Jesse Tree Project

Of the several crafty projects I've been working on or have completed lately, here is one that I can actually share (don't worry, I'm taking pictures of the rest for post-Christmas blogging).  Thus, if anyone ever wonders why I never seem to post anymore, here's a snippet of what I've been busy with (I'll also share one other slightly less involved project tomorrow.)

Making a Jesse Tree:

Several blogs I visit regularly, along with Faith and Family, posted articles about Jesse trees at the beginning of Advent, and this year I finally resolved to incorporate the practice into our budding family traditions.  LW isn't old enough to appreciate or understand yet, but I thought the scriptural aspect (tracing the genealogy and prophecies leading to Jesus) would be fun and spiritually good for Jim and I, and that it would be good to establish the tradition now when I'm not too busy, so that it's in place when LW does begin to understand. Plus, I'm convinced she knows a lot more than we think she does!

However, I wasn't sure exactly how to make this happen, with time and financial resources currently very limited.  I didn't want to spend the money on a Jesse tree kit, and I wanted something substantial enough to last for at least a few years.  Fortunately, over the Thanksgiving holiday I stumbled on a copy of The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day at my parents' house.  Along with a ton of other great info for the rest of the year, it had just what I needed for this project: a list of the symbols, along with accompanying Scripture verses to read each day.

I toyed with the idea of decoupaging pictures onto wooden disks, but then remembered that the decoupage glue makes ink jet printed images run, and I knew it would be way too much work to track down all the symbols I needed in magazines (not that we have magazines kicking around the house anyway).  Fimo or Sculpey would work, but I wanted something I didn't have to go to the store for, as I've pretty well exhausted LW's limited patience with the craft store already this holiday season.  Then I remembered the salt dough ornaments my mom helped us make as kids.  A quick Google search located one of the thousands of essentially identical salt dough recipes on the Internet (two parts flour to one part each of salt and water), and pretty soon I was kneading and shaping the little symbols from the book.

Aside from a few interpretation questions ("how the heck do I make a camel/burning bush/river?"), all went smoothly, and I had enough dough leftover to make a few ornaments for LW to decorate for gifts, along with one nice big hand print for her to have as her own ornament.  Here everything is baking in the oven:

Impatient helper peaking at the ornaments (yes, she is pajamas; yes, it is the middle of the day.  Please don't judge me):

Here are some of the baked items, awaiting painting:

 
Snake/apple (Adam and Eve) and oil lamp (Samuel):
 
 



Other items painted and hanging to dry (herein are my interpretations of "river" and "burning bush": 

 



 

Once I completed all the ornaments, I used clear spray paint to "seal" them (hopefully this will work.  I sort of grabbed the wrong stuff at the store.  Husband said, upon seeing it, "what are you going to use the Rustoleum for?")  Regardless, they are shiny and relatively "sealed", and if I have to make more ornaments next year, no big deal, since this was a lot of fun!

 

The last dilemma to solve was what to hang them on.  The craft stores didn't seem to have anything that would really work, but on a last minute inspiration, I tried the dollar store.  Voila!  A little mini tree, covered in glued on "presents and bows", for the perfect price of $1.  The tacky decorations ripped off easily (I left the top one because it was actually kind of pretty), leaving a tree of the perfect size and shape, and with the perfect amount of good strong branches to hang the ornaments on.

 

The end result: the first few days of sealed, finished ornaments, hanging on the tree on our bookshelf (by the shepherd and animals from our newly purchased nativity set, who are waiting for the rest of the company to join them later in the month):

 

 

 

A couple of closeups of ornaments (yes, that is a camel in the second photo):

 

 

 Finally, the rest of the ornaments, layered for easy access in the following days and weeks:



The whole project cost less than $10, and took a sum total of a couple of hours (over a couple of days, due to the drying time for paint and Rustoleum) to complete.  We've been doing Jesse tree readings every night (gratuitous shot of husband and baby, who again, is in her PJ's, but this time it is bedtime so I don't feel as guilty):

 

The whole process, especially the symbology tied to each person in the genealogy and the accompanying Scripture, is definitely a nice addition to our Advent.  Definitely a worthwhile tradition to consider for your own family!