Welcome New Blogger!

Michele R. is a bride of 15 years to the incredible man she once swore she’d convert to her Southern Baptist faith. A Catholic convert of 16 years, she is a homeschooling mother of a girl-boy-girl-boy foursome, ages 11 to 3 and is expecting the family's "tiebreaker" in May 2012. In her pre-mama days she was a public school art teacher for elementary and middle grades, and currently fills her need to create by living vicariously through crafting blogs.

Michele was blessed to be the “craft mama” for her local Little Flowers Girls’ Club for 3 years. While taking a craft-leader sabbatical, she still scours the internet seeking crafts to enhance this beautiful program.

Please visit her blog: www.lfcrafts.blogspot.com

Craft Plans and Ideas for Wreath IV

I am getting ready to host our first meeting for the year and have been busy creating our plans for the year.   Here are the links to all the crafts that I have either found or created for my Little Flowers Girls' Club to make as we work our way through Wreath IV: 

"Wisdom of the Saints" Journal

St. Catherine of Alexandria Holy Water Fonts

IHS Candle Craft

Starlight Cookies
*We will adapt this idea from over at Catholic Cuisine for our 4th meeting, for the gift of "Counsel" (following recipes!).  I purchased a light blue cloud fabric for the jars, tying in the color/jewel of "aquamarine" and the symbol of "clouds."

Woven Crosses and/or Marian Banner - Fluer de Lys
*These craft kits will be ordered from Illuminated Ink!  Either one of these would work perfectly for St. Joan of Arc and the Gift of Fortitude.

St. Therese Sacrifice Beads

Spiritual Bouquets and/or Marian May Baskets
*I love these little printable cards for Spiritual Bouquets and these Marian May Baskets! The girls will make the Spiritual Bouquets to give to their own Fathers and our local priests, as suggested in one of the Member's Guide assignments for this last meeting.

St. Therese, the Little Flower, Pray for us!

Fun Website!

Got a great email the other day from Vee who directed me to her website with tons of really cute saint and historical figure paper dolls for FREE! I'm hoping that Behold Publications can work with Vee to bring more creative stuff for Catholic kids in the future. Meanwhile, enjoy her site!

http://paperdali.blogspot.com/

Beautiful Sacred Heart tye-dye shirts

This is from Lara in MO--Thanks for sharing, Lara!

Our Little Flowers tye dyed t-shirts with hearts this past Friday then I embelished them with fabric markers to make the hearts into Sacred Hearts. The backs will be Immaculate Hearts but I returned home from Michael’s with fabric markers to find out they were dried out and unusable L

We used directions and supplies from http://www.dharmatrading.com/ this kit: http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1966-AA.shtml?lnav=kits_starter_sets.html includes the book with instructions for doing a heart. VERY easy!!! We had kids from age 4- 13 and so far I have not heard of one that did not turn out. I used yellow, orange, and black fabric markers to embellish the Sacred Heart. I had a purple one to add a wound to the heart but that was one that was dried out. I will use purple to put dark roses on the Immaculate Hearts (you could use pink dye instead… do NOT let yourself be limited by our photos, I just used what was in the kit I received but the dyes are quite inexpensive once you have all the supplies. I found 2.5 gallon blue buckets for the soda ash bath at Walmart in the automotive dept. for $1.25 each).

I also have metallic silver fabric marker to put a sword piercing the Immaculate Hearts. I will try to post photos of that when they are complete.
+J.M.J.+,
Lara in MO

Safe Candles

Here's an idea especially good for younger girls who you may not want to carry lit candles. These are great for ceremonies, processions, prayer tables, etc. The ones I found are in several different styles, battery operated, safe and inexpensive. You could also probably find them at your local craft store. Click on the candle at left to take you to the Sunshine Discount Craft store.

Easy Box Birdfeeder

Spring is in the air! In Minot, North Dakota, that means that the temperature is above 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and folks are putting away the winter jackets and putting on the shorts.
It's also time for birds to return. Here's a nifty little bird feeder my son Alex (9) put together.

One thing I love about Alex is that if I leave him alone long enough, he'll grab some spare stuff, make up a project and put it together himself. He did this one to fulfill a boy scout requirement.

Get a thick cardboard box--Capri Sun boxes work very well.
Cut a door about 3 inches tall by 4 inches wide in the top for putting the food in. (Alex gave it a bend to make it easier to open.
Cut a slot about three inches from the bottom. Slot should be 2 inches tall by 3 inches wide.
Put two eyelets into the area below the slot, about half an inch in from the sides. Feed a dowel through the eyelets.

Crafty Catholic Kids!

Here's a new book by EHP author Ann Ball that would be a great resource for Little Flowers Girls' Club Leaders looking for some supplemental crafts. Click on the book for ordering information from Our Sunday Visitor. For some great exerpts from the book, go to Ann Ball's website.

Ann wrote Jose Finds the King, a Blessed Miguel Pro Story which is part of the Glory of America Series. This is a great children's story about Ann's favorite saint. This is also a great First Communion story perfect for boys. Click here for ordering information.