The giveaway is over, thanks to everyone who entered! In case you didn’t win, some of you wanted to be able to make your own, and asked for a tutorial. So, here goes . . .
If you have an iron and a pair of tiny scissors you can do this. Seriously. It is not hard, it just takes time and patience and lots of very small cutting.
Supplies:
- 1/2 yard of felt, cut with pinking shears into 48 3.5 inch diameter circles
- scraps of cotton fabric for the appliques
- embroidery floss
- ribbon
- stuffing
- Thermoweb Heat’n Bond Ultra Hold Iron-On Adhesive-17″X36″
- small, sharp scissors like embroidery or nail scissors
- pinking shears
At Catholic Culture, I found all 24 readings, and the suggested symbols for each one. Then I went into publisher and google image search and found clip art I wanted to use for each symbol. You should be able to access the clipart I used here.
Then I recreated the pictures from the clipart in layers of fabric and ironed them on to the felt circles.
To do that, I ironed the Heat ‘n Bond adhesive onto the fabric scraps, then pinned the clipart picture to the fabric and cut out each piece as I needed it. If I had multiple layers I found it helped to have printed multiple copies of that picture. Once all the tiny pieces were cut out, I layered them on a felt circle and ironed them down (it just takes a few seconds to fuse, so it shouldn’t melt the felt).
Then I put a blank felt circle on the back and whip stitched the two circles closed, stuffing a little stuffing in when I had an inch or two of stitching left, and attaching the ribbon at the top.
Here’s what each symbol looks like in fabric:
You should be able to access each of these photos individually in this google+ album.
Then I went to Shutterfly and made a small paperback photo book with a photo of each ornament and the reading for that day.
It looks like this:
- Download the photos of the ornaments from the google+ album
- Print them out onto Printable Fabric for Inkjet Printers
 (to make 24 ornaments, you’ll need 4 sheets of printable fabric)
- Cut the printed fabric into 24 3.5 inch circles with pinking shears
- Cut an additional 24 3.5 inch circles out of another fabric for the back of the ornaments with pinking shears
- Sew together and stuff as directed above
- Click on the link above to order a copy of the book I made, it’ll match and everything!
update: to order the photo book . . . (2016 Note: I don’t think this works on mobile devices, but it is still working from my desktop computer)
- go to catholicallyear.shutterfly.com Â
- sign in to your shuttefly account, or create one if you don’t have one yet
- click on “Jesse Tree Book” under recent activity
- click “save to my account”
- order the book from your account
updated update: It has come to my attention that Shutterfly doesn’t ship internationally, so for those of you out of the US, I’ve created another google+ album, Catholic All Year Jesse Tree Readings, this time with all the readings. You can download the photos to your own computer and have them printed as a book someplace more convienent.
- Download the photos of the ornaments from the google+ album.
- Print them out on paper or cardstock
- Glue them to some cardboard circles, or don’t
- Tie some ribbon or string to them
- Pull up the Jesse Tree readings on your iPhone
Please let me know if any of you guys make these, I’d love to see any of the methods!
If you have a moment to spare, please consider voting for Catholic All Year at The Homeschool Post’s annual homeschool blog awards! Voting is open through November 18th.
is there a link to buy the album from shutterfly? Maybe I'll put on my contact lenses and look again. Thanks for posting! It's hard enough to actually make them, but to make a tutorial too makes you awesome. 🙂
Kendra you are AWESOME for sharing this! So I am trying to buy the book and I can get it saved in Shutterfly but when I try to order it just takes me to the slideshow of the book. I may have to call shutterfly to see what's wrong? If anyone else has success with this please let me know how!
Sorry for the confusion. I think I have it sorted out. You should be able to go to the share site I created, save the book to your own Shutterfly account, and then order it. Please let me know if that doesn't work.
Thank you so much for putting this up, I'm definitely going to try and make it!
I was just wondering, Shutterfly doesn't send worldwide, do you happen to have a PDF or any such file of when you created the book? If not, I'm sure I'll manage!
Thanks again for sharing this!
Hmmm, I didn't think about you international types! I'll see if I can figure out how to make a PDF of it. Stay tuned . . .
I've created another google+ album, this time with the pages of the book. (See the link above.) I hope that works!
Works perfectly! Can't wait to get crafting! Thank you very much, and sorry to have added to the trouble.
Thank you so much for sharing this info. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it when others share their awesome ideas and tutorials for the non-creative people like me! I can be crafty, but I'm usually much better at copying ideas than I am at creating my own.
That is so very cute and creative. I can't wait to see them all in person when we come up to Northridge. You have such a talent for putting these things together. My compliments. I have been voting for you on both links. Good luck!
Nanacamille
Thanks for making and sharing these – great idea, and they should be so helpful to people! I'm expecting a set of ornaments from a Jesse Tree ornament exchange, so I think I'm covered.
I have to say, I find it very refreshing that there aren't really any mass-produced Jesse Tree sets yet. Everyone makes their own, or possibly buys a little kit that some Catholic mom somewhere is selling on Etsy or such. I know it won't stay that way forever, but I love that it makes us all use some creativity, share ideas, and communicate with each other!
That's a really good point Christine, it still feels kinda underground!
You are the BEST! Thank you so much. I'm holding out hope that I'm the one who inherits your original set but this gives me something to work towards if I don't. 🙂 Thank you so much Kendra!
Yes! I was hoping you would tell us how you did it. I love an excuse to be crafty. Thanks!
Love the book! just tried to order and was unable to. Spoke with Shutterfly and they said that the book you designed it in is no longer available and so can't be ordered. For anyone to be able to order one, you need to call them and have it converted into a new book format that's currently available since you're the author. Sorry for the extra step for you, but would love to have availabe for people to order. It's excellent! Thanks for sharing and making available.
You're right. thanks for letting me know. I called and had it switched over to the new version, but it needs reformatting because the text doesn't necessarily fit on the pages now. It's a good excuse to redo it, especially since I have NO IDEA what version of the Bible I used the first time around. I'll fix it some time this weekend and let you know.
Thanks!
It's now converted and you should be able to order it! New and improved, now NRSV.
I love that there's an "Advent starts tomorrow?!" version. 🙂
I was wanting to type up all of the readings for my newly made Jesse Tree and I am so thankful that you have already done it and are graciously sharing it!
Wow! Thank you for sharing this again. I didn't see this last year and kind of flopped in my (first) Jesse Tree attempt. This will make it so much better!
where did you get your the display easel for you Jesse book?
It's actually just a stand up paper napkin holder. :0)
Thanks Kendra!! I am attempting to make this for my god children, thank you for all your hard work, just ordered the books from shutterfly today:)
Kendra, I cannot thank you enough for sharing your Jesse tree ornaments. I am so excited to start this tradition with my young family. Thank you, thank you!
You just amaze me with all your creative talents.
Embroidery Library