Easy Craft for St. Joseph's Day

St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, has a feast day on March 19th.  Here's a quick and easy carpenter's square that reminds us of Joseph's work and how he took care of his family.  Here's what you will need:

• 6 popsicle sticks
• craft glue
• scissors
• glitter (optional
• marker (optional)    
• ruler (optional)      

 

 Place a line of glue on one side of a popsicle stick.

Place 2 popsicle sticks on top of the first so that each is covering half the width of the stick, and leaving the bottom stick 1/4th of the length uncovered.








This is a view from the back.

Having the sticks right side up (with the two side-by-side sticks on top) add some glue to the uncovered part of the bottom stick.

Place two more sticks on the bottom anchor stick (where the glue is) at a right angle, perpendicular, to the top sticks.  You may have to wiggle it around to get both to stick.







Here's what it should look like.

 Turn the square over.  Take your last popsicle stick and cut off about 1/3rd of the end.  Take the longer part, and add a bead of glue the length of one side.  Attach it in the middle of the two bottom sticks, to hold them in place.

This is the square all assembled from the back.  You could stop here and have a very rustic finish, with just the wooden sticks showing, or you could keep going.

Take a marker (smaller, thin markers and pens will bleed less, but I wanted a metallic marker, so it's really just your preference) and mark off one inch or centimeter increments, on the straight, inner sides of the square, using a ruler as your guide. 

 Here's how it looks.  Again, you could stop here, or...

 Add a line of glue to the outer popsicle sticks, and spread the glue out with your fingers.

 Add some glitter on top of the glue.  This is best done on a piece of paper, so that once it dries, you can shake off the extra glitter, form a funnel with the paper, and return the glitter to its tube.  You could also just use glitter glue.

 Allow to dry well (half an hour to an hour.)

Here it is!  A carpenter's square in honor of St. Joseph!  Take the opportunity to discuss with your children that St. Joseph was a carpenter, and that's how he would have supported Mary and Jesus.  You can hang these up with a tack or nail, or hot glue some ribbon to the back and hang it up that way.  You can also use these to dress up a St. Joseph's day altar.  For more information on that tradition, search for 'St. Joseph's Altar tradition' on your favorite search engine.  There are many great sites that have pictures of  altars, along with the history, recipes and symbols.

Happy St. Joseph's Day!
Carolyn