Here are some lamb arts, crafts, and activities to use for St. Agnes feast day (Jan. 21) or when teaching about the “Lamb of God” or “The Good Shepherd”. Holly at  Three Sided Wheel has this cute  Lamb Prayer Card holder. (with printable parts) Rust and Sunshine has instructions for this cute lamb art project. Gummy Lump has instructions for this fun little lamb project. A Faithful Attempt has instructions to make this Bubble lamb I’d love to try this!! Here is a paper lamb from Melissa’s Stampin’ For Fun This one was made with paper punches, but similar paper shapes could be cut with scissors. I’m sure my daughter will be trying this! Here is how to draw a lamb instructions from How to draw Funny Cartoons ! Isn’t he a fun little guy! Check out the site for other lamb drawing instructions. Paper Dali has a St. Agnes Coloring page: (She’s holding a lamb) Here is our lamb biscuits: Click here to see this post Here is our Lamb Cupcakes Click here to see this post And last but not least is our “Feed My Sheep” game Hope that helps you! I sure found a lot of fun things for my kids! The Winners are…… Okay,  now for the winners of the Holy Name of Jesus efile Puzzle / Game The winners are….. (drawn randomly by Rafflecopter) Click Here to see the winners! Congratulations! I will be sending the winners an email. Thank you to everyone who entered!  And I have to tell you all: The wonderful answers to the “What made you smile this week”  question made me smile! It sounds like many of you have been blessed with some adorable kids and grandkids!! I hope they keep making you smile! 🙂 Blessings! ~Jen-Marie

All Saints day and All Souls day is upon us. It’s the time of our Liturgical year when we remember the entire Communion of Saints!! But what is the Communion of saints? Well, first I’d like to answer a question I’ve heard many times…. What is the difference between All Saints day and All Souls day?  All Saints day is a day is when we celebrate ALL the saints in Heaven. It’s a day to pray to the saints and ask them to intercede for us. This includes ALL the saints, even the ones that we don’t realize are saints. Not all holy people who have died and gone to heaven are canonized by the Church. There are many holy people who have died and gone to heaven but have never been acknowledged by the Catholic Church. Even though they are not canonized, they are still saints. So we celebrate them all and ask for their intercession. All Souls day is a day we focus on prayer for those who have died and are suffering in Purgatory. These souls need our prayers to help them to get into Heaven. This is a special day dedicated to prayer for these needy souls. I’ve been teaching my kids about the Communion of Saints, which includes both the saints and the souls in Purgatory. Actually, there are three groups in the Communion of Saints: The first group includes all the saints in heaven. This group is the part we almost always think about when someone mentions the Communion of saints. We call this group the Church Triumphant . So what does triumphant mean? Normally, when we say someone is triumphant we mean that they won or succeeded in what they were trying to do. For example, a runner is triumphant when he wins a race. The second group in the Communion of saints is the Church Suffering.  This group is made up of the poor Souls in Purgatory.  These are people who have died in union with God’s teachings, but are not yet holy enough to enter into Heaven. They need our prayers to help them become pure enough to enter Heaven. They cannot enter into Heaven without our prayers, so always be sure to remember the Souls in Purgatory when you pray.  All Souls Day is coming on November 2 and it might be a great time to take the kids to a cemetery and say a few prayers or a Rosary for the souls who are most in need of prayers. This is a great visual reminder to them of who they are praying for. Now the third group is one we all know well, but often times don’t think of as “saints”. The third group is called the Church Militant and it’s made up of living people here on Earth who strive to follow God’s will. This group can include the Pope, bishops, priests, and anyone who is living their lives the way the church teaches. All of us can belong to this group, but we must do as the saints in Heaven have shown us: we must live for God and try to do His will in all things. To help teach my kids about the Communion of Saints I created a few bulletin boards:  I made this first one a few years back. It hung in our church’s entryway. The top is a white cloud with pictures of saints. In the middle was an artist idea of what Purgatory might look. I added the thorns around the picture. On the bottom was a collection of pictures of the parishioners in our parish. It was a big hit with the parishioners as they tried to find those they know. I also added a few pictures of the churches in our area, too. Next was one I made for a talk I created for the kids of our local Catholic homeschool group several years ago. Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” All three groups in the Communion of Saints make up the branches. God is the vine that gives us all our life and grace. This vine is split into three parts. The first part starting at the Holy Trinity, has leaves that contain pictures of the saints. The next group were just images of “souls”, they are just average looking people who appear to be sad. On the last section I added images of the pope, our bishop, and a few different churches. These were a great visual  help when teaching about the Communion of Saints. Printable Activity Page I also created a printable activity page that helps to teach the kids about The Communion of Saints” Here are a few of our finished pages: There are 4 different pages to pick from. To create this page have the children title and decorate each section as follows: The top section should be titled Church Triumphant. Have the children draw or color around the clouds in this section. They could also use glue or a stapler to add some cotton. Now they can paste on a few pictures of their favorite saints.  Older children can draw saints. The middle should be labeled Church Suffering. The children can draw pictures, add photos, or write the names of those they know who have died. Have the children draw or color sharp rocks or thorny branches around the pictures and names. This is to symbolize their suffering.  Remind the children that these souls need prayers. The bottom is for those who are living and striving to do God’s will. Draw or color grass, houses, trees, flowers, then have the children draw or add pictures of the Pope, bishops, as well as, family members. Teachers: All pictures for this project could be brought from home as a homework assignment. Download the Page Here: May all the Saints in Heaven pray for us! And hope you all have a blessed All Saints Day! ~Jen-Marie

Here are some ideas to help you celebrate the feast day of “The Holy Name of Mary” (Sept 12). Waltzing Matilda:  Most Holy Name of Mary Plans 2008 Another Post 2009 Just Another Day In Paradise : Most Holy Name of Marycraft and dessert  Cottage Blessings: Mary’s Holy Name Lantern More ideas from  Waltzing Matilda Family At The Foot Of The Cross:  The Holy Name of Mary A few ideas from: Shower of Roses

Here are lots of ideas for you to help you celebrate Our Blessed Mother’s Birthday (Sept 8) Family At The Foot Of The Cross:  Blue praying arms pretzels The Careless Catholic:  Nice list of books and more Ten kids and a Dog: Nice cake and coloring activity Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice:  Beautiful cake for Mary Ten kids and a Dog:  Made Cards for Our Blessed  Mother’s Birthday Slightly Crunchy Catholic: Another Beautiful cake for Our Blessed Mother\’s birthday! Training Happy Hearts:  Fun day 2010 Fun day 2011 An Abundance of Rainbows:  Queen Mary’s Children Party fun! Three-Sided Wheel Fun books and ideas Family at the Foot of the Cross Beautiful post and party St. Anne and Baby Mary Felt Doll / Statues Felt Doll / Statues or Mary’s Nativity

Last year my kids and I made a Prayer Chain of People to pray for during Lent. This year I decided to go a little simpler. The days have been very busy and I didn’t feel we would have the time to make all the little people again. (Although, many of my kids were complaining that they really wanted to make all those people again! I told them that we’d try to make them again next year!) This year I made a list of people to pray for and I added that list to a paper chain. We will remove one of the chain’s links each day and pray for the people who are mentioned on that link. The neat thing is it doubles as a count down to Easter! I used the following image at the top of the Prayer Chain. I added a few sheets of decorative purple paper to make it look nice! Download the Lenten Prayer Chain here:

Our Lord said to St. Francis of Assisi, “Rebuild My Church!” My kids thought this craft was so much fun! But before we stated I read about St. Francis from our "Once Upon a Time Saints" book. “But that night, he (the pope) had a dream. He saw the great Church of St. John Lateran falling, crumbling into dust, and only one ragged little man was holding it up. It was Francis. Our Lord said to the pope, “This is the man through whom the church shall be rebuilt.”” St. Francis of Assisi Craft After reading the story about St. Francis of Assisi my kids made this craft. All you need is: the printable - download below (stock paper is best) building material like:-brown or red paper square “bricks”-wooden craft sticks, cut in half-toothpicks-mini rocks scissors (and cutters if you are using sticks) glue (we used Tacky white glue) Download the St. Francis Craft Here:  It is super simple and fun! Just print out the St. Francis and church printable and glue your “building material” around the image of  St. Francis. Feel free to be creative about what “building material” you will use! Choose the 6 small printable templates or the 2 larger templates. Here is a quick view of the craft pages: God bless. ~JenMarie

I thought some of you might like to see the banners that my kids had done for their First Communion. This banner is one that was done by my oldest daughter, Rachel, 6 years ago. The background and all the parts I helped her cut out from various colors of soft felt, but she did most of it herself. At the time she LOVED sewing, so she did a lot of sewing on her banner. She used the string that you would use for cross-stitching. Rachel first sewed the rays of light that are coming from the host. Next, she sewed on the host and wheat. The lines you see on the wheat and the cross on the host are her large stitches. The stems of the wheat we hot glued down. She then sewed on the Chalice. We hot glued on the red string of sequins. She sewed on the grapes, which were just purple circles. The leaves were hot glued on and the leave’s veins she sewed. We also hot glued on some blue strings of sequins to the top and bottom of the banner.  The front may be beautiful, but the back is a mess! Since she used a softer felt on her banner (because she was sewing) we had to hot glue stiff cardboard across the top on the back. We also hot glued the string to the cardboard so she could hang it up. She was very proud of her banner, but she was rather tired of sewing by the time she was done! Want to see more banners? Click here to see banner #2 Click here to see banner #3 Looking for a few templates? You could use the printable from my Eucharist Art project God Bless!~Jen-Marie

On the feasts of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts we made paper hearts. These are made with nothing but paper, markers and glue. They are simplistic but very pretty. You will need: a full sheet of red paper pieces or sheets of yellow, brown, orange, green, and pink markers: red, brown and yellow glue scissors Let’s start with the Sacred Heart of Jesus…  Cut the sheet of red paper in half and fold each half  long ways. Cut out a half heart so that when you open it to will be a whole heart. Cut out a larger yellow “flame” and a smaller orange “flame.” Cut out two strips of brown for the cross. Cut our short pointy brown strips for the crown of thorns. Glue the orange flame on top of the yellow flame and the cross on top of the orange flame. Glue that onto the top of the underside of the heart as pictured. Now make “X” shapes where the crown of thorns should be, all the way across. Now use a brown (or black) marker to make a curved line for the spear wound. Add red around it and a blood drop. That’s it for the Sacred Heart of Jesus! ~*~ Now for the Immaculate Heart of Mary! Do the same as above to make the heart and flames. Glue the flames to the top-underside of the heart. Cut out simple pink flower shapes and add those across the center of the heart. They don’t need to be perfect. When you place them beside each other you won’t see the mistakes on the flower shapes. Use a yellow marker to create the flower’s center. We added small green leaf shapes around the flower, too. This is the “hard” part…making the sword: Cut out a cross shape and round the ends on the handle parts. Use a brown marker to create the look of a handle. Use a red marker to make a curved line for the cut onto the heart and use scissors to put a slit in the red cut. Slip the sword through the cut and glue it on the under side. That’s it!! So paper simple! Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! May God Bless you all! ~Jen-Marie

Here is another one of our Felt Doll Statues. This is Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. She turned out so nice! Again this project requires the use of hot glue, so if you plan to make these with small children they will need help. Older children may be able to do these on their own if they are accustomed to using hot glue. Materials you will need: dark brown felt dress * (see felt cutting instructions below) white felt head covering (habit) * light brown felt cloak * white felt collar * wooden old fashioned clothes pin 4 inch piece of string (for waist) 2 inch piece of string (for scapular) small scraps of brown and white felt for mini scapular  mini old fashioned clothes pin (for baby) scrap piece of white felt for baby wooden ring (to help the doll stand, if it needs help) Gold ribbon for crown hot glue and gun Felt Cutting instructions: After cutting out your felt pieces, (as directed in the cutting instructions above) slip the round clothes pin head into the hole of your dress. You may need to add a drop of hot glue at the upper chest and upper back of the doll clothespin to keep the dress from sliding down the clothespin.  Pull all the dress parts down against the clothes pin and tightly knot a string around its waist. You may need an extra hand to hold the dress down while you knot the waist string. Now, cut off the extra sting ends. If the dress is too long, cut it to the correct length. If the opening on the sides of the dress are showing, hot glue it together.   Now, wrap the collar around the neck and hot glue it in place. Make sure the collar’s opening/seam is in the back.   Take your cloak and fold the corners in. Be sure to test it to see if the neck size and the length is correct for your doll.  When the size is correct, hot glue the corners down, (see pic above) and hot glue the cloak to the doll’s neck, leaving the front of the dolls neck uncovered.  Be sure the folded corners are inside against the dolls dress. Add hot glue to the top and sides of the dolls head and cover the top of its head with the WHITE  (NOT black, as pictured) felt habit.  Note: You may have to cut a slit in the back of the habit, (from the bottom of the habit up to the head)  so it will lay down properly. Then hot glue the back of the habit together so you don’t see the cut.  If the doll has a hard time standing on its own you may need to buy a wooden ring to help it stand. If you can’t find wooden rings, you may be able to hot glue the doll to a small wooden flat shape.  Now for baby Jesus: Cut or break the bottom of the mini clothes pin off so it is the correct size. OR if you don’t have a mini old fashioned clothespin you can use a craft stick. Break the craft stick in half and hot glue them one on top of the other. Now add some hot glue to the top and side of the baby’s head wrap the edge of the felt piece around the top of the baby’s head. Then wrap the rest of the felt around the baby, covering it completely. Hot glue the blanket in place. Then hot glue it to the doll of Mary. If possible, try to use the cloak as an arm so it can look like she is holding the baby. Now make four brown squares and two smaller white squares to make the mini scapular.  Glue the string between the two brown squares and add the two white squares to the front. Now, glue the Scapular to the other “arm” of Mary’s cloak.  Finally add her crown. Use a small piece of gold ribbon to make a circle. Hot glue the ends together and hot glue the gold ring to Mary’s head. That’s it! She’s finished! I hope I explained this well enough, If you have any questions please post a comment and I will respond. I hope you enjoy making this little doll/statue as much as we did!!   Take care and God bless. ~Jen-Marie

I’m going to share a few pictures of an old toy box my kids have been using for many years! It was one I decorated for the kids years ago and has been used by all 9 of my kids. The toy box was handmade by a friend who used scrap wood to create this sturdy little box! The stencil design is now a little outdated, but it’s the idea of adding Catholic images to furniture that I wanted to share more than anything….. Before I explain my reasons for adding Catholic images to this toy box I want to tell you a few of my thoughts…. I’m sure most of you heard about the shooting in Colorado at a movie theater. The shooter, who was idolizing the Joker from the previous Batman movie, shot and killed 12 people and injured 60. Now, I have to tell you that our family loves a good superhero movie, but we would not let our kids see that last Batman movie with the Joker. Don’t get me wrong, superheroes are okay, but be sure it’s clear to kids who the villain is and that they are  hurting people when they do the things they do in the movies.  I think it’s important that kids want to imitate the good guy and not the bad guy. The main reason we didn’t let our kids watch the last Batman movie was exactly that! The Joker was evil and as a “joker”, he made evil look fun which is very dangerous for young minds! So why am I bringing up this horrible event? I want to point out how important it is for us as parents, teachers, and guardians to make sure that kids idolize good and holy people! Surround your kids with stories and images of Jesus, Mary, and the saints!  Which brings me back to the toy box…..The neat thing about this toy box is that my kids get to see Jesus and Mary every time they play! And it will always be a reminder of how it is they should act. It may not seem like much, but little things like this can make a difference in a child’s head. So how did I add Catholic images to this toybox? As you can see it has religious pictures on each side. These pictures were ones that I cut out from Catholic magazines. The decorative borders around the pictures were from old wallpaper. (The  original picture which was in the middle was of naked angels -not very kid friendly) So I replaced the original picture with family friendly images of Mary and Jesus! And the green leaves are painted from an ivy stencil. After gluing the images onto the toy box I used a clear sealer to keep the images protected from the kids. Modge-podge will work, too, but be sure to add about 3 coats. Please, say a prayer for the victims and their families. And don’t forget to pray for the shooter, too. Look for a Novena for the victims of the shooting at Life of a Catholic Teen  ~ Click here It’s the 22nd!!!! Time for another Link-up party!!!! * * * L I N K – U P  P A R T Y ! * * * Feel free to share your faith-centered home posts with us! This is an especially important Tea with St. Anne Link-up because St Anne’s feast day falls during this link-up party!!! (July 26th)St. Anne, pray for us, may we create a holy domestic church! The Rules: Please add posts about   anything that can help Catholic families in our every day life . This includes: Catholic décor, crafts and activities we can do with our kids, home-school ideas, organization ideas, etc. Link to me on your blog/post so others can come and join in too! You may use one of my buttons if you li ke, or just make a text link of your own. I can’t wait to see your posts! God Bless! ~Jen-Marie

I love the imagination of God! He is Awesome!!!!!! All of us were individually created by this amazing God with an unending creativity! Every one of us is so different! Our personalities, our appearances, the way we walk, the way we talk. The talents we have and the abilities which our wonderful God has given us are truly mind boggling! We are all so different and yet we were all made by this same perfect Creator! I did this art project with my Art Co-op this past school year. It was such an eye opener to me about how different we all really are. Not that I didn’t know it, but this really proved it!! You will need: large paper some type of spot light  pencil, pen, or marker painters tape (low adhesive tape) magazines glue  scissors In a darkened room, tape the large paper to a wall and have the child(ren) stand/sit between the paper and a light source, such as a quartz light, a spot light, or a lamp with no shade.  Using their shadow, draw each child’s profile silhouette onto the paper. Just seeing the different shaped heads, noses, lips, and chins was very fun to see. The kids loved sharing them with each other!! The kids carefully cut out the silhouette and took it home to make a collage of things they like. They used magazines to cut out pictures of things they liked. After gluing on their pictures they had to cut the edges of their silhouette again so you could see the shape of the head. (cut from the back side at this point) When they came back to the next class I was amazed to see so many different projects! Everyone had different things to show and tell about!  Even the way they organized (or not) showed more about their differences! They  all looked wonderful in their own awesome way! I know this project is not as Catholic as I typically create, but it was such a great project to show God’s creativity I had to share it!!  It would work well if you are talking about creation, so kids can see how God can have an unending imagination -for He created everything from nothing, from the tiniest germ to the tallest mountain, and all the different plants and animals, even down to our own personality.  No one is more creative than God!! Praise be to God!! God Bless!! ~Jen-Marie

Here’s a fun, simple, craft for girls to create. It would be good for Kateri Tekakwitha’s feast day! My little girls love necklaces so it was a hit, but they did need help cutting the felt crosses and using the needle. You will need: brown felt string (we used embroidery thread) pony beads  scissors needle (large enough to use on your string) Cut out a cross shape from your felt Thread your string through the top of your cross. Try to keep the string’s entry and exit close to the edge of the cross. That helps to prevent the cross from bunching up when you add the beads. Now add your beads to the string on each side of the cross. Tie a knot in the ends to create a necklace.  Bl. Kateri, pray for us!! Remember she’s being canonized in Oct. 21, 2012!!!!!!! YAHhhhh!!!! 😀 God bless. ~Jen-Marie