Saint sketches

True to my word, I have been designing some more toddler friendly saint pictures. Here are a few:

Above: Saints Mary MacKillop, John Vianney, Therese of Lisieux and Michael the Archangel.

Above: Saints Monica, Augustine and Anthony of Padua.

Above: Saint Catherine of Siene, Blessed Mother Teresa, Saints Gianna Molla and Ignatius of Loyola.

Above: Saints Joan of Arc, Francis of Assissi, Teresa of Avila and Faustina Kowalska

 Above: Saints Kateri Tekakawitha and Patrick.

Above: Saints Maximilan Kolbe, Maria Goretti, Thomas Aquinas and Cecelia.

If there's any more you'd like to see let me know!

Saints for kids

My husband and I decided that we would give all of our children saints names as their Christian names, which many people do. But we wanted our children to really look to that saint as some one to emulate and when it comes to some saints it's hard to get information about them, let alone a picture.

Not being one that is daunted by a challenge I ended up finding information for Saints Jerome, Madeleine Sophie Barat and Georgia. However when it came to Saint Georgia I was unable to find a picture so based on her life story and the time in which she lived I ended up designing an image that was very kid-friendly for my own 2 year old Georgia. And of course, once you design one for one child...

So here are the pictures:

Which I transfered onto t-shirts:

And then converted to handmade dolls for the kids to play with:

Email me if you would like to see a design for your child's patron saint or favourite Biblical figure!

Saint George the Knight

I have been thinking a lot lately about how susceptible our young children are to branding and mass marketing. My kids were watching 'Mike the Knight' on ABC2 the other day and I thought,why not give them a role model like Saint George to emulate rather than Mike? So here's my offering, a helmet and shield so my kids can pretend to be Saint George and defeat dragons (which have always been a visual metaphor for Satan in artworks depicting Saint George).

What you'll need:An old cap
Cardboard (old cereal boxes are perfect)
Elastic (about 20cm)
Stapler
Coloured paper
scissors
Craft glue
Feather
Pipe cleaner

Instructions: Helmet: Adjust cap to fit your child's head. Cut out templates (below).Colour helmet template and using craft glue (and some pegs to hold it in place until it dries) glue helmet template to the back of your cap. Wind a pipe cleaner around top button of cap and use to attach feather. Use craft glue for extra hold.
Shield: Cut our template. Affix elastic to back of shield using stapler (I also covered the staples with masking tape).

Turn shield over and decorate.I chose a traditional sword design with 4 pictures which each represent something to do with Saint George. Crown: God's kindgom, Cross:Jesus, Sword: battle, soldier etc and a dragon: which represents our eternal struggle against sin and the devil.

I hope your kids have as much fun dressing up as Saint George as my kids do!