creative jewish mom

Watercolor Pomegranates Card Craft

We are ushering in the wonderful holiday of Sukkot tomorrow night, and I am still crafting (of course) so you may also be in need of a sweet way to make some holiday cards or placecards? My daughter made this for me as a Rosh HaShana card, and it is just so sweet I had to share it with you! A branch of apples and pomegranates could work for Succot, or even Tu B'Shevat, the new year for fruit bearing trees, so if you don't have time for it now, keep it in mind! I love the little touch of gold leaf, right?

Okay, lets get started on this, time is of the essence!

Golden Fig Leaf Garland

Golden fig leaf garlands, or golden leaf garlands of any kind of leaf are simple to whip up and look amazing. I choose to use fig and olive leaves for this garland to represent 2 of the 7 holy species, but you can of course do what works for you! Golden monstera leaves would look amazing as home decor, or party decor or in a child's room, right? But right now, of course we need to think about the succah and this is a relatively quick craft with great results, so get some heavy weight gold paper, or light weight gold cardboard, or some cereal box cardboard that you'll paint, and get to work! That empty wall in your succah could use a few of these garlands, and voila, you'll be so happy you spent the extra effort! Okay, lets do this! (Please excuse the grainy photos, this craft is from way back in 2013, when my photograph skills were less developed!)

Giant Origami Apples Holiday or Shabbat Decor!

I am reposting this giant origami apples tutorial because it is just to wonderful not to share again. Make apples to enjoy for Rosh HaShana and use as succah decorations as well! So simple and while you are at it, make a whole giant bushel full!

Origami apples are so simple to make and are the perfect craft to whip up right now! Fill a basket with them to use as a centerpiece, use them as place cards, hang them mobile style or make a bunch and scatter them around the house. (Or save this idea and gift a whole basket full to your teacher!) The best part is they look great everywhere and any where, and would make cute little Rosh HaShana gifts as well. Attach a tag that is a card and you'll surely warm the hearts of all your recipients! I used these very apples as apple centerpieces for a Rosh Chodesh party, and then a neighbor borrowed them as centerpieces for a Brit, and depending on the colors you choose they can look elegant or playful, or both. So take my advice and get crafting dear friends, the Jewish New year is in less than 3 weeks, with Succos to follow so a barrel of origami apples will serve you well, promise! And yes, you can of course make these in a smaller size and in a variety of colors to represent a wide range of fruit, as I've done here with my origami fruit, cute as can be!

Painted Paper Apple Collage

How about an artful apple collage to celebrate fall, or maybe you need some fun kitchen art? Apple collages could also make great cards for Rosh HaShana, the Jewish New Year, or even fun place cards or gift tags. Keep it simple, and the results will be great! When collage is made using painted paper, and the collage pieces are well adhered, it almost looks like a painting, which is so amazing!

Collage using painted paper, and specifically painted tissue paper was made famous by the children's book author Eric Carle, who unfortunately passed away recently. I made this painted paper apple collage based on a class taught by the amazing Este Macleod, called Colour Collage 1 (which is not currently available), though you can certainly visit the hashtag #colourcollage1 on instagram to see all the student work.

I can not explain the process based on how Este taught it, but I can explain the process based on Eric Carle's technique, which is similar. Eric Carle, used painted tissue paper collage exclusively to illustrate his world renowned children's books and in fact kept huge flat files full of painted tissue paper sorted according to color! Okay dear readers, as you can likely imagine given the wide variety of projects on this blog, I could never limit myself to one technique, so I always find it quite interesting that artists are able to do the same thing for years on end! Lesson learned? Keep doing the same thing over and over to be successful at it? Hmmm, I do plan to try this same technique with some pomegranites, so that is a start? Okay, let's get to work!

Soda Bottle Treat Box Shaped Like An Apple!

As  you may know one of my great creative joys is coming up with fun craft projects that use recyclables. I have been know to hoard plastic bottles, tp rolls, techina containers, and milk cartons, for starters, all in the name of making just for example, treat boxes, party decorations, centerpieces and even planters. With Rosh HaShana right around the corner in another week and a half, now is a great time to think about sweet treats (healthy or not so healthy, your choice) to usher in a sweet new year! Of course, if you have a birthday, or would like to give a teacher appreciation gift, this soda bottla apple treat box is perfect and truly easy to whip up, even in numbers. Of course, you'll have to have the necessary number of plastic bottles on hand, but if you are short, pop on over, I likely have some extra! If you would like some additional ideas for making party favors, gift containers or baskets from soda bottles, hop on over to my soda bottle recycling crafts category.

Pine Cone Pineapples Are The Perfect Summer Craft!

 

I have taken this craft out of the archives and dusted it off as it is a great partner to my pine cone animals post. Plus it truly is one of the cutest nature crafts ever, right? And pineapples can be any color, not just yellow as long as you have a few yellow ones in the bunch. Best of all, you'll hopefully have to take a nature walk to collect the pinecones, so enjoy!

I have been wanting to make pinecone pineapples for a few months now, and even painted the pinecones yellow before Passover, and finally found the time to give this fantastic summer craft, that would be a perfect summer camp craft a try. And wow, the results are so adorable you'll want to make a whole bunch, I know I do! You can use your pineapple pinecones as decorations for part of a tropical party, or as whiimsical decorations any time. Line up a few on a shelf and you'll smile every time you see them, or hang some mobile style. And of course if you want to be a little bit different, how about hanging some pineapple pinecones in your succah? Succot is among other things, a fall harvest festival, and in Israel that means pomegranites and dates, but it could certainly mean pineapples as well, right?

Regardless of whether you have a plan for your pinecone pineapples, gather some pinecones and get crafting, I'm sure a great idea will come to you. If not simply display them on a little shelf which is where mine are sitting right now, looking as cute as ever! Best of all, once you get the hang of how to make these, you really could whip up quite a few, even as fun Bar or Bat Mitzvah, birthday or wedding centerpieces, so lets get crafting! (Note: If you do plan on making a large quantity, I would paint them by dipping them into a large container of paint, so much easier!)

Trees In Bloom On A Milk Carton Craft!

Tonight is the wonderful Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat, so it is time to get crafting, either to create decor for the holiday, or as an activity to honor the holiday. After all, whimical paintings of trees in bloom gracing milk cartons is something one can certainly enjoy for a good few months? I just love painting on milk cartons because the results are ready to display and honestly it is just so darn cute, and unexpected, a great combination! Last week I shared milk carton row houses with heart graffiti, and now I'm sharing almond trees in bloom painted on the rejects from the previous project, which is a perfect way to go! And the truth is I started painting whimsical almond trees in bloom on paper, check it out here, and then I started to explore the topic further on milk cartons. In case you are wondering, this painting on milk carton trend is not likely to disappear any time soon, I'm already thinking about Purim, the next Jewish holiday! Okay, but first things first, lets take a look at how to go about painting blooming fruit trees on milk cartons!

Trees In Bloom Finger Paintings For All Ages!

Tonight is the wonderful Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat, the new year for fruit bearing trees, so what better time than to get the family together, or carve out some time for yourself, to paint some artful and whimsical almond trees in bloom! Okay, if you wish they can be cherry blossom trees, no problem! And best of all, you can choose to do this trees in bloom painting project without using any brushes at all, just fingers and a few q-tips, imagine that! That is right dear readers, finger painting isn't always for little kids, it can be great for any age!

The trees in bloom paintings that I'm sharing with you here were painted based on an online family friendly painting class by my friend Amanda Evanston, and the class is called Brushless Botanicals: Chagall Trees! Perfect, right? (Chagall was Jewish and includes many Jewish themes in his paintings, so get inspired by Chagal and paint anything floating in the sky!) There's a whole section about Chagall which is really interesting, in addition to several painting lessons to create trees inspired by Chagall. I took it one step further to create trees in bloom, and added some paint pen details as seen in the painting above, but you may choose to stick with just your fingers......there are no rules folks! Also, do take a look at Amanda Evanston's Facebook page every Wednesday, starting today, for some free mini classes, including one today (up for 24 hours) that uses spaghetti as a painting tool, don't miss it!

Okay, back to our Tu B'Shevat scheduling, lets paint some joyful trees in bloom, and I've even painted some on milk cartons, which together with these paintings are this year's holiday decorations! Okay let's take a closer look......

Folk Art Trees In Bloom Doodle Painting

Looking for a fun tree doodle, that is simple with great results, and that you could even use as a Tu B'Shevat craft? These folk art doodle trees are sweet as can be, and look great as is, on paper, but one could also draw them on cereal box cardboard and use them for a garland or napkin rings, or how about a grove of stand up folk art doodle trees? This was a first for me, and I have to admit, the last time I tried to doodle trees in my sketchbook, sometime last May, I failed completely, but I just had to get back up on the horse, and this time, yippee, I've already filled six pages in my sketchbook with doodle trees and I am thrilled! And after all the acrylic paintings I've been doing in the same sketchbook, I need to do a whole bunch of pages that aren't so paint laden, and this is a good start! I have actually taken photos of these doodles in progress in order to do a small tutorial, so lets get started!

Simple Doodle Trees Painting For Tu B'Shevat

Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish New Year for fruit bearing trees is this coming Wednesday night, so now is the time to make some simple tree-themed crafts to fill your home with joy! We are fortunate to live in Israel where we witness the blooming of the very first fruit tree, the almond tree, right around the holiday, so the holiday is especially anticipated. This first sign of spring in the dead of winter is something very special. and certainly brings great joy to those of us who are paying attention. Of course school children celebrate this event and there is a song in hebrew about the blooming of the almond trees, but it is something special for every age. I generally photography the blooming almond trees each year, so stay tuned for that. In the mean time, lets get started with tree themed crafts by making a simple doodle tree painting, that you can enjoy just for the sake of creating something, or use as a sign, or even cut out the trees to make a garland, or napkin rings, or place cards for your Tu B'Shevat seder! Okay, time is of the essence, lets get started!