Who doesn’t love saint pumpkins??? Our little group is based in San Antonio, Texas, and in our neck of the woods, there is considerable devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Hence, it only seems fitting to help our kids remember to revere our Heavenly Mother, pumpkin style.
All Saints Day Crafts
This is only one of the many All Saints Day crafts that we make in our little group, but saint pumpkins hold a special place in our momma hearts. We have done St. Nick, St. Patrick, St. Therese, St. Joan of Arc, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Rose, St. Padre Pio, Pope St. JP II, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. John the Baptist, St. Faustina, and a few more. The kids really enjoy them and it’s a wonderful way of remembering the saints all of November. We like to place them as decoration for our kitchen table, and we include them in our prayers before meals.
Who is Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of dozens of apparitions of our Blessed Mother Mary. As Our Lady of Guadalupe, she appeared to a peasant farmer named Juan Diego, also a Saint, on Tepeyak Hill in Mexico in 1531. Our Lady asked St. Juan Diego to tell his Bishop to build a temple on the site of her appearance. When he followed her request, the Bishop would not, at first believe him.
He approached the Bishop on three separate occasions. On the last, he brought with him a sign from Our Lady – flowers that had miraculously bloomed in the dead of winter on the very same hill where she wanted the temple built. He carried them in his tilma. When he emptied his tilma in front of the Bishop, not only were the flowers a sight to see, so was the image of Our Lady emblazoned on the front of his tilma. You can read her story in more detail at Catholic.org.
The Craft: Our Lady of Guadalupe Pumpkin
- This one is pretty easy to prepare and make with the kids.
- It is preferable if you get sticky felt for Our Lady’s pink dress.
- Have fun!!
Saint Pumpkins: Our Lady of Guadalupe
Materials
- 4 - 4” pumpkins
- 1 - 9 x 12” pink felt sheet (sticky-back preferred)
- 2 - 9 x 12” dark blue felt sheets (sticky-back optional)
- 1 – 9 x 12” yellow or goldenrod felt sheet
- 48 gold star stickers (4 sheets of the multicolored, grocery store variety will cover it
- 14 gold pipe cleaners
- 8 -Sticky googly or sticker eyes
- tacky glue
- small paper or plastic cups
- yellow permanent marker
Tools
- Scissors
Instructions
Preparing the dress for Our Lady of Guadalupe Pumpkin:
- With a sheet of sticky-back pink felt, make five, 12” x 1 4/5” cuts. Reserve one rectangle for other pumpkins.
- With a permanent yellow marker, draw swirls to imitate the pattern of her dress.
Preparing the veil for Our Lady of Guadalupe Pumpkin:
- Use ½ of a sheet of blue felt. Leave one edge straight, and round the other corners, cutting off about 1.5” in a nice curve. This will allow the veil to drape to the bottom of the pumpkin in the front, and be short enough in the back not to interfere with the golden rays you’ll make next.
- Make perpendicular slits about 1” from the straight edge of the veil by folding it in half and cutting a 1/4” line. Repeat in the opposite direction. The stem of the pumpkin will slip through this whole and help secure the head covering, even without glue.
- Cut a ½” wide piece of yellow felt to use as trim on the straight edge of the veil. Secure with tacky glue.
- Place 12 gold star stickers all over the veil, or place them in the bag for the kids’ part of the creating.
Preparing the golden rays for Our Lady:
- Bend 2 gold pipe cleaners into thirds. Cut off one third and wrap around the middle of the other two still bent together. Repeat and twist the two sets of three rays together. Adjust as needed.
- Once you have a spray of gold pipe cleaners you’re happy with, cut a half circle of yellow felt a little smaller than the pipe cleaners, about 2.5” x 3.5”.
- To create the rounded valleys and pointed hills that better imitate the look of Our Lady, start by folding the half circle in half. At the top of the rounded edge, make a shallow ¼ oval-shaped cut. From the point you just created, make a shallow half-oval shaped cut that extends 2/3 down the side of the felt. Make an identical one right underneath it. When you unfold your felt, you should have one peak for each point of the pipe cleaner spray.
- To attach the pipe cleaners to the felts, not bothering with adhesives actually works best. With just the felt in hand, make small parallel cuts, angled toward the middle of the bottom straight edge of the felt. Slip one pipe cleaner piece through each set of cuts. Adjust until the starburst of felt and pipe cleaners line up nicely.
Preparing the belt and finishing touches
- Finally, twist together 1 1/2 gold pipe cleaners to make one long belt. Weave it through the bottom of the gold pipe cleaner spray. The kids can wrap this around the gourd and twist it to give Mary a belt, and, at the same time, attach the golden rays.
- Grab some googly eyes and put everything in labeled bag! Feel free to copy our text about Our Lady of Guadalupe and include it in the craft.
Instructing the kids:
- Put tacky glue in small paper or plastic cups and provide paint brushes if you’re not using sticky-back felt. You can find cheap ones in large quantity at the dollar store. Keep paper towels and baby wipes handy!
- Have kids remove all items from the bag. (Bags can be labeled with a Saint card or printed image, especially for non-readers)
- Help the kids peel off the paper backing on the pink dress and put it around the bottom of the pumpkin. The clothes can also be secured at the back with a return address or shipping label, printed with the Saint name, information about the Saint, or a corresponding prayer.
- Let the kids place any hair or head covering over the stem through the perpendicular slits. If using sticky-back brown felt, be sure they take off the paper backing.
- Draw on a mouth with a Sharpie marker wherever the child shows you to.
- Make St. John Pumpkin a friend, maybe St. Faustina?
- Take lots of pictures and link them back to this post!
