Looking for a Lenten craft for Catholic kids? Make a Stations of the Cross Paper Bag Book!

The girls share a room, and it’s a mess.

Like, a total disaster area.

Two things are working against us here.

1. Like me, they want to keep everything
2. Like me, they become easily overwhelmed with finding storage space

Now I know a lot of you are probably shaking your heads.

“Attachment to material things, Ginny! Let them go!”

But then we’d never find little gems like the inspiration for this post:

A paper bag Stations of the Cross book we made when G was about five.

Lenten Craft for Catholic Kids: A Stations of the Cross Paper Bag Book

If you’ve read Catholic Mom Blogs for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve heard of Lacy and Catholic Icing. In March of 2011, Lacy shared a paper bag Rosary craft: she took four paper lunch bags, stapled them together in the middle, and made cardstock pages to fit inside. Each card detailed a mystery of the rosary, and the bag surfaces included the prayers.

I loved Lacy’s idea. It was Lent, and I was trying to teach G about the Stations of the Cross. Lacy’s idea provided the perfect blueprint for our own Stations of the Cross book. I had all the materials on hand so we spent the afternoon putting one together.

G adored her Stations book and decided to keep it even after Easter had passed. She squirreled it away in a box of treasures stashed under her bed, and there it lay, forgotten, until last week – when we cleaned her room. The girls and I looked at each page together, talking about the meaning of each station and why it’s such a powerful devotion. G even remembered how she chose the drawing for each page: “You asked me what symbol we should draw, and I told you. You drew them, and I colored them in.”

If the girls’ room hadn’t been such a disaster area, who knows how long our book would have remained hidden. In any case, I’m glad we found it, and I’m happy to share this little tutorial with you so you can make a Stations of the Cross Paper Bag Book, too!

How to Make a Stations of the Cross Paper Bag Book

Materials:

• Seven lunch-size brown paper bags
• Fourteen pieces of cardstock; cut into 4″x5″ rectangles
• Fourteen pieces of ribbon, cut 4″ long
• A standard size stapler
• Colored pencils, crayons, markers, stickers, etc.

Once you’ve stapled the bags together, you’ll have a book with 14 pockets. Each of these pockets will hold one piece of cardstock.

Set the paper bag book aside. Write the name of one Station at the top of each card, then decorate as desired. Fold the ribbon in half and staple the loose ends to the edge of the page, then insert each card into a pocket. When you’re done, you should have a book that looks something like this:

What I love the most about this book is the hands-on aspect. We’re all about manipulatives when it comes to prayer, and this is a perfect way to share the Stations of the Cross with little hands that like to touch, feel, and tug on things. If you’re a visual person and could use an instructional video, check this out:

In the end, the experience of finding our Stations of the Cross paper bag book brought back some really beautiful memories. It reminded me that even though my life with children is busy, hectic, and totally messy, it’s the chaos of this life that brings me closer to Christ. I’ll take the mess and the muss any day if it means I still have these little people around to sanctify me.

I’ve gotta get into heaven somehow.

Might as well be on the coattails of my kids.

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Like this post? Looking for more Lenten resources? Read on:

70 Resources for Your Best Lent Ever

Letters of Love: A Lenten Meditation for Catholic Families

It’s Okay For Your Lent to Look Different: 3 Truths Differently-Wired Families Need to Know

A Mother’s Rule of Lent: How to Embrace the Chaos of Your Domestic Church