why we started making Armor out of Egg Cartons

We started our little family apostolate with the release of A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families in 2001. Fascinated with this Scriptural Passage, we named our publishing company Arma Dei, translated from latin as ‘Armor of God’:

…therefore, take up the full Armor of God…
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
… taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Ephesians 6:13-17

Those we have been blessed to meet at Catholic conferences, have probably seen our Knight banner and castle wall backdrop. Our knight (Sir Remigius, named by Kelly) is about 7′ tall!

Those who know our daughter Kelly, might recognize her stylized Arma Dei knight across our website and Catholic products!

Those who know our son Joseph, know that he has managed to steer many school projects, a couple birthday parties and a couple Halloween costumes the medieval way!

Yes, we have made 2 full sets of armor out of cardboard.

…and recently collecting as many egg cartons as I can… I have indeed made 2 Egg Carton Arma Dei Knights.

Consistent with Egg Carton Mother Mary and Egg Carton Pope Francis, the bodies of these little knights are made from pairs of egg cartons cups. The egg carton cups glue nicely together if they are cut close to the same height. The body form is larger than the head, but relatively stubby to keep the cute proportion.

One of the swords is a painted swizzle stick (more about my Dad’s collection of swizzle sticks later); while the other sword is made from the top (flat) half of the egg carton.

The helmet is made from one of the corner cups of an egg carton, cutting the cup as tall as possible to cover the back of the head.

The breastplate is another egg carton cup, hole-punched to give the impression of ‘chain mail’.

The boots are made from a thin (1/8″) slice off the bottom of the cup.

The shield is a thin (1/4″) slice off the bottom of the cup, glued in place, pushing a regular straight pin through the center into the knight. (ouch. sorry about that.)

You will notice slightly different patterns in the egg carton forms (if you start collecting egg cartons from other families =). These different forms add some variety and unique character to the helmet and shield…and even the body shape.

If you’d like to create a little knight to talk about the Armor of God, but you’re not ready to cut egg cartons…you might like this cool paper knight printable I found at