creative jewish mom

Polymer Clay Tree Collage Art

 

Ever thought about making a picture with polymer clay? Well, me neither actually, but I'm so happy with this joyful little piece of art that I made together with my six year old to honor trees and their important role in the environment. I've never done a project like this before, and am so glad that I was able to pull it off in time to share it with you all at the Forest Fiesta organized by Rashmie over at Mommy Labs!

You'll Need:

• polymer clay elements, see my previous post here
• a piece of up cycled wood, a shelf in this case
• mod podge
• tissue paper, I actually used some pieces of a papel picado Mexican tissue paper banner
• any other elements that work for you, ric rac, buttons, patterned papers.....

How To: Quite simply, stick it all together with mod podge! I used the regular mod podge which worked fine for my smallish pieces, large pieces may require something stronger first. Enjoy, and have fun making meaningful works of art with your children.

To see the projects contributed by the wonderful group of bloggers that have teamed up with Mommy Labs, for the Forest Fiesta, continue reading and enjoy!

Polymer Clay Tree Project To Do With The Kids

Polymer clay is great for all ages, and you can do so many things with it beyond making beads and jewelry. Today I sat with my six year old and we made leaves and some other elements for a project dedicated to the subject of trees. We looked out the window at the forrest nearby and I talked to him about the importance of trees. Then we sat down and got to work, first softening up the clay by rolling it in our hands, and then actually combining yellow and blue clay to make the green you see here! The trunk was also made by combining black, gold and beige, and the lettered pieces were made with rubber stamps!

Once the pieces have been baked they are ready to be applied to just about any surface you desire. We'll share the next stage of this project with you when we can, an do keep in mind that polymer clay is also great for making small mosaic tiles or elements that one can use for collage projects!

Paper Mosaic With Rose Petal Tinted Paper

 

What is paper mosaic with rose petal tinted paper you ask? Well, of course, the paper mosaic part is clear, but what is rose petal tinted paper? I really couldn't think of any other name for paper that is tinted by coloring with rose petals! How do you color with rose petals? You quite simply drag a small stack of them across the paper while applying pressure in order to transfer their pigment to the paper. And the green squares? Why of course, those were made by "coloring" with rose leaves. I did try some other flowers, but none resulted in the deep color that the red rose leaves on the paper. And the other surprise was, that after I cut my paper into little squares I realized that it actually resembles glass mosaic tile, a fun coincidence.

And so now my friends, I don't know about you, but I will never throw a tired red rose in the garbage until I've transferred it's pigment to some paper! Make sure to "color" with the top side of the petal touching the paper and have fun. 

Quick Party Decor With Chinese Paper Lanterns

I love Chinese paper lanterns, and they're every hostess's dream solution to party decorations, especially if you have a chandelier over your dining room table that's a catch all for party decor! If not, one can certainly run some string across a doorway, or even across the room to display these colorful and festive lanterns, and voila, open the lanterns, hang them and let the festivities begin!

What more can I say? My desire for some Chinese lanterns in my life was so great that on a very hot sweltering day in New York I dragged my kids into Manhattan for a trip to my favorite Chinese emporium, Pearl River. Well it turns out that the store has gone a bit more upscale in it's Broadway/Soho location than when it was on Canal street, but it's still a real treat and you'll want to buy most of the contents of the store if like me you have a weak spot for color and ethnic design. Plus downstairs (which is where I found these lanterns) they have a huge selection of strings of lights with little shades, perfect for your outdoor patio decor! Where can one buy Chinese lanterns in Israel you ask? I'd love to know myself!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, crafty friends from around the world. I don't know about you, but now that it's officially summer, I suddenly feel in the mood for something really creative. So the good news is that there were some really lovely projects from last week's party to get those creative juices flowing, and I'm going to share them with you right now!

I just love these simple fabric embellishments  which look great on canvas shoes, from between the lines, and Suzonne over at urban comfort decoupaged with eyelet fabric to make these gorgeous containers, a brilliant idea I think!

Lilla A. has totally inspired me with her bleach painted t-shirts, as has Sandy over at Sandy's Creations with this adorable little cardboard truck treat box.

Oh wow, a patchy felt i-pad cover, just plain gorgeous, from my poppet. And did you know that you can make your own glitter crayons, thanks to a tutorail from mini eco.

Red Ted Art did a great job with these adorable city prints and I just love this plastic cup dragon from a new contributor who I hope we'll see more of, jelly fish jelly.

And since many of us love green things that grow, isn't this little garden from nurture store just adorable?and Carolyn's homework greenhouses made from recycled plastic are functional and great looking! That's all for now, see you back here next week!

Decorating Challah For Special Occasions

Want to add an extra special touch to your next festive meal? How about decorating your challahs, or challah rolls with cookie cutter shapes? It's really so much fun (and something the kids would love to help with) and your guests will certainly be surprised as this isn't something one often sees (is it?) I snuck in a little extra time to decorate these challahs for Shavuous, and thought I'd share the idea with you, since you can certainly use it anytime.

And as you may know, the challahs that we eat at our shabbat and holiday tables are in fact the most important part of the meal, so spending a little extra time to bake them yourself (here's my favorite recipe) and even decorate them is truly worthwhile!  Your creative touch will make your guests and family feel truly special, and I figure if I'm gonna be in the kitchen why not use my creativity there too? 

 

For these challah decorations I tried to roll out the dough as thin as possible, and I used 3 different flower shaped cookie cutters, and a heart shaped cookie cutter for some of the leaves. I cut the heart shape in half to make a leaf, and added the veins with a knife. I made the little dots with a skewer, and added some little balls here and there. While I made these with the same dough as the challah, it just occurred to me that if one wants to do this with really professional results, it would pay to make a small amount of dough without any yeast, such that the designs will rise less and retain their details more. (When I try this I'll let you know if my reasoning is sound!)  Enjoy!

 

Empire State Building King Kong Birthday Cake Made Simple

I love birthday cakes that are simple and cute, and make a festive statement but don't require a huge time investment. (And that use crafting supplies that I'm comfortable with, like paper and markers, as opposed to fondant and sugar!) This year I'm going with my idea of a themed birthday cake achieved by decorating the cake with hand drawn paper cut outs. So far this idea seems to be working! Last month I made my son a castle themed lochness monster birthday cake which was a hit, and last week, just back from New York I decided to go with an Empire State Building King Kong themed birthday cake, since we had just visited the historic site and met a King Kong costumed someone. Everyone loved it, though the birthday boy wanted to know why the King Kong wasn't made out of chocolate, hmmmmm......I calmly explained to him that chocolate figurines are beyond my crafting expertise and even drawing the empire state building with all those windows was a labor of love! In the end he was all smiles and loved my suggestion of creating some wall art for his room using the decorations. I'll keep you posted on that one!

Birthday Card Craft For Kids

Home made birthday cards were always on the agenda growing up, and even today I just couldn't bring myself to buy a card when I could make one! So I'm happy to report that my three little ones are carrying on the tradition and are always ready and willing to spend some time making a home made birthday card for someone they love. Last week, a little bleary eyed from our trip back across the atlantic and then some, we had to whip up a birthday for my six year old, so I decided to give my 7 and 8 year olds a little hand in the card making department, and I just love the results.

Another Look At Pipe Cleaner Flowers

In my last post I labeled these simple pipe cleaner flowers (made with a crafting pipe cleaner called "chenille sticks with bumps") as being a project for kids, but now that I've placed my sweet bouquet in this little quirky shoe vase, well I think they're a great summer centerpiece and fun for any age. Love their simplicity and the fact that these pipe cleaner flowers look like doodles! And if you don't have a boot shaped vase, well a teapot would look great too! In fact how about a bunch of teapots?

And as you can see, they work really well with a pom pom bouquet, which by the way is a great thing to have on hand to add a festive feeling to your home when the need arises, (like right now, as the holiday of Shavuos is tonight!) I could imagine bouquets like these looking great at an outdoor summer birthday party or even as casual decor to welcome guests in your guest room. 

Wishing you all a fabulous and joyful holiday of Shavuos! When by the way, the Torah will be given for the 3,324th time! Here in Israel (as opposed to everywhere else, where the holiday is two days) the holiday is just one day, which means less cheesecake for us but one less day away from my lovely readers. All the very best!

 This post was linked to Donna's party over at funky junk interiors

Super Simple Pipe Cleaner Flower Bouquet For Kids

Pipe cleaner flower bouquets are sweet and simple enough for the kids to make and a perfect last minute project just before Shavuos! I have to spill the beans on this one though, these pipe cleaner flowers were not made with ordinary pipe cleaners but rather with something called "chenille sticks with bumps", which are long pipe cleaners with bulges. The bulged section is twisted to become one petal and one simply twists petals down the length of the pipe cleaner to form the flower. And while I used half of a chenille stick as the stem, I'd say go with ordinary green pipe cleaners for that. And of course these little flowers would look sweet with a button glued to the center and would be great napkin rings or even hair accessories for any summer party.