When it was time to pick saints for All Saints’ Day costumes, there was no doubt who my 3 year old wanted to be- Saint Juan Diego! You can find all of my All Saints’ Day resources for kids here.
Also, you should totally check out my All Saints’ Day food labels! This is the perfect All Saints’ Day party printable as it turns everyday kid snacks into symbols of the Saints, making celebrating a breeze for mom!
He absolutely adores the movie Juan Diego, Messenger of Guadalupe. I don’t love all of the CCC movies, but this is one of my favorites! It’s so sweet, I like the animator they used for this movie, and it actually made me cry the first time I watched it. You can buy the movie here.
The real challenge to being San Juan Diego for All Saints’ Day is creating a tilma with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it. You can make a simple tilma from paper bags, or you can get more complicated with it. I was thinking about printing an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on iron transfer paper, and ironing it onto a make-shift tilma. Ultimately, I decided to paint it on myself!
Here’s what you need to paint your own tilma:
- Black Fabric Paint
- Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe (I printed mine from Paper Dali– Vee has some great Our Lady of Guadalupe coloring pages)
- Stiff fabric of some kind (I bought tan upholstery fabric on clearance at Joanne’s Fabrics)
- Assorted colors of acrylic craft paints. I used Apple Barrel Paints. (See a great explanation of the colors and symbols of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Paper Dali)
- Scissors
I started by folding the fabric in half, and cutting a head hole in the top. Trim your timla to be the size you need for your particular child.
Next, I printed the Our Lady of Guadalupe coloring page the right size I needed for my tilma.
To transfer the image, darken the back of the print-out with the side of a pencil.
Tape the picture onto the fabric in place, and trace (with plenty of pressure) over all the lines.
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This will impress a faint pencil drawing on the fabric. I had trouble getting a good picture of this.
Now you’re ready for the fun part! Go around all of your pencil lines with black fabric paint.
If you’re looking for more ideas, check out my other resources on Our Lady of Guadalupe here.
If you are looking for ideas for All Saints’ Day costume ideas for kids, be sure to check out my Saint Costume Directory!
Check out my All Saints’ Day Resource Page here.
I wanted to share my son’s St. Juan Diego costume with you, as you were a great inspiration for it… let me know if I can email you!! Thanks for sharing, I’m so excited as a local parish has an All Saint’s Day Mass on Hallow’s Eve and then a procession through their cemetary…this is our first year going, and we’re really excited to have a great saint costume for our little guy!
Sure! I would love to see pictures! 🙂
You are truly a gifted individual! I so enjoy receiving your emails to see what you planned for the season, month, feast day, holiday, etc. You are so entertaining as well as talented and energetic. I also use many of your ideas! Keep them coming please! Takes the planning off my shoulders as a 5th year catechist in this parish.
We followed your directions and the results were amazing! I am so grateful to have found this when we needed a Juan Diego costume. Our sweet son, Avi Diego, was so excited! Thank you, again!
Yay!!! I am so happy it worked out! 🙂