creative jewish mom

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was once again filled with so many wonderful crafting ideas, I just don't know where to start! Sea shells, crochet, fimo, sidewalk chalk.......The bottom line is, that I'm so grateful to have the opportunity and the knowledge and the ability to help enhance the lives of my readers, friends and family (and myself of course!) with creativity! Thanks for joining me here as we spread the word around the world, that creativity is something that we should nurture in ourselves and in those around us! Speaking of creativity, here are my picks from last week's party:

Just love this little crocheted cat from haakensmaak, and the colors in this striped I Pad cover from Lanas and Hilos. 

Red Ted art has a great tutorial showing how to make this precious little fimo teddy bear, and Best Toys For Toddler has reminded me of the really worthwhile butterfly project organzied by the Houston Holocaust museum. I love theirs! Entries due by December 2012, so I hope we will still have the chance to send in some of our own creations too!

Nothing says summer quite like sea shells, and I love these star fish by Carolyn's Homework and this clam shell wreath by Craftiments.

Here's two brilliant re-sue projects, jewelry from toddler dominos by Mich in L.A. and a fabulous pineapple from a plastic bottle by jelly fish jelly.

Learn how to make these wonderful stars with sidewalk chalk from 10 Little Lucky, and this sweet crocheted granny top summer dress also from lanas en hilos. That's all for now, what's been happening at your house?

In My Neighbor's Container Garden

I'm happy to say that I have been blessed with a wonderful neighbor who loves container gardening as much as I do, and is a great inspiration to me as far as trying new things to her garden and surrounding herself with blooming flowers! 

The white trailing flowers above are called Verbena, the common name being trailing vervain. They come in many colors and are certainly something to try in your container garden. They produce profuse flowers over an exceptionally long season, and are ideal in containers or trailing over stones and rock walls. Sounds lovely to me! The orange flower on the right is called Ganzania, the other one I don't recognize.

 A blooming Portulaca succulent fills a corner nicely. This is a great plant by the way, though it's an annual for those who live in areas where it freezes. Nonetheless, give it a try and look for the plants with blooms in several colors on one plant, stunning! It can be used as a ground cover or in pots.

Sweet small blooms on her courtyard table.....this is Calibrachoa, trailing mini petunia, that is called a delicate perennial.....so it depends on where you live. I have to be honest, I haven't had such great luck with this one, but as you can see my neighbor has a special touch.

And not only does my dear neighbor have a special touch with flowers, like me she is also bothered by the look of her air conditioner at her back door, so she covered it with bamboo fencing, a nice alternative to looking at a huge eyesore!

And here at the entrance to her home, in a built in planter, Hedenbergia at the top (per my recommendation, and hers is growing like wild fire, since I gather it loves the size of her planter versus my not so large pot....) mixed with Geranium, fragrant Alyssium with the tiny white blooms, purple heart, and some more Calibrachoa. There's no end to the wonderful things one can do with plants!

Simple Filet Crochet Starburst Square Pattern

Here's a super simple yet quite lovely fillet crochet/granny square star burst, with just enough detail to make it interesting, yet simple enough for crocheters of any level to pull off. And, since there are no color changes that means a lot fewer ends to weave in!

I was inspired by the gorgeous blanket I saw here, which was purchased as a kit from a Danish yarn company Yarn Freak. I am so grateful to them for their amazingly gorgeous yet simple idea, and for the inspiration to finally make that crocheted blanket I've been dreaming of, but just couldn't decide which pattern to go with! And the fun part is that the squares are attached by crocheting them together, first with a row of single crochet and then a raised row of double crochet, simple and really unique!

Simple Filet Crochet Starburst Blanket In The Works!

Yes, at long last a crocheted patchwork blanket is in the works— with a simple yet lovely filet crochet square that's a breeze to whip up! Summer is here and a take along crochet project is the perfect answer to fulfilling those needs to create! There usually are so many little pockets of time when one could pull out a little project to work on, and so my friends that is exactly how all of these squares were created!

Gotta run to visit a bunch of factories to pick out doors and stone and beautiful hand blown glass for an interior design project that has been keeping me busy night and day, so I'll be back later with the source for this square and the pattern that I wrote myself based on looking at a photograph. See ya later! 

You can now find the pattern for this square here. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions!

Melted Crayon On Wood Craft

Here's a great little craft activity for the whole family (excluding toddlers) — drawing with crayons on hot wood! While this craft does require caution due to the very hot wood, it is just so completely satisfying to draw with crayons that melt as you apply them to your hot surface. I got this idea from the wonderful website The Artful Parent here, and I can't wait to try it out with my kids!

You'll Need:

• wood or mdf items
• an oven
• crayons

How To:

Set the oven to say 350F or 200C,  place your wood items in the oven until they're good and hot. Mdf will not burn quickly, but wood will (I speak from experience, whoops!) so do watch your pieces. Remove from oven and place on towel or a metal tray. Without touching the wood item draw with your crayons. You can layer colors, but once it's drawn that's it, so you may want to experiment on a scrap piece. I would also recommend experimenting with the crayons to see which colors, and even brands produce the best results. 

And by the way, I made this mdf chamsa one night around midnight, and I have to say, my husband was quite purplexed as he walked in the door to find the oven on and me drawing with crayons. "But what is it supposed to be?" he asked. I just had to laugh as I blurted out "art!" So don't hesistate to try this project yourself late at night, but if you get caught in action, make sure you have a good explanation!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Summer is in full swing and it's time to bring more creativity into our lives! Some of the projects from last week were just fabulous, so here's a great place to load up on the inspiration via talented crafters from around the world. Here a just some of my favorites:

This shrink plastic centerpiece from silly pearl is so much fun and so very original! And I just love this puffin applique with fabric paint shirt from time to craft. Another reason to get sewing! 

 This photo in a bottle from craftiments is perfect for summer, and I just love this fantastic scrappy layout from Sandy's space.

Rita over at design megillah is at it again with a great idea to make knobs using fun buttons, and mod podge rocks shared this great fabric covered book project.

 

Se7en always bowls me over with their creativity, and I just love this fabric collage barnyard animals project. Linda over at mermaid's creations shared this great little fire engine craft, love that tongue depressor ladder! 

The party just wouldn't be complete without jsut a little bit of crocheting, and this granny hat with a flower from arte en hilo is so simple to make and so sweet! Make a bunch this summer to have on hand for gifts year round! And last but not least, here's a great way to add a little twinkle to your life this summer— make a string of paper parousol lights from jelly fish jelly, to enjoy indoors or out, would be fun for a Succah too! That's all for now, looking forward to seeing what you've been up to this week!

Building Drawing Confidence In Kids Bootcamp

Drawing is one of those things that I wish I had spent more time doing as a kid. Why didn't my mother encourage me to draw more? Well, she knows just about everything, but didn't realize how truly important drawing skills can be, and that when we nurture drawing confidence in a child, those skills can certainly be helpful in so many ways as as adult! 

So that said, I've been recently pondering how to help my two young sons make drawing a greater part of their life. They almost never draw in school, it's all coloring, and so because I never specifically encouraged drawing at home, well, sadly enough their skills are quite lacking given their ages and that they are being raised in a creative environment. Depressing really! So, it finally occurred to me, that since I believe that basic drawing skills are so very important, I need to do something about it. And the best way to start is to simply start drawing, and getting comfortable with the fact that everything we draw doesn't have to be perfect! 

So I've started a "building drawing confidence bootcamp" with my kids. This simply entails sitting down together almost everyday with paper and crayons or pens and drawing something together. This is done for a minimum of ten to fifteen minutes before I let them run out the door. (With the hope that we'll be able to do longer sessions once everyone learns to enjoy drawing.) The drawings shown here were done say on the fourth time we've sat down to draw together, and even the child who was the most resistant initially was even happy to offer suggestions about what we should draw!

Lesson: Fill a piece of paper with a horizontal pattern in two colors. Simple enough right? And yet two of my kids struggled with what to draw, while the one who's more cerebral and less artistic actually had no problem figuring this one out! 

I'll try to post the most successful of our exercises for those who'd like to try this with their kids. I'd say you have nothing to loose and wonderful things to gain!

Oh, and by the way, that's my version on the upper left, but you probably figured that out, right?

Quick Summer Centerpiece With Candles

If you're ever in need of a super quick yet stunning summer centerpiece, you know, one that's a little bit elegant or even dramatic, well here you have it my friends! Of course it does help if you have everything you need on hand, which is one of the pluses of being a pack rat stylist like myself!

Mazel tov! Last week a neighbor's son got married, and so we, the neighbors (35 or so families), sponsored one of the sheva brachas, the week of festive meals that takes place after the wedding. As you can well imagine I was called upon to do the centerpieces, the bride's chair (and a Moroccan carrot salad.) No problem really, I already have more than enough vases filled with my giant paper flowers, which have held up fabulously for an entire year, and that together with my footed platter, some decorative fruit, including some of my gilded apples, and a few colored tea light lanterns, enabled me to pull it all off on one of the busiest days of the year! 

You'll Need:

• a footed platter, sort of like a cake stand with a rim, great for so many things!
• an assortment of decorative fruit, including some you've painted and gilded yourself, and a few strands of miniature apples
• colored glass tea light holders
• some ribbon to wrap around the platter, I had already done this for the last occasion

How To:

Without too much thought, just put the tea light holders in the center and place fruit around to fill the empty spaces. Can't get much simpler than that!

And funny enough, when I was thinking of a title for this project, I was thinking of calling it a midsummer's night centerpiece since it does have that sort of Grecian decadence to it. And then I got to thinking, well when is midsummer anyway? And it turns out that midsummer is any day now, as are the celebrations for summer solstice and midsummer night in some of the countries way up north! Enjoy.

Butterfly Kite Kid's Craft With Straws

Here's a great butterfly kite craft for kids, that you might not be able to resist yourself, since the results are just so much fun! Last week I shared with you the kites we made from straws and tissue paper, and we just couldn't stop with classic kite shapes, since there are so many possibilities once you start playing around with the straws! I just love this butterfly, and hope to make some more to hang on a wall in my courtyard garden.

Sweet right? And they're really simple to make. So simple that you could definately make a bunch for some great party decorations this summer!

You'll Need:

• plastic drinking straws, we used neon colored ones
• white glue, we used high tack craft glue which is a bit hard to squeeze out of the bottle for kids, but helps speed the project along
• colored tissue paper
• white string or yarn
• round wooden skewers (or toothpicks will work if that's what you have on hand)
• mod podge or a mixture of white glue and water
• a hot glue gun (for adult assistance)
• scissors

Step 1: Cut pieces of straws and glue them to your tissue paper base to form a butterfly shape.  You can make kites of any size, though for the largest size possible, use complete straws for your outside border and then fill in the inside framework with pieces cut to size as necessary. The horizontal cross bar pieces should be placed in the top third, not centered (as I originally did, as you can see by the glue line in the photo) so that the kite will be properly balanced.

Step 2: After the glue has dried somewhat or better yet, completely (we couldn't wait that long!) cut out your kites by cutting the tissue paper just along the border formed by the straws. To stabilize the kite, run a wooden skewer through the horizontal cross bar straw pieces. Round wooden bamboo bar-b-que skewers are exactly the right size for this project, or possibly just a bit long, so trim the excess with sharp scissors.

Step 3: Apply designs to the front of your kite with mod podge or a mixture of white glue and water, and once dry thread a string through the straws at the top of each wing. Voila, a super fun butterfly kite is born.

To learn how to make the other kites seen in the top photo, see my previous post here, and enjoy!

DIY Concrete Planters In Progress!

Yippee, at long last I've gotten my hands into some concrete and some small DIY concrete planters have been made! Now we just have to wait a days or two, and then peel away the outside containers to reveal the mystery creations.

Of course I'll be more than happy to share the results (and detailed instructions) with you, but in the meantime, do start collecting your recycled containers. As you can see in the photo, to make the mold you need two containers of different sizes but of course they don't have to be the same shape as in the milk carton example. I love the idea of a round bowl with a square opening, for example!

And just for the record, I decided to make these on just about one of the busiest, hottest (100F), sleep deprived days of the year, when the dishes are piled high in the sink and the house looks like it's about to collapse (along with me.....). Why you may ask? Well I happen to be supervising the construction for an interior architecture project I've been working on, and that huge trough of concrete the workers were mixing was just calling my name. I'm sure you understand? The head worker happily delivered a bucket of concrete to my door and I got to work. I will say one thing, it's a very messy project but I'm hoping that when I see the results I'll want to make some more mess like this one, next time with the kids!