A Year of Printable Garlands to grow in God’s love

A Year of Printable Garlands to grow in God’s love

by | Jan 30, 2025 | Craft Tutorials

Bring joy to your decor all throughout the year!

Would you and your family like to have a bundle of sweet and simple crafts ready to make to celebrate all year long?

In celebration of Sparkles and Sprinkles turning 3 this year, we put together a bundle of our holiday garlands we hope you will enjoy.

When our family started our little homeschool learning blog 3 years ago, our signature printable became garlands (we are not sure what inspired this, but we just kept thinking of ideas for more…). Our first one was a Valentine “Love is…” garland with scripture from 1st Corinthians. Each of our garlands has a message of God’s love. What a gift it is to have visual reminders in our home of how much God loves us!

For the first time ever, we have created a bundle (at a big discount) of all of our holiday garlands. Now you don’t have to pick and chose which garland you might like, you can download the whole bundle at once, and have it ready to print as each holiday arrives. The bundle includes Valentine’s Day (in French and English), St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

The garlands are easy to put together with simple supplies (cardstock, hole punch, scissors, and ribbon or yarn). All of the garlands are digital downloads, so you can download them all at once, and print them as needed, year after year. Most of the garlands have room for personalization, giving you and your family a joyful opportunity to gather around the table and color and talk together.

We hope you and your family will enjoy these garlands just like Kristine, who said in her review:

“I absolutely loved this. This is perfect for families, individuals, Sunday schools , children, and adults.” 

The 3rd Anniversary garland bundle includes the following garlands:

Individual garlands are normally $3.99, but the bundle has a special discounted price. The entire holiday garland collection is only $12.99 (likely less than buying just one store-bought garland). Plus, until February 14, 2025 the garland bundle is an extra 10% off (no code needed).

Click here to get the garland bundle on Etsy

Wishing you and your family so much joy all throughout the year, with sweet reminders of God’s abundant love!

Thanksgiving Hymn Garland – to color and create

Thanksgiving Hymn Garland – to color and create

by | Nov 10, 2022 | Craft Tutorials

Decorate your home for Thanksgiving with this fun craft the whole family can enjoy making together!  You can download our FREE printable, or you can simply let the idea inspire your own creation.  And if you would like book recommendations for some cozy Thanksgiving reading time, keep reading for some of our favorites at the end of this post… Cranberry Thanksgiving, Balloons Over Broadway, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, and The Lion and the Bird.

thanksgiving Christian banner

The banner has pencil sketch style leaf images overlayed with words from the hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth.”

As the children colored, we realized that this would be a good opportunity to really look closely at fall leaves… there are often many different colors in each leaf.  

 

Our FREE Thanksgiving place cards coordinate nicely with the garland.  These are so fun for children to write on and color to make your guests feel welcome!  Click on the image to get your FREE place card printable.

fall place card
fall place card

If you would like to listen to the song as you create your banner, you might like to try this version by Michelle Swift.

Let’s make a garland…

Print the images on cardstock

Click here to get our FREE printable, and print the images on cardstock.  Some of the leaves have words from the hymn.  Other images have no words.  You can string them together in a pattern you like, using all or only some of the images.  Alternatively, you could draw your own leaves and write the words of your choice.

Color the leaves and pumpkins

Color the leaves and pumpkins.  You may want to look closely at real leaves from your yard for inspiration.  Fall leaves often really have many different colors in each leaf.

Cut out the images.

Some of the leaf shapes are quite detailed.  Don’t worry if they are not cut perfectly.

Punch 2 holes in each leaf/pumpkin

Punch 2 holes at the top of each pumpkin/leaf.  Punching 2 holes, rather than one, helps the shapes to stay facing forward when they are strung on the garland.

String the images to create the garland

Cut a long piece of twine, ribbon, or yarn.  Thread the twine (or ribbon or yarn) through the holes.  Consider the order of the hymn.  Add in wordless images if you would like to.

toddler thanksgiving craft

Toddler tip...

We found it was helpful to print some extra pages that our toddler could have all to herself.  She was quite proud of her own little banner (we love it too)!  These Melissa and Doug toddler scissors help make cutting safer.

If you enjoy making this garland, and would like to make one for another holiday (including Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and the 4th of July), you can find other garland printables in our little Etsy shop.

Our favorite books for a cozy fall and Thanksgiving family reading time…

(The book images are Amazon links if you are interested in finding out more about the books.)

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves is a sweet story about a little fox who is so concerned about the leaves that fall from his tree, but then comes to learn of the beauty of the changing seasons.  The illustrations are adorable!

With Melissa Sweet’s illustrations, Ballons Over Broadway is a joy to read!  The book tells the story of the beginnings of the Thanksgiving Day Parade.  We had fun making balloon puppets and having our own little parade after reading this book.

Cranberry Thanksgiving is a classic with some sweet lessons about forgiveness, hospitality, and not judging others from the outside.  We first learned about this book years ago when doing a 5 in a Row reading program, and have read it every year since then at Thanksgiving time. 

The Lion and the Bird is a beautiful story of friendship and care for others.  This book has very few words, and the pictures tell a sweetly slow-paced story.  A beautiful book to look at over and over again.

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

French Advent Calendar

French Advent Calendar

by | Nov 5, 2022 | Craft Tutorials

Join us to learn French Christmas words this Advent season!  We have a variety of activities prepared for you to learn Christmas words in French as we wait for Christmas – an Advent calendar, printable mini-books, fun vocabulary practice pages, and audio to hear the words!

We know Advent is a busy time, so everything is simple to use.  Just print and learn a French word each day.  Have fun!

Our printable Advent calendar is available on Etsy.  This calendar features a Christmas tree with spaces for 24 stickers that become the tree’s ornaments.  Each space on the tree has a word in French.  The printable sticker “ornaments” have adorable images of many Christmas related words.

You can find the Avery sticker sheets here.  The printable stickers are sized for 94500 Avery 1″ stickers.  If you prefer not to get the stickers, the ornament images can be printed on plain paper, cut out, and glued on the tree. To easily cut perfect circles from paper, you could use this ek 1″ circle punch.

If your family is brand new to French, keep scrolling down.  We have recordings of each of the Advent calendar words so that you can easily listen and repeat to learn the words.

 

French vocab Advent calendar

We also have several FREE printables to go along with our French Advent calendar!

4 FREE Mini books with all 24 Christmas words found on our Advent calendar.  Each book can be printed on one piece of paper and then easily folded into a mini book.  Watch our quick video to see how easy this is.  (The book with images comes with the Etsy Advent bundle.  The free book has only words, and is meant to be illustrated with your own creativity.) To learn the pronunciation of the words, check out the clickable audio files at the bottom of this post.

4 different FREE vocabulary practice activities to practice all of the Christmas words:  a tracing page, a word search, a matching page, and an illustration page.

French Advent Calendar

Click on the play button below the images to hear how to say the words in French.

le bébé Jésus

la Sainte Famille: Jésus, Marie, et Joseph

une étable

une étoile

un âne

les trois mages

le père Noël

un cadeau

un traîneau

un renne

un bas de Noël

une cheminée

un bonhomme de neige

la neige

un sapin

une boule de Noël

une couronne de Noël

une canne à sucre

un berger et son agneau

une église

un ange

une bougie

un chocolat chaud

un casse-noisette

Ready to get the Advent Calendar and start learning French for Christmas?  Click here.

Joyeux Noël!  Merry Christmas!

Would you like to celebrate other holidays French style too? Check out our posts for

Saint Nicholas Day, Santons de Provence, La Chandeleur (February 2), and Saint Valentine’s Day…

Saint Nicolas Day French Shoe

Saint Nicholas Day Shoe

Santons de Provence

French Nativity - Santons de Provence

light buckwheat crepe

Crêpes for La Chandeleur

french valentine garland

French Valentine Garland

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

America the Beautiful – 4th of July Banner

America the Beautiful – 4th of July Banner

by | Jun 22, 2022 | Craft Tutorials

Ready to decorate for the 4th of July?  This garland with the words from “America the Beautiful” helps children to learn about the U.S. while using their creativity to illustrate the lyrics.

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

You can find our printable for the “America the Beautiful” Star Garland on Etsy, or you can use the idea to create your own – keep reading for instructions below.  The garland is part of our 4th of July Party Bundle on Etsy.  The 4th of July Party Bundle includes the garland, cupcake, toppers, as well as a trivia quiz and scavenger hunt, all based on “America the Beautiful.”

“America the Beautiful” 4th of July Party Bundle – on Etsy

4th of July star banner

Star Banner

4th of July Cupcake toppers America the beautiful

Cupcake Toppers

4th of July games America the Beautiful

Scavenger Hunt and Trivia Games

We found it helpful to learn a little about the song before doing the garland project.  While the chilren made their illustrations on the stars, we listened to “America the Beautiful” too!  A fun way to squeeze a little “school” into the summer… shhh!

To inspire your drawings of the lyrics to the song, you could pull out photo albums from family trips, or check out some of the books and videos below that show depictions of the lyrics.  Simply click on the book images to find them on Amazon.

Let’s make a garland!

4th of july banner garland

Print and Cut Stars

Print the stars on white cardstock, then carefully cut them out.  (You can find the garland printable on Etsy.)

4th of july banner garland

Decorate the Stars

Use colored pencils, markers, or crayons to decorate the blank stars to illustrate the words of the song.

Punch holes and string onto ribbon

Punch a hole on the top left point and the top right point of each star.  Cut about 10 ft. of ribbon (1/8” or 1/4” width works well).  String the stars onto the ribbon.  For each star, push the ribbon from the front into the left hole of the star, pull it along the back, and then pull it through the right hole to the front again.   Alternate stars with lyrics and blank stars (or stars with your images).  Or for a shorter banner, just use the stars with lyrics.

Decorate your home or yard.  Some variations include using skewer sticks to decorate your garden or walkway, or using only the lyric stars for a shorter garland.  Weather permitting, the garland could be hung outside for the day.

If you are looking for other 4th of July party supplies, we also have “America the Beautiful” themed cupcake toppers and games.  You can find our 4th of July “America the Beautiful” Party Bundle  in our Etsy shop.

Looking for a delicious AND nourishing gluten-free cupcake recipe?  Try our gluten-free almond flour cupcakes!

4th of July Cupcake toppers America the beautiful

Happy 4th of July!

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.