creative jewish mom

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was a little bigger than usual and chock full of great projects, thanks so much to you all! And as you know, crafting is a great way for kids of all ages to use extra summer time productively. It certainly helps to have a few projects up your sleeve, which you can of course find here. So get crafting and enjoy!

Isn't this quilled paper version of Van Gough's Starry Night from Suzy's Craftsy Sitcom just amazing? It's one of my favorite paintings and just thought I'd add that you can see the real thing at MOMA in Manhattan. Thanks Suzy, you win a big prize for most versatile crafter!

Have some alka seltzer on hand to make this fun lava lamp project from come together kids, and folded paper projects are great for teens, like this lovely kusudama project from Elyda origami.

I just love this US map applique wall hanging from see kate sew, and this cardboard tube lion from world of mex is just the cutest.

Se7en is back with another fabulous idea, DIY photo booth props, a great idea for a kid's party or anytime as a fun family activity. And these gorgeous salt play dough sparkly rocks are a fun project for little ones, from nurture store, complete with the recipe!

These balloon flip flops from run with glitter are the perfect summer project with such fun results, and I just love funki time's version of the drink charm, using tickets and clothespins! That's all for now, hope that inspires you for the week! 

 

Paper Plate Flowers

Flowers from paper plates? Well why not, right? And very often one has a few plates left over which is the perfect excuse to make some festive flowers.....great for a birthday party or outdoor entertaining, or a fun gift topper.

As you can imagine, it's possible to use a paper plate in many ways, three of which I've photographed for you here. The large flower on the right is made using the entire plate, which was cut using the spiral diagram (as with felt flowers) here.The rose on the bottom left was made using just the center portion of two plates, which where cut as spirals and then given a slightly wavy edge, as seen in the photo below. The fringed flower was made using one of the left over rims from the rose on the left. Got it?

The roses were made by first coiling the whole piece to soften it up a bit and then unrolling and starting from the skinny tail one rolls and glues. The smaller rose on the left was made by using one of the spirals for the center, and then simply continuing on wrapping with the second piece. Because the cardboard is a bit hard to work with, you may also want to consider gluing your flowers onto a round base rather than onto themselves as you roll. If you give it a try, you'll see what I mean and what works for you. Just be careful not to burn yourself with the hot glue!

Okay, gotta run, I've got so many things to make today for my daughter's ninth birthday, and of course I'll be sure to share them with you next week, so do stop by for a visit!

Kid's Craft: Jars Decoupaged With Printed Tissue Paper

Aren't these recycled coffee jar vases sweet? (Snowflake and all in the middle of summer?) And they look so great holding wild flowers, cuttings from the garden that you're rooting, or even candles of course. We made these recycled jar vases using the tissue paper that we printed on last week, here, and some mod podge. If you make something really precious, do use a glue that holds up under exposure to water, namely something like Paverpol (which is actually a fabric stiffener but is good for all decoupage applications) or possibly mod podge outdoor, which given the name sounds like it's more water friendly.

You'll Need:

• tissue paper that you've printed or painted on yourself, tutorial here
• recycled jars
• decoupage medium, like white glue, mod podge or possibly something water resistant like Paverpol
• paint brushes

How To: Clean and dry jars. Work in small areas brushing glue onto jar and applying pieces of tissue paper. In some cases, as with a light color you may want to do several layers, which we did with the white polka dotted jar. Set aside to dry, and enjoy on your table!

And by the way, here's a little tip for how to get your kid's projects to look good on your dining room table—place them on trays! I really think one can never have too many trays, so stock up on them when you see a good deal! 

 

Draw Simple Patterns On Painted Bottles

Here's a super simple way to turn painted wine bottle vases (namely the ones I wrote about here) into something a little more bold and decorative. With just a permanent black marker, we had fun applying designs and illustrations to our painted bottles. And the results really are so much fun, and perfect for a casual summer party, or even something more sophisticated if you spend the time to draw with precision.

Have a favorite geometric pattern that you'd like to see in your home? Apply it to a bottle and enjoy! So much easier than covering a wall with something that you may just tire of sooner rather than later!

And it's always a great creative exercise to get kids (and yourself) to draw on something three-dimensional! So paint some bottles white, or any light color, and enjoy using them as canvases for some original art!

Summer Craft: Wine Cork Boats

I've had the idea of making wine cork boats on my mind for quite a while, and at long last we had a few minutes to pull out that bag of recycled wine corks, and make some little boats to try out in our wading pool. After my boys saw how successful these boats were, and that the wind even carried my little sailboat version across the pool, I think we'll be making some more soon! Next time we'll plan ahead and use silicone as our adhesive, as the hot glue did not hold up after prolonged exposure to the water. However, with hot glue there's instant gratification, so take that into consideration, or use wire or string to bind your creations together!  And for another blogger's adorable take on this project, complete with a cord for not loosing the little boats in the stream, check out the post, here.

You'll Need:

• recycled wine corks
• tongue depressors/popsicle sticks
• small pieces of wood
• skewers or some odds and ends from a pick-up sticks game
• craft foam
• hot glue or preferable silicone, though you'll have to allow a least a day for the silicone to harden

How To: Kind of self explanatory right? Glue everything together. Stick the skewer into the wine cork for the mast. Draw some sail/flag shapes on craft foam and cut them out. Find the nearest body of water and enjoy. Ahhhhhhh. Just looking at these photos is refreshing!

 

 

Welcome To Craft schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was full of wonderful projects that I'm so happy to be able to share with you here. A really nice range with something for just about everyone, you know the crafty female everyone? I tried to leave comments on the posts of all those who contributed, but blogger was giving me problems, so if you didn't get a comment from me, thanks so much for sharing here, I really appreciate it!

As far as how we're doing with our "around the world" status, well let's see, there were contributors from Canada, the United States, India, Germany, Poland, France, the UK, Slovenia, Turkey, and The Netherlands. I'd say we're spanning the globe, which makes this party even more fun! And now, for my favorites from last week:

This project just makes me so happy that I just had to give it the full column width, well deserving don't you think? I mean really, does it get much cuter than a vintage suitcase birthday picnic basket? Brought to us by fun.kyti.me, from Canada.

And since we started the party with something so sweet, I figured I'd just continue the trend with some crafts involving sugar! Fortunately only one of them is edible, and probably a bit too much trouble for most of us, but great nonetheless. On the left, Carolyn of Carolyn's Homework made these lovely containers to hold sugar scrub, (don't worry, I never heard of it either!) and on the right sew can do gives a nice tutorial and instructions for making these jelly gum drops. Sugared out? Not to worry, we've got some more sweet, but no more sugar, I'm trying to give it up anyway.

 

I just love this summer clutch remake from scissors and spatulas, who covered the old clutch in her fabric of choice and went to town with a fabric flower embellishment, perfect! And this quilt from between the lines? Well I must be honest, I'm totally in love with it, love the colors and the simplicity, and it's so perfect against the sand! A first quilt project for someone like me, yes, here I come, oh whoops, first need a sewing machine in working order......

The fabulous Aunt Peaches is at it again with this paper mache combo vase made from a few recycled bottles, and did you ever see such a cute scarf, from fakin it? This is just about the simplest little gift one could make, so why not get started now and make some for the whole neighborhood?

Here are two great magnet projects that could go either way as fas as being for kids or adults. Just love the dragonfly magnets from time to craft, and these lovely scrapbook paper magnets from creative dish are a great way to use up those promotional magnets that you've been saving, you have been saving them right?

And here's another little beautiful crafter who lives in India and who seems to love the fact that her mother keeps her very busy with crafts! She completed this sweet foam tray embroidery after a series of embroidery projects that you can (and should) check out on Putti Prapancha. I'm so very happy when I get to feature a craft project that's boy friendly, and this one is truly a winner! Ever thought of making a staircase car garage with manilla folders? Well, quirky mama did and fortunately dropped by to share it with us! Inspired, running off to make something? Good, that's the point! 

Simple DIY Plant Plates

Here's a fun little scenario with a red impatiens plant and a little crafty doodled-on plate that's making me very happy right now, and it all happened quite by accident. Of course it's no accident that I saved this chipped plate to use under plants, just when I doodled the red design on the plate with a paint marker and baked it in the oven to see if that would help it be more permanent, (It helped a bit, but not entirely) well, I didn't have in mind pairing it with this plant. 

I was cleaning up for Shabbos and wondering around with this plate in hand trying to find a place for it, when quite by accident I placed it under this little pot and voila, a great combination was born! So my friends, do save chipped plates to use under plants, and do apply some simple designs to them with permanent markers or paint pens, or if you want to go the whole route, you can do something really permanent with Pebeo pens. There really isn't anything much simpler that can give you so much visual pleasure and add a little personal touch to your container garden! And you can trust me by now, right?

 

Kid's Summer Craft: Mini Clothesline Note Holder

Here's a fun kid's craft that's perfect for summer camp, or done as a group project. And by simply using a different shaped frame, one can certainly do this with boys as well. Or how about making a frame out of twigs lashed together? That could be really fun, or make the project more beach oriented by stringing shells together with bead.......so many ways to take this project and make it your own!

You'll Need:

• cardboard frame
• fishing line
• beads
• paint and glitter glue
• tape
• mini wooden clothes pins
• ribbon for hanging

How To:

Paint the frame and set aside to dry. String beads on fish line, and tape fishing line to back of frame. Add some mini clothes pins and a ribbon for hanging, and voila! Use it to write sweet notes to loved ones, and in this case notes written on scalloped circles punched from colored paper are just perfect!

Summer Crafts: Printing On Tissue Paper

I love tissue paper, and realized this morning that it would be great to print on, namely really for the kids to print on, as a nice little crafty activity. Afterwards of course, the tissue paper can be used for a myriad of craft projects or even as beautiful wrapping paper. I am aware that there are those who have already started to think about holiday gift giving, which is a good idea if you want to go the handmade route, so some beautiful tissue paper to cradle your gifts is certainly in order! And why not get started on that now too? Just a thought, though that's not what I had in mind for this beautiful tissue paper. (Results to come, hopefully!)

For the polka dots we used dot paints, and for the top version we used some foam stamps and acrylic paint. I have to say, my nine year old daughter didn't love the printing, but my six year old did, so you'll have to play it by ear, and possibly finish some of the task yourself, lucky you!

 

Child's First Oil Painting - The Rolling Hills Of Jerusalem

Today is the 17th of the Jewish month of Tammuz, and we are thinking about Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, our Holy City, whose ancient walls were breached on this day many many years ago. And yet, we remember this day each and every year, and I thought it was so very appropriate that my almost nine year old daughter's first oil painting, (a value study) that she brought home this week, reminds me so very much of the lovely rolling hills of Jerusalem!

While oil painting isn't generally taught to children of this age, my daughter's teacher realized that she is able to understand some of the painting theory (yippee!) that one needs to paint with oil, and so here we go!

I never studied painting (yet), so I'm excited that my daughter has the chance and seems to be loving it so far. Of course if she didn't love it, that would be fine too, the main thing is to present our children with the opportunity to develop skills and find activities that bring them joy. And then we're one step closer to helping our children lead balanced lives, and at the end of the day, balance really is the key to everything, right?