Happy Saint Token Tutorial

Another craft with Happy Saints!  I keep finding new ways to use them in activities for the kids.
What a vast collection over at Happy Saints! 
Make sure to find the new Happy Saints Year of Faith Banner!
I can’t wait to print and display mine!

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Dream Team of Saints: October!

Awesome Saints in October!  I just painted a couple more Saints to add to the collection!   Rather than drive myself crazy trying to paint tiny detail with my mediocre brushes, I printed out some animals to hang out with St Francis and the Divine Mercy image for St Faustina. I lightly sprayed the color printouts with hair spray to ensure that the ink wouldn’t run.  I glued them in place on each painted figure, added the saint hands over top, along with some paint accents (because my printer isn’t the best!). I sealed it all in with clear, water-based varnish, adding that little shine and extra durability.   See more tips for making your own Dream Team of Wooden Painted Saints.  Here are a couple other posts about What To Do with Wooden Painted Saints  including Checkers, Snakes & Laddersand Trouble!  

I’m linking up to the OCTOBER CeleLINKY with the SAINTS link-up to add my Saint-centered crafts and activities…and maybe pick up a couple new ideas, how about you?! 

 
All Saints Day is coming soon!  I think I’ll be showcasing the November CeleLINKY with the SAINTS a little early to give people time to prepare for All Saints Parties and Crafts for November 1st!
 
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It’s My Feast Day Plate!

There are so many posts out there about decorating a plate with a sharpie, that I thought that I would give it a try…and convert it to Catholic!

I have a little plastic plate for the kids that says “it’s my special day” and it’s amazing how it still appeals to the kids, even though it has definitely lost that new plate shine! I have decided that we need to make a bigger deal about our Patron Saint Feast Days, but life happens and I don’t always manage to cook up something special!  I thought it could be handy to have a special Saint Plate for those special Feast Days. I deliberately made my Saint illustration a little ambigous, so that it can hopefully pass for any of our favorite saints! I created a Saint Plate Template and tried to use carbon paper to transfer the drawing. That didn’t work at all! (Does anyone know how to transfer a drawing to porcelain or china?)

You can download the Saint Plate Template as part of One Page Printables Craft Kit

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Painted Saints: September Edition!

Better late than never!  I know that it’s the THIRD week of September already, but I wanted to post some of the new wooden painted saints that I created recently.  We have Blessed Mother Teresa and Saint Padre Pio (and Mother Mary, see 2nd picture below) for September saints…and well, Jesus is ALWAYS in season, right?      I am working on another post for yet MORE ideas to incorporate these little wooden saints into the regular crafts, activities, traditions and routines that we already enjoy with our kids. See What to do with Painted Saints…part 1 and check out how we use them in Checkers, Snakes & Ladders and Trouble to add a little Catholic culture ro regular family fun!   Watch for new ways that we plan to incorporate our own little growing army of painted saints.  We’re thinking about chore charts and treasure hunts… Advent countdowns and nativities… and another popular tradition that we can’t wait to convert 2 Catholic!  Make sure that you are subscribed by email to Equipping Catholic Familes for future posts!

Thanks to all those who entered in our Back to Catechism Class
Cathletics Craft Kit Giveaway!
Congratulations to Susan, Michelle, Yenyen and Annie!  All FOUR winners have been contacted and have chosen their favorite Cathletics Craft Kit to receive by PDF and use with their families or CCD classes.  Congratulations!
 

 
 
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Cool 2B Catholic Crayon Batik

Ever since I reviewed Suzy’s Crayon Batik and Faux Stained Glass Tutorial, I have wanted to try my hand at Crayon Batik!  I bought a couple cheap t-shirts while my kids sorted through our old crayons, peeling the wrappers and placing them by color in an old muffin tin. We melted the crayons in the oven. That’s a strong smell…you will want to open the windows and put on the fan. The muffin tin is also very hot…remind the kids to keep hands away from the metal and the hot wax! We quickly learned that painting with wax takes some patience!  Every few minutes, the wax cools down and gets lumpy and becomes very difficult to paint with.  We would then put the muffin tin back in the oven to re-melt the wax.  We also cleaned the brushes in boiling water to melt the hardened wax. When we were finished painting with the wax, we liked how vibrant the colors were!  The t-shirt at this stage was pretty clumpy with the hardened wax all over it. Ironing eliminates the hard clumps of wax, but also softens and mutes the colors a little bit.  We noticed that the painting now had a more airbrushed effect with softer, kind of fuzzy outlines.

We decided to add puffy paint to outline our letters for a more finished effect.
Do you like the airbrushed or outlined look best?

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What to do with Painted Saints! …part 1

I have enjoyed painting my collection of wooden saint dolls…you can read more about the Painted Peg People and how I have painted both favorite patron saints and members of our family. 

To justify the happy time I have spent painting these little figures, I thought I’d offer a couple more suggestions for what to do with Painted Saints (while not-so-subtly adopting these patrons saints as members of our family). 
I know…alot to expect from little wooden toys, but they give us an excuse to get reaquainted with our real holy hero intercessors in Heaven.

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Cataloguing the Family Holy Card Collection

Over the years, we have collected a good supply of holy cards.  These are beautiful little cards of various saints, often with a little prayer or devotion on the back.  Others, given out at a funeral Mass, remind us of a loved one who passed away, as their information is on the other side of the card.  It’s a shame to hide these away in a box, even though I am referring to them quite often, looking for images of the saints for crafts on my blog like:  

I Spy…the Saints collages,
painted wooden saints
Saints games
and Saint crafts
featuring these awesome holy heroes.

For my purposes, I have found it helpful to organize the holy cards by monthly feast days. I used a photo box…and for the first time ever used the little divider pages included! As my collection isn’t SO vast, I have found enough room in the box to include one of my copies of the Lives of the Saints, for easy reference.

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Snakes & Ladders: Converted to Catholic!

Snakes & Ladders is not only a good family game with plenty of counting practice for the younger ones, it can teach life lessons as well.  Slowly plodding along the path of life, we experience blessings and graces that give us a boost, as well as struggles and challenges that test our character. I dug out our family game of Snakes and Ladders.  It’s 3D and even has little round place holders…that are unfortunately just a touch too small to hold the little wooden painted people.  The little figures do fit on top though, just like they did in  Trouble: Converted 2 Catholic! Once again, I just enjoy the thought of players choosing from family figures or holy heroes to mark their journey in the game. and of course…it’s always nice to have some trusted friends cheering us on from the sidelines. =)
I am a wife, Mom of 5+ kids, a designer, an architecture school survivor, an author and a crafter and I think it’s cool to be Catholic! Check out the Arma Dei Shoppe for solid Catholic, fun teaching tools and gifts to celebrate and teach the Catholic Faith and subscribe to Equipping Catholic Families for family-building and Faith-centred crafts! read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!

Trouble: Converted 2 Catholic!

We are the Church!  We identify those who have gone before us, both relatives and well-known Saints as the Church Triumphant (in Heaven) and we are the Militant (pilgrims on Earth).  (CCC954) Recognizing that even the Saints had their setbacks and struggles, we too are on our Journey to Heaven.  Imagine the board game of Trouble as that Journey…walking side by side with our heroes, the Saints!  Blessed by intercession with the saints, we Catholics can walk the walk, in the company of the Saints!

Painted wooden dolls come in handy for the most common of board games!  Why not allow ourselves to build our Dream Team of Saints for our playing pieces. 

Conveniently, I have painted both members of our immediate family, and some of our favorite Saints. See Painted Peg People .

I think that the painted wooden dolls lend themselves perfectly to how we can learn from the Saints, seek their intercession and foster the desire to grow in holiness! 

Spiderman is cool and so is Superman, but aren’t the Saints our ultimate heroes

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Converted 2 Catholic: Checkers!

So excited to convert 2 CatholicCHECKERS!  With my newly painted wooden peg dolls, the kids can customize their team of family members and favorite patron saints!

Two options for play! Mixed teams of family members and saints (Begin the draft process at the start of the game, taking turns to select family members and saints for each team) OR

Family

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