Crafting ornaments for Mary Hidden in Advent

     Since I was asked if I had created any ornaments to go with the Mary Hidden in Advent series, I will now confess to all--I am totally craft-challenged. Why did I ever say I would post ornaments as I made them??? Did I hope no one would read that?  Did I just have a wild flight of fancy, thinking I would suddenly become crafty? No? Too bad!  But I will share with you what we are doing here, and maybe it will help those who, like myself, can just barely glue!

     Above is the set we are using (mostly) for the Bible stories.  This set is sold by Leaflet Missal for around $21.00.  You have to assemble the figures using the provided pattern, felt (provided also), and glue. If I can do it, so can you. Truly.  There are a few stories we will cover that aren't in this kit, so when we get there I will (hopefully!) post pictures of what I come up with to represent those stories.

As far as the Marian ornaments, I'm making those this year as I go along.  We will review them and hang them on our main tree when it goes up (Gaudete Sunday).  This is what I have, but if anyone else has a better thought, please contribute it on your blog! I will apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures below; my camera is out-of-order so I used my phone, which tends to be a little bit dark. 

I like to use what I have around and I have been collecting can lids (I use an Oxo can opener that creates a smooth lid edge, but is not so great if you want to drain your tuna...). I also have a miser's hoard of cardboard Amazon boxes, so I begin with:

Step One: Collect jar lids, cardboard, or whatever for a backing:

Step two: Print out the Marian pictures from the lessons and cut them to fit whatever size/shape of cardboard or jar lid you like.  (Really, you don't need a picture for this one.) I used photo paper to get a better quality image and a bit of shine. I copied some of the images onto a Word document and reduced the sizes to 2 1/2"-3" across. 

Step three:  Spray painting everything gold:

Step four:  Glue the Marian pictures to the golden lids and rectangles with Mod Podge, and you can cover them with Mod Podge, too, for a decoupage effect:

ETA:  I decided not to Mod Podge the rest of the ornaments.  If they are printed on photo paper, it isn't necessary at all.  Also, I found it best to glue the hanging ribbons between the cardboard and the picture.

Step five:  Add ribbon, beads, etc. to complete the ornament: 

ETA:  Glue ribbon between cardboard and picture.

     I think I still want to add blue beads around the edge of the New Eve ornament.  But the Mystical Rose ornament is complete:

The Mod Podge works well to glue the hanger ribbon to the cardboard, but I think a hot glue gun would have been better on the metal.(ETA:  yeah, that would definitely be easier!)  I did use Mod Podge and I'll let you know if the ribbon detaches.  Also, the edges of the cardboard ornaments would look a lot nicer with golden cording glued to them or beads, but they are not noticeable from the front.  I'm just leaving mine plain.  No one is going to inspect them, right?  Right???

ETA:  Well, I could see the edges, so I did end up putting ribbon or glitter glue on them!

So, voila! ornaments with a lovely pictures of Our Lady on them.  We are looking forward to hanging these on our tree!  Hope this inspires you!

Here are a few more pictures (not too clear, I'll try to upgrade them later) of the tree we have our Mary ornaments hanging on.  ETA: You can see that we also cut some of the pictures into shapes suggested by the pictures themselves.  I don't know if you can see it, but the Annuniciation picture we made into a little book, with "Ave Maria" printed on the back!  These were so fun for the whole family to make!