creative jewish mom

Welcome To My Creative Home!

Thanks so much for visiting, please won't you come in? If you're looking for some crafty inspiration, well, I think you've come to the right place! If you are looking for Purim crafts, you can look here, with lots more to come in the next few weeks, including costume ideas of course! And if you have a blog or website, do drop by my blog linking party every Sunday, I'd love to have you! And of course, hearing from you makes my day, so do take a moment to comment or send me a message!

A New Job For Me + Great deals On Amy Butler & More!

Dear Readers, I love this blog, and it's a labor of the heart, but it's time to start making some income from it if possible! I would never think of trying to sell garbage, or entice you into buying something you definitely don't need, so with that in mind I've decided to become a saleswoman for one of my personal favorite places to buy fabric and notions, fabric.com. Over the past four years I have made numerous purchases from fabric.com, and always with great success and good customer service. And they have amazing deals on fabric with new patterns all the time and lots of sales and promotions.

Yesterday I went to look at their 50% clearance section and just couldn't believe the selection of great stuff, the first thing that caught my eye were Amy Butler Nigella Heavy Weight (for decorating as opposed to quilts) for only $7.99, a bargain! And if you buy over $35 worth, you get free shipping, plus there are additional coupons for more off, so don't walk run, before the stock disappears!

Here's my favorite patterns on sale now, with some photos of projects made with these patterns, to show you the scale (not the color) of all of the fabrics. Gotta love those floor pillows!

Nice isn't it? I've got some relatives coming to Israel soon, I think I have just  enough time to order some myself and have them bring it for me. You can click here to find out more! Fabric.com

Cute & Simple Purim Costumes From A Little This & That!

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that Purim costumes area a major deal around my house! We talk about it for months before the holiday and I do my very best to make sure that my kids are not only happy with their costumes, but appreciate wearing something "mommy made." I keep a whole box of interesting thrift clothing finds from past years in the attic, and as Purim approaches we usually take out the box and see what we might be able to work with this year. Women's skirts can easily become high waisted dresses for girls, women's sleeveless shells make great tunics for boys and look great belted. One year I made a very nice cape from an apron. So take a good look around your house and I'll bet you too can come up with some great original costumes from just a little of this and that!

As for this photo, well, two years ago preparations for Purim were easier than usual as my daughter wore a store bought dress from a neighbor (gasp!) and this son decided he wanted to be a pirate, for which we already had a few accessories on hand. This women's embroidered blouse was the perfect pirate shirt, and gluing a little bird on his shoulder completed the outfit!

I can't say I'll be getting off so easy this year, now that my crafting abilities have moved up a notch and I have a working sewing machine. And even the older boys have decided they want crocheted hats just like the one I've already made for my 4 1/2 year old! And what mother can refuse a request like that? Okay gotta go pick up the crochet hook, I'm officially crocheting four purple beanies with crocheted grape leaves and one red beanie that will hopefully look like a cherry when I'm done! Wish me luck!

Make Original Costumes For Purim (Or Play Dress-Up!) With Thrift-Store Finds!

Doesn't he look like he just stepped off of Broadway? I must say this was one of our more successful costumes, and I still find it a wonder how it all came together! When we lived in Jerusalem there was a monthly 1 shekel (25cents) sale at our local thrift store, so we would go two weeks before Purim to find pieces of interesting clothing to make costumes. I don't remember at what point my son decided he wanted to be an African King, but we sure had some good luck in finding these interesting pieces of clothing. And the zebra fur collar as a hat? That was his brilliant idea!

I stayed up quite late the night before the school Purim parade, making the scepter for him, and thanks to the make-up expertise of a neighbor, well I think he won first prize!

So the message here is, don't ever let your young kids near all those stores selling un-original costumes and you may just be able to convince them that homemade is the best! And when they're a bit older, you'll have no problem convincing them, as long as you invest just a bit of time and creativity into the whole process! 

I've been making costumes from thrift store clothing for years, with absolutely no sewing knowledge, and for that matter, no sewing! Since the clothing you'll be using is certainly not anything precious, so a trusty pair of good scissors, a glue gun and some safety pins here and there will most likely do the trick!

In some cases, so a few store bought accessories are necessary to make the costume look its best (a sword, a shield, gloves etc.) but creative re-use is the funnest for everyone! And assuming your kids aren't shy, so they'll just love all the compliments and attention lavished upon them. Go for it!

For this African King Costume I Used:

• 1 red paisley long sleeved woman's dress
• 1 petite sized woman's jacket with gold buttons and red embellishments
• 1 zebra patterned collar for a coat
• 1 broom stick + 1 plastic leopard for scepter (together with red and gold spray paint, some wooden beads and some lanyard cord)
• a white shirt and a pair of pants

Have fun and if you need some advice, so drop me a line, I'll be happy to help!

From A Simple Crocheted (& Felted) Square: A Sweet Envelope Or A Potholder!

Need a little something handmade to show you care? Want to practice crocheting and have something to show for your efforts? Looking for a little project that will fulfill an immediate need to craft? (That was me, by the way, which is how this came about!) When the idea struck, I quickly crocheted this square from 100% wool yarn while trying to feed my kids dinner Saturday night. I wanted to finish the square in time to throw it in the laundry with the day's load of darks, in order to felt it a bit. Sounds like fun? It is!

Today I pressed the square with my hot steam iron, photographed it flat and then sewed it up into the little envelope that you see here! How's that for a behind the scenes description of my creative adventures?

You'll Need:

• 100% wool yarn in two or three colors, I used "worsted weight"
• crochet hook slightly bigger than what you'd normally use if you plan to felt your work, I used an "I", though I'd normally use a "g".

How To:

• Guage is unimportant in this project, the goal quite simply is to crochet a square using the single crochet stitch.
• If you'd like to felt your square, so take into consideration that it will shrink by about 1/3 if you choose to utilize my casual felting method, which is to throw it into the washing machine with a load of like-colored clothing, and then into the dryer! You can put it through the washing machine again if the felting isn't as dense as you'd like.

1. Crochet a base chain roughly 8.5" long
2. Turn and start crocheting in the second chain from the hook
3. When turning work for all subsequent rows, chain 1 at beginning of row.
4. Change colors where desired for stripes, and stop crocheting when you have a square.
5. Make a colored border by crocheting around the entire square. Crochet three stitches into each corner to form an actual corner.
6. Weave loose ends into work with an large needle, weaving horizontally into rows of like colored yarn to hide ends.
7. To make the envelope, bring three corners together and sew seams with a needle and like colored yarn. Attach two buttons as shown and braid a small tie to loop around the buttons as a closure.
8. Who wouldn't love to get a card in an envelope like this that can certainly be used again to store jewelry or small precious items!

Craft Schooling Sunday: International blog Linking Party!

 
Hi Friends, can you believe it's Sunday already? I wish time would slow down just a bit, but I do look forward to this day of the week, when I can let you, the amazing crafters from around the world, be the teachers and share with us your latest creations!

So far our party is a rather small gathering, but I'm so proud to say that all those who posted last week linked to really nice projects, and I'm so honored to be able to feature some of them! So here they are, and please continue on below to link up to something you'd like to share this week!

 

Introducing children to embroidery and sewing is a popular topic this winter, and here are two really nice projects, that I'd like to do with my kids. On the left, from an American family living in Italy, a nice free form embroidery project on felt which mom then made into cute decorations, and on the right felt hearts are sewn into mice!

As most of you know, I have a soft spot for recycling crafts, so this bottle cap hot plate really caught my eye. Now I regret throwing out that collection of bottle caps that I just couldn't save anymore for lack of a project!
On the right, another embroidery project that's popular right now, making an embroidery of your child's drawing. Such a sweet idea, and Kami did a really nice job with this one!

 

I just love these germ-fighting placemats that mom wraps around her son's food container and secures with an elastic loop and cute button. And she decorated them with fabric paint and the backs each have a different cute patterned fabric! Paola, from South Africa, posted two very cute packaging projects that would also be great for Purim. I was thinking that a large version of the chinese takeout, template here, would be a great box if you wanted to make those placemats as a gift, and the little treat box, template here, would be a great birthday party favor as well.

And now, let the party begin! For those of you who are new, you'll have to click on "get your free Mcklinky" to register on their website first.

Here's the rules:

• Add a link to a specific post on your blog, and please post a link on that post back to this party.
• The link on your blog can be a written one saying "I'm linking up at Craft Schooling Sunday" or better yet, drag one of the logos below onto your computer and paste that at the bottom of the post.
• Please write in Capital letters at the beginning of your link your country of residence (USA, CAN, etc.)
• Please try to visit at least 3 other links from the party and a leave comment!
• Have fun and feel free to give suggestions as to how to make this virtual gathering even more interesting!

Hamantaschen: The Traditional Purim Treat That's Also A Parable!

For those of you unfamiliar with this traditional Jewish cookie, well let me tell you, it has a serious history!
Haman was one of the evil persecuters of the Jews, whose actions are described in the Book of Esther. Taschen means pocket in Yiddish. So what do these have to do with Purim? Well the whole actual historic event that took place (around 358 BC) was very much hidden, and occurred over a number of years which isn't readily apparent if one reads the Book of Esther at face value. In fact, the name Esther means hidden. And these cookies have an inside that is hidden, well at the least the photo on the right does! 

So this cookie not only tastes good, it's also a parable for the idea that hidden within the evil there is good!
And despite Haman's attempts to wipe out the Jewish people there was indeed a sweet ending in the merit of Queen Esther, and I'm here today to tell you about it! And as for the noise maker I've placed next to the cookie, well, we shake that at every mention of Haman's name during the reading of the Book of Esther on Purim. Why? To remember that evil in the world can be overcome! So go ahead and bake a big batch of Hamantaschen and think about how the flip side of bad is good!

Hamantaschen (thanks to my friends over at gourmetkoshercooking.com for the recipe)

These three cornered cookies are traditionally filled with prune, poppy or fruit fillings (see recipes below) but can be filled with any preserve or filling of your choice. Be creative; try  homemade applesauce with cinnamon for the apple pie lover!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• ½ cup finely ground almonds
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon
• ½ pound unsalted margarine or butter
• 1 egg
• 2 Tablespoons cold water
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• Hamantaschen fillings (recipes follow, or you can purchase ready-made prune, poppyseed, and  chocolate fillings, as well as fruit jam, which is what my grandmother always used!)
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, almonds, baking powder, salt, sugar, and lemon zest.  Blend or cut in the butter until the mixture resembles very fine crumbs.
3. In a small bowl, beat the egg, water and lemon juice until well blended.  Add to the flour mixture and beat until completely blended and the mixture begin to form a dough.  Do not over mix.
4. Transfer to a floured board and knead the dough into a ball.  Divide the ball into 6 equal portions for easier handling.  Flatten each portion with the palms of your hands and roll it out to ¼ inch thick.  With a scalloped cookie cutter or the top of a water glass, cut into 3 ½ inch rounds.  Place 1 heaping teaspoon of filling in the center of each round.  Fold the edges of the dough toward the center to form a triangle, leaving a bit of the filling visible in the center.  Pinch the edges to seal them.
5. Place the hamantaschen on a lightly greased foil-lined baking sheet (or baking paper) and brush with egg white.  Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and eat.

Hamantaschen Fillings

Apricot-Coconut

• 2 cups apricot preserves
• ½ cup shredded coconut
• ½ cup chopped nuts like walnuts, toasted
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Prune Filling

• 1 ¼ cups pitted prunes
• ½ cup raisins
• Sweet wine or water
• ½ cup sugar
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 orange
• ½ cup walnuts, toasted

In a large bowl, soak the prunes and raisins in enough wine to cover for 3 hours or overnight.  Drain well.  Chop or mince the prunes and raisins.  Add the sugar, lemon juice and zests, and walnuts and mix well.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Poppy Seed Filling

• 4 ounces poppy seed
• ½ cup pareve milk or milk
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted margarine or butter
• ¼ cup seedless raisins
• ¼ cup walnuts, toasted
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, combine the poppy seeds, pareve milk, margarine, raisins, walnuts, and honey.  Bring to a boil and stir over medium heat until the pareve milk is absorbed and the mixture thickens.  Cool.  Stir in the vanilla.

Chocolate Filling

• ½ cup cocoa
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup pareve milk, pareve cream, milk, or coffee
• 1 cup nuts, toasted

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and blend thoroughly.

Make Designer Purses from Recycled Plastic Plates (To Hold Treats For Purim or Any Time!)

Once upon a Purim a few years back I decided to make some designer purses from plastic plates! They're perfect for little girls to give to their friends on Purim, and they'd be great for birthday party favor bags!

Of course you could make the same thing from large plates, and your creations would then be large enough to hold a respectable gift. A miniature bottle of wine or grape juice together with some other packaged foods that are flat (how about a nice sandwich?) would make a nice presentation. And the truth is, with my experience most people would much rather receive something fun like this, than a huge basket!

Hopefully you can basically figure out the construction of the "bags" from the photos, and come up with some of your own designs as well. Pretend you're a handbag designer and have some fun!

I used hot glue to glue together the plates and planned ahead with straps and fringe, placing them between the plates before gluing. A regular hole punch works for the holes, and some Tulip fabric paint (in an applicator bottle) was used for the gold dots. All of these versions actually close with a ribbon tie, which of course is optional. Other than that, I think you'll get the hang of it in no time. And why not make some designer labels to go with your creations while you're at it!

I'd love to see what you come up with, so do take photos to share with us here on the blog! Happy creating!

Recycled Soda Bottles Are Great For Giving Treats!

When I figured out this earth friendly packaging trick a few years ago, I was so excited! The shiny bottle makes the hand printed paper inside look amazing, and as you may already know, I just love projects that involve recycling. I've used this idea several times for giving treats on Purim, but you can certainly pull this one out of your hat any time you need a packaging idea for home baked goods or even a small present!

I would recommend printing or stamping your own paper for a completely unique presentation, but if you just don't have the time or the inclination, so you could certainly use some gorgeous scrap-booking paper. For some ideas on how to go about creating your own patterned paper, I've described stamping with large foam stamps (bottom photo) here, printing with objects from the kitchen (top photo) here, making your own stamps here, and  making prints with styro-foam trays here. And of course you could also pull out the potatoes and do some potato prints as well. So get a head start on this project and print your paper now!

You'll Need:

• Clear soda or other drink bottles
• Patterned Paper (that you've hopefully printed yourself)
• Ribbon
• Cellophane
• A strong hole punch, my old fashioned metal one works great

How To:

1. Using a sharp knife, cut off the top curved portion of your bottle, and even it out with scissors. The height of your bottle is up to you, I've always used the maximum height that I could, but you could certainly make them short and cute to hold something small.
2. Cut your paper to the exact height of the straight portion of the bottle. Depending on the shape of the bottom of your bottle, you will probably not want the paper to extend to the bottom of the bottle as it won't lie flat in that portion.
3. Insert paper into bottle and secure paper to itself with a piece of tape.
4. You may want to use a few clothespins or bulldog clips to hold paper in place so that top edge of paper lines up exactly with top edge of bottle.
5. Punch evenly spaced holes through both the paper and the bottle at the same time
6. Lace ribbon through the holes moccasin style — the nicest finish I came up with given the rough edge of the soda bottle.
7. Place cellophane in bottle and then the present or treat, tie with ribbon and trim cellophane to desired  height.
8. Give to friends and family and get showered with a ton of compliments! Take credit if you like, but do tell them about my blog, would you?

Package Treats In Festive Boxes Made From Recycled Baby Formula Cans!

 

When there are babies, there is very often baby formula! Hopefully not in place of nursing, which we all know is the best for any baby, but every mother has to make decisions about how to raise her family that are for the good of everyone! That said, Materna (baby formula) is quite popular here in Israel, and so there are lots of cans floating around begging to be used for craft projects!These metal cans have wonderfully strong lids which make them ideal candidates for recycling as gift containers for any occasion!

It's true, you can't pack too much into one of these, but I think everyone appreciates a beautiful container that they can use again more than an abundance of treats which they really don't need! So ask your neighbors to save their Materna cans if you don't have any, and for those of you in the rest of the world, well I'm sure you can find a nice substitute. Just make sure the cans you choose have smooth sides, and choose a color scheme that works with the color of the lid!

You'll Need:

• Metal baby formula cans (or of course any type of can with a lid, or not)  Materna has two sizes, the large ones are really great!
• Sparkled contact paper (tepet in Israel)
• Metallic silver tape (mine was from the hardware store!) or metallic silver contact paper
• Round metallic silver stickers in two sizes, I like to use the largest together with some that are about the size of a shekel (penny)
• Purple ribbon for the decorative bow on the top
• Thin ribbon to wrap around the box and to hold the card

How To:

1. Preferably using a metal ruler and a craft knife, cut strips of contact paper no wider than half the height of the can. The thinner the strips the easier they are to apply. Trying to cover the whole can is generally a mistake as you'll end up with lots of bubbles and creases. That's with the product I used though. With thick American style contact paper you may be able to do the whole can in one strip. Try both and see what works for you!
2. With most cans you'll want to start applying the contact paper to the can just beneath the area covered by the lid, though it definitely depends on the type of can you'll be using. The main thing is that taking the lid off and putting it back on won't dislodge the paper.
3. After you've covered your cans in the base color, add strips of silver tape or paper to disguise seam lines and add some interest.
4. Finish off your work of art with metallic stickers placed evenly around the circumference of the box.
5. Make the bows for the top by simply looping ribbon back onto itself, and securing in the center with a staple. Secure to the top of the can with a piece of double sided tape.
6. Make small cards from some interesting paper, punch a hole in them and tie onto can. (This was paper I'd stamped for another project I'll be showing you soon.)
7. Line up all your creations and enjoy looking at them before you give them away!

Create Gorgeous Gift Boxes From Recycled Cereal Boxes! (For Purim, Of Course!)

Looking for an earth-friendly and gorgeous solution for mishloach manot (gifts of food for the Jewish holiday of Purim) packaging this year? Here's your answer: cereal boxes! Or for that matter any type of box with a non-printed side, and that can be easily opened and reassembled inside out. Start looking around and I'm sure you'll find lots of options in your very own kitchen.

You'll Need:

• cereal boxes
• light blue acrylic craft paint and paint brush
• round objects to use as stamps:large bottle caps, wine corks etc.
• purple puff paint or glittered fabric paint in a bottle applicator
• glue: tacky craft glue or a hot glue gun
• lavender ribbon

How To:

1. Find seams where cereal box is glued together, on one side and bottom.
2. Carefully open seams with a sharp knife, being careful not to tear box as much as possible
3. Flatten box on work surface and print with polka dots in this manner: Find a flat round object to use as a stamp, using a paint brush apply paint to object and firmly press onto box. Make sure you don't use too much paint and that paint is sticky, not runny.
4. Here's a photo of printing in this manner on paper:
5. Once paint has dried, decorate painted circles with dots of fabric paint. Keep it simple as shown in the photo of the finished box.
6. Once fabric paint is thoroughly dried (at least five to six hours, best overnight) reassemble box using original tabs, just inside out this time! You'll need strong tacky craft glue or a hot glue gun to handle this.
7. Decorate box with ribbon and make a tie closure by punching two holes in top of box just underneath slit of top tab (when tab is closed and on top of box.) Thread ribbon through the holes and up through the slit and tie a bow.
8. If you'll be using your box to hold heavy items, reinforce the bottom of the box with another piece of cardboard cut to fit exactly into the box and glued in place.
9. You can choose to make closed boxes as shown here, or cut off the top portion and make shopping- bag-shaped containers instead. Fill with pastel colored tissue paper or matching cellophane, and make ribbon handles, either one big one from side panel to side panel, or two smaller ones attached to front and back panels. Make holes for the ribbon handles with a hole punch or preferably with a scrapbooking grommet kit.

I hope you enjoyed this project, there's lots more to come, so check back everyday this week to see what types of containers you should be saving!