creative jewish mom

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Thanks so very much for joining me here for this crafty international get together. The pressure is on to prepare for one of the craftiest Jewish holidays, Purim, which starts Wednesday night, and with a rather high standard to meet I've got lots of work to do, so for those of you preparing for Purim, have a wonderfully creative week! And now, for the features from last week's party:

A wonderful polymer clay necklace from artistic endeavors, and a fantastic looking crocheted granny bag from crafternoon treats.

 A fabulous copper pipe fitting and dowel frame from homemade interest, and a wonderful felt applique pillow from handmade by Amalia.

 A fun pink vase re-make from howling at the moon, and simple no-sew bendable bunny ears that might come in handy right about now as a quick Purim accessory, from moms and crafters.

Gorgeous hoop and bead earring tutorial from jewelry making journal, and a fun bottle cap ring tutorial from little treasures.

 Love this crocheted hand warmer and matching button cowl from anna simple crochet.

A simple crochet flower that you can add to in so many ways, from my crochet projects

 

Rustic crocheted flowers that look great in a little vase, from my crcohet projects, and a quilted feed sack pillow that looks like so much fun to make from Annie's attic design.

 And a dessert that deserves a huge wow, white chocolate mini cheesecakes from Winnie.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sweet Welcome Home Signs Are True Nachas!

Welcome home signs and welcome signs have always been an important part of my children's life, as living in Israel we do get visitors from abroad, and my husband travels now and again. We live a good 2 hours drive from the airport, so by the time a person reaches our home it is really quite a trip, and a nice sign on the door is certainly a great way to welcome them! While getting my kids to make the signs has never been a problem, our biggest problem is usually fitting them all on the door, though I am the one who gets out the paper and pens and says "we need to make some signs."

This time, I was the one who went on a trip, leaving my kids with neighbors, and I am very happy to report that on their own they made signs for me, and my daughter even baked a cake!

It is such a wonderful feeling when your kids actually learn from your example, and you get to witness it! Parenting is certainly not easy at any stage, but each stage is wonderful and even more so when we are rewarded with that proud little feeling inside. In hebrew and yiddish, his little feeling, is called nachat or nachas, and it is so very precious that it is one of the things we always include in our wishes for others. So dear readers, I wish you all lots and lots of nachas from your children, keep up the great work!

Clown On A Stick Craft, For Purim Or A Circus Themed Birthday Party!

What do you do when the Purim party is about to start, you've committed to some centerpieces and all you have are some stuffed paper hearts you made a few years back filling the vases that you need to fill with something new? Well, you decide to use those stuffed paper hearts to make the most adorable little clowns ever, and you can't really believe it yourself that you pulled it off, and came up with something that is perfect to share with your dear readers for Purim!

With just a few simple supplies that you may very well have hanging around the house, you too can make something just as cute, if not cuter, right? And it just occurred to me that you could take this theme and make a bunch of little cute costumed characters, with just the sweet little child's face showing, and then you put them all in a vase, or poke them into a strip of styrofoam to make a fabulous centerpiece for Purim, or even a circus themed birthday party. Honestly, I didn't have time to use up all the hearts I had on hand, and can't wait to make some more of these sweet little clowns, which I'll then pack away carefully to pull out for next year!

Oh, and I almost forgot, at first I made faces on two sides, but when time started to run out, I simply drew some hair on the back, a fun little solution if you're pressed for time!

You'll Need:

• colored card stock, flesh colored paper
• patterned card stock, or patterned cardboard of some kind
• washi tape and/or blue masking tape
• metallic gold cupcake liners
• a stapler
• skewers
• hot glue

How To:

I started with stuffed hearts, which you can see here, but you can make stuffed circles of just about any shape that works, following the tutorial for the stuffed paper hearts. With one minor change though. I'd create the face and affix it to the front panel before stapling and stuffing for the nicest results. After you've stapled and stuffed, affix your clown hat which is two triangles hot glued together and to to each side of the head. Add a circle to the clown hat by using circles cut from the middle of the cupcake liner and make a fun color with pieces of cupcake liner. Add details to the hat with washi tape, and blue masking tape, and that is it! Find some time to make a bunch! Hope that makes sense I'm typing this as 3:30 am, yikes!

Need some fun decorations for a circus themed birthday party? make a bunch of these and then give them as party favors, could be fabulous! Stand them in cans or even popcorn boxes filled with sand to make centerpieces on the tables that can be easily disassembled so that you can give them as simple take home party favors. Then again, they are just so cute you may not want to part with them! Enjoy!

Fish Shaped Gift Tags Are Fun To Make And To Use!

Need a tiny project to fulfill that need for a little bit of creativity? Why not make some of these fun fish shaped gift tags that are perfect for Purim, or any time really! And if you don't need any gift tags, so use them as ornaments or make a mobile or even combine them with the stuffed paper fish I shared with you last week.

This is a fun project for all ages, and especially great for those who love to doodle but never really do anything with those doodles!  And this is also a great opportunity to discuss what makes a fish kosher, namely scales and fins, and how to incorporate these into a doodle design.

You'll Need:

• cereal box cardboard
• colored card stock
• black markers, a thick one and a thin one
• double stick tape or a glue stick
• a hole punch and string

How To: Draw a very basic outline of a fish on a piece of thin cardboard, and cut out leaving a large margin around the outline. Doodle your design on the fish. Cover the back of the fish with double sided tape, or the adhesive of your choice, and affix to a piece of colored paper of some kind. Cut out fish once again, this time cutting a bit closer to the outline. Punch a hole in the fish's mouth, thread with a piece of string or ribbon and you've made a fantastic gift tag!

 

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! I hope you all are ready for some great winter crafting inspiration, as last weeks party welcomed a few new talented contributors, whose work you'll see below, along with of course our beloved regular contributors! Thanks so much for joining me here and now for the features, and if you'll excuse me, I've got some Purim costumes to tend to!

Love love love this granny poncho and adorable cross stitched jar cover from colour crochet love, (Germany) who on her first visit to the party scoured the first feature, and a double one at that!

A gorgeous crocheted tunisian shell shawl from cup of stitches  (Montenegro) Look that one up for a little geography lesson, and don't worry I didn't know where it was either! and a chunky knit cowl from Ana love craft (Portugal) photographed against a gorgeous tile backdrop in Lisbon, know where that is?

A lovely crocheted birthday bunting from estrea chikitu, (the Netherlands) and a sweet little crocheted bear from haak en maak. (the Netherlands)

A fun heart crocheted blanket from chris in dehaak, (the Netherlands)and a sweet embroidered air mail letter from howling at the moon.(the Netherlands)

A fun spool knitted craft from gingerbread house, (United Kingdom) and a crocheted heart shape hanging pouch from home made at my place (Mozambique)

 

A 10 minute mardi gras bead mosaic from Aunt Peaches, (USA) and birthday party decor in a tea cup from little treasures.(Macedonia)

Very crafty polymer clay beads from artistic endeavors, (USA) and an artufl lampshade upgrade from Bravely (USA)

A crafty no-sew rainbow onsie from moms and crafters, (USA) and a fun painted thrift store purses from Aunt Peaches. USA)

Baked cheese cake stuffed apples from Winnie, (Israel) and no cooking raspberry fudge from Ginx Craft, (United Kingdom) no knitting knowledge required! That is it for the features, what have you been up to?

An InLinkz Link-up

A Paper Fish Mobile Craft For Kids: Perfect For Adar, Purim and Shabbat!

It is now the month of Adar on the Jewish calendar, which means it is the perfect time to make a fun stuffed fish mobile, as the fish is the astrological sign for the month of Adar. And of course this would be a great little project to do as a shabbat craft as well, as fish is one of the traditional dishes eaten on this holy day. In any case these little paper fish are so very sweet that they would look great anytime, anywhere!

You'll Need:

• colored stock paper, ( how about stamping or printing a pattern on it first?)
• yarn
• a yarn needle (dull for little kids)
• buttons
• high tack glue
• wire hangar

How To: Make a template of at least two sizes of fish for your mobile. Cut out that template and trace around it to make pairs of two identically sized fish. I used different colored paper on each side. Using yarn and a yarn needle carefully sew even stitches around the fish, stuffing with little pieces of scrunched or rolled paper when you are about 3/4 of the way finished. Leave a long tail at the beginning, and a long tail at the end, and tie these two ends together to hang. Affix a button eye with high tack glue.

Note: Sewing through paper may be difficult for some children, and especially for younger children, so you may want to pre-pierce the holes for them, much easier, but at least they'll get the hang of sewing? Think maybe the needle is just too dangerous all together? Staple your little fish together, not quite as aesthetically pleasing, but could be fun too.

Lots Of Snow In Northern Israel At Last!

This time the forecast for snow in the mountain areas of Israel, which includes Jerusalem as well as my little town in Northern Israel, was correct, yippee! The snow started to fall last night while I was burning the candle at both ends, and I was so happy to see that my kids would wake up to a very white view in the morning.

Chodesh Tov, It's Time To Get Ready For Purim!

It is now the Jewish month of Adar, which means we are entering into a very happy period on the Jewish calender, and that certainly is great news, right? Last night as my nine year old instinctively lay on the floor and started drawing this clown, I was taken down memory lane to all the sweet little clowns he has drawn over the years.....this one is just a bit more sophisticated, with fire crackers, that he is throwing on the ground and apparently a can of Coke (forbidden poison in our home, but available everywhere, unfortunately) in his pocket, sigh. At least he isn't smoking!

So dear readers, for those of us who celebrate the fabulous holiday of Purim, it is time to get into full gear, with costumes, decorations, and of course mishloach manot. I'll confess, I was in New York last week and stopped by Amazing Savings....their row of containers for Purim was enough to make anyone dizzy, and even I was swayed to buy something small, in my case drawstring burlap bags printed with a zig zag pattern which were easy to bring home and will make cute treat bags. Of course I'll crochet a flower or something to adorn the bag, but no major crafting to do.....not that there isn't enough to do, I've got to whip up three of the best costumes in town as usual!

This year we are going to be a fisherman (as in on a boat), a paper doll, and spaghetti and meatballs! All somewhat do-able, and no intensive crocheting involved, but rather some sewing! I'll keep you posted, and wishing you all a very joyful new month!

Crocheted Heart Shaped Basket Made From Rope!

You may think I'm getting a bit of a late start on heart shaped crafts, but truthfully a heart shaped crocheted basket made from rope can be a truly great thing to crochet anytime of year! This sturdy little basket would be a great way to display beloved treasures, a fun prop for a DIY wedding or celebration of any kind, or a great gift filled with something edible or even a collection of small soaps.

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, I hope you are all well! I am writing to you from a very wet and rainy Northern Israel, which certainly is great crafting weather! I have my eye on that sweet heart wall hanging below, maybe in some different colors? And dear readers, while most of the heart crafts I've featured were made for a certain holiday, hearts can actually be a great way to celebrate "ahavas Yisrael" (love your fellow man) a concept that we celebrate on the Jewish holiday of L'Ag B'Omer, just three months from now. And as you all know, time certainly flies, and who wouldn't want to make some hearts? Enough rambling from me, here are the features from wonderful contributors from around the world: