creative jewish mom

Make Festive Chanukah Bunting And Chanukah Cards From Styrofoam Prints

Here it is finally, the first actual Chanukah themed craft project! Phew I was feeling a bit behind, given that Chanukah is just 25 days away, which is not much time for the creative jewish mom to get it together. Plus I wanted to make sure you'd have some time to do some crafting too. Last night I sat down with my 6 year old son and we made these prints together, using the technique I taught you in the post about printing with recycled styrofoam trays. You can find that post and a complete tutorial here.

I just love how all the prints look together, they remind  me of  vintage Israeli graphics from the 50's.

I had planned to use the prints for Chanukah cards, but today it occurred to me that they'd make great bunting! And for some unknown reason I printed all the images with a substantial border at the top, perfect for folding over a ribbon and securing with tape!

And here's the first Chanukah card I've made. It looks great with the home printed wrapping paper that we learned how to make in this post! I simply cut out the print, pasted it to a piece of yellow paper, trimmed the yellow paper to size, and adhered that to the orange card. Simple enough!

I have to say, I feel much better now, knowing that there are three projects in my Chanukah category! It's certainly a start and I hope to bring you lots and lots more great projects to help you and your friends and family celebrate Chanukah in a meaningful way. So stay tuned!

Crochet Fun Placemats Using Yarn Made From Plastic Bags!

Isn't this place mat cute? It makes me happy every time I look at it! And believe it or not, I crocheted this with my very own two hands using "plarn" which is yarn that you assemble yourself by recycling plastic bags . Okay, those of you already verse in recycling crafts won't be surprised, and the rest of you, well, I'm helping to bring you up to date on what's happening out there in the world of crafting! Amazing things are going on, and I'm just trying to do my part to encourage this type of crafting. I don't know how you feel, but for me, it's a great feeling to make something nice looking and useful from garbage.

First of all, there are a few ways to make "plarn" but I'm going to show you the method I used to make this place mat. It's fairly quick to make and quite honestly becomes a bit of an addiction. Heavy plastic bags are great for fusing projects like I've taught you here, but the light weight bags (mine are from the grocery store and the vegetable store) used for food, and even light weight garbage bags (the orange stripe in my place mat) will do the trick as well, and are in fact the best, since you can get quite a bit of"plarn" out of one bag.

Needless to say grocery shopping will take on a whole new meaning if  you decide to try out this great craft.Yes, you do need to know how to crochet, which I highly recommend learning in any case, but other than that, it's really simple.

 

How To Make Plarn: 

You'll need lots of light weight grocery bags, plain white,  colored, and with printing on them. If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see some red flecks within the white, this is a result of using bags with red printing on them!

I didn't keep track of how many bags I used for the place mat, but in addition to one large orange garbage bag, and one large blue bag from a home store, I used roughly 20-30 bags.

Follow the steps below and you'll have some "plarn" for your first project in no time:

Step 1: Smooth out the bag and cut on the dotted red lines. These portions are garbage. The bottom of thin bags usually has a gusset (pleat) on each side which should be cut open with scissors.

Step 2: Carefully fold or roll the bag horizontally to create a 1 inch wide roll. Cut the bag as shown at intervals of about 3/4" inch (2.5cm). You can experiment with the width depending on the size of crochet hook you are using, but much thinner than this will result in a weaker fabric. The pieces that you've cut should be closed loops.

Step 1: Now you will make yarn by joining one loop to another like this. Place one loop on top of another.
The loop on the right should be on top of the loop on the left.

Step 2: Pull the top of the loop under and around the loop on the left, and back up through itself.

Step 3. Pull gently until you've formed a knot. Continue to add loops to this piece in the same way. Do  a few bags worth for starters, you can always add more loops while in the middle of crocheting. Also, if you want to do planned stripes, you'll have to add loops of a different color at the end of a row.

Crochet Pattern For Place mat:

You'll Need:

• "plarn" prepared as above or using another method you may know
• crochet hook size k or larger
• stitch marker (of just a small piece of contrasting yarn or a metal bag tie that you place into beginning of row and remove at end of the row)

Instructions:

This project is crocheted in a spiral formation. When you are crocheting the rows, you will need to keep track  of when you have finished each row, so it is advisable to use a stitch marker.

• Round 1: ch2, 6sc in 2nd chain from hook (ch=chain sc=single crochet)
  
• Round 2: Crochet 2sc in each sc = 12 sc
• Round 3: Crochet sc in next sc, crochet 2sc in next sc, repeat around= 18sc
• Round 4: *sc in next 2 sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from *= 24 sc
• Round 5: *sc in next 3 sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 30 sc
• Round 6: *sc in next 4 sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 36 sc
• Round 7: *sc in next 5 sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 42 sc
• Round 8: *sc in next 6 sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 48 sc
• Round 9: *sc in next 7 sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 54 sc
• Round 10: *sc in next 8sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 60 sc
• Round 11: *sc in next 9sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 66 sc
• Round 12: *sc in next 10sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 72 sc
• Round 13: *sc in next 11sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 78sc
• Round 14: *sc in next 12sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 84sc
• Round 15: *sc in next 13sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 90sc
• Round 16: *sc in next 14sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 96sc
• Round 17: *sc in next 15sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 102sc
• Round 18: *sc in next 16sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 108sc
• Round 19: *sc in next 17sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 114sc
• Round 20: *sc in next 18sc, 2sc in next sc, repeat from * = 120sc
• Continue in this fashion if you desire to make something larger.

Have a great time with this project, make a set of place mats to enjoy anytime or to give as unique gifts. Just remember, they are not for use with anything hot! I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment, and do me a favor and click the "stumble-it" button in the right column to share this project with a greater audience.

Make An Adorable Seasonal Mobile From Embroidery Hoops (A Great Baby Gift!)

I really should be posting Chanukah crafts, since the holiday is approaching, but I really wanted to share this project with you now, as it has so many great possibilities. Make it for your home as an ode to the last vestiges of fall, and do it together with the kids and make a few! Make one as a great handmade gift— a baby mobile for the nursery, or take this idea and make it more suited to December by changing the bird to a red cardinal, and the leaves to green holly leaves! You could even hang a few snowflakes from the bottom instead of the bird!

You can whip these up quite quickly and with very little expense, and they'll cheer you up all winter long. Great results with very little time investment—the very best type of craft project!

You'll Need:

• Wooden embroidery hoops in two sizes: I used a 10 inch hoop and a 6 inch hoop
• Felt in a few fall colors plus light blue
• Light-weight cardboard
• Yarn or string for hanging
• Yarn for decorating shapes
• Sequins
• Glue

How-To:

Follow the simple steps here, to make the mobiles shown here. Try to use these ideas as a starting point and enjoy creating a unique mobile that you can truly call your own!

Step 1:Draw shapes on light-weight cardboard and cut them out. To make the blue birds, glue a piece of felt to the cardboard bird shape and once dry, trim felt to the exact size of the cardboard. Cover both sides of the shape with felt if you'll be making a hanging mobile. Decorate with small felt cut-outs, yarn and sequins, or even buttons, ribbon and beads!

Step 2: Separate the two rings of the embroidery hoop, slip one inside the other, and connect by wrapping yarn around the intersection as shown here. Or secure with glue. Do this at both the top and bottom, and to both hoops.

Step 3: Hang the small hoops within the large hoops, and if possible find a place to hang it within reach. It's easier to do the next steps with the mobile in a hanging position.

Step 4: Using a large needle, carefully make holes in your shapes. Insert yarn or thread through the holes for hanging and tie to mobile base. To finish off your mobile, decorate the outside of the hoops with felt raindrops and falling leaves.

Tips: Be resourceful! Instead of using embroidery hoops as the mobile base, you could use a simple metal clothes hanger, a large metal or plastic ring, or even a band of cardboard secured to form a circle.

Here's a few more shapes that I made but didn't end up using for the mobile. I thought I'd show them to you for inspiration. Extra shapes could even be glued on to heavy card stock to use as greeting cards, or punch a hole in the top for a gorgeous tag on a present!

The pieces on this adorable version were made by my seven year old daughter, with no help from Mommy. I just love what she did with the yarn on the birds! And it's great if you happen to need a wall decoration more than a mobile, just use one of the rings from the embroidery hoop, and you can make two wall hangings from one hoop!

Happy crafting, and please do me a favor and click on the stumble upon button in the left column!

Knit A Cozy Cabled Afghan And Crochet The Border!

Once upon a time I was in a yarn store on the Upper West side of Manhattan and spied some hand-dyed variegated wool yarn that I just couldn't resist. I was very very into green at the time and well, you know how it goes! I saved this bag of precious stash, not knowing what to do with it. Finally a few years back in an effort to "use what I have" I decided to knit an afghan with the yarn. I had only one major problem, I didn't know how many stitches to cast on as I had no idea how to calculate how far the yarn would go, and there was no one around to ask.

Being an inexperienced knitter (and sleep deprived from a young baby) it didn't occur to me that I could probably even locate this info in a knitting book on one of my very own shelves. So I decided that the best thing to do would be to knit a decent sized rectangle, and then crochet a border as thick as the left over yarn would allow. Interesting idea, I must say! I decided to crochet a border using the bobble stitch, which looks a bit like knitting, and as it turned out I had quite a bit left to make a hefty border.

I'm so glad I used up that yarn, one less item on the "someday" list. My only problem now is that the too precious to use yarn has become a too precious to use afghan! Silly me, I'm sure my kids will jump at the chance to curl up with this one anytime, and why deprive them? I'll let you know what I've decided.

Until then please drop me a line, or leave a comment, and if you would be so very kind, click on the stumbleit button (in the right column at the top and bottom) to help me share the delights of creativity with an even greater audience ! Okay, begging just isn't my style, but really, if you could just click on that button and recommend my site, I would be so very appreciative.

Knit An Afghan To Match Your Decor Exactly!

Here's a really simple and relatively quick knitting project that I highly recommend! Plus it's a great confidence booster and you'll get lots of compliments when friends realize that you've actually whipped it up yourself. And even better, you can create something that really truly matches your decor.

As you can see from the photo, the fabric on my couch is gold/brown with taupe green leaves. To create a knit to match I choose four strands in different colors (gold, beige, light green, dark green) and knit them together (as if they were one strand) on large needles, size 13 US to be exact. This technique of knitting together a few strands of different colors is great, give it a try!

You'll Need:

• 3 skeins color A, 3 skeins color B, 3 skeins color C, 3 skeins color D
• knitting needles suited to knitting four strands of your chosen yarn together

How To:

1. First knit a small swatch to make sure you're happy with the results. And this swatch will help you plan how many stitches to cast on.
2. Decide on the width of the afghan you'd like to make and cast on the number of stitches necessary to achieve this width. Make this calculation by measuring the swatch.
3. Plain knitting tends to roll at the edges, so to avoid this I planned an all around border of garter stitch (knitting every row, no purl on alternate rows) which means knitting the first 6 rows in garter stitch and then the last four stitches on each end in garter stitch as well. Consult your swatch to figure out how to get an even border around, namely how many horizontal stitches match the width of 6 rows.

Note: As far as choosing colors for the afghan, if you don't have any specific color scheme you'd like to match, so knit something that looks like the sea by choosing a mix of greens and blues, or knit something that looks like a field of spring wild flowers by choosing for example red, yellow, white and green. I chose to trim my afghan with fringe, but you don't have too, you could make pompoms in all the colors and sew them onto the last row (this would be fabulous!) or even make yarn tassels for just the corners. And by the way, chunky knits go quickly, so you still have time to make this as a gift for the holidays!

The Spider Plant That Keeps on Giving And Giving And Giving.....

Hello dear friends, followers and those who have just climbed aboard this creative journey. I've been bombarding you with quite a few new crafting ideas lately, so I thought I'd spend today talking about another topic very near and dear to my heart - plants! Well to be more specific, just a particular plant known as the "spider" plant, or, Chlorophytum comosum.

Above: This is the mother spider plant, which really consists of three small plants that I originally planted together.

Spider plants happen to be one of the most common houseplants, because they are easy to grow as well as propagate.  Spider plants reproduce like crazy given the right growing conditions (bright light but no direct sun) and they produce their own ‘babies’ which are really tiny plants that can then be placed in water or dirt.  Though I always thought spider plants were house plants, here in Israel they grow outdoors nicely (in the shade) even in my area which is like a "zone 5 or 6" in the United States. My spider plant did suffer last winter, but entirely replaced itself with healthy leaves and an exuberant shower of hanging babies this past spring. 

As you can see from the photo above, spider babies are actually tiny spider plants suspended from a longer branch of the plant. You can leave the babies on the plant and they will grow while attached to the mother! Alternatively, you can clip the baby from the mother plant and place the bottom of it in water until roots form, and then plant the baby in soil or just put them straight into soil. 

Plant your spider plant in a hanging pot and you can have a stunning fountain of babies hanging from the mother in seemingly no time! The photos I'm showing you here are just a few of the plants that I've raised from Spider babies all from the same mother. I've given away some and killed some and even thrown some out as I just had too many!

Spider plants are excellent starter plants and very forgiving! Assuming that you don't forget about it altogether or leave it to bake in the sun, your plant can last for years and years. They make great filler plants to plant at the base of large indoor plants (see above, at the base of my palm) and it's really fun to give the babies away to friends! And those friends will in turn raise spider babies of their own and in turn give that generation to friends as well. Isn't that nice? It 's really so very easy, and there's nothing like a bit of green in the house to literally liven things up a bit!

Simple & Festive Holiday Greeting Cards: A Great Project For Kids!

A loyal reader has just requested some ideas for Chanukah cards, so while these aren't specific to any holiday, I thought I'd share the idea with you, as it has lots of potential as a craft project the whole family might enjoy on a dark Fall/Winter evening! And it's always a good idea to get an early start on holiday greeting cards......

The very simple idea behind these cards is to use a craft punch to punch a whole bunch of one tiny shape in a few brilliant colors. I picked this leaf punch up for a mere $1.49 at a discount store in New York, and my kids had lots of fun doing the punching!

You'll Need:

• colorful paper
• card stock
• a craft punch (found in the scrap-booking section of any art supply store)
• glue

How To:

1. Pick your color combination and punch your design from at least two colors
2. Glue punched pieces to paper, either randomly or in a pattern
3. Though  I didn't do this here, for nicer results I would recommend trimming your artwork into a square or rectangle and then gluing that to a blank card you've made from cardstock in another amazing and complementary color
4. Glue a few punched pieces to the inside of the card as well for a nice touch.

Home made greeting cards sent or given to loved ones will be appreciated, so it really is worth the extra effort. And if you get the kids or even a spouse involved, well maybe they'll just end up doing all the work for you. Wouldn't that be great? If they are reluctant, so do a few examples yourself when they aren't around and leave them out for inspiration.....this trick often works quite well! Shhhh!

Fuse Plastic Bags and Make Some Fabulous Coasters!

Did you know that there is such a thing as trends in the world of crafting? Well, guess what, there is! And at the moment projects involving recycling materials are definately hot. Amongst those are anything using plastic bags, which sit for 1000 years in the trash heap before disintegrating! So to use them again before they meet their fate is certainly a commendable thing to do, and it just so happens to be fun and  free at the same time!

Serious crafters have been making fabric by fusing plastic bags and even sewing clothes and all sorts of  items from the fabric. As a way of introducing you to this idea, I've come up with a really simple and quick project that will leave you with something useful, coasters! So while I may now be to blame for a new stash of plastic bags at your house, you can also thank me for introducing you to something that's really quite exciting, at least I think so!

You'll Need:

• at least 3 thick plastic bags (not for food)
• an iron

Directions For Fusing Plastic Bags:

1. Set the iron for 3.5 or near 'Rayon' setting.
2. Cut handles and bottom seam off bags, and cut down one side seam to obtain a flat piece of plastic
3. Depending on the thickness of your bags, you'll need about 6 layers, which is either 3 bags cut in half, or 6 bags totally disassembled and flat
4. Lay a piece of un-printed paper on the ironing board, place your six layers on top of the paper, and another piece of paper between the iron and the plastic.
5. Work in a well ventilated area as melting plastic can emit fumes!
6. Working in sections, iron each section for 10-15 seconds. This should fuse the first few layers.
7. Within the small sections, move the iron around as much as possible. If you hold the iron in one place for too long, you'll get dimples where the steam holes are. It is recommended to iron in straight lines to keep track of where you've been.
8. Don't lift the iron to check the progress until you've counted 10-15 seconds, and then check on the sides.
9. After working on one side,flip the plastic over and iron the second side too.
10. Layer bags according to what you'd like to see on the outside.
11. Decorative words and symbols from bags can be cut out and fused to your plastic fabric, though to protect them try fusing a clear piece of bag, the weight of a zip-loc sandwich bag, over the decorative element.
12. Have fun experimenting, and you'll have enough to make coasters and some place-mats too!

To Make Coasters:

1. Follow directions above to create a fused plastic bag fabric that is on the heavy side.
2. Find a round object that is the size of the coaster you'd like to make and use that to trace circles onto your plastic fabric.
3. Use a scissors to cut out the circles. Now you not only have something new for your home but maybe even a great very economical gift idea! You could make a ton of these in no time, and package them in beautiful square boxes or even place them in little pouches you've sewn from fused plastic fabric!  
4. Now you can proudly call yourself a bag lady!

Note: Clear bags with printed patterns are especially great for using as the outside layer. I made the butterfly coasters by placing another such bag over the bag with the butterflies, and I just love the layered collage-like effect that I created.

Embroider Small Works of Art And Use The Hoop As A Frame!

Don't you just love the look of hand embroidery? Me too, and I've been wanting to embroider something but just couldn't figure out what exactly. When I saw the embroidered toile tea towel in Roberta Rose's kitchen, (see photo in the post here) well that was all the inspiration I needed! What a great idea for a simple and not so time intensive project, I thought to myself, and here are the results of my first effort. I have to admit, I had such a wonderful time embroidering this that I hope to do a whole collection of them to hang on a wall together. (And of course if I actually do get around to this, you can rest assured that you'll be the first ones to know about it!)

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention one of the best parts of this project! When you're finished embroidering, simply trim off excess fabric and you have yourself a ready to hang work of art. Nice right? And the wonderful thing about embroidery is that it's quite easy to take along with you for crafting on the go (highly recommended for commuters, travelers, and waiting in long lines!) and you can also pick it up and work on it for just a few minutes here and there. Keep something like this in your purse, and you'll be surprised how often you'll actually find a few moments to pull it out!

You'll Need:

• a wooden embroidery hoop (I used a six inch diameter one)
• patterned fabric
• embroidery thread
• embroidery needle
  

How To:

1. For your first project I recommend choosing a piece of fabric that has lines or patterns that would be simple to embroider over. (like the example here)
2. Insert fabric into hoop and start embroidering using simple stitches such as running stitch, satin stitch and chain stitch, which is what I've used here. (Lots of info on embroidering is available every where)
3. Make sure to use colors that contrast with the fabric so that your hard work doesn't get lost in the pattern
4. Don't go overboard on the embroidering, very often simpler is nicer!

If you teach yourself some novelty stitches and stock up on a few colors, there's a whole wonderful world of simple embroidery projects out there that are simply delightful. Happy embroidering!

Welcome To My Creative Home!

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you love crafts and creativity, you've come to the right place. Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish New Year for the trees is on Friday night, January 29. If you are looking for Tu B'Shevat crafts and projects, you'll find them here, with lots more to come right up until the holiday. And if you've never heard of Tu B'Shevat, well I'm sure you'll enjoy learning something new! Enjoy, and do drop me a line or leave a comment, it makes my day!