Paper peonies

Michella Marie shares a tutorial on coffee filter peonies.  This can be done with girls- our group has made coffee filter flowers with a little mom assistance. I'd recommend pre-cutting the flower shapes if you have a large group, or younger girls.

beaded keychain tutorial

Just as St. Monica prayed fervently for her son,

St. Augustine, mothers can use these keychains

to whisper prayers or tuck written prayers inside.

In our group, each girl made two of these-

one to give to her own mother,

and another to give to a mother at a local pregnancy center

(appropriately named the "Hope Center" ).

Here is how we made ours:

Materials needed:

beading wire

prayer box charms (found ours on ebay for $1 each)

beads

keyrings

crimp beads

beading pliers or needle nose pliers/wire cutter

*optional: wire protectors

**also optional, but helpful- crimping tool

Set up ideas:

Precut the wire.

We set up each girl's "bead plate":

Foam plate with double-sided tape to keep beads from rolling around.

*Since we had 12 girls and 3 moms to assist, we prepared the prayer box with wire and a crimp bead (see first few steps below)

Wire protectors are nifty little loops that protect the wire from wear and tear

that might occur with a keychain.  If you are using them, here's how they work:

Thread wire through one hole like this, then...

thread through second hole to finish the loop.

Again, these are optional!

Place charm on wire, and pull wire, leaving about a 1-1 1/2 in tail.

Thread crimp bead over both wires, squeeze with crimping tool or pliers until snug,
 then add one small bead.

Add beads as desired, finishing with one small bead, and a crimp bead.

Be sure to thread the beads over both wires until the tail is covered.

Loop wire over keyring, then thread the wire back through the crimp bead.

Use pliers or better yet,
a crimping tool to secure the wire.
Cut excess wire, and tuck remaining
wire into beads.

Watch this expert video for a better explanation...

Miraculous Medal coloring page

Go to Family Feast and Feria for a lovely Miraculous Medal coloring sheet.
The pdf file is two pages- front and back of the medal.

St. Agnes crafts- courtesy Catholic Icing

Lacy at Catholic Icing has a delightful round up of St. Agnes crafts.

handprint sunflowers

Meet the Dubiens shares a darling handprint sunflower craft.  I'd recommend sending these home on cardboard or a cookie sheet to avoid losing gluey beads during transport.

Seed starters

Made creates these fun seed starters.  Definitely an industrious project!

bird seed hearts

Intimate Weddings has a tutorial on making these sweet birdseed hearts.  Let the girls create these in a container like a shoebox for easy transport (they'll need to dry a few hours before adding a hanger).

Polymer clay roses

Crafty Red Fox has a great tutorial for making polymer clay (think Fimo, Sculpey) roses.

Decoder Hearts

Lacy's Decoder hearts remind me of a favorite childhood toy... soooo clever!

Ideas for Little Flowers:
(Love of God, Love of Neighbor)

• write the memory verse, another scripture, or an appropriate quote as the secret message
• compose a love letter to Our Heavenly Father for Love of God
• For Love of Neighbor, jot down a message of love to be given to a neighbor (friend, family, or even a stranger in need of encouragement).
• fun get well wishes for children's hospital patients

Embroidered Heart Bookmarks

These Heart bookmarks are so pretty- could be used for Love of God, Love of Neighbor (make one to keep, one to give away!), and the red one is poppy-ish- right? :-) (Loyalty- Wreath 2).
*To simplify- precut the pieces, and let the girls use fabric glue vs. sewing on elements.  Fabric markers could be used for embellishment. 

Stitched Sunflower

Stitch a sunflower with Make and Takes.

BIG Sunflower craft

No Time for Flashcards features a really big sunflower craft.  Some great processes here (painting, cutting, sprinkling and gluing)...would require a big space, and would be ideal for a lovely outdoor craft experience.

Love of God-peony craft

Peony felt clip tutorial by Yoonie.  Variation: make a pin rather than the clip.

Stand Up Sunflowers

Disney crafts makes a sunflower garden from craft foam and pipe cleaners.

 To simplify, the girls could also make one or two flowers, attaching them to a flower pot cutout.

Faith Journal Tutorial

This is a place for the girls to journal their faith as they choose- prayer journals, memory verses, drawings, perhaps a list of blessings.  Inspiration comes from Ann's lovely journaling- see Holy Experience. Scroll down her page for more examples.

 Here is how we made ours:

Supplies:

• small notebooks (we used these)
• grosgrain ribbon, pre-cut to desired size
• fabric glue
• decoupage medium (we used Mod Podge, but I hear that a recipe of 3 parts glue, 1 part water works fine)
• containers/paper plates to hold decoupage medium
• color copies of images (we pre-cut ours to save time- see end of post for the clip art we used)
• scissors (if girls are cutting their own images)

If girls are cutting out their own images, cut first, and set them aside in a safe spot.

Place notebook on table with covers out to each side, with the binding in the middle (see picture below).
*Be sure that the front cover is on the right side and the back cover is on the left!

Lay ribbon on notebook with one end against the binding.
Starting at the edge of the notebook, run a bead of glue to the end of the ribbon.

(That's a nifty little trick so they won't glue the entire length of their ribbons.)

 Carefully flip ribbon over and press gently to notebook. 

Hold and count to ten.

Repeat on other side: glue from notebook edge to binding, flip, press, count.

 A good next step is to arrange the images on the front and back of the notebook, then place the arranged pictures on the table.   This makes it easier than composing on the sticky cover.

(Sorry, no photo :-( )

Cover the entire front cover with decoupage medium-
including ribbon.
(be sure the notebook isn't upside down!)

Use enough medium to stick pictures on,
not so much to create pools o'glue.

Place pictures on surface of cover,
with no images hanging off the edges.
Smooth each so that there are no bubbles, wrinkles,
or curled-up corners.

(Sorry- one pic shows painting the front cover, the next shows images placed on the back...
I didn't want to take another picture, so y'all work with me here:
Paint the front, put pics on the front.
Smooth the bubbles, crinkles, and corners.
Kindly ignore the speck in the lower corner too.)

Repeat for back cover:
Paint cover, place images, smooth.

Decoupage over all pictures. 

Use enough to cover pictures with a milky film, not so much as to leave puddles or ooze into the binding.

Look for peeling corners, and add a little glue or decoupage medium beneath those spots.

Hold down and count to ten.

Allow drying time- we were surprised that our "gluiest" notebook took no longer than 15 min. to dry. 

An idea: bring shoebox lids or paper plates to send home sticky notebooks, just in case.

  A fun option would be to create a sunflower pen to accompany the faith journal.


Faith Journal Clip Art