Crucifixion Craft: Cross Stitch and Perler Bead Pattern

Hello Friends!

Well, it’s the season for religious crafting around here. 

Holy Week with a brood of little ones means a little less time for quiet prayer and a few more (hopefully) meaningful crafts as a family. 

For my children, at least, the crucifixion is a difficult thing to understand. And I’m not sure even with all of my explaining and crafting they will really get it this year. 

But, we will continue to try.

Lately, we have gotten into Perler beads. And I think we will be loving this craft for a long time to come. 

It’s simple, involves lots of counting and in the end, you’ve actually created something. 

How cool! 

My kids are still a little on the young end for Perler beads. So it is a craft we do together, which is just fine for these Crucifixion Crafts.

As you can see from the image below, I created five characters for this Crucifixion Craft: Jesus is in the middle. 

On each side of Christ is his mother and his beloved disciple, John. 

Finally, on the outside are the two other men that Jesus was crucified with. 

So far we have only gotten around to creating the Jesus character. But I hope to add to our display this Holy Week. 

The ultimate goal is to make each character out of Perler beads and rig it so they stand up independently.

As I mentioned, this Crucifixion Craft can be made with Perler beads or it can be cross-stitched.  

Just use the same pattern! 

What I love about the depiction of Christ is that it is clearly Christ and it is kid-friendly. 

We just moved into a bigger house and I don’t have a crucifix for every room yet. 

However, I plan on hanging the Perler bead Jesus in our playroom. And the cross stitch Jesus in the kids’ room. 

Sort of perfect, right?

I stitched up the image of Jesus over the course of a few afternoons. 

I plan on also stitching the other characters and placing them in smaller hoops. 

Then each Lent I will hang them as a Lenten display.

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 email address.

Here is the Perler bead Jesus that Bernadette and I put together over the course of a naptime last week (she stopped napping!). 

As you can see, when it comes to Perler beads you might need to add some of the backstitch details with a back permanent marker.  

Although it is mostly the same pattern, use the color PDF for creating the Crucifixion with Perler Beads. 

It is bigger and in color…so hopefully, kids can work on it a little bit more independently.

Both of us were pretty happy with how it turned out and like I said, I think that this will be the perfect crucifix for our playroom.

Enjoy the patterns and I would love to see pictures of your finished projects.

Once again, 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 email address.

All the best, and have a very holy Holy Week!

Nancy