Notebook Pop Up Mary Shrine

My students are no stranger to Mary.  She is present in our classroom, school, and church.  She is part of our prayers, and we learned a lot about her as we studied our classroom Saint Maximilian Kolbe.
However, we started studying Mary a little more through the lens of Fulton Sheen's Life.  You can read about the beginning of that journey here.

I have spent quite a lot of time talking with my kids about intercessory prayer- that we can ask the Saints and Mary to pray for us as they are present before the throne of God in heaven.  We ask our friends on earth to pray for us, so why can we not ask our friends in heaven?  Of course, if you want to get into a deeper apologetic discussion, there are many Scripture references, and documents of the Church Fathers, and types in the Bible that I could talk about, but that is not the goal of this post.  (However, if you are curious, here is a quick answer, a video, and an article)  I just want to show you the awesome Marian shrine that we made.

So you can go and "visit" Mary in a church, right?  And ask for her intercession, and light a candle to leave your prayer "burning"... why not give kids the chance to create that environment in a way that they can take it with them anywhere.
We created this pop up Marian shrine complete with a statue of Mary, candles to light, roses to leave, and new prayers to use, all on a two page spread of a notebook.

Ok, steps, lots of steps.  It really wasn't that complicated to make, but pictures helped, so bear with me for the long post to scroll through.

Step 1: Find, print, and color a statue of Mary about 8" high.  You could use any picture of Mary, or appeal to a certain devotion, like to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This Mary statue was found here.
Step 2: Cut out Mary in a shape that looks something like the one above.  You  need about 2-3 inches on each side of Mary toward the bottom of the paper for this to work.

Step 3: Fold 1 inch tabs on each side toward the middle of the picture like above.  Then, fold Mary in half vertically with the picture on the inside.  Then fold each edge of the paper toward the middle.

When you unfold Mary and lay the picture face down, it should look like this. 

Step 4:  Flip Mary over, and center her over the spine of your notebook.  Hold so that she is level and the folded sides are perpendicular to the pages of the notebook.  Tape down the tabs on either side, which should look something like this:

If you slightly close the notebook, like to prop it open, she pops out even more.  Next, you need to "coach" the statue so that it will fold in on itself when the notebook closes, and not just get squished.

As you slowly close the notebook, use your hand to make sure that it folds in the middle and lays flat in between the notebook pages.  It should pop right back out when the notebook is opened.

Step 5: Color the candles and roses page and cut out. (FYI- don't have the kids cut on the lines around the roses.  Just cut out in rough ovals like below.)

Step 6: Create the instructions and storage envelope for the candles and roses. The envelope is  a "coin" envelope from a box of donated supplies a friend gave me.  Give me donated office supplies, and I promise you they will be put to use.

Here is the link to the printable for the candles and roses:

Step 7: Make a flip book for some favorite Marian Prayers to have handy. Start with two sheets of 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" paper, two colors if you have it.

Fold one in half short end to short end ("bathtub" or "hamburger" style), but leave 1/2-3/4 of an inch between the edges.

Lay the next piece of paper over top, giving the same amount of space between the edges.

Fold it around the back.

And you end up with a four page flip book with evenly spaced flaps.  You can either tape the pieces together or add a couple of staples along the edge.

Step 8: Print and cut out the favorite Marian prayers.  Link to printable here:

The tiny strips go on the outside tabs so that you can find the prayers.

Order doesn't matter so much, except some are wider than others, so make sure to test for fit before gluing down.

There is even a spot for a self composed prayer to Mary.

Step 9: Glue the flip book on the opposite side of the candles envelope.

Step 10: Prop open your Marian Shrine and add candles and roses as you ask Mary to intercede for you!