creative jewish mom

Setting The Table For A Mexican-Style Fiesta —For Purim or Anytime!

Guess what friends, here's the crafting finale that I've been planning— now it's time to set the table for our Mexican-style fiesta! And Purim is three weeks away, so there's still time to make something this fun and festive happen at your house! It all starts with the right tablecloth, in this case a Mexican blanket, and some bright crepe paper flowers. The links to the projects are in this paragraph, and they're all simple enough for the kids (say above eight) to lend a hand. Bring out all the colorful dishes that you own, paint some whimsical styrofoam fruit, and make some napkin rings from plastic bottles and a recycled bleach bottle vase to match. And really, that's enough, just look how great this table looks! Oh, and if you don't have any colorful glasses, or would like to add some more to your table, so you can make some, following my tutorial for painted wine glasses.

If you can't find a Mexican blanket, so any colorful (and preferabley woven) table cloth can certainly work, just don't forget to pile on the layers— stacks of colorful dishes and single crepe paper flowers here and there as well as some extra fruit to make the table look it's best! Oh, and you can use those individual fruits as place markers if you like....simply attach a little flag (with your guest's name) with a piece of twine or yarn.

To complete the look in your home, hang some Mexican sombreros (now available for Purim at costume stores) some crepe paper streamers, and some papel picado (Mexican tissue paper banners) if you can find them, or make some yourself! And of course a Pinata would be the perfect finale' for your fiesta! (I've got some in the works that I hope to finish in time to show you!) And coming soon, tons of great recipes, so that your party will look great and taste great too!

 

 

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday!

Yet another great party last week with so many wonderful projects from around the world. From places like Turkey, Muldavia, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Poland, Canada, Italy, The United States, New Zealand and Slovenia! I'm really loving the combination of crafting, armchair traveling, and world geography — it sure does keep things interesting, don't you think? Tell me honestly, do you know where Slovenia is? If not, well don't worry I had to look it up, and there's a good reason why some of us don't know where it is......it's a newish country as of 1991, formed after the collapse of the Yugoslavian Republic, ahhh, you feel better now don't you? It borders with Austria to the North and Italy to the West, Croatia to the South. Now we know!

Before I get carried away with the geography lesson, thanks to all of you who took a moment to share last week, and here are some of my favorites:

I just love these fun fabric flowers, from creation corner, complete with a great tutorial!   And did you ever see a felt tissue monster? Me neither, and I think this one is just the cutest, and such a great idea, thanks to the wray sist3rs.

Camilla over at family chic is at it again with this super pink newspaper vase sleeve. And these pom poms from craftaholics anonymous, well guess what, they're made from strips of old t-shirts! Brilliant right? You can make the pom poms using strips or you make yourself a ball of t-shirt yarn (my tutorial here) and use that! Either way as long as you've got some old t-shirts on hand, you're in business!

This lovely basket is made by la maison reid,  and is a perfect example of the type of project I'd love to do. Unfortunately I don't have flax growing on my driveway to harvest for this project, inspired by Maori basket making from New Zealand! I just love this fabric y0-yo pillow from pick up some creativity, really unique, and the back is a really great floral. Check it out together with some other really great pillow ideas!

Yippee, Lilla A. Design is back to share with us, and I was absolutely thrilled to learn about a product that allows one to decorate porcelain, like the mug that her daughter made here. It's paper backed, oven cured plastic sheet called color dekor, and from what I can see it's a product available in the UK and Europe/Scandanavia. Anyone seen this for sale anywhere else, or know of a similar product? And this adorable crocheted apple coaster— just too sweet and also from the Netherlands from anne marie's breiblog
Wouldn't it look great sitting under the mug?

Love these toilet paper tube binoculars, from crafts by Amanda, using camouflage patterned felt! And speaking of yo-yos, Amy over at mod podge rocks transformed these adorable wooden yo-yos, a great idea for a personalized gift or party favor!

And now, let the party begin, can't wait to see what craftyness has been happening around the world.

 

Make Festive Napkin Rings From Recycled Plastic Bottles!

 

Since we're on the topic of crafting with recycled plastic bottles and yarn, I bring you yet another simple idea: make napkin rings from pieces of plastic soda bottles that you've wrapped with yarn! So fun and colorful and perfect for the Mexican fiesta theme that I'm building on here. Or actually perfect for any casual table setting, since you can pick yarn colors that work with your scheme and have fun!

You'll Need:

• recycled plastic soda bottles
• yarn scraps
• a hot glue gun
• packing tape or any strong tape

How To:

1. Cut off top and bottom of bottle, leaving just the straight middle portion.
2. Decide how tall you'd like your rings to be, and with a scissors, cut a ring off the plastic bottle. You do not need an intact ring, so first cut down the bottle and then around.
3. Curl the plastic bottle onto itself so that's it's almost a double layer, and secure with tape. If you're using cloth napkins, check to see the size you'll need.
4. Starting from the inside, attach the first end of yarn with hot glue, and start wrapping yarn around the height of the napkin ring, securing with hot glue where necessary on the inside, and joining new pieces where desired.
5. If these directions aren't clear, you'll have to excuse me, as I'm literally writing this on the run with a few children calling "mommy" and another in the kitchen asking for another serving of our Friday afternoon meal, Moroccan Hummus, today served with whole wheat couscous, yumm!

 

Recycle A Bleach Bottle & Make A Festive Yarn Wrapped Vase!

As you know, I love recycling crafts, so when I realized that by cutting down a recycled bleach bottle I could make a festive vase for my Mexican-style paper flowers, well I just had to give it a try!  And guess what, it's so very simple, looks great and is a wonderful way to use up all those yarn odds and ends. I will definitely make some more before Purim if I can. And it also occurs to me that this would make a great basket for mishloach manot too. You probably don't have access to enough empty bleach bottles to make them for everyone on your list, but a few would be fun! And in case you're paying attention, yes, the small vase is actually a can, making a guest appearance from my previous post here, where it was actually a luminary!

You'll Need:

• an empty bleach container, or really any large plastic bottle (like fabric softener or other household cleaning fluids), and it certainly doesn't have to be round
• a fun combo of yarn in a variety of thicknesses and colors
• a hot glue gun

How To:

1. Cut off the top of your bleach bottle with a large sharp knife, and then use a pair of sharp scissors to trim the bottom section such that it's an even height all around. (Make sure to wash out the bottle!)
2. Attach the first piece of yarn with a dab of hot glue at the end and start wrapping, adding very small dots of hot glue along the way. Change colors as desired, wrapping the whole height of the bottle.
3. That's it! If you'd like to use this as a basket as opposed to a vase, you might want to finish the top edge with a strip of felt that's glued to both the outside and the inside in order to hide the upper rim.
4. Have fun wrapping all the cans and bottles you can get your hands on, and create a stunning table with groupings of them, or a long line of them running down the middle of the table.
5. Oh, and I almost forget to mention, these are perfect centerpieces for your next Mexican fiesta!

 

Parsha Parenting: The Importance Of Family Meals

This week in Parshas Vayakhel, we learn one very important lesson as parents: make an effort to eat meals together as often as possible. Yes, children grow and often have their own schedules that don't work with the rest of the family, and this can indeed be a challenge, but do make every effort to sit down together as often as possible — this is what keeps the family unit alive, and the members of the family connected and content. Read this week's installment of Parsha Parenting, and you'll also learn about how the Jewish people have been following this advice for thousands of years. Often no small task today, but when concerned parents realize the extreme importance of sitting down together, they can certainly make it happen.

To read this week's installment of Parsha Parenting, Parshas Vayakhel, click here.

A Whimsical Painted Fruit Centerpiece Will Make Them Smile!

 

A painted Styrofoam fruit centerpiece is not only adorable but a super fun project for all ages. While I originally thought this would be the perfect centerpiece for a summer barbe-que, I decided that it would also be great for a Mexican style Purim fiesta, so here you have it. And I have to tell you, this is truly one of favorite projects because the results were even better than the image that I had in my head!

While I am going to use some of these on the table for the Mexican fiesta that I'll be posting about next week, I'm also playing with the idea of gluing the fruit into the basket and hanging this on my front door. Then at least every time I open the door I'll see smiles all around, right? And plus it's perfect for the joyful month of Adar. And since we have two months of Adar this leap year, well I'd say it's time to make them all smile! And if the neighbors wonder where you got your strange sense of humor, so like I always say, blame it on me. Just make sure to tell them creativejewishmom.com, so they'll know where to find me!

You'll Need:

• styrofoam or paper mache fruit
• acrylic craft paint
• wooden skewers
• a protective coat of acrylic varnish if you'll be using this outdoors

How To: Since my fruit are made from styrofoam, I stuck a skewer into the bottom of each one, so that I could paint the fruit on all sides and avoid touching it while it was being painted. I did not paint a base coat of white over the existing color of the fruit, but if you want to paint the fruit pastel colors, so that would be a good idea, and you can certainly do that with white spray paint. Other than that, well, paint the fruit a base color, and when that is dry paint the details—polka dots, stripes, dashes, you name it! And I do think that these fruit would look great hanging as a mobile, or strung on a string, then again, you could also glue them onto a big straw hat for a great costume!

Mexican Style Crepe Paper Flowers....Gorgeous!

I can't explain it, but Mexican style folded crepe paper flowers never looked so good, believe me they are gorgeous! I am honestly planning to fill the house with them for Purim.....decorating the tops of frames, attached to the arms of my chandelier and pouring out of tall vases like these. Oh, and I'm planning to make a centerpiece for the Mexican fiesta party that I'm going to show you how to make, along with some foodies in the blog world. (Look for that next week.)

I'm sure most of you have made flowers like this at one point in time, but now is the time to go all out with them, in all sizes and colors, though I'd stay with one color group per bouquet. Mix pinks, reds, and oranges, or mix blues, greens and purples for the most lovely results. And best of all, they're so simple to make, even the kids can help, and in one sitting you can easily have a few large bouquets.

You'll Need:

• crepe paper (you can use tissue paper, but I think crepe paper looks much better)
• floral wire stems
• scissors

How To:

1. Make a stack of anywhere from four (for smaller flowers) to eight squarish sheets of crepe paper. My flowers in the photo were made with 6 or 8 layers, and from a roll of crepe paper, 150 x 50cm, I created two nice sized flowers. The bouquets in the photos were each made from six flowers.
2. Very important: Take note of the grain of the crepe paper, and make sure that all the pieces in your stack have the grain running the same way.
3. Turn the stack of crepe paper such that the grain is running horizontally, left to right. Why? Because other wise you may end up with a very floppy looking flower, especially if you use the thin crepe paper that I used. I threw out a bunch before I realized this important tip!
   
4. Begin folding the stack accordion style
5. Wrap a piece of floral wire around the center and twist to secure
6. Cut petal shapes at each end of the folded piece, see my diagram here
7. Open the accordion, and start very gently pulling the layers up towards the center to shape the flower
8. Play a bit with the layers to get a nice shape, and voila!

A Roundup Of Purim Costumes From The Archives!

Purim is in four weeks, which means we do have time to make this Purim memorable for our kids if we start now. I'd suggest first working on the costumes and then figuring out the Mishloach Manot and the other festivities. Here's a little inspiration to get you started! And you might like to read the posts to learn about creative costume making from thrift store finds or things in your closet. And yes, that's right, we never buy costumes, except for possibly accessories like crowns and breast plates, and eye patches. But play it on the safe side and don't take your kids anywhere near stores selling costumes this time of year, it can be a little too much for those not old enough to realize that your homemade costumes steal the show every year! I accidentally took my 5, 7 and 8 year old to a toy store last week, packed with costumes, and guess what, no one begged for anything! And in fact my 7 year old was commenting on how over-priced the masks were! Way to go kids!

This jungle king costume made from thrift store clothing and a broom-stick scepter was a huge hit.

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Another super party last week! Thanks so much to all of you who linked up and added to the amazing wealth of inspiration from around the world. You know, from places like Serbia, Sweden, Canada, England, The United States, Israel, and Poland, for starters! I think you'll like this week's picks, there's something for everyone!

Aren't these paper cup flowers from morgan made it great? Simple enough for kids too, check out her tutorial! And yes, another hobby horse this week too, but just a little bit different and oh so lovely! You can check out the details at lizon, though it would help if you read Russian! Lizon is originally from Moscow, now living in Tel Aviv.

Ever seen a birthday party table that looks like a bed? Amazing right? And so perfect for the "night owl" party that Anj over at snowy bliss made for her daughter, with tons of great owl details. She was inspired by a similar themed birthday party that was very high end, you can see the link on her blog, but since most of us don't have a family member to whip up a table that really looks like a wooden bed, I love her take on it. And these simple beaded hearts? From Lilla A Design! Who else could take such a basic idea and make it look so good?

Sweet felt flowers right? Red-Ted Art shows us a simple way to make some sculpted felt flowers....you'll be seeing some of these from me! The super cute cloud and rainbow headband is from Sara in Akko, she's originally from the US, but now lives by the sea in the very old city of Akko, Israel, and has great ideas!

Here is the perfect fondant cake from fowl single file for your first try, (it would seem to me, never having done it myself!) don't you think? Just adorable, and you must check out all the different little penguins she made for the cupcakes, amazingly adorable!

I've seen baby onsie rose bouquets and diaper cakes, but never a cupcake made from a pair of socks and a handmade fabric coffee cup warmer from she wears flowers! Quite brilliant, and a sweet gift for that someone— a teacher, a helpful neighbor, a thoughtful friend, or better yet how about giving some gifts to complete strangers who would be so happy— those sick in the hospital and elderly in nursing homes, for example. And since we're talking about firsts, I've never seen a garland contraption like this ingenious one that allows you to change the components on a whim, thanks to Mich over at Mich in LA.

And now, drum roll please, let the party begin! We'd just love it if you take a few moments to share your latest, and please do link back to the party.

 

Parsha Parenting: Celebrating & Nurturing The Qualitites Unique To Women

The lessons we learn from this week's Parsha, Parsha Ki Sisi, are the kind of lessons that we, as women and mothers can use not to say "ha, told you so", to the men in our lives, but rather to quietly absorb and use to boost our confidence in everything we do. Women have unique abilities that men do not have. It's that simple. Sorry guys.

And according to our Sages, Jewish women have used these qualities to save the Jewish nation from obliteration in every generation, including ours! Powerful right? So take a few minutes to learn about your unique position as a women, and lets get to work saving the world. Okay, maybe that's a little big for most of us, lets start with our own families.

To read this week's installment of Parsha Parenting, Parsha Ki Sisi, click here.