Last Minute Christmas Gift!

The Build-Your-Own Catholic Family Perpetual Calendar!
with Kelly Comics illustrations.

Each month has a complete path of dates to record your family birth dates, Sacrament dates. anniversaries and dates of when loved ones passed away.
The sticky notes and notepaper on the side already have key feast dates and monthly devotions recorded, with ample space to add your own favorite feast days and “family firsts”.

read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!

Homemade Nativities

My clothes peg people are missing now…I’ll post a new (close-up) photo when I find them. They are made with traditional wooden clothes pegs, a painted face (with facial features added with sharpie) and material.  The arms are pipe cleaners.  These are sample crafts from A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families. What’s the theme here?  Where’s Baby Jesus?  These are all Nativity figures I have made over the years with toilet paper rolls, egg cartons and wooden pegs…but Baby Jesus is missing in each one!  I need to start re-making Him… I remember the egg carton Baby Jesus, was just a small piece of the egg carton for a cradle, with construction paper “straw” sticking out behind a fabric bundle of baby.  I’ll  post pictures when I either find my original or make a new one. I find that Baby Jesus either gets misplaced by one of my kids parading him around the house during Advent (before Baby Jesus is supposed to be in the manger), or in transit from one of the Catholic conferences we attend. We have actually had the odd sample craft made from A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families stolen from our booth display! These Holy Family Felt Friends are made with felt over a pipe-cleaner body, felt clothes, embroidery floss hair and facial features.  I know, I need to make a Baby Jesus version here as well. I added a quick Baby Jesus for this post. I made this Nativity before we were married and it’s our special one-of-a-kind family Nativity.  I think I found a pattern for the little bodies and then I improvised for the clothing. (Can you tell ? =)  I engineered the manger myself with the little skylight for the star to poke through. The brown manger material already had verticle lines in it, so I quilted it to make it a little more durable.  The manger also has a couple wooden dowels in it, but it’s not too “stable”.  I usually use a little pillow to prop it up.  I didn’t make the tree, but it looks cute with the set.  I like the lighting on the close-up picture…I think it looks like they’re sitting by the fire. Linked up to the Nativity Activity Linky! read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!

IKEA helped me with my felt fort!

I can’t believe that IKEA is selling these soft fruit, vegetables and carpenter tools…and that I discovered them just when I finished making my FELT FORT for Smidge’s birthday!
They are a whole $10 per kit, with anywhere from 9 to 15 pieces, but they are already made and come with little material baskets or a tool belt!  They have more sets too!  I think I saw cupcakes and a whole breakfast tray of food.

read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!

Felt Fort for Cool Kids!

all those years of architecture school finally paid off…This was definitely not a quick craft project, but it was a lot of fun and we can still add to it!  We decided Smidge needed her own little castle fort, that fits over our kitchen table!  I didn’t make it too girly…just so Adam will think it’s cool for years to come.

read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!

Cardboard Box to Puppet Theatre

Years ago, I cut two windows in a cardboard box and covered it with black fleece.  I strung a simple curtain over one of the openings  using some black cord and added some shiny trim.

This has been our finger puppet theatre for about 10 years…

read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!
SUBSCRIBE for FREE Catholic Crafts and Family Traditions!