Philippians 2 - Jesus Humbles Himself and is then Exulted Quiet Book Page

 Philippians 2 describes Jesus unselfishness and humbleness and asks us to emulate Him.

 

Memory Verse: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" Philippians 2:8-10a.

Materials needed to create the Jesus Humbles Himself and is then Exulted quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used white
• My free template
• cotton fabric for the star-scape
• fabric glue or double sided iron-on interfacing
• felt scraps in white, yellow and brown
• very wide double sided white satin ribbon scrap as long as the cloud
• a cross or crucifix bead - I used a wooden one with the shape of Jesus cut out of it since this chapter talks about Him humbling himself and even taking on the human form but I don't really like crucifixes as Jesus is not still on the cross - indeed He died and rose again! So I feel an empty cross is better...
• A Sizzix Original and capitals lollipop alphabet/numeral die set or another method of cutting numbers about 2.5 x 3 cm in size - see my post on Letter cutting hacks. (Or you could just print them onto the felt using the sublimation/heat press method and save yourself a lot of sewing - see my post Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test).
• sewing thread to best match the page

Cut out the lettering for Jesus' name from yellow felt and the underside of the cloud out of white felt and sew the lettering to the middle of the cloud so it reads along the flat line. 

This had been sitting mid-way through sewing
for some days. I was sewing while waiting for
someone to put on shoes etc before we went
out. It got finished days later.
Seize the moment!

Sew the underside of the cloud with the lettering to some white felt with the white ribbon sandwiched between the layers along the flat edge, leaving enough ribbon to sandwich it underneath Heaven (and form pearly white gates) when you sew it down. Cut out the white cloud from the background making sure you fold back the ribbon as you go. 

If you are using a fabric page background like I did in the above photo, you can either tuck the other side of the satin ribbon on the cloud under Heaven to form pearly gates, or under the fabric star section. So, either sew Heaven over the other half of the white satin ribbon, ensuring the ribbon goes all the way under the gates of Heaven - OR - cut out a section of starry fabric and use fabric glue or double sided iron-on interfacing to attach it to your page with the other side of the satin ribbon cloud hinge inserted un derneath. Once dry or ironed, use a narrow zig zag stitch to outline the edge and prevent the star fabric from peeling or fraying.

The cloud should flip down to reveal Heaven where Jesus humbled Himself to come down from, and flip up to reveal Jesus name being exulted. 

Sew down your brown felt hill and attach your cross/crucifix bead so it stands on the hill but isn't covered when the cloud is flipped downwards (like mine was a little).

Cross choices

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Intermediate.

Small corners can be tedious to sew, but this page is so worth it!!

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Philippians 2 - Jesus humbled Himself and therefore God glorified Him - every knee will bow at the name of Jesus
• Peek-a-boo - open the cloud to reveal the name of Jesus
• Imaginative Play - bend the knuckles on your index and middle fingers to emulate kneeling at the name of Jesus
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Phillippians 2

Devotional

Jesus was not so high and mighty to consider Himself above coming to Earth in the body of a human and submitting to death on a cross. As I have mentioned before, imagine a King who is unwilling to lead the army into battle, or who keeps his own son at home so he doesn't die in a battle. What kind of example to his people would that be. What kind of confidence does that instil? 

Orphan No More Co - Easter Morning (Live)

Jesus showed us how to live. Self sacrifice and humility is the way to go. Because Jesus humbled Himself, God exulted His name above all names, that at the sound of His name, every knee will bow. And if we humble ourselves, God will make us shine like the stars.

We can be confident in humility and submitting to God's will - Jesus is our demonstration of the results. We will not stay in reduced circumstances forever. In a little while, God will give us new bodies, and give us a place in Heaven. In the meantime, lets bow the knee.

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Which version of this page do you prefer? Comment below!

Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet

Last Year we set the bar for the remaining years of Tahlia's primary school Easter Hat Parades. I set myself the challenge of making an admirable Christian hat (no eggs or bunnies) that would be far from embarrassing and that would get people talking about the Good News of Easter, um, I mean Passover.

This year I hope we have again risen to the challenge with our Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet.

This idea came with one week to go before the event. Thankfully. I had planned something else, but it just didn't have the pizzazz I was looking for and I never ended up buying all the needed items.

My first job was to secure a stuffed toy lamb - and not a Shaun the Sheep look-alike. It had to be without blemish like all Passover lambs. Happily my workmates were in the know about an awesome nearby op shop and enthusiastically took me on a lunch-time shopping adventure. Praise God this little cutie was waiting for me!

The inspiration for the Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet came from the 10th Plague from the First Passover.

You realise a lot of things when you try to convert Bible text into images. Obviously others have realised it before me because I found some awesome pictures online that demonstrate what happened to the Israelite's doors when they followed God's instructions to kill a lamb and use hyssop to paint blood on the lintel and both doorposts as protection against the death of their first born sons (Exodus 12:22).

Image Source

Who knew there was so much imagery in the old testament around the cross?

Tahlia did get to show her hat to her class and talk about it. I'm not sure that what she said would have made a whole lot of sense to them, but it was good witnessing practice. And it was a wonderful learning experience for us to share together.

You might think that I made the hat, but let me reassure you, Tahlia helped a lot.

Most importantly, she proudly wore it on the day!

Together we stripped back the Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet from last year.

She stirred the paper mache glue mixture and applied another coat.

She re-painted the hat.

Tahlia insisted we iron the felt before making the flowers. A step I was thinking we might be able to skip.

She cut the pipe cleaners.

She cut the red, white and orange flower pieces out and even helped with hot gluing them all together.

I made the bunch of hyssop.

I rolled strips of red felt for the blood to fill the bowl and glued one end of the ribbon for the cross to it. I glued everything down - the ribbon to the screws and itself, the felt to the bowl and the bowl to the hat.

I used a small screw driver to make holes to insert the screws. I had planned on using nails but I couldn't find them. I think screws worked well anyway because they had a lip which stopped the ribbon slipping off.

Tahlia wanted to make a door for the archway but we ran out of time. I thought it would be better without, but I think Tahlia was right to want a door. It might have helped the ribbon cross stand out more.

She helped glue everything onto the hat.

So that the lamb was not ruined by hot glue I employed more felt and my secret weapon safety pins!

We watched quite a few YouTube videos on how to make felt flowers. These were our favourites:

• Flowers - Flowers with felt - How to make a rose by PapelyManualities
• DIY Felt Flowers - 5 Flowers and Leaves by The Daily DIYer
• Felt Flower Tutorial #2 - DIY : How to make easy felt flower / Spring Crafts - Kids Crafts . by Miss Tricks Mix DIY

If you can't work out how I made the pink carnations you will have to beg me to do a tutorial. I'm not planning to do it unless someone asks though!

EDIT:

See the other Easter Hats in this Trilogy

1. Hosanna! Palm Sunday Easter Bonnet - focuses on Praising Jesus' ability to save
2. Spectacular Spring Lamb Easter Bonnet - this one!
3. Magnificent Butterfly Resurrection Easter Bonnet - focuses on the joy and hope of the Resurrection

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I would love to see and share your Christian themed Easter Hats!

Simple Bible Quiet Book Covers

A quiet book cover can be a really simple design.  Don't be intimidated with the amount of work required to make a quiet book. It is your book, so you decide the amount of work. There are many many page ideas which are simple to execute but will keep your children engaged in play.

These cover pages were made with very little effort. The shape of the cross easily identifies the subject matter of the book, and they can quickly be embellished with a little ribbon or some such. 

I just used the normal stitch on the machine to sew this on top of the outer edge of the cross. I did consider putting it underneath, but it seemed like it might be difficult to keep in the right spot, so I opted for on top so I didn't end up with the background page showing through. I started at the short vertical line at the top left hand of the cross and ended in the same place, folding the last section of lace back on the underside to give a nice finish without any raw edges visible. It might have been better to start and end at the bottom edge to avoid being lop-sided. I think it turned out well anyway.

You can see a list of my easy pages by clicking on the Difficulty Level = Easy label in the right column.

Before I added the ribbons these red crosses on white backgrounds looked too much like first aid kits for my liking!

If you wanted the cover to be interactive you could always attach velcro to the back of the cross and attach it to the page. Another idea is to attach the ribbons on top with kam snaps. You could even make a weave-able cross out of several ribbons sewn at the left and top sides only.

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Comment below or email me some photos with your ideas on how to create a simple cover. 

I would really love to hear from you!