creative jewish mom

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! January is almost over and time is speeding by, which means it is time to start prioritizing for those of us who want to get in some serious crafting for Purim this year, which starts on the night of March 23rd. We do have an extra month as it is Jewish leap year, nonetheless, time is of the essence as seven weeks can just fly by!

As you may have noticed I have been working on my blog's design, and there is now a bar of photos just above this, which will display posts pertaining to the next upcoming Jewish holiday, which in this case is Purim, where I get stretched to my crafty limits with DIY costumes and creative gift packaging containing creative food presentation. We have yet to decide on our costumes for this year, but maybe this time there will be no customary all nighter's involved, the night before the kids wear their costumes to school!

Okay, enough about Purim, lets take a look at some of the fantastic features from last week's party, wow! You will notice that I'm not featuring anything directly related to the holiday on Feb 14th as it is not a holiday that we celebrate, but there is certainly no problem with heart shaped crafts to spread the love! Thanks for joining me here, and please step forward and join the party, we'd love to meet you! And for a new twist on the geography topic, since so many are from the US, IF YOU ARE FROM THE USA, PLEASE SPECIFY YOUR STATE IN THE NAME OF THE LINK UP, just for fun, so we can continue our virtual road trip!

 

 DIY heart shaped bath bombs from atta girl says (USA) and an adorable embroidery pattern from flamingo toes (USA.)

 An outdoor winter monogram wall art from Kenarry (USA) and retro cute crocheted hex potholders from flamingo toes (USA)

Origami Heart That Is Simple For Kids Too!

It is true, we do not celebrate Valentines Day, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy making some heart themed crafts to spread the love, and origami hearts seem truly perfect right about now! And the good news is that kids around 8 years old and up can make these origami hearts after some explanation from an adult. Most of the hearts you see here were actually made by my ten year old son, who once he got the hang of folding squares made from A4 paper, said "lets make a bunch." And that is coming from someone who knows nothing about the upcoming heart holiday, and is not seeing all the images for said holday on the interenet like his blogging mom!

Plastic Canvas Envelope Memo Holder

If you are looking for a sweet little plastic canvas project, i will modestly suggest that my plastic canvas envelope memo holder surely fits the bill. In fact, because this project requires very little embroidery but rather relies on the plastic canvas as is, you could surely make quite a few of these as little gifts, and of course my addition of the heart is a sweet touch but for a more masculine version one could certainly replace the heart with an initial.

Droopy Cyclamen? Add Water!

Pots of blooming cyclamen are one of the highlights of winter here in Israel, and one of the signs of early early spring in the wild. I'll never forget my first glimpse of wild cyclamen, it was so exciting. Lest I digress, the point of this post is to really answer the question of what to do with a droopy cyclamen, and to help avoid panic if it happens to you. Now it is true, a droopy plant can happen for two reasons at totally different ends of the spectrum. One reason is too little water, and another reason is so much water that the roots actually rot and suddenly are unable to provide the plant with its needs. In the case of a cyclamen, which assuming is in a cool, shady spot and only watered once or twice a week, if the plant suddenly droops, you can safely assume that it needs more water, so give it a nice drink, and hopefully that was the problem. This has already happened several times with this plant, poor thing, but there are still new buds sprouting up, so we'll assume the plant has forgiven me!

Wishing You A Joyful Tu B'Shevat!

Tonight is Tu B'Shevat, the Fifteenth Day of the Jewish month of Shevat, the day which marks the New Year for the trees. In our area in Northern Israel the holiday sometimes cooincides with the blooming of almond trees, where in other warmer parts of the country the trees have outwardly begun their process of renewal.

This year on Tu B'Shevat as we read and hear about our friends and family on the East Coast who are snowed in, we are presently on a snow watch! (Not exactly what you would imagine for Israel, I know but we actually live 3,000 ft above sea level with no desert or camels in sight.) It is currently hailing outside and temperature is around 2 C in my protected courtyard, which I guess means closer to zero (32 degrees F) elsewhere. Needless to say the kids are praying for snow, lots of it! And honestly, there is nothing I'd love more. Even the slightest bit of snow or ice will be a reason for the city to issue a snow day, so there might as well be real snow for the kids to have fun in! 

Now a few words about Tu B'Shevat at our house and the Tu B'Shevat Seder:

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! Thanks so much for joining me here, and I hope you'll enjoy all the amazing inspiration that my now very hopping party brings us.

Tonight we'll usher in the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat, the New Year for the trees, a beautiful holiday celebrated by eating an array of fresh and dried fruit, and many perform a Seder that involves drinking red and white wine and then tasting certain holy species of fruits in an order described in the Kabbalah. With crafts on the brain, I'm now thinking, okay, the next jewish holiday is Purim! And lucky for us, this is leap year on the Jewish calendar, in which we add a whole extra month, so while Purim would generally be 3 weeks after Tu B'Shevat, this year it is 7 weeks after Tu B'Shevat, yippee! And now, for the features from last week's party:

 A fabulous sirplane themed birthday party from Sandy ala Mode (USA.)

A fun heart olw from Julie is coco and cocoa (USA) and tinted mason jars from simply darrling (USA.)

Origami Fruit

 

i'm so excited to share with you a super cute and super simple way to make a quick centerpiece, a fun place marker or a sweet mobile: origami fruit! Yes indeed, the same origami balloon shape that can be used to make origami string light covers can also be used to make adorable origami fruit in any color you like. These were made with a square made from letter sized paper, but much larger ones would work too, and if you make just four really large ones you can have a fantastic centerpiece in very little time. I'm planning on hanging these over our dining room table to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat which is all about fruit, and I think these will be perfect!

Origami String Light Covers

Origami balloons or origami cubes folded from your favorite colored and patterned paper are a perfect way to dress up string lights for a special occasion or just because. I remember making these origami balloons in grade school to play with in the classroom on a winter day, so I was so happy to revisit this simple craft after so many years. Not to mention that I've been wanting to do this for ages and only now had a moment (well a lot more than that actually) to give it a try. I love the idea of combining solid paper in happy colors with patterned black and white paper, and in this case I've used some fruit slice coloring pages that are available in my Etsy shop.

DIY Cupcake Pedestal From A Recycled Can

There is no better way to display cupcakes than on a pedestal, and now you can whip one up yourself like this quick DIY Cupcake pedestal. I made this cupcake pedestal for the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat coming up on Sunday night, (and using my printable fruit slices crafting pages) though I'm quite sure we'll be using this idea for many more special occasions to come.

 And yes, I do realize that the proportions of my cupcake pedestal aren't exactly right, but I think that is what makes it such a great partner with the hand colored paper and cupcake toppers. I'm on a new campaign to run in the opposite direction from perfection, especially when there are kids around, and encourage creativity and imperfection! Of course there is a time and a place for a perfect looking dessert table, but most of the time the best idea is to let the kids get involved and make things that they will be proud of! Are you with me on that?

Tu B'Shevat Centerpiece From Recycled Cans And Sticks

Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish New Year for the trees is coming this Sunday night, so lets fill our homes with fruity decorations and crafts to honor this special day. For starters, how about this simple recycled can vase filled with bare branches? You can decorate it in so many ways, namely with little pink or white blossoms or some other reference to fruit like these apple slice ornaments that you can make with my printable fruit slice crafting pages.

The vase itself is made by covering cans with my printable fruit slice coloring pages, and the results are something that everyone will be proud of, as it is simply festive and cute! (And of course these coloring pages can be used in so many ways, this is just the first of several ideas I'm going to be sharing with you today and tomorrow.