creative jewish mom

Cardboard Fish Centerpiece For Purim, Or Just For Fun!

The cardboard fish centerpieces I made for our community Purim party were a hit, and now I get to use them to decorate our house for Purim, coming up quickly next week. I don't think I'll use all ten of them, then again, a school of fish swimming down my Purim table could be lots of fun, right? I'll get out the blue tablecloths and take it from there.....maybe I'll make some milk carton boats or use some plastic ones and do a whole ocean themed table.......I guess it all depends on how quickly the costumes go this year, and how many guests we'll be having. At this moment I'm so happy to have some new decorations and a theme to work with, and Purim  isn't for another nine days or so (next Wednesday night, with the festive meal happening on Thursday.) And so for once the holiday may just come in without having to loose any sleep, yippee! Want to make some quick cardboard fish centerpieces? Lets get started......

Giant Paper Flower Centerpiece

A really giant centerpiece on a budget can be simple to whip up if you have the right materials and a few tips from yours truly, who specialized in making budget centerpieces on a dime. Yes, and infact I have a batch in progress for next week's Women's Purim party in our community, and it involves cardboard fish, but you'll just have to wait to see that one! In the mean time, a huge vase of flowers can instantly transform any table or room into a party, so these are perfect for Purim, especially when there are so many other things to make, at least in our house.Now I have to add, for some reason these flowers were very hard to photograph, and they actually look much better in person than in these photos, so take my word for it, and don't spend precious time on more difficult versions until you try these! And best of all, these flowers really can be make from just about any light weight paper, including recycled maps, newspaper, you name it, so get those creative gears turning!

No Bake Popsicle Cookies Are Simply Adorable

With everything looking pinker than pink in blog land this week, I thought I'd contribute with these super simple and beyond adorable no-bake popsicle cookies! And I'll just add that these are courtesy of my 16 year old daughter who is quite the expert at these kinds of things.......her mother would rather be painting, or making something healthy! Regardless it is great to have a trick like this up your sleeve when another neighbor's daughter is having an engagement party and the desert bar needs to be beyond gorgeous! Ah yes, and with Purim coming up, some of these presented with a summer theme could be an amazing mishloach manot! In fact I think that is what we'll do, just need to come up with the rest of the presentation, like summer umbrella, fruit punch, sunglasses..... stay tuned for that, in the mean time let's learn how to make these cuties!

Giant Origami Fruit Centerpiece IKEA Hack

What do you get when origami meets IKEA? You get a giant origami fruit centerpiece that is very budget friendly and great for large parties with lots of tables. You know like Bar Mitzvahs, and Bat Mitzvahs and budget weddings, or sheva brachas, or a community event or a large birthday party, or just about any occasion that warrants a creative touch without breaking the bank. Not every creative touch centerpiece I've created over the years (and believe me, there have been many) has been as sweet as this one, and best of all when the festive occasion is over you can give away the origami fruit and just keep the stands, or make a fun mobile with them, or save them for a bit to re-use. I think I'm going to add some gold polka dots to the origami apples that survived the second occasion, (a brit milah with a ton of kids) and use them to decorate the house for Purim! Actually I have a bunch of small origami apples that never made it to the phase where they actually become fruit, so those might be nice string light covers, or look great hanging from the ceiling somewhere........Purim is a festive holiday and a great excuse for someone like me to go a little crazier than usual, right? Okay, back to the Ikea Hack centerpieces, lets get started.......

Giant Origami Apples Are Perfect For Any Party

A few weeks ago, just after the holiday of Tu B'Shevat I needed to make some simple centerpieces for a community women's party, and I decided to try my hand at making a giant version of my origami apples and fruit. Fortunately the results were fantastic, especially with the addition of some gold leaves, and the same centerpieces were re-used a few days later at a shabbos Brit, which is perfect. Now, if your gears are turning, great, just know that there is a size limit to these origami fruit, namely the width of your paper, and once they get large folding the paper isn't difficult, but expanding the shape can be. So make some origami fruit in a bunch of sizes and colors (I did, actually, as you can guess) and enjoy. They won't last forever, and I believe a few of mine succumbed to having drinks spilled on them, but that is fine, after all sometimes it is great when you don't have to save everything! Ah yes, and it is true, these lavender versions may look more like plums, but that is great too, the more fruit the better. Okay, lets start making some giant origami fruit, perfect for Purim, shabbat, a baby shower, a wedding, a teacher appreciation gift, or just because.

DIY Fairy Lights Holiday Centerpiece

This post is sponsored by DHgate.com

Looking for a simple yet festive centerpiece this holiday season? Look no further, this DIY for copper wire fairy lights is so simple, you've got this! I actually made this plant in a house (it's a green house!) centerpiece for my son's bar mitzvah, and made about 20 of them in no time......the biggest time investment was trying to get all those metal frame houses back home. For the bar mitzvah I bought a bunch of flowering plants and placed them in white ceramic pots that I had on hand from the last bar mitzvah, and the results were gorgeous. Whether or not you can actually get your hands on a house frame like this one (mine was from the local discount store) the most important element here for your holiday centerpiece is the mini-LED fairy lights with copper wire. Some versions of this mini-LED string light are also water proof, meaning you can fill a mason jar or vase with water, attach the battery to the inside lid of the jar, and oh the possibilities! With or without water, wrap these tiny lights around just about anything, or simply place them in a bowl of fruit, and voila, your holiday centerpiece is ready to go. And just by the way, these lights are now available as solar powered mason jar lids which is perfect for an outdoor holiday DIY for mason jar lights project!

Ready to get started with this simple DIY holiday centerpiece using copper wire fairy lights? Let's do it!

DIY Floral Centerpiece Is Gorgeous And Budget Friendly

Aren't these flowers just gorgeous? Now is the time to take a trip to your local nursery, buy some inexpensive pots of flowering plants, and make a gorgeous DIY floral centerpiece. You can assemble a stunning floral arrangemet in minutes that is so budget friendly you'll only buy cut flowers during the winter! Okay, maybe you'd rather spend a small fortune on truly gorgeous bouquets, but around here flowers rarely last more than a week, as opposed to flowering plants that we can enjoy for months. Ah yes, and I just love the natural look of using flowering plants that come with their own greenery!

I actually purchased all these little plants to make centerpieces for my son's bar mitzvah, and after we enjoy them for the holiday of Shavuos, coming up Saturday night, most of them will be planted in my container garden or in a garden that I designed just down the street. Plants raised to be planted in the garden can certainly be enjoyed indoors for a week or two, though likely need the kind of sunlight or light levels generally only found outdoors to keep flowering.

Want to hear some more about how to make a gorgeous centerpiece  or centerpieces using small pots of flowers from the nursery? Keep on reading.......

Rosh HaShana Kid's Card Craft: A Stuffed Fish!

Rosh HaShana is Wednesday night, so there is no time like the present to make fun cards for the new year and to keep the kids busy with crafts while you prepare for the holiday! If you are not a mom, so you may have even more time for crafting, and this little craft is fun for adults too......your fish may just look a bit more grown up, or maybe less detailed....you decide!

The tradition of giving cards for Rosh HaShana, to wish others a sweet new year (for starters) is a wonderful one, though we can certainly think a bit outside the box and make cards that are not actually cards, but in this case little stuffed shapes! And if you really want to take this craft one step further, include some little loops of ribbon for hanging before stapling it all together, and then these Rosh HaShana cards can become sukkah decorations as well, yippee!

For a few more simple ideas, keep on reading!

Crocheted Kitchen And Bath Scrubbies Using Recycled Potato Sacks!

Crocheting with recycled materials is something that I find oh so satisfying, and so you can well imagine that these crocheted kitchen and bath scrubbies made using recycled mesh potato sacks are one of my favorite little projects! With a bag full of potato sacks waiting to be used and a long bus ride to a friend's wedding at hand, this became a fun take-along crochet project, yippee! These scrubbies are great to have on hand, whether for using in the kitchen (I use these as dishwashing sponges on shabbat) or in the bathroom, and you can make them using little scraps of left over yarn. What is not to love? And do check out my previous post, picot trimmed crocheted bath scrubbies using potato sacks as well, if you are looking for something a little less basic for gift giving.

One little disclaimer: that green kitchen scrubbie was actually made using a bag that held fresh almonds, check out my post from years ago here to see that bag in action, and of course similar mesh bags are used to hold other kinds of produce, so upcycle those too!

Ready to get started? Let's do it!

A Ten Minute Felt Chrysanthemum Made From A Strip

The Jewish holiday of Shavuous, (in which, among other traditions, we decorate our homes with flowers and greenery to celebrate the receiving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai) is tomorrow night, so with the idea of some really large felt flower napkin rings for our holiday table in mind, yet not a lot of time, I knew I needed a felt flower that would be quick to make and great looking! A quick felt flower is without a doubt one made by rolling a strip of felt, yet that are many variations on the technique with quite different looking results. (I've made felt rose buds, way back when, another flower type to combine with this one, if you like!)

The felt chrysanthemum made from one long strip of fringed loops came to mind, and after a bit of experimenting I was sold. In fact so much so that I used up almost all of a large bag of felt scraps and yardage that had been hanging out for way too many years, yippee! (Note: I do have a large blister on my middle finger from the scissors and all that cutting, such is the price......it nicely compliments the hot glue gun blister on my ring finger!)

I ended up settling on using grey felt for the napkin ring flowers, as that will look the best on my white table with lots of cobalt blue Moroccan dishes, the ones made with pink and yellow and blue ended up being used for a really cute felt flower decoration for the front door, which I will be sharing shortly.

Want to make some of these fun felt chrysanthemums too? If you've got ten minutes or so and felt and hot glue on hand, then lets get started!