creative jewish mom

Miniature Swing Set Craft From Recyclables For Creative Kids

Summer is here, which means longer days and more time to spend on creativity, yippee! This summer I am buckling down and getting the kids involved in the kind of creative activities that we've been missing over the past six or so very busy months. We're starting with this fun miniature swing set craft made from recyclables, that is just the first step in what I hope will be an entire playground.

Swing sets and fun play ground equipment are every child's dream, so do check out the budget friendly swings, slides and seesaws from tesco to add the real thing to your own backyard, and for some quiet time, building a fantasy park for little plastic people (ours are Playmobil) can be a fabulous creative activity. Plus, make it strong enough and the kids will spend hours playing with it afterwards!

You'll Need:

• foam core or cardboard for the base, 1/2" thick foam core or dense foam of some kind would allow you to attach things by poking skewers and toothpicks into the thickness of the board.
• skewers, our flat ones miraculously were exactly the right size for the Playmobil people's hands!
• wine corks
• bottle and small container tops
• string
• a sharp yarn needle or metal skewer for making holes in plastic tops
• a hot glue gun
• decorative tape
• water color paint or guache

How To:

Step 1: Cut a piece of foam core for your base. Paint the base with water colors in a sweet little pattern to represent grass or that speckled foam surface you'll find in parks. (above)

Step 2; Assemble your structure using skewers and wine corks. Cut slits in wine corks if desired to insert skewers, though also secure with hot glue. Adhere structure to base.

Step 3: Make swings by threading string or yarn through holes you make in the caps with a sharp yarn or upholstery needle. Tie swings to your structure, balancing them of course as needed. Add some decorative tape, and viola, a fun swing set has been made!

Step 4: Make a plan regarding making the next piece of playground equipment together, and slowly add to your park until it is something which will make everyone proud. And don't forget to take good photos of your creation, this is the kind of stuff that childhood memories are made of!

 

Park Sculptures Made By Kids To Encourage Recycling!

Last summer during our 4 days on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada, we went to a very nice park called Shirley May Park, that had a frizbee golf course in the middle of a redwood forrest! It was very beautiful and I was truly caught by surprise when we came across this bottle cap and container tops sculpture made by kids during summer camp, I'm assuming, and a great reminder to keep the park clean and use the recycling bins!

And I just love the flowers made from tin can tops to adorn this "Respect our Park" sign, don't you? So if you're looking for some projects to do at camp or a family staycation this summer, do keep this inspiration in mind and use it to create something of your own with recycled objects!

 

Soda Bottle Apple Revisited- Reader's versions!

Now is apple season, and around here apples are not just about back to school and Fall, they're also about Rosh HaShana, so apple themed crafts are perfect right about now! With Rosh HaShana just ten or so days away, my soda bottle apple gift box is a perfect project, and I was so very happy to see two great versions of it on the web, so I just had to share them with you!

The teacher appreciation gift version from bethapalooza is perfect, and I love the fact that she changed some of the details, for the better even! Joyful Jewish took my idea and used it not as a gift box but as a hanging decoration, which could be perfect for Rosh HaShana and then useful in the Succah!

For complete instructions, please refer to my original post, the soda bottle apple gift box. Enjoy, more crafts for Rosh HaShana coming soon!

 

 

Monster Ketchup For The Ten Plagues

Here is it, the simplest monster party idea ever, monster ketchup, and right now it's all about monster ketchup for the Passover Seder, you know for the plague of dam (blood)! Most of us don't have time for more than a ten minute craft at this point, so this one's perfect, and if you buy some new ketchup for Passover with a bottle that's covered in a label, so simply tear off the label and get to work. 

I'd keep this monster ketchup idea as a surprise for the seder personally if I were you, since it's sure to get the kids excited! And of course they'll have lots of fun using it all week long, or however long it lasts! And if this isn't quite your idea something you'd like on your Passover table, so keep this idea under your hat for a summer bar-b-que!

You'll Need:

• a bottle or two of red ketchup bottles with plastic labels that are easily removable
• a permanent marker or paint pen
• a tiny bit of monster imagination

Now of course, you could take my idea one step further and glue on some hair and some feet/claws of some sort or even do the face in pieces of cut paper, but it's really not necessary! And if you're looking for some more ten plagues ideas, so take a look at my ten plagues placards from last year, or any of the other crafts in my Passover archives. 

 

Recycled Bottle Cap and Plastic Lid Frogs!

Been saving those plastic lids and colored bottle caps for crafting? Good thing, since I've finally come up with a cute little project for those that happen to be green—bottle cap frogs of course! You can use these to decorate your Passover table or take them out during the seder when the plague of the frogs is mentioned.

Either way, the kids will love them, and you can make them as a surprise or get the kids to make them as a surprise for other family members. If you'd like to make some frogs that you could actually throw around, for some added excitement, try my pom pom frogs from last year here.

You'll Need:

• green plastic jar lids and bottle caps
• green felt
• green wooden beads
• paint pens in black and red
• hot glue gun or craft glue

How To:
Cut out front and rear legs from felt, attach with glue. Use beads for eyes on lids, and add details with a paint pen. So simple and so cute, and stay tuned for some more 10 plague inspired crafting!

 

 

A Handmade Hanukkah Game: Spinning tops From Plastic Bottle Caps!

Here's a Hanukkah craft that's also a Hanukkah game! Spinning tops are a traditional Hanukkah toy, so what better activity to engage the kids this Hanukkah than with a simple technique for making their own brigade of spinning tops? Honestly, I think this is one of my best ideas ever, because these tops spin so amazingly well, it's almost hard to believe!

You'll Need:

• plastic bottle caps: either from regular soda bottles, wide mouthed juice bottles, or bottles like vinegar bottles
• toothpicks or wooden skewers
• a thick needle or sharp item, such as a hat pin or those metal things you use to hold poultry together for roasting (employed by an adult only)
• colorful electrical tape (optional)
• quick drying glue (optional

How To:

1. Make a hole exactly in the middle of the bottle cap. Some caps have a small bump there, if not eyeball it. A hole not in the center will result in a imbalanced top.
2. Enlarge hole if necessary by moving needle around while still in the hole.
3. Insert tooth pick or skewer through hole, trim second side of toothpick (dangerous) or shorten skewer.
4. Secure toothpick with a few dabs of glue, though usually not necessary, and decorate with small pieces of electric tape.
5. Have fun!

 

Kid's Crafts For Pesach: Krias Yam Suf (The Splitting Of The Red Sea) Diorama!!

Yippee! The Red Sea has split and were going through! Phew, that was a close call with those Egyptians right on our tails! But who can think about that now, this is amazing!

We're so happy, what a miracle! We're on our way to freedom from slavery in Egypt, that's one of the reasons we're smiling, the other is that we're thrilled to be here on creativejewishmom.com! And though we don't need to know how to swim to cross the Red Sea, it just might help that we're made from wine corks!

Where do we go now? Oh right, we almost forgot, we need to get ready to receive the Torah on Har Sinai in 43 days! Can't wait, maybe we'll see you there? It's gonna be great, we're the luckiest corks in the world if you ask me!

You'll Need:

• recycled white cardboard
• recycled regular cardboard
• tissue paper in water like colors (two shades of blue, or blue and green etc.)
• wine  corks
• bottle caps
• felt and yarn
• permanent marker
• glue gun
• white glue/water mixture or modgepodge
• glitter glue, beads, plastic gems etc. (not shown here)

How To:

1. Make a tissue paper collage on a large piece of white cardboard. Use a brush to apply glue solution to cardboard, working on small areas at a time. Lay torn pieces of tissue onto glue and then carefully smooth with fingers or brush.
2. Cut a piece of regular box cardboard for the base.
3. Cut wave shapes from your dry tissue paper collage, you'll need at least 6 waves, but more is good too, as well as a variety of sizes.
4. Cut slits in the base cardboard where you'd like to position your waves, and cut horizontal slits in the bottom of the waves, a fixed distance from the bottom. Insert wave into slit on base and affix with hot glue on the underside of the base. This results in an elevated base and a neater appearance since the glue is on the underside, but you can certainly choose to do this another way!
5. Now for your people! Affix bottle cap hats and yarn hair with hot glue. Cut small pieces of felt for clothing, and draw on a simple face with a permanent marker.
6. Though my version is plain, you can certainly add sparkle (and how about some fish?) to the water with glitter glue, and some "jewels" on the shore! Tell your kids the story of the splitting of the Red Sea and let them come up with some more things to add!
7. If you just can't get your hands on any wine corks, so try making little people from just about anything— pipecleaners, toilet paper rolls, hmmm got any other ideas?
8. Send me photos of your creations, and have a great Pesach!