creative jewish mom

Best Of Craft Schooling Sunday: Crochet

Dear readers, I am currently taking a summer break so I’ve prepared some inspiring ”best of” posts to replace Craft Schooling Sunday for the next three weeks. I’m even typing this on a cell phone, a first for me and not conducive to my usual babble so i’ll wish everyone a creative rest of the summer and loooking forward to  reconnecting in September. Enjoy!

Mini Cardboard T-Shirts For Birthday Party Decor!

DIY mini cardboard t-shirts are just the cutest for birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, graduation, baby showers, casual weddings, and to welcome guests or just because! Simply make some mini cardboard t-shirts, decorate them with the message or graphics that works for your party, and voila, you can hang them on a string with mini clothespins, attach them to skewers for cake decorations, add a ribbon to make gift tags, or even use them to make fun napkin rings! And that is just for starters, I'm sure you can think of some more great ideas! I just love drawing black line drawings of clothes on cardboard, and you may remember my recycled cardboard clothes on a clothesline stage set, or even my mini Purim costumes on a clothes line kids craft. Once you realize how quick these ilttle t-shirts are to make, and how adorable they are, you'll be hooked, I know I am! Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go make a whole pile of them to have on hand for every occasion! Of course this is a bit self explanatory, but let me give you a few tips to make it even more simple, shall we?

Simple Gold Leaf Rosh HaShana Card Craft Makes A Perfect Fall Craft Too

If you enjoyed my simple Rosh HaShana card craft, well now get ready to take that project up a rung with the addition of some gold leaf, love it! It is true, real gold leaf comes in sheets, and can be pricey, but for some fairly small change one can buy little containers of gold leaf flakes that are perfect for crafting and not breaking the bank. The addition of some gold leaf pieces to the leaves or even the apple itself turns nice cards into something spectacular! And I'll let you in on a little secret, I actually did it with black and well and wow! Ready to make some fabulous cards for Rosh HaShana, for Fall gift giving or even for teacher appreciation day, it is so simple and the results are fantastic. Just don't even think if making those leaves green please, that would spoil all the fun. Ready, lets get crafting!

Simple Rosh HaShana Card Craft To Whip Up Tonight!

Yes indeed I am back from a lovely six week hiatus, and with Rosh Hashana coming up Sunday night now is the time to get crafting! This year I decided to be just a bit traditional and make Rosh HaShana cards for all the neighbors, which I'll give together with a tiny jar of honey, or as is, the only problem is I'm so in love with the results I'm going to have a hard time giving them away! So make a bunch of sweet Rosh HaShana cards so that you too can save a few, and believe me this card craft is truly so simple you'll have no trouble making a whole pile. I'm running off to finish up all those card blanks I've had hanging around for years, but first, a simple tutorial, ready?

Brush Lettering With Faux Watercolor Background Birthday Card

 

It is true, here at CJM headquarters the little ones are now teens and tweens, so not a lot of kiddy crafts going on, but fortunately my daughter is picking up the slack with her creative endeavors. She just loves brush lettering and especially creating faux watercolor backgrounds for her lettering, which I've shared several times in the past. Today I photographed this birthday card before we put it in the mail, and not only is it great, it also goes along with all my orange/red fire themed crafts for the Jewish holiday of Lag B'Omer, coming up next week! Ah yes, and this card is the perfect partner to my brush lettering practice sheets wrapping paper, really truly.

So dear readers, whether you are looking for a fun way to add a colorful background to your brush lettering, or to make some abstract watercolor art with the use of just crayola markers, you are in the right place! I was even thinking that something like this could be great for a little Lag B'Omer sign, right? Okay, lets get to it!

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!

Quick Postage Stamp Themed Birthday Card

Does anyone other than me actually sit down and draw simple birthday cards, you know with a permanent marker and colored card stock? As you can see, I do, and fortunately so, as how else would I make a cute birthday card from the heart in ten minutes or so, in a pinch? Fourteen years ago today I gave birth to a sweet baby boy, and so today as my husband rushed off to pick him up at school and head out of the country for their yearly Rosh HaShana men's get away (that we women are honestly thrilled about, truly) I of course had to send some birthday treats, and at the least a card!

Other years I have sent birthday decorations and all kinds of things, but now that he is a big whopping fourteen, I know he'd rather celebrate in a slightly more private and less creativejewishmom manner, as they will be staying with a slew of other men and boys who do not have wives/mothers that would ever in a million years dream of sending birthday decorations in the suitcase!

Watercolor Birthday Card Craft

Happy Birthday Mom, sending our love across the seas, and while the physical copy of this lovely card that my daughter painted was sent via snail mail, I thought I'd post it here as well. Homemade cards were certainly a part of my childhood, and it makes me so happy when my kids also get into making cards! This watercolor card is so sweet and so simple to make regardless of one's level of art expertise! Just get out the watercolor paints, even a simple palette, and some watercolor paper, and lets get started!

Simple Gift Tags From Paper Scraps

With Purim still fresh in my memory, one of the things that always stresses me out on the very festive and busy holiday is making gift tags at the last minute, as well as wrapping up gifts in celophane, yuck. This year I de-stressed myself by personally delivering homebaked and prepared foods on a sweet cake stand I'd made......no need for wrapping or a gfit card, and it was so much fun! That said, i could have used a few ready to use gift tags, and so I am now committing to spending this year using all my little scraps of paper for making fun gift tags, which I'm am going to keep in this jar! So do expect to see that jar fill up as the year progresses, and it is going to be so much fun, as of course I plan to make a nice assortment.

And best of all, no matter what time of year, I'll always have a way to add a little note or label to something that gets sent out the door to friends and neighbors! Oh and of course, these little tags are so simple to make, keep reading for the how-to......

Dancing Numbers Birthday Card Craft For Kids

Here's another cute and simple homemade birthday card (the ONLY way to go!) craft idea for kids — dancing numbers! I came up with this one last week for my very unenthused (sigh) when it comes to crafting 10 year old, and he ended up taking the paper with him to make the card in school. That together with the number nine I drew for him to use as a stencil to trace around, as his doubts about actually making the numbers almost kept him from making this adorable card!