Advent Candles in a Pinch

I had waited until the last minute to get advent candles for our wreath and every store in our tiny town only had white candles. So I took some pearlized glass paint and a stencil and proceeded to paint my candles with purple and rose accents. On the Rose candle for Gaudete Sunday I had stenciled JOY across the bottom. So if you ever need advent candles you can always paint them. the only tip I would recommend is that you just sponge on the paint, it adheres better to the wax than painting with a brush.




If you'd like to share your advent wreath join this Advent Wreath Link up at Catholic Mom

O Antiphons Ornament Printable

I didn't get around to making an advent calendar or Jesse tree this year and we barley got our tree up...thank goodness there was one more little tradition to count down the days till our sweet Savior is born! Praying the O Antiphons. For a few years I've been wanting to make a set of ornaments to put on our Christmas tree.

Just incase this is the only page you land on I have updated this Ornament printable with each Antiphon written on the ornament in my newest blog post here.

If you use the printable please like and share so others can enjoy it too!

O Antiphons Ornament by abansmer

 I thought it would be neat to have a little basket of gold pinecones each with a tiny painted O Antiphon. The kids can place one on our tree and then we could say the prayers for the respective O Antiphon. If you are a little bewildered as to what I'm talking about or have never heard of this beautiful tradition the O Antiphons are an ancient tradition in the church in which we anticipate Our Lord's birth by bring to mind these particular seven Messianic titles for Christ: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonai (O Lord), O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Rising Sun), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations), and finnally O Emmanuel our long awaited King! Here is a great link that goes into further detail about the matter: What Are the O Antiphons?

Onward to the ornaments. I painted seven pinecones in a bright gold...you could spray paint, glitter, sponge, brush or apply gold to the pinecones however you like.

I then  painted seven little paintings of each O Antiphon and used a scrapbook software to put them in frames and make a layout so that I could print them, cut them out, and glue them onto my pinecones.

                                    

                                       

                                       

You could attach the printouts anyway you like this is just one of the many ways I was contemplating how to proceed with the project.

A Crucifix for The Holy Trinity

I wanted to reflect on the Trinity and omnipotence of God. In this crucifix is represented God the Father with " the hand of God" painted on medallion at the top of the cross, God the Son with the plaster cast corpus finished with a faux white marble technique, and God the Holy Spirit with a dove painted on bottom medallion. On the right side of the cross is painted the Alpha and on the left is painted the Omega because God Almighty is the beginning and end of everything.


                       

                          

A New Etsy Shop

I decided to make available for purchase some of the items that I blog about. My sister and I opened up an Esty shop named SaongJai. In Thai, the name for our shop means two hearts because this endeavor is something we have set out to do together and also we have dedicated it to the two Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

 

Ever since we were little we liked to do creative things together and we've always loved to bead and make jewelry. I also wanted to help my sister as she is not able to work a steady job due to illness. So making and selling rosaries, Catholic jewelry, & things, will hopefully be a way she can be supported.

We take custom orders for rosaries, jewelry, crucifixes, and other Catholic things. Our rosaries are heirloom quality, being hand made, beaded in the style of knotted pearl stringing. We will try to accommodate any material you'd like a custom rosary made from.

God bless and thanks for reading...

Beaded Rosaries

These beautiful rosaries are made with a variety of beads ranging from wood, glass and gemstones. Lots of time and love have gone into these unique one of a kind rosaries that are keepsakes and will add a little something special to you daily prayer life.

These Little pocket Rosaries are kind of neat. To keep track of the decades you just slip the ring onto a different finger!

Holy Water Bottles and Devotional Candles

Here are some more Holy water bottles and a neat idea for devotional candles. When the candles have been burned use the beautifully painted glass container as a vase for flowers by a holy picture or statue!

A Couple New Crucifixes

Our Parish is hosting a craft fair next weekend and so I decided to make a few crucifixes and some rosaries for the event.

 The cross of this crucifix has a simple dark stain with gold accents 

for the halo around the head of Christ and the INRI sign. The corpus is a plaster cast from the original sculpture and is finished with life like paint including the wounds of Christ. 

.

This second crucifix has a light blue wash over a dark green background on a distressed cross with bronze   accents. The corpus is also a plaster cast from the original sculpture and is finished with life like paint including the wounds of Christ. 

Rosary Wall Hanger

We needed a safe and sacred out of the way place to keep our Rosaries so that they would always be available when it comes time for family prayer. I used to have a special dish in which we placed them up high out of the reach of little ones, just under the niche with Our Lady gently watching over. Although this served it's purpose, they always seemed to become entangled in the dish.

While assisting at our parish's vacation bible school this summer the kids made a craft that inspired me, they made a wooden rosary wall hanger pasted with layers of tissue paper, a holy card and using a nail as the hook to hang their rosary from.  It was a very sweet and beautiful craft. I really liked the use of a nail to remind us of Christ's suffering and passion.

This Rosary wall hanger started out as a plain plaque of wood that was treated with a wood stain and sealer. Then I painted an image of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows and used gold paint to accent her halo and Sorrowful Immaculate Heart.  Just as the children's version had inspired, I used nails as the hooks for the hanger, a generous amount of gold paint was applied to the nail head.

This was a very easy project and you could make one too. The plaque was only $2.99 at Jo-Ann's and I used paint and nails that I had. If you are not artistic you could even use a holy card for the image or maybe some of the beautiful master paintings in the back of an old Magnificat.


I've linked up this post over at Catholic Inspired who is hosting a
Catholic and Living it Link Up