Orthodox Mothers Digest: Make Your Own Free Icon Coloring Page

I made this one year for our annual pilgrimage for our beloved Saint Raphael of Brooklyn

We have enjoyed free icon coloring pages like these in the past, but sometimes I can't find the saint I want.

No worries - it's easy to make your own!

I was raised in the 80's on the TV show MacGyver, and his name became a verb for us, any time we needed to cobble something together we didn't have.

MacGyver rigs up a lie detector.

It seems that this idea of "macgyvering" seeped into my bones, because it has been my default response many times in my life.

My high school drama program couldn't afford scripts and royalties? We macgyvered plays ourselves.

My pantry didn't have the ingredients for a recipe? I macgyvered a substitution.

I couldn't find an icon coloring page for my children? I made one.

And you can make one for the children in your life, too!

How to Make a Free Icon Coloring Page

Step 1 - Icon and Clear plastic

You need a container with a lid slightly larger than the size of the icon you want to use. I save clear plastic fruit & bakery containers for this purpose.

I've scored some very large ones at Coffee Hour - when someone brings muffins or mini-cinnamon buns from Sam's Club.

This is a small berry carton for a small icon.

Cut the lid off, so you can place it over your icon.

I decided to make a coloring page of the icon of Saint Monica instead, since she is my patron saint, and we already have a lot of St. Herman materials.

Step 2 - Permanent Marker

Trace the major lines of the icon onto the clear plastic. You may want a back-up plastic lid, in case you mess up the first one.

Keep taking it off and putting it back on to see what you still need to trace. The goal is not to trace every detail - just the major lines. Sometimes, instead of coloring pages, these are called Black Line Drawings. That name might help you make choices about what to trace.

Step 3 - Cut out your Flat Template

My icon is St. Monica asking the Lord Jesus to help her son.

I didn't like how the image of Jesus turned out on my plastic rendition, so I decided to cut it out. I can tell the story of St. Monica to children and explain that she is gesturing to Christ in prayer.

Step 4 - Make a Copy onto white paper

Our home printer makes copies, but you could also ask your local priest if you could borrow the church's copy machine. Or you could take it to Fed Ex or Kinkos.

After the original copy, I decided to enlarge it 160% so the icon coloring page would indeed fill a whole page.

Step 5 - Revise your Icon Coloring Page

I made a couple of copies, so that I could play with it. I eventually decided NOT to include the pattern on the dalmatica.

I did use correction tape ($1 at Dollar General) to remove the faint line of the original plastic.

I also took my permanent marker and went back over some lines that looked faded.

Finally, I printed her name using Algerian font and made another copy.

If you can, scan the image as a pdf, to save it to your computer for future use.

Also, I put the tracing pages and plastic in our "Holy Burn Can" - which is just where we keep things like that to burn later. If your family doesn't regularly burn holy trash, your priest probably does. If you have a son who serves in the alter ask him about it - it might even be his job!