Artful Friday: Lenten, Papal and Valentine Crafts

Good morning!  

What a week!  Lots to talk about today!   I mention here that I'll be devoting Fridays in my blogging to The Arts.

Well, this was a big week, a huge week.  And so, we spent time exploring, in many ways, our solemn Lenten season, St Valentine's Day and, of course, our Holy Father's announcement.  

I'd love to share our art  projects from this week; they relate to the holiday, the liturgical year  and the historic:

Lenten activity:
Play Dough Crown of Thorns:                                             
                   
                                                     Step 1: Create 3 strands.

Step 2: Braid 

                                                           
                                                         Step 3: Form crown

                                                    Step 4: Add "thorns"  (toothpicks)

Completed crowns:

                                                 

We'll be removing "thorns," representative of our sacrifices, symbolically easing Christ's suffering  by doing so, throughout these 45 days.  Since Lent has only been  underway for a couple of days now;  there's still time do this with your kids if you have not as of yet. ~:) 
.
You can also find these crowns  at Catholic Icing and  Chasing Fireflies. We made our own variations of the crowns pictured there. Thanks to these ladies for such inspiring tips! 

Papal Flag and symbols-
To learn more about the papacy and Papa Ben, you might like to look into these resources. While we researched and discussed the historical news of the week, the kids  created  from this site:

                                               

We  crafted  our own papal flags  using  cardstock and, yup, more  play dough ( to make the symbolic keys.)  We got the idea here and ran with it.

We also began watching this amazing movie on the life of Bl John Paul II. It's a bit over three hours long and given our other commitments, we've not had that much of a stretch to enjoy it in one sitting. Wow. Definitely memorable and eye opening.We're huge devotees of Blessed JPII; regardless, it is truly gripping!
                                                                 

 Valentine Craft~

John 3:16

First time we've actually done this pretty popular craft. How cute, how easy and how fun!
My younger son created this one, which I found several Valentine's Days ago here. 

Some shots of the project:

                                    

 "Hearts" Bingo~
Math/Art

                                  

Boards created by the boys, using  math skills, of course, in order to measure and to decide which factors and multiples would be written on the boards.  We played some fun, traditional "bingo," using "HEARTS" instead. ( Ex ~ H8 )

But we also practiced math facts.
For example~ "S  2x2x3" or "R 77 divided by  7" or "T 5 squared plus 3"

Of course, there were Valentine-ish prizes!

Piano study
In this post, I share some resources that we use for our piano study and here's a fun recorder songbook. 

Friends, have a wonderful, family-filled weekend...we have two more performances of Timmy's play, which were rescheduled after last weekend's blizzard. So happy that worked out. The show is brilliant!  Also, two basketball games, weekly Lenten stations of the cross at which the boys are "serving," as well as a special mass on Sunday celebrating  a giving and caring deacon in our parish. It will be busy, that's for sure, but I hope to squeeze in much home keeping and some fun family time as well.

Please feel free to share your art tips/ideas in the comments below. I'd love that an I'm sure others would too.

For my previous "Artful Friday" posts, 

you might like to click below.....

They're all here if you'd like to dust off something from the archives:

Study of van Gogh

Wisdom from a Violin Master

Everything You Need for a  Cezanne Study

The Arts in Our Homeschool This Week

 ( knitting, winter crafts, the theater and piano)

 Lenten, Valentine and Papal Crafts

Mercy Crosses, Lenten wreaths, Rosary Making, Music Lessons

Strings, Keys, Sketches

Strings for the Beginner

Yeats, Joyce and Watercolor with a Little Vivaldi Thrown in!

Crucifixion Paintings

A Few Resources on the Great Composers

Let's Have Some Elizabethan Fun!

Forever West: Caricatures and Street Performers on The Wharf

Autumn Tree Art

Violin School: Ode to Joy

The Art of Giving:

A Parade of Artwork for the Impoverished of Honduras

Orchestra Concert and  Fools for Christ Christmas Skit: 

Violin Resources for Fun, Classical Study and Christmas Solos!

Costumes and Monsters and Raggedy Doctors, Oh My!
 Sewing Fun for Kids!

And, my son's popular  guest posts on crafting rocket balloons,

 both of which include instructional videos:

How to Make a Balloon Dog

and

Shaping Balloons: A How-To 

I hope you get a chance to click over and enjoy one of his posts!

Friends, as always,  thank you for stopping over and 

spending some of your precious time here at my home on the web!

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I'd love to stay in touch regularly.

I'm grateful to link this to The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew's

Valentine's Day Resource Roundup!

Please visit for more awesome Crew celebratory ideas!

Until next time,

Have a lovely day,

~Chris