creative jewish mom

DIY Cardboard Castle Centerpiece

A fun DIY castle centerpiece made from recyclables is truly up my alley, and so this project from the past is still one of my very favorites. Come to think of it, this castle centerpiece is really a quick project, so what am I waiting for.....with Purim in just a week now would be the time to whip up a new one! If you know me, well then I certainly have a shoebox and various cardboard tubes hanging out just waiting to be used, so no excuses really except that life is very busy at the moment. 

Now as far as you dear reader are concerned, a colorful castle crafted by mom or the kids or both, could be a fantastic centerpiece for the Purim sueda (meal). There's so many ways to go with this one as far as materials and size. And if you don't need a centerpiece so how about a castle mishloach manos? Just build your castle on the lid of  the shoe box and voila! I think I may just have to use that idea myself, for the kid's teachers that is, who deserve something really special, and are expecting something creative! I guess that's the price one pays when you don't hide your crafty ways! (Note: I have yet to actually try this, so if you do, please send photos!)

Okay, shall we make a fun castle to grace our party table, Purim, birthday party or castle themed event? Lets get started.......

DIY Castle Centerpiece Recycling Craft

A fun DIY castle centerpiece made from recyclables is truly up my alley, and so this project from the past is still one of my very favorites. Come to think of it, this castle centerpiece is really a quick project, so what am I waiting for.....with Purim in just a week now would be the time to whip up a new one! If you know me, well then I certainly have a shoebox and various cardboard tubes hanging out just waiting to be used, so no excuses really except that life is very busy at the moment. 

Now as far as you dear reader are concerned, a colorful castle crafted by mom or the kids or both, could be a fantastic centerpiece for the Purim sueda (meal). There's so many ways to go with this one as far as materials and size. And if you don't need a centerpiece so how about a castle mishloach manos? Just build your castle on the lid of  the shoe box and voila! I think I may just have to use that idea myself, for the kid's teachers that is, who deserve something really special, and are expecting something creative! I guess that's the price one pays when you don't hide your crafty ways! (Note: I have yet to actually try this, so if you do, please send photos!)

Okay, shall we make a fun castle to grace our party table, Purim, birthday party or castle themed event? Lets get started.......

Shoebox Carnival Toss Craft For Kids

I'll admit, I made this shoebox carnival toss craft for my eight year old, but kids just a bit older can certainly make one themselves, with help from an adult in the last step — cutting out the holes.

It's apricot season which means that it's "go-go" season at school, meaning boys of all ages scramble around with huge collections of apricot pits which they use to play all kinds of games in the hope of adding more to their mounting collection. From what it sounds like, the playground at my son's school is tranformed into a mini apricot pit carnival come recess time, so I helped him out with this shoebox toss, and will hear how it went when he comes home. The idea of the shoebox toss isn't mine, just taking it one step in the cute direction (as opposed to just holes with numbers) is. 

Note: I intentionally didn't make it too professional looking such that other kids wouldn't be green with envy not having a crafty mom like me at home.....I do think this version is do-able for just about anyone?

You'll Need:

• 1 shoe box
• contact paper, I used wood grain
• white paper and markers
• glue or double stick tape
• a good craft knife

How To:

Draw a series of sketches that are related to one another or not, on white paper. Where possible  draw holes in different shapes and sizes. According to the size of the hole, assign a number which denotes the reward given if the player's pit lands on the hole, or goes in it. Cover your shoebox with contact paper, and affix your sketch to the top of the box and cut out the holes carefully. 

Rules: From what I understand, for all the games played on the playground, there is one set distance from which the player tosses. Tossed pits that do not result in a reward go to the owner of the shoebox. Other games with pits are played similar to marbles, and there is also a simple can toss.

Gotta love basic games, they're the best! Of course you may have to buy your kids a basket full of apricots, so maybe get into the canning business! Some kids around here literally have thousands of these pits in their stash! Enjoy!

 

Castle Centerpiece From Recycled Cardboard Tubes

Purim is just around the corner and I'm thinking about castles — castles made out of recycled cardboard tubes and a shoebox, of course! I've always wanted to make a castle, and realized that a colorful castle crafted by mom or the kids or both, could be a fantastic centerpiece for the Purim sueda (meal). There's so many ways to go with this one as far as materials and size. And if you don't need a centerpiece so how about a castle mishloach manos? Just build your castle on the lid of  the shoe box and voila! I think I may just have to use that idea myself, for the kid's teachers that is, who deserve something really special, and are expecting something creative! I guess that's the price one pays when you don't hide your crafty ways!

And the great thing about this castle is that is looks great from all sides, assuming you take that a bit into consideration when building it! Here's a view from the back, and yes the pieces aren't perfect or straight, as my son pointed out to me this morning, but I did that on purpose, because ya know perfection isn't everything!

You'll Need:

• cardboard tubes of all kinds, also mailing tubes which tend to be much wider!
• round cans or just about anything thick and round, how about a piece of pvc pipe?
• a shoe box
• wrapping paper
• colored paper
• sheer patterned disposable table runner fabric, it's stiff and easy to work with
• glittered craft foam
• hot glue and/or high tack craft glue like Alene's
• mod podge
• wooden skewers

How To:

Follow my directions, but since your castle won't be exactly like mine, don't be afraid to re-invent this project a bit!

1. Cover the bottom of your shoe box with some fun patterned wrapping paper. If you'll be making a castle gift box, so cover the bottom of the shoe box and the lid separately, and continue to build your castle on the lid. 
2. Cover the bottom of the shoebox (namely the base for your castle) with a solid piece of paper, using mod podge or diluted white glue, as the patterned wrapping paper might be a bit too distracting.
3. Cover toilet paper tubes, some cut down to half their size and some stacked two together (or more) with the sheer sparkled (gold in my case) table runner material.
4. Cover your largest tube, (mine is actually a box that held a bottle of scotch, so glad to finally use it!) with a bright piece of solid colored paper and make some window or castle like details of some kinds by applying other colors of cut outs with mod podge.
5. Make some window and door details for the shoe box portion of your castle and affix with mod podge.
6. Now it's time to make roofs and details using the sparkled craft foam! Roofs are basically circles with a slit in them, and then you overlap the pieces on either side of the slit to form a little cone shape, and adhere with hot glue. Attach the roofs with hot glue or high tack glue. Attach look out tower details (forgot what those are called) to the tallest tubes, as well as some peep holes and tiny windows, using hot glue or high tack glue.
7. Glue everything together, both to the base and to each other where possible, make a few flags and you're done!
8. Sit back and enjoy gazing at your wonderful castle and give yourself a pat on the back, you really are royalty if you managed to make this palace with everything else that's going on before Purim!

 

 

 

Shoe Box Dollhouse Craft For Kids

As you know from yesterday's post, we've been busy making some shoebox dollhouse rooms, and I'm so happy to say this project was a huge success. My kids are even talking about building their own multi-story house from the shoe box rooms they'll make. And, if one lets the child really do as much as they can on their own, this can be a truly creative project!

You'll Need:

• 1 shoe box, without the cover
• colored paper
• foam scraps, for the bed and pillow
• small round mirrors in a few sizes
• a paper doily makes a great rug
• little medicine boxes (turn them inside out and paint them) for furniture
• a crocheted blanket that you asked mom to make

How To: Glue colored paper to the inside of the box and make the room of your dreams using all kinds of little bits and pieces of craft supplies and recyclables. Do it all in one sitting or work on it over the course of a week or so. Enjoy, I know we certainly did! Whoops almost forgot there's one more room to show:

The light is made from a soap bottle nozzle, pretty great right? And that rug, well it's just so lovely I'm trying to figure out how to make one life sized. And by the way, I forgot to mention that these two rooms were made by my 9 1/2 year old daughter, and I have a feeling these are just the first in a series of many!

 

 

Shoe Box Dollhouse For An Exhibition!

Shoe box dollhouses are so much fun to make, for boys and girls alike! I've been wanting to do something like this with my kids for ages, but it took the Shoebox Dollhouse Exhibition over at Lilla A. Design to get us moving. And I'm so glad that we decided to participate, because my two kids who chose to make rooms both loved it so much they want to make more. In fact my daughter is working on her second room right now!

The idea for the exhibition is that the kids should do the project with very little help from their parents, so I can honestly say that was the case here. I sat my 6 1/2 year old down with an Ed Emberley's Make A World, and suggested that he might like to draw some of the furniture for the book. He fortunately had his own idea and decided to make a room for a policeman! (Yes, that's really a pilot, but he'll do for now.....) I cut the foam for the pillow and the piece of felt for the bedspread, but that's it. 

My son's main concern at the moment is whether anyone will be making a kitchen for the dollhouse? We may just have to give it a go ourselves, we'll see what transpires after school today, and stay tuned for more photos tomorrow! Oh, and by the way, entries will be accepted until Feb. 21 (tomorrow) so there's still a bit of time to get your kids involved in this fun project!

Lastest Breaking News: Our friends over at the great site Se7en have informed us that they are making a kitchen, so we're off the hook, phew!