creative jewish mom

Recycled Plastic Cup Apples!

 Yippee, I have managed to squeeze out one last recycling craft for you before the end of the Jewish year — introducing recycled plastic cup apples! Maybe just in time to whip up to grace your Rosh HaShana table, or as a fun idea for making succah decorations. These little reycled plastic cup apples don't open, for that idea I'd recommend my recycled soda bottle apple gift boxes.

You'll Need:

• reycled plastic cups with six sides (2 cups per apple) these are mini dessert cups that we used for pudding for a birthday party
• decorative tape
• tissue paper
• colored paper or felt for leaves
• sticks
• a glue gun

How To:

The tops of my cups were scalloped, so I carefully cut off the scalloped edges to form straight edges. Fill one cup with crumpled tissue paper, place the second cup on top of the first, and simply tape together with decorative tape. Affix stem ( a real stick) and paper leaf with hot glue, and voila a super cute eco conscience apple is born! Enjoy!

 

 

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Recycled Plastic Cup Flowers For Shavuos!

Shavuos is on this coming Saturday night so it's time to do some simple shavuos crafts to fill the house with excitement for the coming holiday!  And these recycled plastic cup flowers are perfect right about now, since they are really simple to make and look great in numbers. I'll admit, I actually made these as last minute birthday party decorations last week, but I'm leaving them up for Shavous as they're really so much fun!

Now I have to tell you, the idea of making flowers from cups is not a new one, though all the versions I've seen in the past never quite inspired me, most likely because of the colors or the fact that only a few were made. So choose bright colors and cups that are the same color throughout, and make a ton! Add some adhesive back jewels, and hang them from your chandelier with wire, and wow!

You'll Need:

• recycled (or not) plastic cups
• adhesive back craft jewels, mine are courtesy of craftprojectideas.com
• wire or string for hanging

How To:

Cut slits in cup, start with one slit, and cut the second exactly opposite it on the other side of the cup. Then make two cuts on each side (between the initial two cuts which basically divided the cup in half) for a total of six petals. Decorate with adhesive backed jewels or use glue to apply just about anything colorful or sparkly! Hang from a chandelier, affix to the perimeter of a mirror or a large frame, make a mobile or a garland and you've got yourself some great decorations in a pinch. Enjoy!

 

Recycle Cups & Make A Fun Noise Maker For Purim (Or Your Next Rhythm Project!)

Here's a fun project to do with the kids today or tomorrow in preparation for Purim which starts Saturday night. (The exception being that Purim is celebrated Sunday night in Jerusalem.) I did this one, but kids can certainly have fun applying stickers and tape themselves. The noise maker or grogger is a classic Purim prop used during the reading of the Megillat Esther (Book of Esther) to make noise every time the name of the evil Haman is mentioned. The reading takes about 1/2 hour, and during that time children who are old enough to come to the reading must sit quietly so that everyone can hear every single word of the story. So listening for Haman's name gives everyone a reason to pay attention!

You'll Need:

• Plastic cups, any size, clear works well too!
• Electrical Tape (my favorite new crafting supply)
• Beans to fill the cup
• Gold stickers
• A popsicle stick (you can make these without the handle too)
• Hot glue gun or other tacky glue

How-To:

1. Fill one of the cups about 1/4 full with dried beans or anything else you have on hand that will make noise when shaken.
2. Attache the popsicle stick to one cup with hot glue, and then join two cups together with hot glue. My new hot glue gun is so hot it melted the cup the first go around, so use the hot glue sparingly.
3. Decorate the cups with electrical tape and stickers
4. Enjoy making lots of noise on Purim!