Palm Sunday Crosses

Easter is approaching fast and this year I have another Easter craft to share with you. The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday. In church we focus on the time before Jesus' death when he enters Jerusalem. He rides humbly on the back of a donkey and is greeted by people laying their coats down for him to walk across and praising him waving palm fronds. Traditionally at my church, on Palm Sunday a small cross made out of a palm leaf is handed out. I have always been curious as to how a flimsy leaf can be fashioned into the form of a crucifix and finally, I have learnt how to do it and I am eager to share it with you.

All you will need are two palm leaves that are roughly the same length (less than 30cm long). If you don't have any palm trees to steal leaves off, you can use some nice paper and cut two lengths that are the same width and length. You might also need scissors to trim your cross at the end (more on that later).

Step 1

Make sure that your two strips are the same width and similar length. Hold one strip vertically and the other horizontally so that their ends meet making a perpendicular line in a backwards L shape. The end of the horizontal strip must sit on top of the vertical one like so:

Step 2

Fold the vertical strip down and in front of the horizontal strip.

Step 3

Fold the vertical strip up behind the horizontal strip making sure that the horizontal strip doesn't fall out of the folds that you have made.

Step 4

Fold the horizontal strip behind and across to make a L shape. 

Step 5

Pull the end of the strip all the way through the loop in the middle knot. It should look the same as when you began except for the knot securing it together in the middle.

Step 6

Take the end of the horizontal strip and pull it through the

loop in the knot, NOT ALL THE WAY! Leave about 5cm for the right arm of the cross or more depending on how big you want your cross to be.

Step 7

Take the vertical strip down behind and through a loop in the knot and DON'T PULL IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH, leave about 5cm or the same amount as the right arm of your cross because that will make the top part of your cross.

Step 8

Once again, take the horizontal strip back through a loop in the knot and make it symmetrical to the other side. To shorten it, you may need to cut off some of the end of the strip to fit inside the opposite arm of the cross.

Step 9

Take the vertical strip up through a loop in the knot to make the final part of the cross. 

Step 10

Adjust each arm to make them all similar lengths except for the bottom strip, this one needs to be longer than the others. To make and arm longer, gently pull either the top or the bottom part of the arm, to make it shorter, gently pull part of the opposite arm. 

There you have it! I know for certain that you won't achieve the perfect finished product the first time you try making this. (I barely got past Step 2 the first time I tried it!) But the finished product is beautiful. Whether you make this out of leaves or paper, there are many things you can do with it. If you make one of these crosses out of some patterned paper, you could stick it on a card or gift tag for Easter. You could make heaps of them and hand them out at your church too. It's up to you to be creative and make it however you want!

Enjoy!

~The Inkpot Blogger