creative jewish mom

Plastic Bag Pom Pom Fruit Craft

I've been wanting to make fruit from plastic bag pom poms for a few good years now, and it finally happened, and I just love them. Now if only I had plastic bags in orange and yellow, well things would be even more festive. Plastic bag pom pom fruit can be great hung as a mobile in a child's room, used as party decor for a fruit themed party, or of course made to celebreate Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish new year for fruit bearing trees, which is why I made these! Right now I have plastic bag pom poms hanging over my dining room table, and while I had planned to add these to the mix it was looking a little bit too much like a child's room, so I've been displaying them elsewhere. That said they truly are adorable, and certainly something one can keep on hand to pull out in a pinch, I think they'd make great cake toppers as well. And come to think of it, how about making an adorable DIY baby mobile and gift it together with any number of popular baby items. Okay, lets make some plastic bag pom pom fruit, because truly the posibilties are endless!

Graffiti Hearts Milk Carton Craft

With the Jewish New Year for the trees, Tu B'Shevat coming up this Sunday night I thought I'd revamp some of my painted milk cartons to go with the new ones covered in hearts. I had almost forgotten how many graffiti hearts projects I've done, so it is a good thing there is an archives here to remind me! I have not painted in a while, so I've been covering milk cartons with layers and layers of hearts as a warm up, and it also turns out to be oh so relaxing and quite addicting! And best of all they are sure to put a smile on everyone's face, promise! So cover a milk carton in hearts, and another with whimsical blooming heart trees and enjoy!

Origami Apples Craft

Origami is one of my favorite crafts, whether actual traditional size, or giant size which I generally go for, so with the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat and all things fruit coming up in a few weeks, I thought I'd get started by trying out some origami apples that I've yet to tackle! The charming thing about these apples is that while one sided they are dimensional, and stand up on the page, unless you force them to be flat with glue, but why do that? Use them on a garland or wall hanging of some kind, and while you won't want to show off the back, it is nice that they have dimension!

Add some details with a paint pen, or not, and enjoy! No go make a bushel, here's how......

DIY Tree Of Life Wall Decor, For The Succah Or The Home!

today is Hoshana Raba, a very important and spiritual day during the Jewish holiday of succot, and for those of us in Israel, the last day in the Succah. So while I really want to be in the Succah right now, soaking it all up in all its glory, I'm popping in to share with you once again one of my favorite Succah decorations, and one in fact that lives year round on a wall in my kitchen, except during Succot! I made this from a real dead olive branch that I found on a walk in the meadows nearby, I painted it with a fine coat of white, added some gold leaves made from succah decorations from previous years, and voila! I then went on to make a larger version, with a complete tutorial that you can find here.

Wishing everyone a meaningful Hoshana Raba, and wonderful Simchat Torah, which we celebrate in our homes, in Israel starting tonight, and elsewhere starting Monday night.

DIY Seven Species Garland

As you can well guess I have so many Succah decorations from previous years that I still love, so spending time making new ones is certainly not a priority! Of course when one of my sons requested that I create the "seven species" as part of my Daily Object series (read about that here) in order to hang them in the succah, well of course I could not resist, because while we try to hang actual versions of the 7 species in the succah, artistic representations of them haven't been created for some time, and my previous version is in a box lost in the attic somewhere! So while of course now is not the time to be making succah decorations, you can save this idea for next year, or after the holiday get to work on your own version to enjoy for the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat, when we eat the 7 species! What are the 7 species you ask? Keep on reading!

Adorable Doodle Pears Boxes To Stack As Art!

Sometimes it is the DIY projects with just the simplest materials, and of course recyclables to boot, that are truly the most special! And these fun stackable doodle pear boxes are truly the proof in the pudding, right? It all started out because I'm doing an instagram challenge called #colormegrow at my @sara.rivka.dahan account, and this week we were working on a project using just red, black and white. The challenge will last for at least 3 months, and I'm planning to do boxes every week, so that at the end I'll have a nice tower! Each week, depending on which color or colors the challenge dictates, I'll be painting stripes on little recycled food boxes (like tea boxes and one sleeve cookie boxes, toothpaste boxes, etc.) and then turning that into something. Last week I made landscapes from my blue boxes, and this week, well, the challenge subject was pears and today is Tu B'Shevat, so a fun pattern with doodle pears was an obvious choice! Of course, if you like my pears, you can use this idea on canvas or paper, it would be fun art in any form.  Okay, lets do it, shall we?

DIY Orange and Cloves Pomanders

It has been twelve years (gasp) since I actually made these great looking orange and cloves pomanders, but they are still looking good, so I figured I'd dust off this project and share it with you again. i have come to realize that bringing things out of the archives to see the light of day isn't such a bad idea, especially since most people don't go fishing around in there!

You do have time to actually make some of these pomanders before ushering in the Jewish holiday of Tu B'Shevat and I have come up with a great way to make these so that even those who aren't so crafty can succeed.....and of course the fragrance that goes with this activity is just lovely, so go for it!

Carved Carrot Leaves!

Dusting this one off for the upcoming Jewish Holiday of Tu B'Shevat, coming January 16th!

At long last I have found a really good reason to continue exploring the world of fruit and vegetable carving: the holiday of Tu B'Shevat is coming up this Friday night, and since we'll be celebrating with loading the table with as many kinds of fruit (and nuts) as possible, carved fruit and veggie platters seem just perfect. So introducing another instalment of Vegetable Carving 101, this time it is Simple Carved Carrot leaves! The great part about carrot leaves is that they can be made way ahead, like now for example, and will keep perfectly in the fridge in a container of water. The little leaves you see here are just my first attempt, and did it just before I was about to prepare dinner, so that all the little scraps were not wasted, but rather thrown into a chicken stir fry!

Dried Orange Slice Pendant Craft For Kids

Dried orange slices are great for crafting, and at long last I stuck some in my oven (back in 2012, gasp) to make some things for Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish New Year for fruit bearing trees, which my friends is on the night of January 16th. So plenty of time to give this a try, right? Rather than create a dried orange slice garland or another ornament, I came up with this fun idea which could also be a great little activity for a Tu B'Shevat party. Yup, that's right, dried orange slice pendants! And on little kids these pendants are well, quite large, making them all the more fun and festive. And when the party is over, you can simply hang your pendants somewhere for decoration. While I was about to tell you about using cinnamon bark and star spices, never mind, why make this complicated, it is truly great as is! Enjoy!

Fruit Orchard Kid's Craft With Pine Cones

This pine cone fruit tree orchard craft (hanging out in my archives with so many other great projects) is just as cute as can be and perfect for Tu B'shebat, coming up on the evening of Sunday Jan 16, so there is plenty of time to get into this fun craft, and enjoy!

Collecting pine cones on a nature walk is always a fun activity to do with the little ones, but what to use them for afterwards? Here's a good one for you: make a pine cone orange orchard! This idea is so simple yet with great results and fun for a variety of ages. And maybe they'll even take the time to make a popsicle stick shed for their orchard, and some little crates to fill up with oranges. That would be a good start to encourage creative activities rather than anything with batteries or that plugs into a wall, right? And of course if you want to get particularly crafty, how about making a plan to build an entire farm, or little town with all the usual amenities, just from simple supplies like these?