creative jewish mom

Plastic Canvas Dreidel Ornament Craft

This Chanukah is turning out to be a plastic canvas craft extravaganza! Yes just a bit odd for someone who prefers to craft with recyclables, but hey, sometimes I just want to make some great looking crafts from store bought suppiles, can you blame me? I will say that all the supplies for these plastic canvas Chanukah crafts are things that I already have on hand, and I have been using up little bits and pieces of yarn, and even unraveling swatches to get enough of the colors I desire!

These plastic canvas dreidels were actually the first thing I made, just somehow decided to share them with you last, which is a good thing as they look great together with my plastic canvas snowflake medallions, right? These embroidered dreidels are simple enough to make even for kids say around seven or eight, so get the whole family stitching and you'll have enough for a garland or fun wall hanging in no time. Shall we get started?

Plastic Canvas Snowflake Mandala Ornaments

What can I tell you today? I'll admit I don't always love the things I make, but I am totally in love with these plastic canvas snowflake medallions, or maybe they are really more aptly called plastic canvas mandalas, I'm not qui9te sure! Something about them reminds me of the lovely small details in Fair Isle sweaters (that I do not plan to knit in this lifetime) or maybe the 70's style embroidered appliques I've had my eye on, either way I really enjoyed making these three versions and hoping to have time to make some more. They do look very sweet with my plastic canvas chanukah menorah, as well as part of a whole plastic canvas chanukah look that I'm in the middle of crafting. I'm not exactly sure how it will all come together, but very likely as some fun garlands to hang this year and for years to come.

If you are familiar with plastic canvas, then you already know the secret to make these beauties, but if not, so do keep on reading for some helpful hints so you can get started making some of your own.

Plastic Canvas Chanukah Craft: A Needlepoint Menorah Ornament

I just love embroidery and needlework of all kinds, but with my generally hectic crafting endeavors there usually isn't time for small detailed work. But this year my friends we have an entire month until Chanukah, and with a huge roll of plastic canvas sitting in the corner of my studio and as you can imagine, no shortage of yarn, well I just had to indulge myself in a little bit of chanukah needlepoint of sorts, yippee! Yes it is true, plastic canvas isn't what I'd call refined needlework, but it sure is great for making fun decorations, perfect for kids and well, there really are so many creative things one can do with it, right? And a great excuse to use up some of those bits and pieces of yarn you've got hanging around, at least in my case!

One of the great things about plastic canvas is that one doesn't have to stick with small stitches, so filling the canvas with colorful strokes of yarn can be done relatively quickly. Here I choose to fill the ground of the piece with the traditional needlepoint stitch, but tomorrow I'll be sharing with you another plastic canvas chanukah craft where I did just the opposite, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here's how I made this sweet little menorah......

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday!

 

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, I hope all of my American readers are having a wonderful holiday weekend! Enjoy some of that leftover turkey in a sandwich with some of that cranberry sauce made with fresh cranberries will ya? As it turns out, cranberries are just about the most nutritious fruit around, so if you figure out how to eat them without sugar, well you've got a winner! As for me, no cranberries in sight around here, sigh, no blueberries either, but an interesting life indeed!

This week's features are filled with great ideas for holiday crafting, and while I was going to take the holiday break starting this week, I just could not bring myself to disconnect from all you lovely contributors just yet. So this will be the last opportunity to link up for 2016, and feel free to link up old projects if you like, as I won't be able to feature any projects that involve the holiday on Dec. 25th, as you can well imagine, right?

Thanks again for a wonderful year of creativity and for making this party truly one of the best around, and happy holidays!

Ah yes, and now for the features from last week's party:

 Sweet little decorative felt purses from nap time creations, and napkin decoupaged coasters or candle bases from flamingo toes.

 Flat rat knitted bookmarks from Ginx crafts, and popsicle stick skis from virginia sweet pea.

A great crocheted necklace for the holidays from howling at the moon, and a potpouri kit gift from tried and true.

A Visit To Fort York Toronto With Kids

This past August we spent ten wonderful days in Toronto, Canada and one of our favorite afternoons was the one we spent on a visit to historic Fort York, which is located in downtown Toronto just on the edge of the Entertainment District, and just a hop, skip and a jump from our vacation rental. Fort York, was the fort that protected the town of York, later to be called Toronto, in the war of 1812, and we really enjoyed stepping into this little slice of history. And do visit in the summer if you can to enjoy period war music and lots of demonstrations on site. In the mean time, have a look at my photos, worth a few minutes certainly!

Egg Carton Flower String Lights

A few weeks ago I shared with you my egg carton star string lights, and now at last I had a chance to take a few quick photos of my egg carton flower LED string lights, which we used at my son's bar mitzvah with great success. My favorites were actually those that i made by dipping the egg carton flowers in paint, but all I could get my hands on at the moment were these simple painted ones, which are much easier to do and a great project for the kids as well. So add a little creativity to your holiday season with this simply fun craft, ready?

Crocheted T-Shirt Yarn Coasters, A Rustic Gift That Is Perfect Right Now!

One of the great things about deciding to clean out your studio is that you finds all kinds of odds and ends that simply must get used, and thus I present to you these rustic crocheted t-shirt yarn coasters, that are quick to make, and the perfect gift for those who appreciate an artful casual aesthetic. A great beach house or cabin gift too.....don't you think? So gather up some of those worn t-shirts and lets get started! Oh and by the way, little projects like these are the kind that i often make in the car on the way to the gathering, give it a try!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday!

 

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday! So wonderful to meet up with you all right here every week, and last week's party was chock full of great inspiration as always! Just by the way, I do love this party and I invest many many hours into making the features look great, however as in previous years I am going to take a break for the month of December. There is just always way too much conflict between this being a Jewish blog and the projects posted for non-Jewish holidays, so the easiest thing is to simply take a little break, which also gives me a little more time for some holiday crafting of my own.

This year the first night of Chanukah is on December 24th, which sure is interesting timing, and that means that everyone who celebrates Chanukah will also be off from work (well most people, anyway...) meaning that this year can be truly special, yippee! And dear readers, how to we make holidays special around here at CJM? Well we craft our little hearts out, right? So lets get inspired with the features from last week's party:

 A fun Ikea Rast hack with rope handles from chatfield court, and a lovely embroidered home sigh from flamingo toes.

A DIY barn door bookcase update from Worthing Court, and a lovely fall display from lolly jane.

Crocheted Potato Sack Kitchen Scrubbies

This is not the first time that I've crocheted kitchen scrubbies from potato sacks, but there is a little story this time! What happens when a creative hoarder like myself starts an attempt to clean up her studio? Well, as you can well imagine all kinds of supplies start jumping out at me, together with a bunch of works in progress, screaming "don't spend your time cleaning up this mess, finish me, use me up, make something!"

So when I opened up a bag and found some unusual orange potato sacks (ours are generally white and sometimes red), which are special since they come from potatoes from The Netherlands, well I just had to use them up.! Yes, we do grow potatoes here in Israel, but during the shemittah year (the last one was 2015) we can't eat vegetables grown in the the holy soil of Israel, thus the imports from one of my favorite countries, whose color happens to be orange, thus the orange potato sacks! And given that I've been going through my stash of yarn, with skeins that I've had for ten years, using up these sacks that I'd only been saving for one year is a great start, right?

Crocheted Rustic Fruit Basket To Make From Old T-Shirts

What can I tell you? I just adore this little crocheted basket that I made using yarn from some of my boy's old t-shirts and striped polo style shirts. And in my humble opiinion one can never really have too many baskets, and fun rustic ones like this add a really nice seasonal touch, especially for fall. Dont you just love persimmons, I'm already lamenting the day when they'll no longer be in season......but I digress. The yarn that I make from t-shirts is never as thin as the commercial t-shirt yarn, which means that you can actually make a much sturdier basket with your cast offs!

Like some more information on how to make some yourself? Keep on reading.......