creative jewish mom

On My Hook: A Cotton Crocheted Scarf In Progress!

Ever see a crochet pattern that you just love, and are driven to almost blindly picking up that hook and getting to work? That is how I felt when I saw the fabulous triangular scarf that Anna (from Portugal) shared, and I featured on Craft Schooling Sunday. Anna provided a simple diagram to get started and has now added a second one to show how to do the decreases, thanks Anna!

Oh, and of course I happened to have a bunch of skeins of light weight mercerized cotton on hand, perfect for creating a summer scarf that some of us might need for cool evenings.......

Anna made her scarf in one solid color, but since I only have one skein per color of this cotton yarn on hand, I decided to have a bit of fun and do some color blocking. The area of the color blocking is determined by how much I can crochet with a 50g skein, and I'm now officially half way through the scarf!

I don't think I've ever made anything with a 3.5mm hook as I always go for projects that are on the quicker side, but in this case, given the yarn weight, and the fact that it's a summer scarf, well I just didn't have a choice! I'll be back to share the finished results, hopefully after the piles of laundry have been tended to, the graphic design assignments have been completed, the request for some custom mezuzahs (five!) has been fulfilled, and well I could go on!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Fantastic knit vintage car by Ginx craft, (UK) and brilliant graduation cap party favors made with candy from organized 31 (USA).

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, the crafty inspirational linky party with contributors from literally around the world! Last week's party was stuffed with fabulous inspiration, thanks to some talented women out there! And now for the features, one of which I already have on my crochet needle, can you guess which one, I'll share the beginnings with you tomorrow!

 

Adore these succulent containers made from recycled cans by homemade interest.(USA)

How about a mason jar garden, from bugaboo mini me, (USA) or if you're lucky enough to have blooms in your garden, why not use them to make instant place cards, from spoonful of crafts. (Denmark)

 

An oh so creative dragon fly necklace from mich in LA, (USA) and just love love love these crocheted glass bottles, which look great outdoors this summer, from Chris in de haak. (The Netherlands)

A simple paper flower that looks amazing from howling at the moon, (The Netherlands) and some super cute welcome treats for out of town guests from organized 31 (USA).

Filet crochet tutorial from mara haakt (The Netherlands), and a fun circles bookmark project from art club blog   (USA).

Fantastic scarf, which basic diagram from Anna simple crochet (Portugal), and gorgeous mandalas from milena's place (Bulgaria)

Another creative and unique crocheted granny cowl from homemade at my place (Indonesia) and love this sweet crocheted dress from steek vor steek (The Netherlands)

A simply lovely baby blanket from lacy crochet (USA) and a fantastic stitch from Teszek Veszek (Hungary)

Super cute crocheted ice cream cones, with pattern from Oomanoot (Israel) and an amazing looking ricotta cheese cake from Winnie (Israel) That is it for the features, what have you been up to?

Rainbow Loom Pencil Toppers: Koala Bear, Angry Bird, Puppy & Owl!

Here at creativejewishmom.com headquarters we just love the rainbow loom and all amazing things one can make. My daughter made these adorable pencil toppers (using tutorials that we found on You Tube,) as a birthday present for her younger brother, and they were a great hit!

Between you and me, my kids don't generally have any connection with my computer except looking at family photos and home movies, but I've made an exception with my daughter as without the You Tube videos she would be very limited as far as using the Rainbow Loom. No books around here and some of the most interesting stuff, namely little creatures can probably only be found on You Tube.

I think my favorite one of all is the little purple koala bear pencil hugger, and it's one of the quicker projects, taking say around 20 minutes as opposed to some which can take an hour due to their intricacy. Hope you're inspired to take your rainbow loom creations beyond bracelets!

Dancing Numbers Birthday Card Craft For Kids

Here's another cute and simple homemade birthday card (the ONLY way to go!) craft idea for kids — dancing numbers! I came up with this one last week for my very unenthused (sigh) when it comes to crafting 10 year old, and he ended up taking the paper with him to make the card in school. That together with the number nine I drew for him to use as a stencil to trace around, as his doubts about actually making the numbers almost kept him from making this adorable card!

Bunch Of Balloons Birthday Card Craft For Kids

Isn't this bunch of balloons birthday card just the cutest? Best of all, my 11 year old daughter made it for her brother, thus keeping up my family tradition of making birthday cards. I'll admit I did give her the idea of making a bunch of balloons, and adding actual strings, but that was my only input, and the results are just as cute as can be!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! I hope those who celebrated Shavuot had a wonderful holiday! Last week's contributors were from all kinds of places, spanning the globe! The United States, Guatemala, Portugal, The UK, The Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Indonesia, and Australia! (Hope I didn't miss anyone.) I don't know about you, but I'm ready from some great inspiration to get those those gears turning. And lucky for all of us, here are the fabulous features from last week's party:

A fun colored clothespin mirror from Aunt Peaches (USA), and a woven mat made from freshly cut bamboo (the neighbors planted a bamboo "fence" and of course bamboo travels....) from Helen Clyde (Germany).

A fabulous reversible tote pattern from happy in red (The Netherlands) and a baby/doll log cabin quilt pattern from threading my way (Australia)

Love this bolero and sandals to match a sweet dress from Lanas de Ana (Guatemala), and this super cheerful crocheted baby blanket from my world of colours (Germany).

Crocheted granny in the round stool covers from my home is my castle (Sweden) and gorgous crocheted gerbera flowers from the little treasures (Macedonia)

Crocheted mandalas, on the left from my world of colours, and on the right from Milena's place (Bulgaria)

A wonderful crocheted belt from homemade at my place (Indonesia) and a great way to practice tapestry crochet, from howling at the moon (the Netherlands).

A loopy garland craft from estrea chikitu (the Netherlands) and coiled wire charms from Jewelry making journal (USA)

A felt scraps ornament from Audrey B. (the Netherlands) and DIY glitter "calm down" bottles from there's just one mommy (USA). that's it for the features, what have you been up to?

An InLinkz Link-up

Bear Birthday Cake — Cute And Simple, For Those Who'd Rather Be Crafting!

My baby turned nine last week, which is still young enough I think to get away with making a cute little teddy bear birthday cake —namely the kind of cake for those of us who don't have the skills or desire for piped icing and hours spent in the kitchen when we'd rather be making presents and decorations for the occasion! Are you with me?

This bear birthday cake will put a smile on your little one's face just as much as a complicated fondant covered cake that could take hours and hours, and very likely tastes much better! Would I love to be able to make some of those complicated cakes? Well, maybe for a grown up party it might be fun, but I think all that effort is generally lost on kids...so take my advice and go for simple and cute!

You'll Need:

• a bear cake pan
• a large tray
• basic chocolate cake recipe
• non dairy whip icing, or the icing of your choice
• licorice or sour sticks, ribbon candy (not sure what it is called, but the candy that I used for the shirt placket and collar), round m&M type candies
• larger flat hard candies to use for eyes, or in my case rounds of bread
• sprinkles
• skewers
• balloons
• colored paper stock

How To:

Bake your chocolate cake ahead of time and defrost on the day of the party. Make icing and add details with sour sticks, and other candy. To join the sour sticks to form a circle, cut the ends on a diagonal and use a little water to stick them together. Carefully fill in circles, nose and ear areas with sprinkles. Make a crown and grass with colored card stock, make a little flag on a skewer and balloons on skewers.

Now get to work making tons of colorful paper garlands, homemade cards and even some little gifts, which I"ll share with you soon! The cake will get eaten, but the cards and gifts will be around for awhile!

 

Rolled Felt Loopy (And Not So Loopy) Flowers Mirror Craft For Kids

This week at Crafting A Future, while some of the girls used their egg carton flowers to decorate mirrors, others ditched the egg carton flowers alltogether and made these sweet rolled felt flowers to decorate their mirrors. This would be a perfect little project for a Bat Mitzvah, or a birthday party, and hey even boys could have fun making something for their mother or sister?

Egg Carton Flower Bouquet Craft For Kids

How about getting the kids busy making a simply sweet egg carton flower bouquet, just in time for Shavuot, or some other festive occasion? Egg carton flowers are so fun to make, and even if a child only has the patience to make a few, (which was the case here) with some skewers and craft foam, or felt, one can turn those flowers into something fabulous! (Of course older or more adventurous kids can make much larger and more intricate egg carton flowers as I shared with you last week, here)

You'll Need:

• egg cartons
• paint
• skewers
• green craft foam
• green felt
• a plastic container with a lid, this one held peanut butter
• some pretty fabric and a ribbon

How To:

1. Egg carton flowers are made by cutting about the compartments of egg cartons and then using those to make flower shapes of all kinds. The flowers here were three layers, with the inner two layers made of the square bottom portion of the egg carton compartment.
2. After flowers are painted and assembled, or assembled and painted, and set aside to dry, stick a skewer up the center of the flower and add a dab of glue to strengthen.
3. Cover the stem of the flowers by wrapping a thin strip of green felt around them.
4. Cut lots and lots of leaves from green craft foam, and using a hot glue gun manned by an adult, affix the leaves in a circular pattern to the base of the egg carton flower. You made need in some cases to affix leaf to both the flower and the skewer.
5. Put a piece of styrofoam into your chosen container, and stick skewers into foam and affix with more hot glue or tape.
6. Cover outside of container with a strip of fabric, affixed most easily with hot glue, and tie a pretty ribbon around the container.
7. Cover the opening of the container with lots of green craft foam leaves, and voila!