June - Month of the Sacred Heart - A Craft

June is the month devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart is on June 19.

"Look at this Heart which has loved men so much, and yet men do not want to love Me in return. Through you My divine Heart wishes to spread its love everywhere on earth."Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

We came up with a craft to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus. You can do this anytime during the month of June since the entire month is devoted to honoring His Most Sacred Heart.


Craft Supplies Needed:
:: Papier Mache Heart - we purchased ours from Michael's craft store.
:: Red Acrylic Paint
:: Red and Orange Paper
:: 3 or 4 pipe cleaners in some shade of brown or tan
:: 1 standard size popsicle stick
:: 1 half size popsicle stick (or you could simply cut a standard popsicle stick in half)
:: small bit of red embroidery thread (about 10 inches) - or any thread will do.
:: glue
:: (Optional) red ribbon and miniature clothespins (also available at Michael's)

1. Lay out your supplies. It would be helpful to use a sheet of butcher paper or newspaper or an old tablecloth to protect your table.
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2. Carefully cut a slit in the top of the heart. This will be used to hold your popsicle stick that will eventually hold the flames and cross that sit atop the Sacred Heart. Use the popsicle stick as a guide. PARENT: this is definitely a step for you! Rob did this for us. He used a utility knife with a razor blade and patiently whittled away until he had an opening just the right size. An exacto knife would also be ideal.
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3. Paint the papier mache heart red. Allow it to dry and add another coat of red. Allow both coats to dry completely.
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4. On the orange and red paper sketch some simple flames - make sure some are small, some medium, some large.
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5. Crumple the orange and red paper - really - crumple it like you're getting ready to toss it in the trash. Uncrumple it...and then re-crumple. This makes the paper softer, easier to work with, and gives the flames some dimension.
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6. Cut out your flames. Try to cut on the inside of the black lines outlining your flames so that the black lines don't show on the finished product.
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7. Hold the long popsicle stick between your thumb and forefinger. Leave a space of about ½ an inch at the bottom of your popsicle stick – this will allow you to insert the base into the Sacred Heart. With your other hand, start by choosing one of the smaller flames (either red or orange, it doesn’t matter, you’ll alternate colors) and wrap the bottom of the flame around the base of the popsicle stick. Have you ever made tissue paper flowers? This is a little like that.
Now choose another small flame of the opposite color – carefully gather it at the base of the popsicle stick. Keep working your way around the base of the popsicle stick adding layers of flames almost like you’re building a flower. You probably won’t use all the flames – that’s ok. Save them for step 8. Don’t worry about fanning out the flames yet! Have someone help you secure the flames to the popsicle stick by tying red embroidery thread very tightly around the base of the flames. Snip the excess.
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8. Fan or separate the individual flames a bit to offer a more realistic, flame-like appearance. Insert the end of the popsicle stick into the opening you made on the heart. Ours is quite snug fitting, but we added glue anyway for security. We applied glue from the underside. Allow to dry. Be gentle as you separate the flames, they can still pop off. We chose to use some of our leftover flames to glue around the base of flames to fill it out a bit more. It also secured the flames together as well as hold them securely on the popsicle stick. Allow to dry completely.
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9. Using the smaller popsicle stick, dab a little glue in a small spot right in the middle
...and glue it to the longer popsicle stick. Allow these to dry before proceeding.
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10. Now, let's make the Crown of Thorns...hold the two long pipecleaners right next to each other. Match the ends and tightly twist an end 2 or 3 times just so that the pipe cleaners are secured together. Now, move away from the twisted end about 1 ½ inches and make one single twist there. Use your fingers to spread the pipe cleaners apart in between the twisted end and the single twist you just made – it should be somewhat oval shaped.
Move another 1 ½ inches away from the last twist and repeat again with a single twist and then spread the stems apart.
Continue doing this until you only have about ½ inch left on the ends and twist the ends together securely just like the opposite end.
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11. Now, with the 3rd and final pipecleaner, snip off about 2 - 3 inch sections.
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You should have a lovely 3-dimensional image of Our Lord's Sacred Heart for display and honoring now. Consider some of those 3M sticky things to hang it on the wall over your prayer corner or family altar.
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Optional step 12. Attach some red ribbon in lengths of about 18 inches to 2 feet. Attach as many as you like as they will represent the streams of grace flowing from Our Lord's Sacred Heart. Tiny, miniature sized clothespins can be purchased from craft stores. Set these out in a small basket as well as some smallish heart shaped papers near where you hang the image of the Sacred Heart. Affix prayer requests onto the streams of grace especially during the month of June. Consider enclosing special, long term prayer requests within His Most Sacred Heart. These can be added at the beginning of the Sacred Heart Novena, or before the Rosary.

What a lovely visual to aid our children of always enclosing prayers and petitions within the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!

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To consider for the Sacred Heart...
:: Novena to the Sacred Heart beginning on June 11.
:: Beads of the Sacred Heart offered on Rosary beads.
:: Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart.
:: Enthronement of the Sacred Heart.
:: Twelve Promises of Jesus to those devoted to His Most Sacred Heart.

Teatime:
Consider a tea time on the Solemnity with heart shaped cookies and a red tea - like a red raspberry tea.

Picture Book time:
Jesus by Brian Wildsmith
The Miracles of Jesus by Tomie dePaola

"...Only the Heart of Christ Who knows the depths of His Father's love could reveal to us the abyss of His mercy in so simple and beautiful a way."Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph #1439

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.