creative jewish mom

Cupcake Liner Bunting Banner — Party Decor In A Pinch!

Looking for some sweet decorations in a pinch? Cupcake liner bunting banners, or cupcake liner garlands as you may prefer to call them, are fabulous and so easy to make! While decorating a space for a Purim party a few nights ago I needed to come up with a quick idea to add a little color to some strings that had been installed for me to hang some paper Chinese lanterns. The strings were unfortunately installed quite a bit lower than I had expected, so I could only hang larger items at the corners......fortunately I thought of this cupcake liner garland idea, that I've seen before, and had some polka dot cupcake liners on hand!

You'll Need:

• cupcake liners, with patterns, or go metallic, that could look great too!
• string
• a stapler (for the super quick version) or double sided tape or glue dots

How To:

Fold cupcake liners in half, and make a nice crease with your finger, flattening the liners as much as possible. Place on string and staple, or affix with tape if  you're making this for a child's room and will want to leave it up.

Cupcake liners make great crafting supplies, and I've used them before to make a fun birthday party number wreath, as well as cupcake liner flower carnations and more cupcake liner flowers for a teacher appreciation gift. Enjoy!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! With just one week left until Purim, and a very busy week ahead, I'm running off to work on costumes with my kids, so here are my favorites from last week:

Love this little amigurumi mushroom from little things blogged, and this heart pillow from mon makes things would be so sweet any time, like on my daughter's bed!

Lanas de Ana made this great chunky cowl, and crocheted this amazingly delicate doiley from anna simple crochet!

These crocheted bags from blancouleur are perfect for summer, and love the wavy inserts in this dress from threading my way.

 

Love this striped knit infinity scarf, also from Lanas de Ana, and here's a hamentaschen recipe from the crumb factory that's sure to please the little ones: hamentaschen with brownie filling!

Aduo scriptum made some great fimo earings, which could be perfect for Purim, as are the fun hamentaschen fimo earrings from oy crafts. And speaking of Purim, this lollipop bouquet from crafty journal is perfect, I'm thinking maybe something like this for my daughter's teacher?

Love these repurposed sweater sleave gift packages from organized 31, as well as the toilet paper tube favor boxes from eco thrifty living.

And if you're looking for something to give in your Purim gift packages (mishloach manot) how about home made graham crackers from the first year blog, or carmel popcorn from a creative cookie? That's all for now, what have you been up to?

Crocheted Ruffled Edge Shawl

Here's a super simple crocheted ruffled edge shawl that is the perfect accessory to keep you warm as Spring approaches! Plus, you can whip it up now in just a few days (depending on how obsessed inspired you are and how much sleep you're willing to sacrifice for your obsession  need to create!) and still enjoy it for a few months, before taking it back out in the Fall! 

Embroidery Details Inspired By Blogging Friendships!

Duplicate Stitch Embroidery On Knits.....A LIttle Test Swatch!

I recently finished a knitting project (that I have yet to share with you) and thought I'd add some details to it with duplicate stitch embroidery. (Google it, you'll find lots of tutorials.) I'm not such an adventurous, or advanced knitter that I'd dare try intarsia, or knitting a pattern, so this seemed like a great solution. Just one major problem, as you can see here in my test swatch, it wasn't all that simple to actually duplicate the knit stitch with the embroidery!

Now you might say, " I think it looks fine" on the other hand, my plans were to do quite a bit of this style of embroidery, and the knit project is something like a blanket that will be seen from both sides, as opposed to a sweater. And so now I'm going to do something that I don't usually do here on the blog, and that is to share with you my mess, which in this case is the other side of the swatch:

YIKES! This is most certainly NOT how I'd like the backside of my project to look, so I've decided to embrace the beautiful simplicity of the project and forget about the embroidery all together, thus sparing myself quite a bit of heartache and frustration, as well as time!

Note: While I have yet to figure out why this test was not a success, it could very well be because I was trying this with chunky yarn on a knit that was knit with two strands of the same chunky yarn. The large scale may very well magnify the lack of exactness, and if done with say worsted weight yarn on a worsted weight swatch, things might have gone differently! No regrets, I try it again in the future, as it sure would be nice to be able to add a few initials or a little symbol to a knit project!

Visiting The Jordan River and The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)

The northern tip of The Sea of Galilee, our beloved Kinneret.

First of all, chodesh tov, wishing you all a joyful new month as we welcome the month of Adar, the month on the Jewish calendar that is all about simcha, joy! Yesterday my kids all had a half day of school in honor of Rosh Chodesh, so we took a little trip about thirty minutes from home to see some water! And specifically to see the Jordan river where it empties into the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and to also witness the great fact that after many years of drought, the Kinneret has returned to a normal level, a truly happy situation!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Last week's party was full of love, which is great anytime, even for those of us who don't celebrate holidays that involve hearts! Infact, my kids don't associate red hearts with any particular holiday, so we get to craft with them all year long! Here are some of the crafts from last week's party that especially inspired me: (oh, and the contributors were from The United States, The United Kingdom, Turkey, Hungary, Australia, Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, Jakarta, and South Africa!)

Two great sweater up-cycling projects: a new long sleeved garment using a knit vest that has wonderful details from liesbeth romeijn, and some sweet puffy hearts also using parts of a sweater with great wintery patterns from maker mama.

Love this simple pom pom wreath made on a hanger from pysselbolaget, and this festive dragon craft from craftiments.

Mich in L.A. is up to her fabulous craftiness with these bowling pin vase necklaces! I'm wondering if my kids will notice our bowling pins suddenly disappear? A fun project for Purim! And love this phone book craft from ginx craft, really creative and wonderful!

 Van Anna's hand made this snuggly cowl using a knit stitch that you can learn about from a video she has embedded into her post, and red ted art made these adorable little pipe cleaner pencil toppers, simple and perfect, a great little gift or party favor!

Anna crocheted this sweet book mark and happy in red is back with another fabulous crocheted granny project, this time a granny stripes blanket!

Se7en always delights, and this time they've made some fabulous two sided stick puppets as a three dimensional story telling book report, which would be perfect for Purim!  Speaking of Purim, The crumb factory reminds up that Purim is just around the corner, with this fun hamentaschen craft! That's it for last week's fun, what have you been up to this week?

A Jewish Henna Celebration!

A few nights ago we enjoyed a Jewish henna celebration, in honor of my neighbor's daughter, who will be getting married in a few months. After the young couple is engaged, many families have the custom of making if official with an engagement party, that is thrown by the bride's family. Since my neighbor is of French Algerian descent, they, like most of the Sephardic Jews from North Africa (and the Yemenite Jews as well) have the tradition of honoring the bride with a Henna party, which in this case was done at the end of the engagement party.

In Hebrew, the three letters which spell henna stand for the three mitzvot that an observant married woman takes on, and that are unique to her as a married woman. One of those is lighting two candles just before shabbat, so two lit candles are placed in the bowl of henna, and the lights are turned off as henna is applied to the hand of the bride and then the guests.

Off course, this is proceeded by special music and dancing and a ritual in which the bride receives jewelry from the family of her groom. There is great excitement and festivity and platters of cakes (wrapped in cellophane usually) are waved above the bride's head and giver's of gifts also dance around with the gifts.

At the end, henna is placed on the palm of the bride and the guests, in some cases it is nicely wrapped with a little cloth and ribbon so as not to make a mess, but here it was done simply. The henna is left on the hand long enough to leave a mark, as a reminder of the special meaning of the things the bride will do once she is married. Lots of fun was had by all, and my seven year old slept until two in the afternoon the next day. Quite likely from all the beautiful French tarts that he gobbled up, more on that later!

That's all for now, gotta go cook for shabbat! Oh and of course bake my challah. Which reminds me, the letter chet, which is the first letter in henna (which is really spelled chenna) stands for challah, one of the precious mitzvot unique to the Jewish woman. Not to mention the amazing smell that fills the house... that's all for now!

Have any questions? Send me an email at [email protected], and I'll try to answer them!

Crocheted Hearts Wall Hanging On A Limb!

How about making a crocheted hearts wall hanging to remind someone that you love them? I made this crocheted hearts and leaves wall hanging using a real branch, to hang over my daughter's bed. Our drill is broken, so the wall hanging has been hanging out in the hall outside her bedroom, for the whole family to enjoy! Ahem.

Baking With Kids: Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Last Friday afternoon my daughter baked her first batch of cookies— chocolate crackle cookies! The recipe was quite simple to make and the results were delicious. We did leave them in the oven a bit too long, (on account of my inexperience with baking cookies) so they were a bit harder crispier than they should have been, but that didn't keep them from getting eaten up! 

These would be a perfect little treat for kids to bake and give to friends on Purim! Wrap a few together in cellophane and tie with a ribbon, and place in your homemade gift boxes from recycled materials, like the oatmeal can packages we've made this year. 

Ingredients: (we made a double batch, resulting in a nice amount of cookies......)

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1 teaspoon rum flavoring
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder (3/4 envelope, for Israelis)
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200c, or 375F
2. Combine eggs, sugar, oil and rum and whip for at least 5 minutes.
3. Add flour, baking powder and mix for another 5 minutes.
4. Add the cocoa and mix until dough forms. (can refrigerate at this point if desired)
5. With damp hands, form small walnut sized balls of dough. 
6. Dip ball in powdered sugar, (or skip this step and sprinkle with powdered sugar after baking which is what we did, as you can see. Though effect of cracks in cookies is much better if you dip balls in powdered sugar, will try that next time!)
7. Place on cookie sheet lined with baking paper.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Don't worry if not all the cookies crack, more important to watch the baking time!

Note: If using a mixer isn't kid friendly enough, try whipping the eggs and sugar together with a soup wand (a great kitchen tool for so many things!) or alternatively in a blender, which is what we did!

Enjoy! I can see that this is just the first of many more home baked goods on our horizon, now that my daughter is on the scene, and her little brothers are urging her on!