Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Wrap a yarn cross and frame!

"And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" Luke 23:42

       Gather just a few craft supplies for this project: yarns, wooden crafts sticks, scissors, and white school glue. Cut two of the four craft sticks approximately 1 1/2" shorter. Round off the ends to match all of the others similarly. Glue these four tongue depressors together to shape a frame. Let this little wooden frame dry completely before wrapping the yarn cross across it's sides.

Left, the cross is wrapped across the frame sides.
Right the completed yarn frame and cross finished.

       Tie and secure the beginning of the yarn around one end of the frame and then wrap one side of the cross four or five times and secure the end with a knot or glue. Do the same for the other sides of the frame to shape a cross in the center of the wooden frame. Now wrap the sides of the frame and squeeze a bit of glue onto the surfaces as you go. Twist a accent of yarn around the center of the cross.

Left the sides of the frame are cut. Center, the ends are shaped to match.
Right, the frame is allowed to dry completely after gluing the ends
together in the pictured shape.

God will take care of you - Peacock Picture

Jesus said, "...they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds? Matthew 6:26

       A hand-crafted peacock may be made either by dipping a younger child's hand in paint and printing the wings of the peacock or by drawing around an older child's hands and cutting these from construction papers or by coloring in a hand tracing instead. Use glitter, sequins or additional papers to further exaggerate the peacock feathers. Cut out a simple body shape for the bird's torso, a yellow or orange triangle for it's beak and tiny white eyeballs can be cut with a hole-puncher. Glue on a feather to the peacock's head and draw it's black feet. I've included a printable page below of Matthew 6:26 so that Sunday school teachers may print out multiple copies of the verse for larger numbers of children. Their students may then craft a peacock between the lines of verse, just like the example shown above.

Jesus said, "...they do not plant seeds, gather a harvest and put it in barns; yet your Father in heaven takes care of them! Aren't you worth much more than birds?

More Peacock Activities:

Craft a Passion Cross for your room...

"Whoever does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." Luke 14:27

       Children can assemble and decorate fun and easy crosses to hang in their bedrooms or classrooms using just a few simple materials: tongue depressors or Popsicle  sticks, acrylic paints, yarn, and white school glue.

Left, two tongue depressors cut and glued together in the shape of a Passion cross. Right, decorated wooden crosses made from yarn, paint and and tongue depressors.
Directions:

  1. Cut down one of the two wooden craft sticks to a shorter length, to shape a Passion cross from the materials. 
  2. Round of the square tip to look similar to all of the other ends.
  3. Use white school glue to attach the parts as seem above in the photo. Let dry.
  4. Now attach a yarn loop to the back side of the cross with glue. Let it dry.
  5. Paint and decorate your cross just the way you like it.
  6. Students may alternatively wrap the cross made with wooden craft sticks using vibrant yarns like those pictured above.
Learn more about The Passion Cross:

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Crafting baby Moses among the paper reeds...

       Young ones will delight in making a thee dimensional picture of baby Moses hidden among the paper reeds. Craft the reeds in the swamp the first Sunday and then the baby on a second Sunday. I recommend that adults cut the egg carton parts in advance for their little ones. They also need to attach the basket to the paper reeds with hot glue for the children. 

Baby Moses hidden in the reeds from
Pharaoh's servants and soldiers.
 Read this 
story in Exodus 2:3.
Supply List:

  • construction papers in browns, yellow and cream for reeds
  • scissors
  • white school glue
  • paper egg carton
  • two cotton balls and cream yarn for bunting
  • brown yarn for basket
  • scrap cardboard
  • hot glue and hot glue gun (optional)
  • pink embroidery floss for facial features
  • black paper for facial features
Step-by-Step Instructions:
  1. Decide what size you want your 3D paper picture to be. Then cut fat lengths of multi-colored construction paper to fit the length of your picture. These pieces should be approximately five to six inches wide. I cut mine using brown, yellow, cream and gold construction paper.
  2. Now fringe these lengths of paper leaving approximately one inch at the end un-cut. 
  3. Curl the fringe using the inside edge of your scissors, gently. Be careful not to curl the paper with too much pressure or it will tear.
  4. This fringe will become the "reeds" for baby Moses' basket to float among. Glue them down the length of your construction paper, staggering where these are glued to make a marshy looking reed sea.
  5. Cut an oval from a scrap piece of cardboard for the basket bottom.
  6. Layer the bottom of the basket with yarn.
  7. Braid a few strands together and glue this braid along the outside edge of the basket using hot glue to speed up the process. (Adults need to assist with hot glue!)
  8. Now cut two paper cups from an egg carton. One will be the baby's head the other his body.
  9. Unravel the cotton balls and wrap these around the lower egg cup to cover the paper baby's body with "swaddling."
  10. Cover the swaddling with cream colored yarn to finish the surface neatly. (optional)
  11. The upper egg cup should be covered with white glue and layered with brown paper to make the baby Moses' skin. 
  12. Add a few details to his face like: a hole for an open mouth, a bump for a nose, a bit of yarn for his hair, embroidery floss for his lips, curled back paper for eye lashes etc...
  13. Hot glue this paper baby Moses into the basket and then hot glue the basket among the curled paper reeds. (Adult needs to help with the hot glue gun,)

Left, cut fringes in paper but leave 1" uncut at the bottom. Center, curl som of the fringe with edge
 of scissors. Right, glue rows of fringe along the length of construction paper, staggering these to
 make them look like reeds in a marshy area of the sea.

Left, cut oval from cardboard and cover one side with yarn. Braid a length of the yarn to glue on
 the sides of the "basket" so that it has walls. Talk about what it might  have been like for
 Jochebed, Moses's birth mother to make such a basket to hide him. Right, hot glue the
basket in and among the paper "reeds."

Left, cut away two pockets of a paper egg carton to shape a baby Moses. Center, wrap the bunting
using a bit of cotton batting and glue around the lower paper egg cup. Then cover this with cream
colored yarn if you want to. Right, cover the upper egg cup with brown paper and glue to
be baby Moses' head. Trim with facial features.

Baby Moses was hidden among the reeds in the marshes of the sea to keep him safe from
Pharaoh's soldiers/servants. His sister, Miriam, watched over him night and day until he
was discovered, rescued and adopted by the very daughter (princess) of the man who
was trying to kill all Hebrew male babies!


Watch how God took care of baby Moses,
from Teaching Kids about Jesus.

Paper Doll Chains Template

        This following template is for a variety of crafts I will be posting in the near future for Sunday school, VBS and home study.  The patterns should not be redistributed from alternative websites as they are copyrighted by me. They are for personal or church related use only.

Paper doll chains and cookie templates.

Craft a paper cutting of the "Crown of Thorns"

       Learn to draw and cut a crown of thorns for Easter or Good Friday. We used alphabet stickers to finish this sample project. The initialism INRI  represents the Latin inscription (in John 19:19), which in English translates to "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews", and John 19:20 states that this was written in three languages—Hebrew, Latin, and Greek—during the crucifixion of Jesus.

A finished layered paper, crown of thorns.
Supply List:

  • white, black, purple and blue construction paper 
  • scissors
  • white lead pencil
  • Capital Letters with sticker backing or cut from paper if you prefer
  • white school glue

Directions:

  1. Fold a piece of typing paper in half, shorter edges together.
  2. Draw an oval shape. Add thorns to both the inside and outside of the oval shape.
  3. Cut out the template and open it up to trace around with a white lead pencil on top of the black construction paper.
  4. staple the edges of two additional layers of construction paper behind the black, one in purple and the other in blue.
  5. Now cut out the crown of thorns along the white lead lines.
  6. Layer the three cut-out thorny layers on top of each other with glue onto a lighter shade of blue paper. 
  7. Stick the word "INRI" into the center of the crown of thorns.

Left is our template cut from typing paper. Center, is the white lead tracing to transfer the crown of thorns to black construction paper. Right, I layered all three colors of paper and stapled these together so that I would only need to cut the thorny crowns once.
More INRI Crafts:

Dove Yarn Painting

       This yarn painting of a dove may be used as a Bible craft for a wide variety of lessons. The dove symbol is popular throughout the scriptures so it could be applied to lessons about Noah and the ark, sacrifices in the Synagogue, or the symbolic depiction of the Holy Spirit at the Baptism of Christ. This dove image is simple enough for a child in first through third grade to complete, although, older students may enjoy making it just as much.

Finished yarn painting of a dove.
Supply List:

  • blue and white yarn variety
  • blue or black button for eye
  • foil paper for beak
  • cardboard for backing and dove cut-out
  • template of dove
  • scissors
  • pencil
  • home printer
  • white school glue

Step-by-Step Instructions:

  • Print out template, or coloring page and cut out the dove to use as a pattern for the yarn painting.
  • Center the dove on top of the cardboard to get an idea about how large you want the yarn painting to be. 
  • Trace around the dove on top of cardboard to cut out two pieces of the dove: the body and the right wing. (see photo below)
  • Glue the dove onto the background cardboard and let the construction dry.
  • You may need to stack heavy books on top of the cardboard construction so that it dries flat before painting with glue and yarn.
  • Start the gluing process by butting the first white yarn for the dove's body up against the outer edge of the dove's breast and work your way around the head, wings and back to the beginning. 
  • Fill in the rest of your yarn painting by pooling white school glue and gently pressing the yarn down into it. 
  • Glue on a button for the dove's eye and foil for it's beak.
Left, the pattern has been printed on a home computer. Center, the dove's wing is cut out from the body of the bird so that it may be traced around as well, Right, there are three layers of cardboard glued together to make the construction for our dove yarn painting.

Details of the yarns used and the button eye.

More Dove Crafts and Coloring:

Monday, March 14, 2022

"Heart in Hand" Yarn Painting

        This yarn painting would be an appropriate "love" themed craft for any Bible lesson about love. The theme is based upon a very popular folk aesthetic often incorporated into the arts and crafts of young students. I would recommend this particular project for 4th or 5th graders. It takes time and patience to complete it, several hours at least. If you are working with students in a Sunday school class to complete a project like this, allow for several Sundays to finish it properly.

Finished yarn painting of heart in hand.
Supply List:

  • yarn in variety of thickness, color and texture
  • white school glue
  • recycled masking tape role (empty)
  • hot glue and hot glue gun
  • silver tape
  • pink paper for nails
  • heavy corrugated cardboard
  • utility scissors for cutting cardboard
Step-by-Step Instructions:
  1. Cut out a rectangle shape from the heavy cardboard. This will be the piece you will need to use as a backing for your yarn painting.
  2. I made a template for this project by drawing around one of my hands, with my palm and fingers shaping a half heart. 
  3. Then I transferred this drawing on top of a large, folded piece of newsprint, butting the heart shape made by my thumb and pointer finger at the edges of the folded half of the paper. 
  4. After this, I cut out the hand and heart template and unfolded the newsprint to reveal a mirror image of the template. 
  5. I then traced this on top of a second piece of corrugated cardboard to make my heart-in-hand design.
  6. Glue a design made with your own hand tracing on top of your first cardboard rectangle in order to have a template similar to mine to work with. 
  7. You may need to stack heavy books on top of the cardboard form to get it to lay flat over night while the glue dries.
  8. Flood the heart opening with white glue and wrap the interior shape with yarn, gently pressing it into the shallow space. Fill the space entirely before moving onto the next. Repeat the same method until the entire design is finished.
  9. Cut the empty masking tape role in half and attach a bracelet to one of the arms using hot glue. Cover it with metallic tape, foil, or paper whatever pleases you.
  10. Cut finger nails from thin cardboard and decorate them using paper or paint before hot gluing these onto the fingertips of your design.
  11. Tape a yarn hanger to the back of your yarn painting and hang it up in your room.
Left, cardboard cut-out of hands. The negative space between fingers forms the heart.
Center, the cardboard hand cut-out is glued on top of a second sheet of cardboard to add
 strength and make it easier for young students to glue yarn to its' surface. Right, here
you can see that the center "heart" space was filled first with glue and the
yarn pressed inside it.

Left, up-close detail of bracelet wrapped in foil tape. Right, up-close details of finger nails.

See a yarn painting interpretation of Van Gogh's Starry Night. 
Many people do not know that Vincent Van Gogh started 
out as a minister before becoming an artist.

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Color Noah and his sons as they build the ark...

Description of The Coloring Page: The WOG coloring pages are from India. These have been dedicated to the children of the internet by this ministry. The collection was compiled by Yesudas Solomon in 2020 at www.WordOfGod.in, you may contact them at wordofgod@wordofgod.in to ask about these particular resources. The scripture reference is about Noah and his sons building the ark. This took anywhere from 52 - 120 years for them to accomplish according to Biblical scholars. That's a long time to be made fun of; don't you think? "My spirit shall not strive with man forever, since he too is flesh, yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Color Moses as a boy...


Description of The Coloring Page: "When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water." Exodus 2:10, Lotus flowers that grew in Egyptian canals among the reeds., Young teen boy dressed as Egyptian.

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Color Miriam as a young woman...

 

Description of The Coloring Page: musical instrument, "Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted..." Exodus 15:20, tambourine

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can

Monday, March 7, 2022

Basic supplies you will need to make our Bible crafts...

       I will keep a listing here of the common craft materials I give in supply lists for Bible craft projects. Most people do not need to read here, however it is a helpful post for those of you who speak an alternative language to English. Here you will read a specific description of materials so that you may acquire similar craft product in your own country that is referred to by alternative words and definitions.

Left, watercolor paints in a tray. Right colored pencils. 

       Again, turn on the app (located on right sidebar) for your native language and read here for a detailed description of craft materials.

Construction paper: also known as sugar paper, is colored card stock paper. The texture is slightly rough, and the surface is unfinished. Due to the source material, mainly wood pulp, small particles are visible on the paper's surface. It is used for projects or crafts.

Scissors: are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting various thin materials, such as papercardboardmetal foilclothrope, and wire. A large variety of scissors and shears all exist for specialized purposes. (Use blunt end scissors for younger children.)

Stapler: a mechanical device that joins pages of paper or similar material by driving a thin metal staple through the sheets and folding the ends. Staplers are widely used in government, business, offices, work places, homes and schools.

Paint for Young Students: 

  • Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted with water, or modified with acrylic gels, mediums, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor, a gouache, or an oil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media. 
  • Watercolor is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based solution.
  • Tempera  also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long-lasting, and examples from the first century AD still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by oil painting. A paint consisting of pigment and binder commonly used in the United States as poster paint is also often referred to as "tempera paint", although the binders in this paint are different from traditional tempera paint.
Crayons: (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a mixture of wax and oil.

Paint Brushes: is a brush used to apply paint or sometimes ink. A paintbrush is usually made by clamping the bristles to a handle with a ferrule. They are available in various sizes, shapes, and materials. Thicker ones are used for filling in, and thinner ones are used for details. They may be subdivided into decorators' brushes used for painting and decorating and artists' brushes use for visual art.

Palette: Watercolor palettes are generally made of plastic or porcelain with rectangular or wheel format with built in wells and mixing areas for colors.

Ice cube tray: Ice cube trays are designed to be filled with water, then placed in a freezer until the water freezes into ice, producing ice cubes. Ice trays are often flexible, so the frozen cubes can be easily removed by flexing the tray. (Used as alternative paint palettes for children that are washable.)

Pencils: pencil  is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core encased in a sleeve, barrel, or shaft that prevents breaking the core or marking a user's hand.

  • Most pencil cores are made of graphite powder mixed with a clay binder. Graphite pencils (traditionally known as "lead pencils") produce grey or black marks that are easily erased, but otherwise resistant to moisture, most chemicals, ultraviolet radiation and natural aging.
  • Unlike graphite and charcoal pencils, colored pencils' cores are wax- or oil-based and contain varying proportions of pigments, additives, and binding agents. Water-soluble (watercolor) pencils and pastel pencils are also manufactured as well as colored cores for mechanical pencils.
Left, fruit cartons made from recycled cardboard. Right, paper bags, the one on top has gusseted bottom.

Left, corrugated cardboard. Right, ice cube tray for paints.

Elmer's white school glue: Over the next few decades, Elmer's focused on expansion of adhesive products for school and home, in addition to developing a variety of hardware sealants, compounds, and caulks. In 1968, Elmer's introduced Elmer's School Glue, the first white glue that washed out of clothes. Soon, Elmer's Glue-All and School Glue would contain the same ingredients, but each retained its different packaging.

Mod Podge: is a water-based sealer used to preserve decoupage. It is non-toxic and used often for children's craft projects.

Cardboard: (paper tubes, sheets, boxes) is a generic term for heavy-duty paper-based products having greater thickness and superior durability or other specific mechanical attributes to paper; such as foldability, rigidity and impact resistance. The construction can range from a thick sheet known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple corrugated and flat layers.

Paper egg cartons: (also known as an egg box in British English) is a carton designed for carrying and transporting whole eggs. (Alternative for paint palette that is for easy clean-up, just let the left-over paint harden and then throw the whole carton into the trash bin.)

Left, toilet roll tubes. Right, paper tubes that once had wrapping paper, tin foil or plastic wrap spun around them.  

Masking tape: also known as painter's tape, is a type of pressure-sensitive tape made of a thin and easy-to-tear paper, and an easily released pressure-sensitive adhesive. It is available in a variety of widths. It is used mainly in painting, to mask off areas that should not be painted.

Newsprint: is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. 

Small brown or white gusseted paper bags: These bags are often used in the United States to pack student lunches when these are taken from home. The bags are light weight, not waterproof and often made from recycled materials. Bags are sold in bulk from most all grocery stores.

Disposable paper plates, cups and bowls: are made in molds in a factory using compressed paper pulp. 

Wooden tongue depressors or Popsicle sticks: (6 inch) is a tool used in medical practice to depress the tongue to allow for examination of the mouth and throat. The most common modern tongue depressors are flat, thin, wooden blades, smoothed and rounded at both ends, but, historically, tongue depressors have been made of a variety of materials. Since they are inexpensive and difficult to clean because of their porous texture, wooden tongue depressors are labeled for disposal after a single usage.

I will add more supplies and definitions of these, as needed.