creative jewish mom

Tips For Moving Your Family To A Condo

Above: For the complete instructions for this craft, check out my tutorial here.

SaMoving your family to a new home can be both exciting and terrifying, especially if it involves moving to a new city, or moving from a house in the suburbs to a condo in the city! Moving into a new condo is a big decision, and not everyone in your family may feel excited about the change. This is especially true when it comes to kids. If you have older kids, they would likely miss their friends and won’t feel happy about changing schools either. Make the effort to involve the whole family when making this important and life changing decision!  Don't let the kids feel left out and be ready to address their concerns. If you really can't take the kid's opinions into consideration as you have already decided to move, there are ways you can make this experience comfortable for each member of your family. And of course a great way to introduce the topic is with some art therapy, so why not paint some milk carton houses and talk about the importance of a home? While you are painting those milk cartons you can even involve the kids in the planning. To get you started, here are five tips to help your family move to a condo.

Painted Knit MItten Winter Greeting Card Craft

Continuing with my fun artufl and a bit painterly winter clothing themed greeting cards that can also be mini works of art, presenting the kaleidoscope knit winter mitten! After painting an ugly Chanukah sweater, and a graffiti knit cap, mittens were certainly in order! First I painted a gift box with pom pom mittens, but then I saw a tiny bit of clip art in an ad, which lead to drawing mittens and hats with cables and a bit of knit detail in my sketchbook, here, and that led to this kaleidoscope knit mitten greeting card! Now you can't say I haven't been letting you in on what goes on around here, well sort of! Ah yes, and maybe I should also reveal that some of my clothes now have little bits of paint on them and are designated "painting clothes", sigh, par for the course! Okay, so put on some old clothes and lets get painting!

Graffiti Mittens Recycled Gift Box Craft

Ready to practice your painting and drawing skills and make the funnest winter themed gift box ever? What can I tell you, this one is a winner, not just the color combo, but the fun artful style, and the fact that it looks much more complicated than it really is! This winter clothes theme came about because I painted an ugly sweater for Chanukah, and then a graffiti ski cap, so mittens were a natural fit for my theme, and mittens with pom poms, is there anything cuter? So whether you follow my technique or not, do think about packaging your gifts this year in recycled containers that you've repurposed, or painted or made yourself, it makes gift giving that much more meaningful! Okay, lets get started!

A Peek In My Sketchbook: How To Draw Knit Hats and Mittens

With cooler weather and lots of rain to boot at last a reality in my little corner of the world, my winter clothing themed crafts this year at last make a bit more sense decorating our home! I recently saw a tiny bit of clip art in a local ad that lead to this page in my sketchbook, in which I figured out how to draw adorable knit hats and mittens, with ribs and cables to boot! I do knit a bit, so it does help to know what knits actually look like. If you do not knit and you want to have a go at drawing some of these winter items yourself, I recommend taking a look at what knits actually look like! I have been doing lots and lots of painting in this large A4 sized sketchbook, so a page filled with simple drawings was quite honestly such a relief! Drawing these items is really quite simple, but if you must start by using a pencil to draw the shape, and then go over that with a pen and add the details with a pen, got it? Curios to know what is on the opposite page of these knits, hmmm, it might just be the theme for next week on the blog, or so it seems to be!

Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! With more rain and cooler temps here in Northern Israel, things are finally starting to feel like Fall, phew! The rain means blankets of green shoots covering the fields, which is so lovely, and this week I was really surprised to see some new growth in the meadow where I try to take walks a few plus times a week. Chanukah is on the horizon and this year is all about artful gift wrap, recycling crafts and lots of stars to bring light and joy. I am continuing my personal journey with paint and brush and sketchbook, and it feels so good! I look back at some of my simple crafts and wonder why I didn't think to add a little sketch here or there! Such is the creative journey and looking back and realizing that your aesthetics have changed a bit is a great thing, as progress or at least a shift means the creative gears aren't just turning to churn out more of the same, but rather bringing on something new altogether! Speaking of something new, why not challenge yourself with something you've never done, like crocheting or sewing or knitting to bring some warmth into the approaching winter! Lets get inspired by the features from last week's party, shall we?

Hello Prague: Street Artists, Performers And Horses!

  If you have been following my account of a glorious 9 days in Prague, Czech Republic a year ago, you will already know that I can't say enough great things about this very historic, very interesting, very beautiful city! To top off all the amazing experiences, we also saw many street performers in amazing huge costumes or with simple acts that were unlike anything we'd ever seen. After a few days we realized that the most amazing ones were all using some similar kind of contraption to do their magic, but that didn't really take away from the interesting juxtaposition of it all, which was more like a play on a stage set than real life! A man in a gold suit, a giant polar bear, a monk floating in the air and horses decked out in gorgeous ear covers? This is all part of the experience that is Prague, so come, lets take a look!

Hello Prague: The Dancing House Building

If you are an architecture buff like myself, or even if you are not, when in Prague a visit to the Dancing House Building is a must, as there is nothing else quite like it! I also happen to be a long time fan of the Jewish American architect Frank Gehry, who came up with this iconic buildling that is said to represent Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, so a visit was a must, and it was on the way to another location, so why not? I'll admit, while I love modern architecture, I do not always love modern architecture amidst lovely classic architecture, which is the case here. But what I think is really unimportant, the main take away here is that just as Frank Gehry and his patrons dared to push the boundaries here in Prague, so too should we! Well most of use would never have the opportunity to do it in such a huge public way, but we can certainly do it with our own creative projects, like or starters making the sun a color that is not yellow and grass a color that is not green! Or if you are like me maybe it means hanging plastic bag pom poms in your living room months ahead of a large birthday party, or never taking down the garlands of white pom poms that have been hanging since last December? You get the picture, dare to be different, and don't worry about what others think, Frank Gehry certainly did not when he designed this building! Okay, lets take a look at it from a few different angles......

Pine Cone Owl Craft With An Artful Twist

Since this week has been all about owls and owl crafts and painted owls, I just had to try making a pine cone owl because pine cones are the perfect shape, right? Not to mention that natural look of belly feathers! Of course I couldn't just whip out the felt and copy someone else's owl pine cone, I had to come up with something just a bit original, realistically because i have no idea where my felt is at the moment, nor if I have anything more than brown and green.....So introducing a pine cone owl with an artful twist, meaning some painted paper scraps and a few little doodads to make it truly original. And while you are at it, make a bunch in all sizes and look into making a whole range of forest creatures such as foxes, porcupines/hedge hogs, mice and more. But first things first, lets make a pine cone owl. And if you are lucky enough to have access to those giant pine cones I grew up with, well make a giant pine cone owl!

A Mixed Media Stand Up Owl Is Perfect For Your Woodland Decorating Theme?

Owl themed crafts are so much fun, and can be done in so many ways, depending on how much time you have to spend and just how many owls you want to make! I am trying to increase my painting skills, so another painted owl, this time a bit more woodsy than my stand up owl with wine cork feet, is what came to be. The only thing I actually planned was that it would be a cut out stand up owl, so I painted it on the back of a piece of cereal box cardboard, and while I am very critical of my own work, I actually really love this gal, she looks to me like a children's book illustration. I do need to paint some big mushrooms to complete the scene, but for now presenting my mixed media cereal box owl! Ah yes, and just by the way, an owl like this could be great for a woodland themed baby shower, birthday party or any fall/winter occasion, plus he is easy to store and enjoy for years to come!

A Fun Stand-Up Painted Owl With Wine Cork Feet!

Owl crafts are really so much fun and lend themselves to lots of creativity, as once you have the basic identifying features of an owl, namely the eyes and beak and compact body shape, you can do just about anything and it will still look like an owl! Recently I have been enjoying honing my art skills and bringing them into the world of craft by marrying the two through artful recycled packaging, birthday decor, succah decor and now a little bit of fall/winter seasonal decor that includes owls. It is true, a pink and green owl with striped pants might be most of all birthday party appropriate, but I say one does not need any excuses whatsoever to bring something colorful and creative into your home any time! This stand up owl is so simple to make and will surely bring smiles all around, so lets get started!