Free Catholic Feast Day Planning Worksheet [Downloadable PDF]

Some of my favorite feast days are on the liturgical horizon. (St. Elizabeth of Hungary! Blessed Miguel Pro! Juan Diego! Our Lady of Guadalupe! Etc.! Etc.!) Because of the sheer amount of favorite feast days ahead, I decided to keep my planning stress-free and simple this year.

And that's where my free liturgical feast day planning worksheet comes in:



I'll be printing out a few copies of this Catholic feast day planning sheet and filling them out to make sure I don't miss some of the big feast days.

However, I may not fill in each spot for each feast day. Or I may. That depends on the feast day, how much is out there, and, honestly, my energy level.

That's the biggest thing to keep in mind when planning your celebration for a Catholic feast day: Keep your feast day simple, keep it stress-free, keep it centered on Christ.

The main idea is to do something special on this day to mark it as standing out for us Catholics. Whether you bake a cake as a special treat after dinner or do a movie, books, crafts, and websites, the main focus is that we enjoy as a family learning more about the feast day and growing closer to Christ.

So, enjoy this free downloadable Catholic feast day planning sheet. Make your planning be joyful!

(If you'd like to show me what you've planned or how you've colored or used the planner, make sure to tag me on Instagram with #paperdali.)


Vee

Free Saint Pope John Paul II Printable Triptych

Excited about tomorrow's feast day of Saint Pope John Paul II? (Say YES!)

To celebrate this hugely popular pope-now-saint, I created a Saint Pope John Paul II tripych (a fancy word for three-panel painting) craft activity.

Want to put yours together for the Saint JP2 feast day? It's easy-peasy.

You'll need my favorite tools for a crafting project:

• Markers and colored pencils
• Childproof scissors (because I'm a scissors amateur)
• A glue stick
• Manila folder (because card stock is spendy)

1. Download and print the free Saint Pope John Paul II triptych printable

Super-important: Make sure your printer settings are "landscape mode" and "fit to printable area." If you don't, you end up with a mini triptych.

2. Cut out the printable along the dark outer line

3. Color with your favorite markers, colored pencils, drawing pens, etc.

4. Add doodles, squiggles, and whatever you'd like to make it extra-special

5. Glue to the manila folder (or card stock)

6. Cut out the tripytch again and the fold the outside panels towards the middle like so:

7. Decorate the outside panels, then place your beautiful work of art in a thoughtful spot

A photo posted by Vee Jarski (@paper_dali) on Oct 21, 2015 at 4:15pm PDT

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Hope you had fun making your own Saint John Paul II triptych! If you do use it, feel free to share pics of your work. If you're on Instagram, use the hashtag #paperdali or tag me (I'm @paper_dali), so I can see your triptych.

xo
Vee

All Saints Day Party With a Touch of Halloween: A Paper Doll Playset

A photo posted by Vee Jarski (@paper_dali) on Oct 10, 2015 at 6:57pm PDT

Halloween packs a two-fold punch of irresistible awesomeness for children: candy and dress-up. Do you celebrate it or opt to celebrate All Saints Day instead?

At Casa Paper Dali, we've had a funny sort of relationship with Halloween. We've never quite celebrated it, but we've never quite ignored it either.

When my firstborn was four (and at the age where strangers at stores ask, "What are you going to be for Halloween, little girl?"), she had a terrible allergy to Red 40 (a popular food coloring). Just a little consumption of Red 40 would unhinge her for hours, shaking and crying.

Between that allergy and her fear of Halloween decorations (you never realize how spooky Halloween decorations really are until you shop in October with a very sensitive kid), we opted to just make special dye-free treats and do a movie marathon instead. She received the fun of having a special day with treats and dressing up to hand out candy---all stress-free.

Eventually, she outgrew this dye allergy, but by then, she was accustomed to getting treats without having to knock on strangers' doors for them and choosing the flicks for movie marathons. Her siblings after her all liked the idea of dressing up to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters while eating their own treats and watching movies.

"Would you like to go trick-or-treating?" I asked the children.

"Can I just have the candy?"

 Celebrating All Saints Day

In time, my understanding and love of the liturgical year grew, and I discovered the beautiful blogs of Catholic mothers, reading everything I could about how to celebrate different saints' days and feasts. (Catholic All Year's Baby Steps to Living a Liturgical Year article is a beautiful, honest guide to start doing so.)

We eventually made All Saints Day parties with friends part of our celebration, eclipsing Halloween and making time to spend with our holy friends in heaven.

There's always good food because we're Catholic and games, such as:

• St. Peter Fishing Booth
  Each child tosses a mini play fishing pole and hooks a toy. You can use a kiddie pool for this. We've had a sibling hide on the opposite side of the booth and pin fun things to the hooks. 
• 7 Deadly Sins Bowling Pins Game
  Use a child's play bowling set, label each pin with a deadly sin, get a plastic ball and label it "grace" and then knock down as many sins as you can. 
• St. Therese Flower Toss
  Display a photo of St. Therese of Lisieux. Each participant receives a rose (real, paper or otherwise) to toss to the picture. Whoever's rose is closest wins the prize. 
• Pin the Halo on the Archangel
  A sweeter version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," participants get to pin a halo on an archangel. (Feel free to use my St. Michael the Archangel drawing for this game!) 
• St. Isadore Pumpkin Roll
  Each participant rolls a pumpkin from a designated starting point to a designated finishing line. Whoever gets there first, wins. 
• St. Christopher Relay Race
  Participants race from a designated starting point to a basket filled with baby dolls (i.e., "baby Jesus") then have to hurry back to the finishing line while carrying the baby doll on their shoulders. 
• Follow the Straight Path Race
  Use some wooden blocks or beams for a fast-paced balancing game. Participants race across the straight path to get to the finishing line first. You can also do an alternate version and use a stopwatch to see which child has the best time across the beam. 
• Miguel Pro Dress-Up Relay Race
  Designate a starting line and finish line. At the finish line, put a box and an outfit to dress into in the box. Have a box for each contestant. On "Go!" the kids run to the box, put on all the clothes and then race back. (Blessed Miguel Pro was known for donning disguises as he performed his priestly duties and evaded police during the Catholic persecution in Mexico City.)

You can find more ideas on my Ultimate All Saints Day post.

An All Saints Day | Halloween Paper Doll Set

 My younger boys love playing with paper dolls, and so I recently drew and put together this All Saints Day paper doll playset for them:

 This set was difficult to name for my Etsy shop because it's both Halloween and All Saints Day. The four paper doll kids go trick-or-treating and receive treats from the three paper doll grown-ups. But the costumes are those that Catholic children use for All Saints Day.

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You can download the 15-page PDF for just $8 from my Etsy shop.

Feel free to share your All Saints Day ideas in the comments!

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.

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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

Happy to Return to This Creative Space

A photo posted by Vee Jarski (@paper_dali) on Oct 3, 2015 at 1:54pm PDT

For the past few years, I've been illustrating slideshows and creating sketchnotes for the company where I work. So, by the time my workday was done, I wasn't reaching for my art supplies and sketchpad.

My Paper Dali website became like that room in your house that's packed with old, beloved projects; half-completed ones; and endless bits of scraps and papers with ideas scrawled onto them. Every now and then, I'd peek into this creative space, muse over previous work, and very rarely add another little coloring page to the pile.

But this past year, I've had my job go to 100% editorial work, meaning all I do is edit, coach writers, and write... with only one illustration project all this time.

That shift in my workload has created the exact opposite of what I anticipated. I had thought that no longer drawing for work meant that I'd lose my enthusiasm for drawing, that I'd shove my art supplies in a bin, that I'd resign myself to being that gal who used to draw.

The opposite has happened.

Organizing This Creative Space

With my work being strictly with words, I find myself once again reaching for my markers, pencils, and paper in the evening.

Instead of drawing being something I must do, drawing is something that I want to do. The freedom of choosing what to draw and when to draw has given new life to my drawing... and a renewed desire to blog once more on Paper Dali.

Coming back to Paper Dali is like coming back to a little shop I loved but didn't visit for a long time.

I've been looking through the archives to see what is here (goodness, did I really launch Paper Dali when my daughter was 9? She's 15 now!), to compare drawing styles (my early drawings look so primitive and hesitant compared to the more elaborate patterns I favor now), to look at where my thoughts once were (Annie Oakley, how we loved you)...

Moreover, I noticed cracks in the ceilings and dull paint, so I've repatched some links and brightened this creative space with more pops of orange and blue, even a new header.

In rummaging through Paper Dali, I realized just how very difficult locating my free coloring pages are. And so, you can now find them all in one easy-to-see tab.

I also updated the About Me section because readers and old friends may want to see what I've been up to these last few years. (Or not. But if they do, the info is there!)

 

What I'll Be Sharing

 

As the new header says, Paper Dali will not just be a place for free coloring pages but also a place where I'll share doodles, drawings, ideas, and musings about creativity, art, and the creative process, all from a Catholic worldview.

I plan on blogging regularly once more as well. I've missed writing about these things I love so well and sharing my work with you. I also look forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to and looking at your creative projects and going-ons as well.

Blessings galore,
Vee

A photo posted by Vee Jarski (@paper_dali) on Sep 27, 2015 at 9:51am PDT

Free Saint Francis of Assisi Coloring Page: October 4

Ready for Saint Francis of Assisi's Feast Day? It's Oct. 4.


To celebrate this holy day, let's color...

Note: You can download the free Saint Francis of Assisi coloring page here.

In the spirit of poverty and joy and creativity and love for the Holy Family, he is credited for creating the Christmas creche, which Catholics have adopted into their homes.

May this coloring page inspire you to prepare your heart with the same love and care that St. Francis prepared the creche.

Feast Day of the Guardian Angels [Free Coloring Page]

Today's feast day of the guardian angels is one of my favorites! The idea of being appointed an angel from God to guard us and guide us throughout our lives leaves me awestruck.

"From infancy to death human life is surrounded 

by their (the angels) watchful care and intercession. 

Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd 

leading him to life. 

Already here on earth

 the Christian life shares by faith in 

the blessed company of angels and men united to God."

 - from the Catechism of the Catholic Church; 336.

Here's a free guardian angel coloring page for you to download for personal (nonprofit) use. The image below is a preview. Click on it to download the PDF.)