creative jewish mom

Stuffed Paper Apples Craft For Kids

I just love this stuffed paper apple craft with stamped images, a reader's verions of my stuffed polka dot apple craft that I shared with you all last week!

The story goes like this. Today I received a wonderful email from a reader, Katherine Herrera of Fairfax Virginia, who informed me that their family had a "very creativejewishmom Rosh HaShana", complete with photos to prove the point! Of course I am always thrilled to hear from readers, but even more thrilled to see photos of their version of my craft!

I just love the idea of using rubber stamped images on the stuffed paper apples, truly fabulous! So thanks so very much to Katherine for sharing their project with me, and for allowing me to share it with you!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, and wishing you all a shanah tovah, a new year filled with goodness!  I'm certainly looking forward to another great year of hosting this international and very crafty get together! And now, for the fabulous features from last week's party:

Rag rosette bracelets from artistic endeavors are fabulous and original!

Love this drift wood frame from my home is my castle and these stuffed velvet pumpkins from Anne's Attic.

The little treasures assembled these fabulous lacy flowers from odds and ends of her crochet endeavors, and happy in red shares the pattern for this great looking crocheted bobble cowl.

My world of crochet was very busy making all these adorable butterfly crocheted key chains, and I especially love those crocheted fruit slices!

 

Howling at the moon made some great embellishments on her daughter's pink jean jacket, and joy jonne crocheted these adorable little owls!

Love this simple yet lovely crocheted blanket from haak en maak, and this wonderful crocheted jar topper from Anna simple crochet.

Homemade at my place shares a pattern for making a rectangular granny "square", and howling at the moon crocheted this bolster pillow as a reflection of her love for all things "Ibiza style".

 Threading my way sewed this great scooter bag and aisling beatha has a tutorial for drawing celtic knots.

Fall leaf rubbings are made into a garland by treading on lego, and duck tape is made into a pirates hat and mask by the gingerbread house.

That is is for the features, what have you been up to?

When The Dining Room Table Becomes A Ping Pong Table.....

Years ago I remember thinking that playing ping pong using a ping pong net attached to the dining room table was not such a great idea, I mean ping pong should be played on a ping pong table right?

Now quite a few years later when my husband picked up a ping pong net, suddenly playing ping pong on the dining room table seemed like a great idea......after becoming more of a seasoned mother I have realized that healthy and fun activities for the kids are certainly more important than worrying about an old table, or even the walls or furniture. And we're having a great time at it!

This idea also got me thinking about a ping pong themed birthday party, which I ended up pulling off in a day for my now 11 year old. More on that next week!

Recycled Plastic Cup Apples!

 Yippee, I have managed to squeeze out one last recycling craft for you before the end of the Jewish year — introducing recycled plastic cup apples! Maybe just in time to whip up to grace your Rosh HaShana table, or as a fun idea for making succah decorations. These little reycled plastic cup apples don't open, for that idea I'd recommend my recycled soda bottle apple gift boxes.

You'll Need:

• reycled plastic cups with six sides (2 cups per apple) these are mini dessert cups that we used for pudding for a birthday party
• decorative tape
• tissue paper
• colored paper or felt for leaves
• sticks
• a glue gun

How To:

The tops of my cups were scalloped, so I carefully cut off the scalloped edges to form straight edges. Fill one cup with crumpled tissue paper, place the second cup on top of the first, and simply tape together with decorative tape. Affix stem ( a real stick) and paper leaf with hot glue, and voila a super cute eco conscience apple is born! Enjoy!

 

 

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Stuffed Polka Dot Apple Craft For Kids

A polka dot stuffed paper apple is the perfect craft to do with little ones, and children as old as first or second grade can certainly do the whole apple craft themselves, maybe with just a bit of help. Make giant stuffed apples or medium sized ones, the more the better!

Rosh Hashana is approaching quickly, but this craft is a product of a little crafting session that I squeezed in with my Crafting A Future 1st and 2nd graders as we haven't met for quite some time, and I wanted them to have at least one craft for Rosh HaShana! The apple you see here is actually my example, their creations are yet to be photographed as my camera is broken, sigh.

You'll Need:

• newsprint (or any paper you have on hand, even the blank side of wrapping paper)
• colored card stock
• Ink Pads and wine corks
• stapler
• scissors
• a  pen

How To:

Fold a large sheet of paper in half and staple at the edges in a few spots to keep it flat. Create a stamped polka dot pattern on one side of paper using wine corks and stamp pads. Turn paper over to blank side and draw a large apple or pomegranite. Cut out the shape and staple half way or 2/3 of the way around the edge. Fill with scrunched little balls of paper and staple closed. Attach a stem and a large leaf. Punch a hole in the stem and hang with a ribbon if desired.

Wishing you all a Shanah Tovah, a Happy Sweet NewYear!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! This week we are busy preparing for Rosh HaShana, which starts on Wednesday night, so there's going to be a busy week of crafting and cooking in our house, which I hope to share with you all! In the meantime, last week's party was full of amazing creativity, some of which I'm featuring below. Thanks for joining me here!

Love these water color painted coffee filter flowers from Aunt Peaches, and these fun lacy crocheted squares, with a tutorial, from The Little Treasures.

Beautiful pom pom edged coasters from my crochet projects, and love these jewel toned painted pumpkins from Aunt Peaches.

A fantastic book bag from while she naps, and another gorgeous knit pillow cover from Ginx craft.

Love love this pom pom fringed granny lap blanket from chris in de haak, and an adorable crocheted mushroom pattern from Anne Marie

A himmeli mobile made from drinking straws (great for the Succah!) from my home is my castle, and a gorgeous stiffened lace birthday crown from serving pink lemonade.

Love this beaded bracelet from howing at the moon, and a DIY dried hydrangeas project from grandparents plus.

A wonderful peg doll project for kids from art tea jannell, and a super tongue depressor catapult kid's craft from serving pink lemonade. That is it for the features, what have you been up to?

Wild Phlox and Buddleia Bouquet For Shabbat On The Sunshine Coast, BC

While I have yet to share all my photos of Vancouver with you, I just had to share this gorgeous wild flower bouquet that I pulled together from cuttings from the garden of the little cabin we rented on The Sunshine Coast, just a 40 minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver. There were fragrant wild buddleia bushes everywhere, and the blooms were so perfect for a bouquet for our table!

Bring In The New Year With A Gorgeous Fruit Tart!

Since we're on the subject of baking for the holidays, starting with Rosh HaShana coming up in just a week, I thought I'd share this baking idea with you, namely a fruit tart, that is really so very festive looking! And while you're at it, this is the perfect kind of dessert to send to a neighbhor to wish them a sweet new year. Or how about making a ton of small ones and sending them to all the neighbors?

On the note of sending something to the neighbors, small round challahs made with my round braided challed tutorial are also perfect wrapped nicely in some cellophane!

And no, I don't have a recipe for this tart, because truthfully it was baked by my neighbor for her daughter's engagement party, but this version is filled with some sort of vanilla creme french style filling, as these special neighbors made aliyah from France.

I would say though, that a fruit tart is one of those desserts that can be made almost 100% healthfully, namely spelt or oat flour crust, sweet fruit and agar agar as a jelling agent! I quite sure you can find a recipe like this courtesy of chef google, let me know if you find a great one!

Easy To Braid Round Challahs For Rosh HaShana!

With Rosh HaShana just a week away, now is a great time to bake traditional round braided challahs for the holiday, with raisins of course! Thanks to some readers who left comments on my post showing how to braid these beauties, I realized that I ought to share some photos I took last year just before the holiday!

This technique is so simple and while the braid can split a bit in the middle during baking, as you can see in the challah above, it is still lovely and retains its round and full shape quite nicely.

Check out my post how to braid a round challah for rosh hashana, and you're all set. And this might sound funny, but you can certainly practice with knee socks or knee highs to get the braiding down before you start with the real thing!

And no, my house does not exactly look like this at the moment, as I'm very busy preparing not only my own container garden, but a garden with actual dirt that I'm in the middle of designing for the New Year. This year we are entering a year called "shmittah" which has specific laws regarding gardening in the land of Israel, more on that later! Happy baking!

Learning About Inukshuk, First Nation rock sculptures in Vancouver, BC

My very first vision of these miniature inukshuk rock sculptures, that I knew nothing about at the time, was as we were completing our walk around the sea wall in Vancouver's Stanley Park on the Northshore/ English Bay side. The sun was going down, there were many folks out enjoying the serenity of a summer evening and all of a sudden there they were, little rock sculptures perched atop large boulders as you see in the photo above! At the time, my camera battery had run out, so I returned another day to capture some of the magic!