The Feast of St. John of the Cross

We had buckets of matchsticks left over from our Saints of Advent Countdown Calendar so we decided to make a matchstick cross to celebrate the New feast of St. John of the Cross (on the Traditional calendar it's celebrated on November 24, but I had to do something with all these matchsticks!).



We started by burning the tips of about 200 matchsticks. It didn't take as long as we thought it would and made the house smell so nice--that is if you like the smell of burnt matchsticks.

Then I drew the two lines of a cross on a piece of cardboard and glued the first four matchsticks to the lines so that the ends all touched without leaving a gap. Then I glued four more matchsticks in an X shape radiating out from the angles of the cross formed by the first four matchsticks.



Once that's done and the matchsticks are set, the glue relatively dry, you're ready to go to town. Caeli and I took a few minutes to glue all the other matchsticks into place.



We still have to add another row to the top and sides and two more to the bottom.



Then I cut the cardboard around the dried-in-place matchsticks and taped a paper clip to the back for a hanger.



St. John of the Cross, pray for us!



Happy day!