creative jewish mom

Corrugated Paper Animal Craft For Kids

Making adorable little animals with strips of colored corrugated paper is a great craft to try out with the kids, and very full of creative possibilities! And if you choose to make a little lamb and a chick, you'll get a head start on some spring crafting. The lamb of course could be a paschal lamb (korban pesach) for Passover! Not that is called really getting a head start, which is always a great idea, especially since these little lambs will be quite happy packed away for a few months until needed!

I can't really take credit for this cute little craft, it was actually a simple kit that my husband brought home from a trip to the Ukraine, where quilled paper is also very popular interestingly enough. Gotta love the husband that brings home crafting supplies right? In any case, this one is certainly simple enough for you to figure out on your own, given the photos I've provided from front back and side.

 You'll Need:

• corrugated paper
• googly eyes
• small pieces of felt for details
• high tack craft glue (we used a hot glue gun, but it makes a huge mess, not recommended)
• a craft knife and a metal ruler to cut strips

How To:

Cut strips roughly 1 cm wide, against the grain of the corrugation. Tightly roll up strips to make circles, securing with glue at the beginning and end of the circle. As you can see there are large circles for the head, slightly smaller ones for the body, and very small ones for the legs, tail and ears.

The head on all three animals was supposed to be like that of the chick, but they caved in on account of not being glued in position. To make the shape of the back of the head, simply poke out the middle of the rolled circle with a pencil, and then add some dots of glue from the inside to secue.

Attach all you pieces with high tack craft glue, or hot glue if you're impatient like we were! Make some cute little accessories, like the little purse, which was totally my daughter's idea. That is it! Enjoy and would love to see what you do with this!

Cheerios And Dried Cranberries Dark Chocolate Bark!

Looking for a treat that is simple to make, and will be polished off instantly—chocolate cheerios and dried cranberries bark is the answer! I made up this one on the last night of hanukkah when my daughter was wondering what we were going to do with the three bars of chocolate, and for lack of a better idea I figured bark was was the way to go. And with some sugar free dried canberries and cheerios (the classic kind) on hand, and some sprinkles to add some festive color, we were good to go!

You'll Need:

• 3 bars of chocolate, bittersweet or milk chocolate of some combination
• 2 cups of cheerios (Truthfully I could have added quite a bit more cheerios to stretch out the chocolate a bit more, next time!)
• 1 cup of sugar free dried cranberries
• sprinkles

How To:

Melt chocolate in a double boiler, once melted add in cheerios and dried cranberries (and anything else you have on hand like some raw nuts, or raisins....) and spread in a 9 x 12 inch pan such that bark is as thin as possible. Put in the freezer to set, and once hardened, break apart into serving pieces and enjoy!

 

Cereal Box Gift Packages With Plastic Bag Pom Poms!

As promised, here are our kid stamped cereal boxes all glued together and adorned with plastic bag pom pom gift toppers. I must say, they look fantastic! And while we didn't plan anything, the pom poms colors work so perfectly with the stamped designs that my daughter (mostly) did a few days ago.

You can see what the stamped cereal boxes looked like before they were glued together here.

 The large size pom pom, fits perfectly on top of a large cornflakes box, and makes a stunning gift!

And the smaller boxes, the smaller one held ice cream cones look amazing with the smaller sized pom poms. So, after you've stamped your cereal boxes, re-glue them using a hot glue gun, make some plastic bag pom poms, and assemble the most gorgeous gift boxes ever!

 

DIY Upcycled Plastic Bag Pom Poms!

Pom poms made from plastic bags are so very festive and they look so great its very hard to believe that they're made from plastic bags! So start saving those plastic bags, and put them to great use the next time you need an artistic gift wrapping solution, or some great party decorations. And as for the size of your pom poms, well you decide, since plastic bags work well for large pom poms as well as fairly small ones. In order to share the positive message about the idea of recycling, why not create some custom stickers with a message about environmental protection to use together with these fun pom poms, whether on gift boxes or cards!

While one certailny can make plastic bag pom poms from strips of plastic bags, I recommend making plarn, (seen above) namely plastic bag yarn, from your hoard of bags, and using that to make pom poms as you would with regular yarn. So lets get started!

You'll Need:

• plastic bags, the light weight/partly translucent kind used generally by grocery stores
• sharp scissors
• string
• cardboard scraps

How To Make Plastic Bag Pom Poms:

Step 1: Collect your bags and make balls of "plarn" like in the photo above. Instructions for making plarn can be found here. Pom poms can of course be made from just one color, but they're even more stunning when made from a mix of colors.

Step 2: Decide how large you'd like to make your pom poms, and then cut a piece of cardboard whose width measures roughly the size of the desired pom pom. You can always make the pom poms smaller if they end up being bigger than needed. For the small medium and large pom poms I made, I cut pieces of cardboard that are 6", 4" and 2" respectively, and my finished pom poms measured 7", 4.5" and 3" after their haircuts.

 Step 3: Wrap plarn around your piece of cardboard around 20 times, combining the colors of your choice.

Step 4: Remove the plarn from your piece of cardboard, and tightly tie a piece of string around the exact middle of the plarn, as seen above. For small pom poms, you will need to tie the string around the plarn before you remove it from the cardboard. You can do this by simply laying a piece of string on the cardboard before you wrap the plarn around it. In this way you will only be securing one side of the hank of plarn, but that is sufficient to hold it together.

Step 5: Cut through the loops of plarn using scissors, if it becomes difficult, just cut off the ends in order to open the loops. Fluff up the pom pom and then trim it to make it as round as possible.

That is it, welcome to the wonderful new world of plastic bag pom poms, you'll be making them for years to come, I'm quite sure!

 

Crochet A Gorgeous Edging On A Tea Towel

I am so very very happy to at long last introduce this fantastic tea towel edging pattern, just in time hopefully for some of you to use it to make some last minute holiday gifts! Publishing a good crochet pattern with diagrams and written instructions and everything you need to know is really no small feat I must say, and getting this out into the world wasn't nearly as easy as I had hoped. So I now introduce to you, my new Etsy crochet pdf pattern shop creativekinder as well as my first pattern for sale, the crocheted tea towel edging pattern.

Stamped And Stencilled Cereal Boxes Make Great Hanukkah Gift Packaging!

With a few nights of Hanukkah still left, there's plenty of time to whip up some great recycled and hand made gift packaging! So get out all those cereal boxes you been hoarding, open them up and have fun stamping and stenciling simple shapes. The results are always so much fun, especially when you assemble your packages, fill them and add some ribbons or bows or pom poms of some kind!

I love the idea of these stenciled numbers, to represent the 8 nights of hanukkah, and one could even do just one number for the night on which the gift is given!

You'll Need:

• acrylic craft paint
• cereal and other food boxes
• number stencils
• "magic eraser sponge" (sfog pele) or any dense sponge that can be easily cut with a knife

How To: The dreidel shapes were made by simply cutting a dreidel shape (minus the top peg) from magic foam, great for cleaning and great for crafting, as it cuts so very easily! Dip the sponge in paint and stamp away. Add details with a paint brush. One could also use a potato!

Happy Hanukkah crafting, and hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with some great shots of these boxes all ready for gift giving!

 

Crocheted Striped Gift Pouch For Your Favorite Toddler!

When you are giving a beloved two year old his first little yellow dump truck and tractor, what can you quickly crochet to go along with the gift? Well how about a striped grey and yellow crocheted gift pouch with a drawstring tie (that looks like a road) to hold a collection of something cute......in this case some fun little figures that he can load onto that dump truck, and or course, since it is chanukah I also included some chocolate money and a few dreidels as well. And the fun thing about this pouch is that it stands on its own and is big enough to truly serve as a great toy keeper and organizer!

Hanukkah Craft For Kids With Cut Paper Silhouettes

Here's a super simple hanukkah craft to keep the kids busy this holiday, using simple supplies you probably have on hand: paper and glue! Silhouette art using cut paper does look the best with black paper, but don't sweat it if you don't have any, use what you have on hand for slightly different and maybe even lovelier results!

My daughter did this one all by herself, and I think part of the success is the yellow background, followed by a collage of three colors, and then the black shapes on top. One can of course cut dreidels and hebrew letters, or let the little ones use their own imagination, an even better idea!

And since hanukkah is all about miracles, maybe with lots of little projects like these up your sleeve you really will keep the magic alive for eight whole days!

Wishing you all a wonderful and light filled chanukah, a chanukah sameach!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Thanks so much for joining me here at this little international crafty get together. The party will be taking a holiday break until the first Sunday in January, so hope to reconnect with you all then! In the mean time, here are the features from last week's party:

Homemade hand salve from Aunt Peaches makes the perfect little gift, and love these drinking star starburst ornaments also from Aunt Peaches.

 

A fun indoor snowball fight tutorial from sew can do, and an interesting artful dipped tea towel from pysselbolaget.

A sweet crocheted star garland from haak and maak, and a fun crocheted snowman from homemade at my place.

A how to crochet in the round from eye love knots,  and a simply sweet crochet headband from anna simple crochet.

 Love this take along shoe box puppet theater from best toys 4 toddlers, and an adorable little dollhouse with a cardboard kitchen from kinoko.

A chanukah gingerbread house from felt so cute, and howling at the moon introduces a fascinating crocheting stitch called polish star stitch!

Lovely rustic burlap napkin rings from moms and crafters.

A fun DIY cardboard gift basket from crafty journal, and a rhinestone peace sign from howling at the moon,

Hot chocolate cookie bark from swirls and spice, and chocolate spread doughnuts for chanukah from Winnie. That is it for the features, if you have any chanukah crafts to share, please drop me a line with the link at [email protected]  Would love to see photos for those without blogs as well! All the best!

Watercolor Dreidel Craft For Hanukkah Is So Much Fun!

My kids had a great time painting these simply lovely watercolor dreidels last night, and the results are fantastic! We'll use our watercolor dreidels to make a hanukkah garland, a simple mobile or as elements in an as of yet undetermined hanukkah craft. I really don't think one can possibly make too many of these, so be sure to prepare lots of blanks so the kids can go to town!

As you can see they could even look great displayed on a tray, not unlike holiday cookies! And the watercolor palette we used produced such brilliant colors with so little effort. Do invest in one of the simple watercolor palettes with the large size circles, (and with new improved colors) as seen below for the best results.

You'll Need:

• cardboard— bristol board or chip board with a matte (non glossy) finish that will allow water colors to be absorbed
• watercolors and brushes
• a jar or plastic container to hold water

How To: I cut out a bunch of dreidel shapes to give the kids a head start, but older children can certainly cut out their own. Teach them the idea of making a template and then tracing around that template in order to produce multiples of the same shape. And of course if you'd like to hang your dreidels as a mobile or from a chandelier, get the kids to paint two sides.

Kids can spend lots of time painting one dreidel or very little time, either way make sure to give them lots of blanks to paint as this really is so much fun, even my 11 year old non-craft lover joined in to paint a few once he saw the others enjoying themselves so much!

Enjoy!