With Purim in just a week, and Passover to follow, now is the time to start thinking about a top to bottom yearly cleaning and organizing of our homes. While you may be tempted to toss it all, I recommend looking at your "garbage" with a eco-friendly eye on creativity, and as a way of collecting great supplies for future craft projects! Proceed with a plan of course, if you want to stay sane, and also depending on how much storage space you may have. That said, many of the things I save really don't take up that much space, and believe me, when you are in need of a good craft, and the supplies are on hand, you'll thank me! So plan ahead and create wonderful Jewish holiday crafts in the coming year with recyclables that you've set aside during your spring cleaning! Such a great feeling to manifest creativity by planning for it, right?
It is true, all that cleaning and organizing can be a huge task, so why not motivate yourself and your family with a reward of some stunning new pieces of Judaica for your holiday table from Nadav Art Judaica, like a new silver or anodized aluminum kiddush cup or even that gorgeous honey bowl you've always wanted for Rosh HaShana.
Okay, lets get those creative gears turning with some great crafting ideas for all the major Jewish holidays, ready?
Crafts For Rosh HaShana, The Jewish New Year
While there are many themes for Rosh HaShana, one of my favorites is the apple, and craft projects involving apples can then be used in the succah as well! I love the recycled soda bottle apple treat box, so simple with great results. You can use the apples as gift boxes, or make a bunch for a centerpiece or to hang in the succah.
Note: To save plastic bottles for this project, cut the bottom portion off of the bottle and save that only.
Another favorite is this cross stitch apple on a styrofoam tray, so very cute and of course can be hung as fun decor year round. Styrofoam trays are wonderful for embroidery, though one does have to be gentle or they will break! As one of the items that cannot be recycled, it is especially great to find a use for these trays, just make sure no raw food has touched the actual tray, in which case it is not safe to use. I have often dreamed of filling a whole wall with embroidered styrofoam trays in a bunch of colors, so do collect them to have on hand for your brilliant project!
Crafts For The Succah
The succah is the place to show off your love for creativity, and of course there are so many succah decoration ideas out there, and of course in my archives. I love tearing out colorful magazine pages and saving those in a shoe box, as there are an unlimited number of fun medallions and other paper shapes that can be made with recycled paper. One of my favorite ideas is to use the calendar from the previous Jewish year to make a starburst wall hanging, great looking and so fun when people realize it is last year's calendar! Of course there are many other paper items that can be used for this craft, like work books and brochures and of course magazines, so don't toss them! Additionally, things like workbooks and workbook pages can be great for protecting the table when paint or markers might be involved for a small craft.
Crafts For Chanukah
I love to build up excitement for Chanukah by filling the house with all kinds of fun crafts. And of course, since the holiday is 8 days long, you can always continue to make crafts during the holiday as well! I love painting on shapes that I've cut out from cereal boxes, and then using those shapes for garlands or in this case for my stand up dreidels craft, using wine corks. This one is really so very cute and so simple to save for next year! You can choose to paint both sides in order to use these as a centerpiece, which might also contain lots of real dreidels at the base. I've been using kosher salt as "snow" and these dreidels would stand up particularly well stuck into a bowl or trough of kosher salt, plus it looks so pretty!
Crafts For Purim
Purim is the perfect time to get crafty, and one of my all time favorite crafts is making recycled cereal box gift bags from the pile of collapsed cereal boxes that I've been saving all year. When my kids were little I had them draw pictures on the cereal boxes, and the results of that were some truly precious gift bags. Alternately, you can involve the kids by doing potato prints on the not printed side of the cereal box, or combining potato prints with doodling to make it whimsical, such as adding faces and costume hats to simple shapes. I made two gift bags from large cereal boxes, but you can choose to make a much larger gift bag with just one large cereal box, go for it!
Crafts For Passover
While we are all generally so very busy as Passover approaches, with limited time for crafting, this milk carton frogs craft is just too cute to pass up! Why not cut up those recycled milk cartons now to save for the craft, or even get to work on it now, to set aside for Passover. These frogs make adorable pots for plants, treat holders or holiday catch-alls for the little stuff. And of course frogs are not the only animal you can make, bears and rabbits and cats are adorable, and I've even made a child with a birthday hat, so get creative!
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot, that celebrates the receiving of the Torah, is a great time to bring on the flowers and festivity after a mourning period on the Jewish calender, and crafts are a great way to do just that! My tissue paper Mount Sinai kids craft is so much fun and with great results! So be sure to save the tissue paper that comes into your life, as it is the perfect material to scrunch up for little flowers. This is a wonderful craft to do with young children as they will love tearing the paper and making little balls, and then placing them into the glue! This craft can be done in any size, so if you are ambitious, a huge one can be great as well.
I hope you've enjoyed this roundup of Jewish holiday recycling crafts, now go take a look at all the things hanging around in your house and figure out which of them can be great art supplies for the coming year. Wishing you a year full of creative and happy Jewish holidays!