Seven Quick Takes: Katie Makes

Hello All! It's been quite a while since I've done a 7 Quick Takes, and when sitting down to write this week, the thought that kept coming to mind was- crafting.  Making things is like therapy for me.  I've always enjoyed crafting stuff with friends, creating things to use as gifts, etc., but I am realizing more and more that making something is one of the absolute best ways for me to relax.  After a stressful day, even just a half an hour doing something creative helps my mind rest.  Needless to say, with my free time this summer, I have been making lots of things.  I thought I'd share seven of them with you, along with a few stories!

~1~

This cute cross body bag (and three like it) was the result of a group sewing day with friends.  It is made completely from vintage/repurposed fabric and coming up with a way to make that work was a fun challenge.  Fortunately, they quickly sold though our little craft sale hobby, so I wasn't tempted any longer to keep it!

~2~

These silhouettes made with pages from Jane Austen's Emma and quotes from Emma & Mr. Knightley are still around...and I just love them.  Any other Emma fans out there?

~3~

My sister commissioned this cool idea for her husband's first Father's Day.  The metal circles are about the size of a quarter, and there is also a third one with their names on it.  I attached all of them in layers on a brass key chain.  This metal stamping thing which alluded me for a few years seems to be getting easier. :)

~4~

This chalkboard rests on the desk in my craft room/office, and I try to change it to reflect the liturgical seasons.  This Scripture verse seemed to go with this part of Ordinary Time and the beginning of summer.  The chalkboard has some fun history.  It is actually just chalkboard paint on the back of a sign that used to hang in one of the barns on the local county fairgrounds.  It had outlived its purpose and ended up being given to me.  I imagine that the sign is happy in its new life- my apartment certainly smells better than its old home.

~5~

This cute fake chalkboard sign (paint on foamboard) was part of an ongoing gift for Bonnie.  I'm working on building up a set of signs that she can use year round in her living room.  This one I love.  She picked the lyrics and then the design just came easily one night.  Actually, while sketching it out, I was working in the wee hours of the morning.  I am a total night owl, and summer sometimes allows me to work on what feels like a more natural schedule to me.  The night I was working on Bonnie's sign, I was wide awake and accomplished a great number of tasks from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.  I thought I was on fire- my thought process went a little like this: "This is awesome! If only I could harness this productivity every night!  But I am usually shackled with having to wake up at a normal hour in the morning.  What a shame because apparently this is when I do my best work..."

But then, in a large dose of humility, I looked down at the letters that I had been mindlessly tracing, and decided that maybe 3 a.m. is not my best time.

(I fixed it, though!  Can you find the mistake in the first picture? :) )

~6~

Prayer sometime also comes easier to me when creativity can be a part of it.  After being asked to meditate on Psalm 139 by my priest, I came back to it again the next day and was struck by this verse.  Using some fancy new colored pencils (from Germany!) I enjoyed meditating on verse five while doing some Scripture doodling.  Trust me, they don't always turn out this cute, but that action does help me reflect and memorize Scripture.

~7~

And yesterday, to celebrate both of our birthdays, a friend wanted to come over and have a craft day. She picked the project, and we both made wreaths out of old book pages.  She used more of a rolled paper cone technique, and her lovely wreaths ended up looking like big sunbursts.  I decided to try this paper leaf look, and I love how it turned out.  Now, if I could just get over my continued horror of actually ripping apart books, maybe I'll make some more!

So, that's what Katie has been making lately.  What have you been making?  Do you find crafting therapeutic like me, or is it a source of stress? Got any good craft-fail stories?  I'd love to hear all about it!

Go visit Kelly for lots more (probably not craft related) Seven Quick Takes!

Sacrament Videos

Teacher's have all summer off, right?

While I will admit that the flexibility and free time are super nice, teachers are never really "off."  We're always thinking of improving, growing, and changing.  One thing on my list this summer is organizing the videos I like to use in the classroom or with youth group into playlists- both to make it easier to use and to research new resources.

YouTube playlists may become a new obsession.  I've got almost twenty in the works right now and plan on organizing and adding more.  You can follow what I've got going on over on YouTube here if you want to get a head start on upcoming posts. :)

And for now, here is a playlist started with lots of videos for the seven Sacraments!




Got any great videos that can be used to teach the seven Sacraments?  Send the link my way!

Adoration with Kids [printables!]

"During a Holy Hour we grow more and more into His likeness."

~Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Christ asked us if we "could not wait one hour with Him?".  A Holy Hour is a dedicated response of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.  I have been to lots of Holy Hours hosted by many different parishes that are set up for kids or advertised as family-friendly.  Taking kids to Adoration can be intimidating for parents and teachers- the silence, the ritual, the importance- but I am a huge advocate of getting kids there in the Presence of our Lord. 

Here are some of my favorite things to see at a Holy Hour that is welcoming to children:

1. Reverence- the beauty and truth of the Sacrament is not lost.  We can bring children to this without watering it down.
2. Proximity- kids are able to draw close to the Sanctuary and even pray on the floor in front of the steps or invited to sit in the very front pews.
3. Breaking up the Silence- kids make noise, and that noise is ok.  They also are not trained contemplatives, so expecting mental prayer for an hour isn't an option.  Great Holy Hours for kids DO have silence, but also have appropriate Scripture readings, reflections from Saints,a decade or more of the Rosary, etc.
4. Music- having a musician lead the songs for Exposition and Benediction is awesome, and then even better is to have them pepper the silence with a few songs that kids can sing along with.  Singing is a powerful form of prayer.
5. Teaching- having a priest that is comfortable with kids and their developmentally appropriate learning styles is awesome.  I love when a priest talks to kids at their level and teaches them with words meant just for them, always pointing back to the True Presence of Jesus.

I also like for kids to have resources available to help foster their prayer as appropriate.  Children's Bibles, a journal, a Rosary devotional with images to meditate on, a book about a favorite Saint, children's books of prayer, etc. can enhance and not detract from this time of prayer.  So on that note, I put together a few resources that I think could help kids both with the logistics of Adoration, as well as help them enter into prayer.

First up, an 8-page Adoration booklet that could be taken into a Holy Hour.  (We had this available at the Fulton Sheen Family Day last weekend).

There is a page with some explanations/definitions:

And a page with the words to Adoration Prayers/Songs:

And a page with some Adoration info/questions:

Then there is room for kids to actually use the book by writing or drawing what they would like to pray about.  Matching the other ACTS prayer activities that I have created (see them here and here), the prayer prompts and Scripture verses lead the kids through four kinds of prayer: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication:

It's a great little printable that would be an asset for prayer time with your own kiddos or a Holy Hour with a classroom or CCD Program.  Click on the image below for the link:

And, always one to want options, I have a couple of other printables too! 

This page could be perfect for repeat visits to Adoration (instead of printing a booklet for each time) and would be a great addition to a notebooking project or prayer journal.

And adding to the collection of Fulton Sheen Coloring Pages, here is the matching art from the prayer pages with a favorite quote:

I'd love to hear how you make Adoration fruitful (with one kid or thirty!) and what your favorite resources for fostering prayer are!

Linking up with Blessed Is She's theme on the Power of Prayer.  Check out the other posts by clicking on the image below:

Fulton Sheen Family Day Recap

This past Saturday, we celebrated the life and teachings of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen with the 2nd Annual Fulton Sheen Family Day.  (You can read about last year's event here)  Bonnie, The Sheen Foundation, and I did the planning, and we decided to change things up a little from last year's event (which was held in Peoria and included tours of the Sheen museum and St. Mary's Cathedral) and hosted it in El Paso, IL, the place of Sheen's birth, baptism, and early growing up years.

While the numbers were small, we still had a great day with the families that came to learn and enjoy, some of my former students who were there to help teach others what they know about Sheen, and the adult volunteers who made everything run smoothly.  We'll rotate back to Peoria next year, and hope to see even more families come to learn about the faith that Sheen loved so much. 

The Venue:

We held the event at St. Mary's in El Paso, IL, the Baptismal parish of Fulton Sheen.  They have a beautiful old church and a lovely new hall and a priest who loves Fulton Sheen :).

Sr. Lea and Sr. Ann from the Fulton Sheen Museum helped us plan the event and did lots of behind the scenes work.  They came to help, but had never been to El Paso, so we made a quick stop at the historical marker at the location of Sheen's birth.

Snacks were an important part of hosting this event. My mom made these awesome Sheen-inspired-blackboard cookie cakes.  Bonnie provided a delicious spread of cookies, rice krispy treats, fruit, and veggies that made everyone happy.

The Door Prizes:
It's always great to provide resources for people to take home with them, and it is super fun to WIN something, so we had ten door prizes that the families in attendance could win:

Sophia Institute Press generously donated Angel in the Waters, Sheen's Wartime Prayer Book, and God's World and Our Place In It. 

Ignatius Press was gracious enough to send a copy of Sheen's Remade for Happiness.

The Sheen Foundation donated A Man for All Media, The World's First Love, The Priest is Not His Own, and St. Terese, A Treasured Love Story.

They also donated ten World Mission Rosaries that had been made third class relics by touching them to a vial of St. John Paul II's blood.  They were packaged beautifully showing the connection between Sheen and JP2.

Matt Faley, talented Catholic musician with ties to Peoria, donated copies of his awesome CD, The Only Light.

We also had some fun things like DVDs, Sacred Heart and Blessed Virgin Mary framable prints, kids books, etc.

The Activities:

 We had the movie Servant of All playing where people could watch and listen throughout the afternoon.

We borrowed the life-sized Sheen cutout from the museum so that people could take their picture with him.  Here is Fr. Don from St. Mary's wearing one of Sheen's vestments.

The Sisters from the museum brought several artifacts and relics from the museum for people to see, and Fr. Don had pictures of Sheen on various visits back to El Paso.

We had lots of copies of Fulton Sheen Quote coloring pages on tables around the room for families to color while eating snack or to take home for later.  You can find these coloring pages here.


World Mission Rosary:

One of the craft stations was about the World Mission Rosary.  You can find a whole post about this activity here, a coloring page here, and instructions/lesson plan for teaching about it by clicking on the image below:

Spiritual Adoption:

 

Another station was about Spiritual Adoption.  You can read about Spiritual Adoption activities here and here, and can see the Touch of Life Fetal models in action here. Click on the image below for the instructions/lesson plan.

 The Woman I Love Miraculous Medals:

We also made some awesome giant Miraculous Medals inspired by Catholic Icing but using this printable. A Sheen quote coloring page about Mary can be found here. You can click on the image below for the instructions/lesson.

The Priest is Not His Own:

The priest & altar craft is really cool because it is a priest on one side, and when you flip it over it is Jesus on the other side- perfect for helping explain In Persona Christi to kids.

 

I didn't create this original activity- it was a download from Catechist Magazine several years ago that I have used many times over. However, while I would like share the printable with you, the activity has been removed and all of the old links are inactive. I have contacted them to ask if there is a way that I can (legally) still share it, but they have never gotten back to me- which is too bad, because this is an awesome project.  We also used the coloring page you can find here.  You can click below to see the instructions/lesson that went along with this station:

After all of the activities, we moved over to the church for a Holy (half) Hour.  Fr. Don did an amazing job praying with the kids gathered around the steps of the Sanctuary, a friend led us in song with her beautiful voice, and we had this Adoration booklet for this kids to use as a resource. (come back on Friday and I'll have the booklet available as a printable!). After the Holy Hour, the families were invited to stay for the Vigil Mass

It was a great day!  Make sure you go check out Bonnie's recap of the day in this post!  If you are in El Paso or Peoria in the future, we highly recommend you check out the places that were important to Sheen.  We are grateful to our donors Matt Faley, Sophia Institute Press, Ignatius Press, and the Sheen Foundation, as well as Fr. Don and St. Mary's Parish for hosting us.  All of the adults and my students that came to help as volunteers were awesome and so appreciated.

Winners!

Thank you to everyone who entered in the Beautiful Giveaway and enjoyed the posts in the Why Make Beautiful Things Series.  Congrats to the winners Jamie, Kim, Amy, Rom, Mary Rose, Honey, and Janelle!

I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming of lesson plans and Catholic kids crafts this week (starting with a post on this year's Fulton Sheen Family Day!) but I really have enjoyed this series, and would like to do it again in the future.  God gave us a beautiful world, and it is good to savor it.  Got any post ideas or authors that you would like to see for the next round of Beautiful Things?