This St. Faustina pumpkin is the perfect All Saints Day craft to keep your kids excited and learning about the lives of the saints. Plus they are super cute and easy to do, especially with preschoolers!
All Saints Day Crafts
After my mother-in-law called one day, I could barely wait to get started on this project. We had been catching up, swapping stories about what was going on, when she dropped a creative bombshell in my ear. She mentioned that my niece and nephew had to create Saint pumpkins as a project for school. I still have not gotten over my excitement about these. All I needed was those two words together to send me spiraling out of control.
The first year, we ended up using mandarin oranges because the grocery stores were out of the miniature pumpkins you can find in the floral department, and we couldn’t afford the $3 larger variety. So far, we’ve created St. Nick, St. Patrick, St. Therese, St. Joan of Arc, St. Michael the Archangel, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Rose, St. Padre Pio, Pope St. JP II, Our Lady of Lourdes, and a few more. I vary the number of girl and boy Saints based on the group we have, and we often create pumpkins based on the names of the kids or new babies in the group.
Who was St. Faustina?
Saint Faustina was a young nun in the Convent of the Congregation of Sisters our Lady of Mercy in Poland during the 1930’s. She came from a very poor family and received only three years of education. During her time in the convent she received amazing graces like revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Passion of the Lord, the gift of bilocation, the reading of human souls, and the gift of prophecy. Jesus appeared to her and asked her to paint him with the inscription “Jesus I Trust in You,” and asked her to become an apostle of his mercy and spread his message of mercy to the world. That image is now known as the Divine Mercy.
The Craft: St. Faustina Pumpkin
- The kids and the grown-up really enjoy this craft!!
- You can use googly eyes or googly eyes stickers.
- You can use a Divine Mercy image instead of doing the pumpkin Jesus
- Have fun!!
St. Faustina Pumpkin
This St. Faustina pumpkin is the perfect All Saints Day craft for your little one.
Materials
- 4 - 4” pumpkins
- 1 Red 9 x 12 felt sheet
- 1 White 9 x 12 felt sheet
- 2 Black 9 x 12 sticky-back felt sheets
- 8 -Sticky googly or sticker eyes
- 1 Sheet White cardstock
- 5 Velcro dots or pieces, hook side only
- 20 mini popsicle sticks
- tacky glue
- sharpie marker
Tools
- Scissors
Instructions
- Cut black sticky-back felt into 5 equal strips lengthwise (1 4/5" wide and 12" long, if you want to be exact) for her habit. Reserve one strip for other pumpkins.
- Cut ½" x 12" strips of white felt, 8 total to line her habit and line the veil, mimicking the coif. Reserve 4 of the strips. You’ll trim them to size once you have the veil cut.
- Partially fold down the paper on the sticky-back black felt to reveal the sticky part. Secure the white strip to the back of the black felt. Replace the paper.
- Cut 2 large ovals from one sheet of black felt. Cut the ovals in half. This will give you four veils. Fold your veils in half and make a small ¾" wide slit about 1/2" from the cut edge. Fold it in half the other direction to make a perpendicular cut to the one you just created. This will slip over the stem of the pumpkin and really help in holding it in place.
- Using the reserved white strips, trim them to the length of the straight side of the veil. Attach to the underside with tacky glue to create the look of a coif.
Preparing the Divine Mercy picture:
- Create a picture frame by gluing together 4 mini popsicle sticks at right angles to each other. Repeat this process to make 4 frames. (Can’t find the mini ones? Cut down regular popsicle sticks instead. )
- From white card stock, cut 4 squares the same size as the frame. Glue one cardstock square to each frame. On the paper, draw a Jesus pumpkin top in orange. Make a tiny brown beard, half circle body, and triangles of red and white out of felt. Glue them on with tacky glue. Option: Use a print out of the actual Divine Mercy image instead.
- Attach a piece of the hook side of Velcro to the back of the picture with tacky glue.
Finally, place all pieces, including eyes, into a bag labeled with words or a picture.
Instructing the kids:
- Remove all items from the bag. (Bags can be labeled with a Saint card or printed image, especially for non-readers)
- If using tacky glue instead of sticky back felt or eyes, put it in small plastic or Dixie cups with paint brushes. Don’t forget the paper towels! And baby wipes!
- Help the kids take the backing off of the clothes and wrap around the bottom of the pumpkin. Or, cover the clothes with glue and put 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. Optional: secure with more tacky glue.
- Show the kids where to place the Divine Mercy Pumpkin picture and allow them to press the Velcro into the felt of the habit just to the right or left of the center.
- Draw on a mouth with a Sharpie marker wherever the child shows you to.
- Enjoy your Saint pumpkin and put it outside your door for trick-or-treaters to admire!
- Take lots of pictures and link them back to this post!