So what do you do with your weaving loom creations? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments! I’m always looking for new ideas for my kids!  😉 God Bless. ~JenMarie

On a snowy morning, we made snowmen indoors! 🙂 Yes, it was a fun day of making snowmen and it was all centered around the idea of the Trinity! I heard several years ago that a snowman can be a great way to teach kids about the Trinity, and my kids always respond well it this idea. So while making our snowmen we talked about the Blessed Trinity and the Sign of the Cross.  You will need: printable page (Download below) crayons or colored pencils scissors glue – we used a glue stick tape – if you have a zealous little one who cuts off the tabs! Download Trinity Snowman Activity Here: Color his hat, scarf, and nose on the second page. You may also like to color the sky/background, as well as the Trinity symbols on the Trinity snowman page.  Cut out the parts to the snowman on the second page. Be sure to cut out the tabs along with the snowman parts.   Add glue to the back of the tabs and attach the parts to the Trinity Snowman. If a child cuts off the tabs you can use tape to add the snowman parts to the Trinity snowman. This will form a lift-flap so the child can read the names of the Trinity underneath.  Outside the snowman Inside the snowman May God (all 3 in 1) bless you with joy! ~JenMarie

Today my 16 year old daughter, Rachel, asked me if there was any up coming feast days that we planned to celebrate. She knows I’ve had a rather unorganized month and that I’ve been missing a lot of feast days. She offered to make a dessert for the next feast day. I thought that was very sweet of her to ask, so after checking the calendar we discovered Jan. 20 is St. Sebastian’s feast day.  With a gleam in her eye and a fun little smile she offered to make cupcakes for the occasion. Cupcakes! Ya, that sounds cute and harmless! Honestly, I should have known I was in for a shock, because Rachel has an interesting since of humor. Well, here is her creation: I’m just not sure how to feel about these!! Is this too much! Over the top ?– as the saying goes?! I’m just not sure what to think!  What do you think? Well, I believe this is meant to show me that I need to get myself back on track and get a handle on the feast day celebrating at our house again! 😉 Till later, ~JenMarie

My sister playfully laughs at how often we make cupcakes at our house. It’s true. On special days we do tend to make cupcakes. It’s just an easy treat that all my kids love. Plus, they are easy to divvy out among a large group of kids. So we like to create and decorate cupcakes the day before a feast day. Then we display them in our glass cake dome till we eat them the evening of the feast day. They serve as a feast day decoration and dessert! How cool is that! 😉 Here is an example of the cupcakes we are making for St. Valentine’s Day. I created other cupcake toppers for past St. Valentine’s days, but these are new this year. Just print them off, cut them out, and tape a toothpick to the back. Then stick them into a cupcake for a fun easy display and treat! Download These Cupcake Toppers Here: Enjoy! ~JenMarie

The apostle St. Andrew was crucified on an X shaped cross and he is the patron of fishermen (because he was a fisherman). Read more about him HERE . His feast day is November 30 (new and traditional). To make this ornament you will need: red felt gray felt brown felt black permanent sharpie marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger First cut out all the parts as pictured above. Use the black marker to make the details on the fish. Glue the two brown strips onto the red background. Arrange them in an X shape. Add the fish on top. Cut off all the extra red area around the X and fish. Add a threaded loop to the top to hang it up.  That’s it! St. Andrew, pray for us! May God bless you with joy! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Catherine of Laboure’s feast day is traditionally celebrated on November 28th and Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal is on November 27th. So I thought I’d just make one ornament for both. Read about St. Catherine HERE . This may look like an intimidating ornament if you don’t feel you can draw well, and if that’s true for you I encourage you to use real Miraculous Medals and sew them onto the felt instead of using the gray felt and drawing the image of the medal.  To make this ornament you will need: light blue felt pink felt yellow felt green felt gray felt – or real miraculous medal(s) a black sharpie permanent marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger First, cut out the parts like those above. With a black marker, draw an image of the Miraculous Medal on the gray felt shapes. OR use real medals. Glue down your medal-image parts, or sew on your Miraculous Medal(s) onto the blue background. Glue on the flowers, flower centers, and leaves. Cut out around the medals and flowers to remove the extra background. Now, add a threaded loop to the top so it can be hung up. St. Catherine and Our Lady, pray for us! May God bless you all with joy. ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Catherine was a very smart young girl who converted many people with her words of truth. After angering the emperor, she was beaten, imprisoned, and not allowed to eat for 11 days. During this time she converted the emperor wife and many of the solders (who later where martyred). Then she was to be tortured with a spiked wheel, but, at her touch, the wheel was miraculously destroyed. This also converted many watchers. After this she beheaded and legend says that angels carried her body to Mt. Sinai.  Her feast day is November 25th (new and traditional). Read more about her HERE .  To make this ornament you will need: pink felt green felt white felt yellow felt brown felt scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger Cut out the parts as shown above.  Glue the large circle on the pink background and add the small circle in the middle of the large circle. Add the spokes to the wheel. Glue them down and cut off the extra length, as needed.  It will look something like the wheel in the above picture. Now create the lily. Above is a step-by-step image to show you how. Now, glue down the palm, lily, and leaves. Cut out around the wheel and remove the extra pink background. Add the threaded loop to the top and hang it up! St. Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us! God bless you all with joy! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

For the feast of Our Blessed Mother’s Presentation, (November 21) we created an ornament that mirrors the ornament we created for her birth. See that ornament HERE To create this you will need: light blue felt gray felt pink felt yellow felt peach or tan felt black permanent sharpie marker red permanent sharpie marker orange permanent sharpie marker scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger First, cut out the shapes like those above. Use the orange marker to add an orange border to the yellow halo. Use the red marker to add detail to the pink blanket, and use the black marker to add detail to the temple steps and roof.  Next, glue down the steps onto the blue background – be sure you have room above it for all the other temple parts. Now add the temple pillars and the roof.  Now, glue down Mary’s halo, her head, and her blanket/body. Cut off the extra blue background around the temple and Mary. Add a threaded loop to the top so you can hang the ornament.  Enjoy! 🙂 ~JenMarie and Elizabeth

St. Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, is remembered on November 22 (New and Traditional). She, her husband, and her brother-in-law were all martyred.  Her body is incorrupt. Read more about her HERE . To create this ornament you will need: black felt off-white or white felt brown permanent sharpie marker silver glitter glue scissors  (these  kind work well) glue (hot glue,  felt glue ,  or tacky glue – like  this  or  this ) thread and needle for the looped hanger Cut out a few music symbols and a square piece of white/off-white felt. Use the brown marker to add a antique look to the white background. Then glue on the notes.  Use the silver glitter glue to add some sparkly lines behind and/or around the music notes. Allow that to dry and then add a threaded loop to the top so it can be hung up. St. Cecilia, pray for us! May God bless you all with joy! ~JenMarie and Elizabeth