Flower-Vase Label for the Virgin Mary: A Free Blessed Mother Printable Craft

Looking for a simple but sweet Blessed Mother craft for May? Here's a quick-and-easy craft: a Mama Mary label to color and cut, and use to decorate a Mason-jar vase.

A photo posted by Vee (@paper_dali) on May 6, 2016 at 10:44pm PDT

First, download the printable here. (Make sure your printer settings doesn't include margins and that the page orientation is horizontal.)

Then color it up however you want. (I colored the background of Mary's alcove yellow... then realized the yellow crown didn't pop, so I changed the background to orange. Remember you can always fix "mistakes" in art and that those "mistakes" can even give your work a unique look.) You can use the little crown pattern to create one for Mary and glue it on.

 Cut out the label, wrap it around a Mason jar (which will serve as a flower vase), and glue it on or tape it. (I taped because I've a deep and abiding love for Scotch tape.)

Then just add a little water to the vase and some fresh flowers then place it wherever you like! We've placed ours on the dining room table as a reminder to say the Hail Mary during our meal prayers in May.

Have a blessed and lovely Marian month!

xo
Vee

Little Doodles Can Do Big Things, Too

I recently received a lovely photo from a quilting wonder named Rose Castanon. She and her friend created a pretty Our Lady of Guadalupe quilt for a raffle at church. (The proceeds benefit the religious education program at her parish.)

After they finished the quilt, they used a Paper Dali doodle for the label and prayer to put on the quilt. She emailed me asking permission for the use of the doodle... and, of course, I said yes! Just send me a picture.

And she did:

One of the sweetest joys of creating art for Paper Dali is seeing how some of my free doodles and drawings get used by craft-loving folks. So, thanks for sending this, Rose.

And here's a look at the quilt she finished with her friend:

Lovely work, Rose!

xo
Vee

October Is the Month of the Rosary [Free Rosary Coloring Page]

In honor of the Rosary, I'm sharing my free Rosary coloring page. Use it to help teach your children to pray the Rosary and to keep track of the prayers.

Or they can color each bead ("rose") as they say a prayer, or they can make copies of the little flowers at the bottom of the page and cut them and paste them onto the bead.



Inspired by my grandmother's Spanish prayers, I also created El Rosario coloring page (a coloring page in Spanish):

My earliest memory of the Rosary is wrapped in the scent of lavender, the whisper of beads passing through wrinkled fingers, the murmured Spanish of my abuelita Blanca.

We shared a room, and the Rosary filled my every evening. For the years that she lived with us, she'd pray the Rosary nightly, the repeated "Dios te salve Maria, llena eres de gracia..." embedded into my sleep.

The set prayers, rather than dulling with repetition, formed a cadence of sweetness, a litany of love. My grandmother often told me that she loved me, and I understood that the rosary was like her repeating to Jesus that she loved him.

One cannot say that enough.

Unfortunately, when I grew older and further from the Lord, I stopped praying the rosary nightly, stopped saying "I love you" to the One Who Loves Us Best.

“Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.” (St. Padre Pio)

Yet, whenever I was in trouble and needed Him, I turned to the  Rosary. Always. Sometimes, I prayed all the mysteries. Other times, just the set prayers. In great difficulties, I'd just clutch the rosary in my hand as tightly as if I were clutching Mama Mary's hand.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit's intervention, my husband's RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program, and the piles upon piles of books I read, I returned to the Catholic Church in 1995 and have remained in the family.

Since then, the Blessed Mother has truly become my mother. And through the Rosary, she teaches us, not to worship her, not to focus on her, but to turn to the main events in the life of Jesus and our relationship with Him.

* * *

I also have the following free Rosary activity ideas:

• Rosary index-card ring (prayer helper)
• Pro-Life Novena activity page
• Roses for Mother Mary

Happy coloring and praying!
Vee

Free Mary the Undoer of Knots Coloring Page [Printable]

Recently, a friend gave me a holy card of Mary, the Undoer of Knots. The image of Mary taking the tangled mess of our worries, fears, and sorrows, and bringing order and peace to our hearts has remained with me for the past several days.

As I thought about Mary, I drew my version of Mary and decided to share this free Mary the Undoer of Knots printable with you. 

xo

Celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Mother

From the archives:

At my Catholic moms' group last weekend, I asked my good friends if they could help me brainstorm a craft for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Diane had this lovely idea for something with pull tabs. Then Lisa said, "Now, you just need to draw it!" So, I did.

This is how the craft will look like when it is finished. See, before you pull the tab, you have Mary at the end of her earthly life, and the quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church at the top ...

But then, you just give the tab a little pull, and you have Mary assumed into Heaven, with the rest of the Catechism of the Catholic Church passage showing:

The craft is super-easy because that's how I roll. And all you need is your computer, printer, paper, and colored pencils or markers. (My daughter colored the above pictures.)

Interested in making one for August 15, too? Then here you go, friends!

Directions:

(Please note: My ink was running out, so that's why the photos look in sepia tones. The PDF is a regular black and white document.)

Step 1. Print out the downloadable 3-page PDF for this project. (Please download it and then print it out. If you just work from the preview window, not everything will line up right.)

Step 2. Color now, if you want to. 

Step 3. Cut out the windows in Part A. Also, cut across the top where indicated.

Step 4. Cut out the pull-tab. 

Step 5. Add glue along the edges of  the last page ... (Don't forget to cut along the top where indicated on this page as well.)

Step 6. Then place the first page on top of it. It should look like this:

Step 7. Insert the pull tab into the middle. It will look like this. Be sure to have trimmed the pages before putting the pull tab in. The pages will be shorter than a regular one, so the pull-tab can stick out at the top. Your first part will look like this:

Step 8. And then, you'll pull the tab to show the assumption of the Blessed Mother into heaven.

Step. 9. Discuss the Assumption of the Blessed Mother together.

Step 10. Say a Hail Mary together and place the project somewhere special as a reminder on August 15 of this wonderful feast day. (Don't forget to pray for Paper Dali. Know I pray for everyone who uses my crafts and coloring pages, too.)

If you do the craft, pretty please send me a pic or a link to your post so that I can take a look at it, too. I'm taking photos with my BlackBerry, so the quality is a bit meh. And I'd love to swap in better ones!