Category: imported

Homemade Family Treasures (Christmas Gifts): Links of Light Bulbs (9)

Posted on
These gifts build family culture!  They may not cost too much, but they are a great way to collect family memories and strengthen the bond of family!  The good news with these homemade gifts is that once you create and format the first one…the others are easier to produce,
but will be treasured for years to come!

(1) Perpetual Calendar
This is one of the gifts we have made over the years for our whole extended family…one for each household and tailored to our family tree.

We created a template with 12 year old daughter Kelly’s awesome Kelly Comics and added family birthdates, First Sacrament dates, family Patron Saints’ dates and over time we continue to add any monumental firsts and family events and the dates that our loved ones have passed away.

It used to look like this!

You can create one like this too, with your own collage of family pictures.  Once you format one and record your key family dates, you can make copies for a treasured gift for your whole extended family!
With all the calendars we have made, we like to print the pages and glue them into a dollar store spiral-bound sketchbook.  It’s durable, with a nice cardboard back cover and it gives us a chance to glue a nice custom front cover on as well.  We use clear contact paper (also from the dollar store)  to preserve the front cover.  This is an idea straight out of A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families.  See the original Equipping Catholic Families post on Perpetual Calendars.
(2) Guess Who!? Family Edition

How about a Family Guess Who Game of familiar faces.
We made the family versions for both sides of our family last year for Christmas…so we have the deluxe version with both sets of templates.
You can make templates with pictures of your family and friends.  Imagine what funny questions you can ask to narrow the search, given how well you know your loved ones!
Check out my templates for a Saints version of the Guess Who!?

(3) Family Treasure Chest

We collected award certificates, newspaper articles, Sacrament certificates, report cards, a filled-out family tree, favorite pictures, special letters or cards between family members, birth announcements or special family newsletters, family trivia and any other special artifacts recording our family history. 
We made photocopies of each article, creating collections for each family of relatives.
We created a treasure chest out of a laundry box to store all the articles in and presented each treasure chest to a different family, reminding them that they can continue to add to their collection.
This is also an idea from A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families

(4) Photo CD

Having collected the family photos over the years and even scanning older pictures from family albums, I have quite the collection of photos!  One Christmas, I compiled a CD of all the favorite family photos I could find, organizing them into a different folder for each family.  Each family received the whole collection on a CD full of photos.  As the collection grows…it may require a DVD which can be formatted as a slide show as desired.

(5) Picture Book

We have created a number of photo books…sometimes with captions
and sometimes illustrating a crazy story
made up by my husband and the kids.

We even made up a whole spy story with our pictures from our trip to Australia.

Now, there seem to be endless photo book services online to create a photo book and have it printed professionally, but we assembled our own with bristol board,
scrapbooking paper and prong fasteners.

(6) Family Cook Book

Collect the special family recipes from as many relatives as possible.  If possible…request them to be hand written on index cards.  Scan or photocopy, organize and assemble them into a scrapbook or album, making copies for each family.  Your local printshop can spiral bind pages for an easy-to-use version. 
You may even want to make special copies for the young adults who are starting out on their own!

(7) Photo Coasters & Trays

There are specially designed coasters and trays available which are designed to hold your family photos.  There are also various other techniques to transfer images on different materials or even mod podge the pictures in place for practical gifts with memorable photos.  Check out All Things Homie for the Travertine Tile version!

(8) Family Trivia
Start building a list of questions and quotes for a special trivia game.  Perhaps you could enlist each family to come up with 5 or 10 questions to even out the playing field.

(9) Family Movies

Is it just our family that creates crazy movies tailored to special relatives on their birthdays?  In any case…ANY family videos including clips from family events can be compiled into a movie….especially as movie making technology gets easier and easier! 
(10) Custom Playlist
A CD (or thumb-drive!) can go a long way! 
Not sure how legal this is to share music, but we used to do it with cassette tapes!
The coolness factor goes way up with custom printed CD labels and CD cases. 
I’m sure we could figure out how to dress up a thumb-drive…

(11) Hand-Printed Shirts & Aprons
We have customized our share of T-shirts, aprons, coffee mugs and ornaments with hand-prints of our kids…especially the little ones!  As the hands get bigger…they can even be layered (big to smallest on the top).

What are your ideas for Homemade Extended Family Gifts?

you’ll find it in the Treasure Chest…

(well at least some of these ideas. =)

 

Linked to the Festival of Links: Christmas 2011
and the Fiestas de Enlaces

Links of Light Bulbs (9) is brought to you by Equipping Catholic Families, a division of Arma Dei.

The Reviews are In: Links of LightBulbs (11)

Posted on

(1) Tracy says “These Mass booklets are a perfect size for little hands and material is covered a little at a time to keep children’s attention without being too overwhelming.”  Check out Slice of Smith Life for the complete review! 

The folder holds the entire collection of 10 booklets as shown here:

My thoughts:   I enjoy using Monica’s product with my children.  These Mass booklets are a perfect size for little hands and material is covered a little at a time to keep children’s attention without being too overwhelming.  My children will be using these booklets and coloring them a little at a time as we review the Mass responses.  I will be using Color Me Catholic: New Roman Missal Edition as weekly guides to teach during our religion classes during our homeschool days.  I think the more we use them the more familiar our family will be with the new mass responses, which is the intention of the product.

If you would like to read another review about this product, be sure to go to Laura’s blog at Day by Day in our World and read her review HERE. 
Thanks, Laura!

Check out Crafolic for another review of Color Me Catholic!  Love these pictures of the kids coloring! Thanks, Jennifer!

Rosary Mom reviews Color Me Catholic

http://lettersnumbersandbooksohmy.blogspot.com/2011/12/color-me-catholic-new-roman-missal.html

Teaching Saints: http://teachingsaints.blogspot.com/2012/01/color-me-catholic-roman-missal-activity.html

Got Mary? shirt GIVEAWAY

Posted on

The
Got Mary? T-shirt GIVEAWAY
is now OPEN on
this Feast of the Immaculate Conception: December 8, 2011!
Aren’t these great shirts I found at a recent Catholic Conference?
(See a comprehensive listing of Catholic Conferences with links)

The nice people at Got Mary? are hosting a giveaway with me…
The sweepstakes begin on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8)
and end on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12)

Check out Our Lady of Guadalupe on the back…perfect timing!
You could win a Got Mary? T-shirt! 
Check them out and enter to win! 
See instructions below.
ENTER the SWEEPSTAKES with 3 little steps!

1. subscribe to Equipping Catholic Families …and preferably leave a comment after this post, naming your favorite title or Feast day of Mary
2. “like” the Got Mary? facebook page , preferably leaving a comment on the wall

3. Enter the Equipping Catholic Families ~ Got Mary? Sweepstakes

Be sure to read the rules.

You could win a Got Mary? T-shirt!

Throughout these two awesome Feasts of Mary…
Got Mary?

Visit the Our Lady of Guadalupe Link Up as part of the Festival of Links!

What have you been up to lately?

Posted on

 

I finally have an intro page…complete with photos from our photo shoot yesterday.  Wow…it’s difficult to get 7 people with their eyes open, nice smiles, out of the shadow (Kelly!) and looking in the same direction, all at the same time, especially when one is only 19 months.  This is my new Intro Page!

The first of it’s kind!  An index of Link Ups…just for Catholics!
Check it out, link up your ideas and please share the button AND a link to CathoLINK LIBRARY…for easy access to Catho-LINKS!

This is the SECOND week using the NEW Roman Missal Mass.
Check out our downloadable Color Me Catholic: New Roman Missal Edition for a fun way to familiarize the kids with the new text as well as Vessels, Vestments, Parts of the Mass, Church Furnishings and Sacraments.

I like to keep my linkies OPEN so that everyone can keep linking their projects.  Add your homemade Nativity (and related nativity activity) posts here at the Nativity Activity Linky.

This is my special post about the Knitted Nativity my Auntie Ingrid MADE me just in time for Advent!!
We love it!

In case you’re not totally sick of posts about Homemade Nativities…here are all the ones we have made!

This is my Advent Calendar Linky…and it’s also STILL open, for people like me who are a little behind.  Yes, I still have yet to post my new Advent Calendar that I’m working on.  I’m not sure if we will end up using it for this Advent or just looking forward to breaking it out next year!
It’s not too late to link up!

Book Badge Review and Doodle Summary 
for The Third Testament
A book by John Eklund.

Catho-LINKY LIBRARY: Links of Catholic Link-Ups

Posted on
Visit our Catho-LINKY LIBRARY page
for the most complete and current list of Catho-LINKIES!

(1)  COOL CATHO-LINKIES


Converted 2 Catholic! Add your own favorite games and crafts that have been converted to be CATHOLIC.

Cool 2B Catholic Pinterest PINBOARD Share Add your own Catholic Pinboards!  Check out other Pinterester’s collections of Catholic Pins!

Sunday Snippets: A Catholic Carnival from This That and the Other Thing
Add your favorite Catholic post, every Sunday!

(2) CATHOLIC LITURGICAL CALENDAR


Cele-LINKY with the SAINTS Add links to your favorite posts about crafts, activities, traditions and celebrations for Saints Days.

Cele-LINKY thru the CALENDAR Add links to your favorite posts about crafts, activities, traditions and celebrations for the different Seasons and Feasts of the Liturgical Calendar.

Fiestas de Enlaces  (Festival of Links) from Familia Catolica

This is so great!  This is an ongoing tag-team of Catholic Liturgical Calendar linkies to add your posts of ideas for celebrating the different Seasons and prominant Feastdays.  Each link-up will be hosted by a different Catholic blog.  I’m so happy that EquippingCatholicFamilies.com will be a part of it!  I will also be updating my Catho-LINKY LIBRARY page to keep track of the new linkies as they become available. 
Look for the translate button to flip between spanish and english!
So far: All Saints, Advent and now:

Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe
by Catholic Homeschooling

Lacy’s Liturgical Link Up from Catholic Icing   Various link-ups for different Seasons of the Liturgical Calendar.

First Friday Linky from Catholic Icing  Posted on the first of the month in honor of the First Friday Devotion for the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

(3) ADVENT

Nativity Activity Linky from Equipping Catholic Families. 
Lots of ideas to make your own nativity…and to link your own!

Coolest Homemade Advent Calendar Linky from Equipping Catholic Families.  Lots of ideas to make your own Advent Calendar…and to link your own!

Adviento Fiesta de Enlaces! from Familia Catolica

Preparing for Baby Jesus from Raising Little Saints

(4) CHRISTMAS

Christmas Link Up by Catholic Icing

(5) ORDINARY TIME

(6) ALL SAINTS

Ideas for All Saints Celebrations, including costumes, games and food!
All Saints Link Up from Catholic Icing


Todos los Santos from Familia Catolica



(7)  LENT

Lent Quest by Equipping Catholic Families
(8) EASTER
Linky through the 50 Days of Easter by Equipping Catholic Families

(9)  CATHOLIC CONFERENCES & CLUB LINK-UPS


Catholic Conferences by Equipping Catholic Families.  This is a listing of all the Catholic Conferences I could find…for religious educators, homeschoolers, bookstore owners, parents…all Catholics!

Little Flowers’ Club Link Up by Shower of Roses.  What a great club…awesome ideas and a well-organized linky to share!
Blue Knights Boys’ Club Link Up by Shower of Roses  Another great club….awesome ideas and well-organized linky!

(10)  SACRAMENTS

COMING SOON!

Cele-LINKY thru the SACRAMENTS 
from Equipping Catholic Families

COMING SOON!







(11) SCRIPTURE & PRAYER


Saints and Scripture Sundays by The Kennedy Adventures. 
Lots of thoughtful posts…link up on Sunday!
Favorite Prayer Share by I blog Jesus
Link up your favorite classic or spontaneous prayers and devotions.  Pick up a few new ones!
Rosary Link-Up from Catholic Icing. Lots of ideas and crafts about the Rosary

Rosario Enlaces en Familia Catolica.  Ideas for family prayer and crafts about the Rosary.

Home of the Hmm…ily: links to Sunday Reading reflections

Sunday Scripture Study Share: Bible study links related to Sunday Readings

Leave a comment with the LINK of your own favorite Catholic Link-Up!
Please specify if it is seasonal or perpetually OPEN and let me know if you have a special button to share.
Click the frog for your own inlinkz account to host your own link parties.  
It’s not free…but it’s pretty cheap and fun to use…especially the THUMBNAIL linkies.

Catho-LINKY LIBRARY: Links of Light Bulbs (8)
 is brought to you by Equipping Catholic Families,
a division of Arma Dei.