Cards for the Easter Season

We have made a couple of different types of cards for the Easter season.  Cards are a good way to share the joy of The Resurrection with others, or to display at home to remind us that the Easter season is ongoing.   

These cards are a great way to encourage creativity because children can design them however they wish.  You can make both types of cards blank on the inside, and after they dry, you can write or glue on your Easter message.

We started by designing egg shaped cards using crayon resist and watercolors.  We drew egg shapes on cardstock with a white crayon and filled in with decorations in crayon before painting with watercolors.  You can decorate the egg with secular designs or religious symbols and sayings.  (Read more about converting secular eggs to religious ones at this post.)

Make sure you draw the egg to one side of the cardstock page so you can fold it over before you cut.

After the paint dries, fold the page so that one edge of your painted egg is on the fold.

Then, cut your egg shape out, leaving enough fold to keep the card together.  You are ready to write your message inside.

Last month, when I found Amanda’s link up for A Meaningful Easter, I found linked there a post by Jessica at Our Family for His Glory illustrating cross pictures she made with her children using masking tape and dot paints.  When we made ours, we started by folding cardstock in half lengthwise.  Then, we used blue painter’s tape (what we had) and brush paints to create our cards.  

The cards looked good with the tape still on, but we may have waited too long to take off the tape, so the pictures tore a bit where the tape was attached.  Maybe we should have followed the directions!  We will try again and hopefully remember to take off the tape as soon as they dry.

Jessica’s post also explains how to make crosses that look like stained glass.  We are going to have to try those too!

I am attaching this post to the Easter Link up hosted by Lázaro at Aprendiendo a Vivir en Cristiano.  Please go visit to see what other bloggers are sharing, or to attach your own post.  This link up is part of the Liturgical Calendar Link up Party organized by Xhonané at Familia Católica.

I have also added this post to the Catholic Bloggers Round Up at the new CatholicBloggers Network.  

Amanda at Impress Your Kids is hosting a Meaningful Easter Link up, where I have attached my post.  There, you can read her post and many others about how to focus on the Lamb and not the bunny this Easter season.

Martianne at Training Happy Hearts hosts a weekly Faith Formation in Young Children Link up, so I have connected there also.

One more: Monica at Equipping Catholic Families also hosts a Cele-linky Through the Catholic Seasons with a few link ups and lists of Link up Parties hosted by others for each season.  I’m linked up under Easter there.

Angel Puppet for The Annunciation

Last week, my daughters were enamored with watercolors and crayon resist, so we used that technique to paint some wings for an angel puppet.  

In December, we made Mary Puppets from wooden spoons, which we used to dramatize the journey to Bethlehem.  Around that time, I found a post explaining how to make angel ornaments at Designs by Birgit.  Birgit had linked her post to several Christmas link ups, and I had hoped to make some of her ornaments, but did not have a chance to do so before Christmas, although I decided that I wanted one to dramatize The Annunciation, celebrated on March 25.  

Last week we finally made the angel, inspired by Birgit’s ornaments.  Because our Mary puppets are made from wooden spoons, I decided to use a wooden handled spatula with a plastic head that had seen one too many hot pans to make the angel, so each of the puppets is nearly the same size.

For the halo, I wrapped a gold pipe cleaner around the top of the spatula.  Then, we traced the spatula onto cardstock to make the face, and drew a gown below.  My oldest daughter drew the angel’s face and painted the gown.

I placed the spatula on a piece of cardstock and drew the wings around it using a white crayon, including the letter “v” here and there to represent feathers.  Then, each of my daughters watercolored one wing, including the fringe at the bottom to show hanging feathers.  When the paint was dry, I cut out the wings together with the middle space all in one piece so that they could be glued to the spatula.  Then, we decorated the wings and gown with glitter.

Lastly, once the glitter dried, everything was attached to the spatula with the glue gun (my very first glue gun project).  Be sure to check out Brigit’s link above in case I have forgotten to write down any important steps.

To dramatize The Annunciation, we read Luke 1:26 - 38 and acted out the conversation between Mary and the Angel Gabriel using our puppets.  We even started with our angel up in heaven moving down to earth. 

The book Mary’s First Christmas by Walter Wangerin, Jr. also contains a version of this story; the book begins with The Annunciation and covers the events through the Holy Family’s return to Nazareth from Egypt.  You can learn more about this book by clicking on the image of Mary and the infant Jesus in the Children’s Book Carousel in the left sidebar.  FYI: when you click on the book image, you will open a window to the Amazon website.

Our new angel puppet is now standing on the mantel waiting for another play or dramatic opportunity.  In the meantime, he reminds us of our guardian angels and that God guides us and helps us.  He also gets to lead the saint parade of puppets we have made recently.

Read about how we used our spoon puppets to dramatize the Visitation here.

Read about another angel made from a paper plate here.

In 2013 I am linking with: Tactile Tuesday, Making It Count, For the Kids Friday, Weekly Kids Co-op, Hobbies and Handicrafts, Kids Get Crafty, We Made That

In 2012 I linked with: Saints Cele-linky, What are you doing for Lent?, Catholic Bloggers Network, Lenten Link up, Faith Formation in Young Children, Catholic Decor Ideas