Today, I'll share how I created the Happy Saints coins and the kids' coin jars. I *did not* receive any material compensation for linking to the products I used. I simply thought I'd share this fun project with other families looking for a way to encourage their kiddos on their own paths to sainthood.
The Happy Saints Coins
The cornerstone of this project is the equally adorable and educational artwork of Victor Teh with Happy Saints. Victor uses bright, fun colors in a kid-friendly way to capture the faces of saints and illustrate various Christian themes. He has several ebooks with "badges" that I used to create our saint tokens. Simply buy an ebook from Happy Saints and resize the circular badges to the size you're using. I resized ours to 1.5".
GREAT NEWS! When I was linking to the Happy Saints page, I found that Victor is having an Easter Sale at Happy Saints. All ebooks are 20% off from April 20-27 when you use the promo code EASTER20. Check out the ebooks today!
We resized our images to 1.5" on PowerPoint. Then, we printed them on this label paper.
Then, I used this 1.5" circular hole punch to punch out the saint images.
Next, I separated the printed images from the label backing and stuck them on these 1.5" wooden discs.
Then, Philip placed the discs inside a shallow cardboard box (thanks, Costco!), and sprayed them with two coats of a clear Mod Podge lacquer.
We added the lacquer so that the coins would be water resistant and the images would be sealed to the coins.
Saint Coin Jars
We purchased a box of pint-sized mason jars at the grocery store. Then, we replaced the original canning lids with these coin bank mason jar lids. (Note: They fit the original size mason jars and not the wide mouth jars!) Finally, we found some stickers to decorate them from Hobby Lobby. Walt selected a Cars theme, and Jane selected Sleeping Beauty.
The kids love the satisfying clink that the jars make when they put their saint coins inside. The coins are quickly becoming collector's items around these parts. Jane and Walt love seeing the different saints' faces on the coins and asking questions about them. Day 2 of the Happy Saints Reward System is going swimmingly.
I love how your saint coins turned out!! I just have to say, this is the one chore system that has actually worked for our family, even after using it over a year. We even have bonus days when I need the house deep cleaned, so I just write on the board things like vacuum=3 coins. My house gets cleaned quickly! Don't you just love Happy Saints?!
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