creative jewish mom

Getting Ready To Celebrate Passover With Family

Passover starts on the night of Friday March 30, so now is the time to start getting ready for this wonderful week long Jewish holiday.  We look forward to celebrating Passover because in our home it is a meaningful holiday full of family together time which includes of course the traditional seder, and a whole week of eating matzo, and more matzo. While the holiday itself is a joy, getting ready for Passover can be very time consuming and hectic depending on how strict you want to get with the cleaning. Making the holiday as relaxing and stress-free as possible, means planning ahead, and having a bunch of activities planned for the little ones.

It is true, that an eight day holiday, (seven days in Israel) represents quite a chunk of time. Depending on the ages of the children, or even if the holiday is celebrated by just adults, keeping Passover interesting all week long requires some forethought, and I'm here to help you with that! I was just introduced to a really nice Passover Activities Box from a company called Days United, and if you are already feeling a little stressed having read only this first paragraph, or are just completely swamped this time of year, this might be a great solution for you. The Days Passover box is a great gift idea as well, especially for those not so familiar with the holiday or who would like to teach their children the basics in a fun and friendly way.

Would you liked to learn more about this wonderful product delivered to your door just when you need it most? Keep on reading.......

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! Spring has arrived in full force here in Northern Israel, with rolling hills covered in yellow mustard, beautiful weather and cleaning for Passover in high gear, with the holiday arriving in just under two weeks. My kids are no longer little, so crafts to get them excited about the coming holiday are no longer necessary, but of course I will try to squeeze in a few little items to share with you here. Then again, maybe just maybe this year I'll actually get my studio truly cleaned for Passover, which would truly be a deliverance from slavery. Hmmm, no promises as life is very busy and there are only so many hours in the day. Anyone know how to generate more? With that in mind, this party is always filled with more than enough creative ideas to keep anyone inspired, so enjoy the features from last week's party:

Judah's Tree, Klil HaChoresh, Now In Bloom In Northern Israel!

The klil hahoresh tree is now in bloom in Northern Israel, and it is truly a delight. The blooms are so unusual, and when one drives out of the city the tree covered hillsides are puncutated by bright pink, love it! Okay, I just realized that while I wrote Red Bush on the photo, this tree is in fact a look-alike cousin of Red Bush, and not exactly the same tree, or something like that, as I have explained in a previous post here. 

In any case, name aside, the blooming of these trees is another yearly event, like the blooming of the almond trees, that gives me great joy. A few years ago I designed a garden down the street from our home, and there I planted two Jacaranda trees, who have a stunning purple blooms and gorgeous foliage, though I may just have to include a few Judah's Tree if another garden design project comes around!

Ten Plagues Passover Seder Craft For Kids

This ten plagues craft is from the archives, but still just too cute not to feature again, so enjoy! And of course, adults can join in on the fun too!

A good four plus years ago I had a group of fearless crafters, namely boys ages 7-10 who enthusiastically spent a few hours making a fun ten plagues passover craft! This is actually a mini version of the Ten Plagues Placards that I made a few years back, and certainly a little easier for kids to make themselves. Set the kids up with just a few simple supplies, and this project could literally occupy them for hours! I'm sure that sounds great right about now?

Brush Lettering With Watercolor Background Passover Craft And Birthday Card

 

Thanks to the handiwork of my 15 year old daughter, I now share with you her latest brush lettering project, a birthday card and a Passover sign that fits into the theme right now, which is to figure out how to get it all done without going crazy! Cards like these are really quite simple to make, whether you go for faux calligraphy, brush lettering as seen here, or even something a bit more refined. The secret it the amazing technique used to effortlessly create this random water color background ! Make signs to put all over the house to mark your cleaning progress and/or keep the troops happy.

Are you ready to step up your brush lettering game, or give it a try for the first time? Let's get started!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to craft schooling Sunday and thanks so much for joining me here! Spring is in the air, and the Jewish holiday of Passover starts in just three short weeks, so with so much to do! Most of us take advantage of the need to clean for Passover and turn it into a top to bottom Spring house cleaning, while others concentrate mainly on the kitchen which is truly a must, as are any other areas where food was eaten or where little ones may have left bits of food. So grateful for a washing machine this time of year, as it runs non-stop cleaning blankets and backpacks and you name it! Passover isn't the craftiest of Jewish holidays as there just isn't time, but I l always love making some fun items for the seder, which one can do fairly qulckly.Okay, enough about Passover, lets enjoy the features from last week's party!

Painted Pyramids For Passover Crafting

As you may have noticed I'm currently exploring painting with gouache, and having a great time. In fact I'd like to drop everything else and just paint......okay maybe just a bit everyday at this point, because I just love the vivid matte color one can easily achieve with gouache. And yes indeed, that is why pattern designers have always used gouache for creating patterns......it is quite wonderful really. As you can see I had the idea to paint some bright geometric pyramids to make some whimsical Passover decorations, and here are the results thus far.

As a family friendly craft, those who are able could paint the pyramids and cut them out, and then give them to the younger set to decorate with black markers or any variety of art materials. So fill your walls with colorful pyramids and there will be no mistake about it, Passover is in three short weeks!

How To Doodle A Sun Using A Pen And Some Paint

Passover is right around the corner, so how about starting by doodling a few elements that can be used to set the stage for the Passover story? Lets start with that oh so hot desert sun that the Jewish people certainly experienced in Egypt! There are so many ways to draw the sun, and one can and should spend a little time working on a few ideas to make your own version of this sun doodle. These were actually my second attempt, and I used the best ideas from my first try, which produced some which were more like stars!

Doodling on a ground of color, in this case circles that I painted with yellow gouache is so much fun, and the results immediately look like little works of art! I cut these suns out after I painted them, and will use them as part of a little assemblage project that I'm doing for Passover. i think they'd also make great gift tags, or elements for a garland or collage of any kind. So go to town with little doodle suns in a variety of sizes and you can't go wrong!

Hand Lettering With Gouache For Journaling And So Much More!

Isn't that just the way it goes, that when I have a long list of things to do that creative voice in my head insists on venting some energy? So there you have it folks, at one of the busiest times of year I suddenly find myself experimenting with gouache and for the first time ever, some fun hand lettering with really bright and decorative letter forms! Okay, at least I picked a phrase that goes with the theme of Passover (quickly approaching, yikes) and this little sign now looks just as cute as can be hanging in my kitchen. And now I think I need to do one that is a bit more positive, like "be free" or "choose freedom", don't you think?

I will say, this little project didn't go so quickly as controlling a tiny brush for the details isn't one of my greatest skills just yet, and I did make quite a few mistakes that had to be painted over, but all in all, I love the not so perfect results and would love to get much better at this. Suddenly all those amazing creative journal pages I've saved on Pinterest seem like something that is right up my alley at the moment, now where did I put all those journals?

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! Spring is here in Northern Israel which means sunny days and chilly nights and lots of happy children playing outside once again. While today (Friday) is Shushan Purim, the holiday celebrated in Jerusalem, the rest of us celebrated Purim yesterday, and what a celebration it was indeed. I won't go into the particulars, but suffice it to say it was one big crazy party in our neighborhood, and we enjoyed both a stream of visitors and going to visit neighbors, well one nieghbor in particular who it turns out has been hosting a wild party every year and we never even knew about it as we were always busy with our own guests!

I was a lot more free this year with no official guest to feed, no fancy costumes for the kids and no big crafting effort either as I just didn't have the time. More on that next week, and in the mean time, enjoy the features, and lets start thinking about crafting for Passover!