A Craft for the Feast of the Guardian Angels – redux

Chers Amis,
On this Feast of the Guardian Angels 2009 I thought I would replay a post from 2007 about a beautiful craft  the girls and Pippin did with their liturgical Craft Club.  Like most of my posts from my Typepad days, all the photos had ‘fallen out’ so I have reinserted them. If you are looking for a fun craft for this day or looking for something you can do for Christmas, I highly recommend these plates.  Ours were small for display, but you could easily adapt this for a larger serving platter as a gift.  I hope you are enjoying this special day!

–Marjorie

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Chers Amis,

Our Liturgical Craft club met for the first time in late September to help the girls prepare to celebrate the glory of the (then) upcoming feasts of the Archangels and Guardian Angels. The hostess had chosen to present a lesson on the hierarchy of angels and to teach the children how to make a beautiful decoupaged glass plate. It was such a
wonderful craft that I had to share it, late though my posting may be.
The goals of the club are to teach the children about the liturgical significance of the coming month, provide an opportunity for them to get crafty, creative, possibly messy, and enthousiastic about their faith surrounded by good friends, and to make something beautiful that can be displayed on family altars/mantles/shelves during October as a reminder of the season/teacing. The monthly themes were selected to match the dedication of the coming month and paired with a picture book from Cay Gibson’s fantastic Catholic Mosaic reading list. The decoupage plates decorated with emblems of our was a perfect project to go along with My Guardian Dear. Disclaimer: I did not lead or organize or design the cool craft/activities for this month’s meeting. TOTAL hat tip to Lisa G. who graciously opened her home to 13 sticky, glitter encrusted, paint splattered children and their siblings. She did this with great grace and aplomb despite the fact she was headed out of town for a camping trip in N. Georgia upon our messy departure. Lisa, you are awesome!!! ) For complete instructions, click on the link in the first paragraph, but here is a quick overview.

• Select a glass plate and measure the diameter of the center and width of the border/rim.
• Find a picture/motif to serve as the main theme for your plate and any extra embellishments. We chose angels. If necessary, resize to fit and cut out.
• Clean any residue from plate surface with rubbing alcohol and let dry.
• Apply a thin coat of modge-poge or similar decoupage glue on the BOTTOM of the plate. The design is applied so that it is visible through the glass. DO not apply glue to the plate’s surface 🙂
• Place your picture/motif FACE DOWN on the glue. You should see your design through the top of the plate. (Don’t think this is obvious to a 4 year old who already her sights on the glitter.)
• Use the same technique to add any other paper embellishments or glitter.
• Let dry and apply a second coat over the back of the picture/embellishment.
• When dry you can over any empty space with either colored tissue paper with another coat of glue, or try your hand at painting the glass with enamel glass paints from your craft store.
• Let dry 🙂 Turn over and enjoy.

All the kids were thrilled with their creations and the moms were pretty impressed too. When we got home I sprayed a final coat of gold paint over the back of the plates to cover and protect any exposed paper and fill in any gaps. It was great fun and like our decoupage craft for the Assumption, this could be used for any feast day or season. I can already see handmade Christmas gift possibilities . . .

PS – Leslie, post pictures of your glittery creations and I’ll link to them!