Christmas

The Names of Jesus Advent Countdown

by Nancy Bandzuch · 9 Comments

And all of the sudden it’s mid November. WHAT!?! Perhaps it’s the beautiful weather here in Kansas, or the fact that I have been busy lauching my planner, but this fall is flying by. Advent is right around the corner, and I really want to do a good job with Advent this year. To be honest, our family prayer life was slipped a bit recently. There are a million reasons–nursing baby, traveling husband, difficult toddler–but we need to regroup and refocus around here. So that is the plan for Advent. We will once again be doing the Jesse Tree and setting up a Nativity Set, but this year we are also going to be using a Names of Jesus Advent Countdown. I put it together a few days ago, and I wanted to offer it to you as well.

You can find the materials for this project, and MANY other Catholic projects in the Catholic Family Digital Resource Library. To get instant access, and join a thriving community of over 10,000 Catholic Parents, just enter your in your email address.

Full disclaimer, I didn’t come up with this idea. I only put it into a spiffy little PDF. I found this idea over on Surviving Our Blessings, and I love it for a couple of reasons. #1-As I kid we did countdown chains for anything and everything we were looking forward to: Christmas, vacation, etc. #2-It is an easy way to praise and get to know Jesus, simply by getting to know all of his various titles. And #3-This Names of Jesus Advent Countdown is an easy way to read scripture as a family, which we need to do more of.

Here’s how it works.

First off, download and print the PDF.

I designed this for children to color. Have them color the image of Baby Jesus, as well as the titles of Christ. Once everything is colored, hang the image of Baby Jesus on the wall and cut apart the titles of Christ. Add color to the back side of the titles, if you want to have a colorful countdown chain. As a final step to up this countdown, create loops out of the paper titles, in any order, and create a chain as you go.

Once Advent begins, remove one link from the chain each day. Read the title of Christ, as well as the verse it comes from. The verse is noted beneath each title. You can stop there or you can memorize the verse, sing it, hang the title beneath the image of baby Jesus, whatever feels right to your family.

But the ultimate goal is that at the end of Advent you have the image of Baby Jesus surrounded by all of his titles and this will hit home the fact that God, the King of the Universe, humbled himself and to be born as a little, defenseless baby, in a stable.

And that miracle never gets old.

Your sister in Christ,

PS–if you are looking for other faith-building activities to use in your home or classroom this Advent, consider these:

The Jesse Tree Devotional for Families

Print and Color Nativity Set

Geometric Greeting Cards with Brand Scotch Tape

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CraftAmazing #CollectiveBias

There are certain things I want to get better at and one thing that has come to mind recently is being better about writing and sending cards. I am always so touched when I get a handmade card in the mail from someone I love and I really wish I was better about sending that love to other people. Well, I am going to try to be better this Christmas season.

Because I really struggle to find that “perfect” card sometimes, I decided to get creative and make my own cards to send. I wanted them to be simple enough so that I could make a whole mess of them and yet clearly handmade, festive and, well me. So, I headed cruised down the scrapbooking aisle at Walmart and found some fantastic tape. Seriously, look at it–it’s glittery! This glitter tape is from the Scotch® Expressions Tapes line. I also picked up some artistic striped tape as a contrast. Then I grabbed some blank white folded cards and stopped by the office supply section for some double sided tape. The double sided tape is part of the Scotch® Create Line and although I picked up the old packaging, look for it in it’s brand new packaging. And that’s all I needed.

Before we get to the tutorial, I just want to talk about tape, specifically this tape from Scotch® Expressions Tapes. I love crafting with pretty tape. Love it. Why? Because it is so easy! I love hand stitching and other tedious crafting endeavors, but I also love projects that are simple, mess-free and quick. Tape to the rescue. I get the glitter look without the glitter mess (yay!). I get the artistic painted look without the paint mess (yay!). And, I can make 15 cards in close to no time at all (hip hip hooray!). If you have yet to try crafting with tape, it’s time. Head to Walmart, cruise the scrapbooking section and I dare you not to pick up some of this dazzling tape.

Ready to make some of these funky, glittering cards? Here’s what you’ll need:

Once you have the template printed on regular computer paper it’s time to get crafting!

Grab your pretty Scotch® Expressions Tapes and your scissors. You are going to creating the fun geometric style of these cards by cutting little triangles. Try to make the triangles a variety of sizes. Fit them into the outlines on the template. I have provided outlines of a Christmas Tree, Star and Ornament. Since the tree and star have straight lines I basically kept my triangles within the outline, but for the ornament I let my triangles run over the edge and then trimmed them in the next step.

Once you have the outlines completely filled in, cut out the outlines, making sure to cut within the black line.

Once you have that done, grab your contrasting Scotch® Expressions Tape. I used the stripped artistic tape as my contrast. Run a strip across the bottom of each card, folding the edges behind. Then, using the double sided tape, adhere the cut out to the front.

And that is all there is to it! After a few minutes of work you will have a fun, unique and thoughtful card to send a loved one…and no mess to crafting mess to clean up!

I can’t wait to make more of these cards, and to maybe try different shapes. What do you think? What shapes should I add?

Once again, you can find this fun glitter tape from Scotch® Brand in the scrapbooking aisle. The doubles sided Scotch® Brand tape is located in office supplies.

Thank you, as always, for being here. I hope you give these cards, and crafting with tape, a try. I’m hooked, and frankly so are my kids!

All the best,

Nativity Themed Felt Advent Calendar Pattern

by Nancy Bandzuch · 12 Comments

The day is finally here–the day that I share my Nativity Themed Felt Advent Calendar Pattern. Yay!

I know, you’re probably like, what? We’ve been waiting for this day? Well, maybe you haven’t been, but I certainly have been. This project has been in the works for a couple of months now and I am finally ready to share it, the pattern and all the details.

I love how this Nativity Themed Advent Calendar turned out and I am so super duper excited to use it with my kids this coming Christmas season. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to Christmas stuff, I’ve got very little time for Santa and reindeer and elves. Why do we waste so much time talking about these silly things when the reality of Christmas–God becoming man, born as a tiny baby in a stable–is already awesome beyond words?

Truth be told, I made this advent calendar because I couldn’t find anything else quite like it and I wanted this for my own kids–and I’m happy to share it with you!

Enough blabbering–here are the pattern details.

This pattern, like most of my patterns is meant to be made out of felt. I once again used the beautiful wool blend felt from BenzieDesign.

Each ornament in this advent calendar features an element of the nativity. Ornaments include the star, angels, shepherds, sheep, kings, camels, cows, a donkey and the holy family. I made each ornament a circle excluding the 25th ornament, the baby Jesus. This ornament, because it is obviously the most special, is in the shape of a baby and is to be hung directly over the 24th ornament, the manger.

Also, as you can see from the pictures, I used the shape of a Christmas tree as the base for this advent calendar. I chose this shape for a couple of reasons. First of all, I wanted to show real Christmas (you know, the nativity) along with modern Christmas (the tree, presents etc). In fact, in a way the nativity gives meaning and purpose to the tree. Okay, maybe I’m reaching, but that was my thought process.

And here is the real reason I chose the shape of a tree. I have 3 little ones who are fascinated with the tree we put up from the moment when put it up to the moment we take it down. They LOVE it and last year they started asking for their own “kid Christmas tree”. So, here you go! My kids will be in charge of taking out the ornament and hanging it each day because the Advent Calendar is really their Christmas Tree which will finally be fully decorated on Christmas Day.

Just a little bit more about this pattern. Unlike a few of my other patterns this one is mostly glued, not stitched (Hoary!) As you can probably tell from the photos there is quite a bit of cutting involved in the construction of this advent calendar, which is time consuming, but after you have everything cut out there is just gluing!

Of course, if you’d like you can stitch everything down instead of gluing–but that’s up to you.

In all there are 18 different templates included in this pattern. Each of the patterns comes to-scale and ready to print. Along with the templates are detailed instructions packed with pictures and tips. I am absolutely confident that ANYONE at ANY SKILL LEVEL can accomplish this project. Seriously, anyone. It will take some time, but all good things do, and in the end you will have a beautiful, hand-made nativity themed advent calendar that your family will be able to use and cherish for years.

I busted my butt to get this out to you in July so that you would have plenty of time to create this wonderful Advent Calendar for you family this up coming Christmas.

Thank you for your support and if you have any additional questions about this pattern, or any of my patterns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

Nativity Felt Christmas Stocking Pattern

by Nancy Bandzuch · 2 Comments

It’s my birthday (yay, it’s Holy Thursday, and that’s a bigger deal, but it’s still my birthday!). Around here we are gearing up for a big cross-country road trip (Minneapolis–>>Kansas City–>>North Carolina–>>Baltimore–>>Pittsburgh–>>Insanity–>>Minneapolis) and since it is Holy Week I have a feeling my birthday will be overlooked, which is fine, but I still want to celebrate with you, dear crafty reader. And so, I have decided to post my newest pattern: Nativity Felt Christmas Stocking a little bit early and sell it for 1/2 price today, and today only! Yay! So that means that today this Nativity Felt Christmas Stocking is only $2! (what? she must be nuts!)

Purchase the Pattern for $3

This is so awesome, it’s like Christmas and my birthday (and Lent) all rolled up into one. And, because I am so wonderful, I included all the templates to-scale. That’s right, no running to the library to try and blow up the pattern (I hate doing that). Just print at home and get crafting!

I suppose I should calm down and tell you a little bit about the Nativity Felt Christmas Stocking Pattern, huh.

So, in June we added a sweet little boy named Dominic to your family–and he didn’t have a Christmas stocking of his own this year (bad mom). I just never found time to make one. I cross stitched elaborate stockings for my older 2 kids, but I just didn’t have time to do that this time around. So, I thought about what I wanted his stocking to look like–I wanted it to have the nativity on it, I wanted it to be classic and I wanted to be able to make it in about 2 hours.

Va la! This is what I came up with, and I’m pretty happy with it! And it’s done with plenty of time to spare!

If you decide to buy the pattern for this Nativity Felt Christmas Stocking (which is just $2 today!) you will get detailed instructions, 4 pages to-scale templates, 2 versions of the alphabet (bigger and smaller) for personalization and a detailed supply list. As always, I used the beautiful felt from BenzieDesign to make my stocking.

Over all I tried to make this pattern as user-friendly as possible. Christmas is the time of year that everyone is a crafter, so even if you have never embroidered or worked with felt before you will be able to accomplish this project. Really!

So, go buy your pattern. Then, when it’s time to head to the beach and you are looking for a little stitching project to work on you will have this…and your sweet little baby won’t be without a stocking at Christmas!

All the best!

DIY Nativity Play

by Nancy Bandzuch · 2 Comments

Often times the simplest projects are the best–that is certainly the case with the DIY Nativity Play my family put together this past weekend.

This is a post I never intended to write…but I just can’t help myself! We had yet another wonderfully fun family Christmas this weekend and since we are still a bit of a young family we spent some time thinking about the traditions we want to be part of your yearly Christmas gatherings. The only thing we really decided on was having a yearly nativity play with all of the grandchildren. And, there are already 12 grandchildren, so we already have a full cast of characters.

It seemed like a bit of an intimidating thing to pull together…but in the end it was simple and very powerful.

To be honest I had little to nothing to do with getting the play set up or pulling the costumes together. I was busy nursing a baby. But, in the time it took me to nurse the baby, the play was about to begin.

Our kings and shepherds wore towels and ties, our Mary wore a bed sheet and the angel had a pair of Halloween wings on underneath another bed sheet. Best of all, perhaps, our sheep had a piece of quilt batting tied around their heads, tie in the front to make little ears.

The scene was set, my dad started reading the scripture and then my nephew Romeo made his debut as the Christ child.

He stole the show.

Again, this is a bit of a departure from my usual content here, but I just can’t help myself. Of all of the creative things that filled this Christmas season–from ornaments to food to gift wrapping to more food–this simple little nativity play that was thrown together in a matter of minutes was my absolute favorite.

I hope this is a part of our family Christmas every year to come.

All the best,