creative jewish mom

Spring Craft: TP Tube Trees In Bloom

Who would have thought that toilet paper tube trees could be so sweet? And especially these little toilet paper tube trees in bloom, just in time for Tu B'Shevat, when we celebrate the New Year for the trees, and hopefully witness the first fruit trees (almond trees) in bloom. I've been wanting to do some crafting with little hole punches, and so here it is.....punch holes in some colored paper and you've got yourself the perfect sized little circles for this project!

You'll Need:

• recycled toilet paper tubes
• colored paper
• a hole punch
• glue

How To: 

Lightly draw a tree shape on your tp tube with pencil, and cut out with small scissors. Make sure to leave a complete ring on the bottom as a stand for your tree. Punch out little circles from colored paper and glue them onto your tree! So simple and sweet!

Place your little blooming trees on a tray together with some brightly colored fruit, and try filling small shot glasses with candles (that's what I also did here, just it was too windy to photograph the lit candles) and use the trees as a candle surround. Or place just about anywhere as a fun decoration to usher in Spring! Enjoy.

Trifle Bowl Candle Centerpiece

If you happen to have a glass footed trifle bowl, you can make an elegant centerpiece with just a few simple supplies! I was recently in New York for my nephew's Bar Mitzvah, and while I had offered to bring a suitcase full of paper flowers all ready to go, my sister in law figured we'd just figure it out when I got there. And that we did! As you can see, we used this trifle bowl centerpiece on the dessert buffet, but it would look great just about anywhere.

You'll Need:

• a glass trifle bowl
• wide ribbon, preferably all ready to go with little flowers 
• some glass crystals
• a wide candle
• a hot glue gun

How To:

Wrap a piece of ribbon around the trifle bowl and secure with hot glue. In my case the flowers on the ribbon were a bit sparse, so I cut off the flowers from some additional ribbon and stuck them on with hot glue. Add some glass or plastic beads or crystals to the bowl, place your candle in the middle and there you have it! A super simple yet elegant centerpiece in minutes, just my speed.

Crocheted Chunky Lacy Quick Scarf

Looking for a quick chunky scarf to whip up? Something a little lacy with a bit of texture that you can crochet at the speed of light? This is it! And actually after looking at one crocheted cowl after another, a long scarf actually looks great!

Now, one might think that after crocheting gifts of five delicate neck warmers and four chunky masculine cowls for family in New York, (in addition to the flowers and other recent projects) I just might want to take a break from crocheting, but no my friends, the crochet bug is alive and well. So while I had planned on making this scarf during my trip, I actually got around to it while fighting jet lag, first mine and then my eight year old son's, like at three in the morning! Of course at times like that what better way to lull the little one back to sleep than with some crocheting?

The thing that I love about this scarf is that you could drape it casually to show off it's open work, or wrap it around for warmth. Oh look, a young model has just appeared on the scene to show us just how that might look!

I followed this Lion Brand pattern using two strands of medium weight Vitalgo (Israeli brand) acrylic yarn and a size k hook. I used exactly two balls of yarn, and stopped there, but you could make this one super long according to the pattern if you like and it would be great. Their version uses a much chunkier yarn and a bigger hook, as you can see in their photo. And I might add, that while their wool yarn version will look great for years to come, my acrylic version will most likely start to look like a rag at some point in the not too distant future, sigh.

Note: In the Lion Brand pattern, the two ends of the scarf do not look the same, so I took the liberty of improving upon their pattern and adding a final row that at least resembles the first row, an important finishing touch in my book. I'll be back with the final addition soon in the mean time, start crocheting!

 

Orange Rind Candle Centerpiece For Tu B'Shevat

Ever heard of candles made from orange rinds? Or candles made from clementine rinds? Great idea right, especially now that Tu B'Shevat (Feb. 8th) is right around the corner! Basically, according to the original source, one carefully removes the fruit, leaving the two halves intact, and when you are careful not to sever the stem that's connected to the top inside of the peel, you can actually use this as a wick once olive oil is poured into the rind.

Well my friends, this little idea sounds great, but just didn't work for me, since maybe the stem was too moist or not soaked enough in oil. (Another post suggested leaving the half rind and stem to dry overnight, but who has time for that?) So I got just a little creative with this one and got out the round floating wicks which work perfectly here! Fill your empty half-citrus shell with olive oil, add a floating wick, light it and voila!

Now, while my orange and lemon and clementine rinds look great with little wicks floating in them, I just couldn't stop until I had also tried making a beautifully carved cover with the top half of the rind. (I kind of felt like I was making up for all those pumpkins I never carve?)

And I must say, the carved tops look gorgeous, but once again I came upon another problem, the top started to burn. Now I did read that one should make sure to make the hole in the top big enough so it doesn't burn, but I had the same burning problem even when the hole was huge. So, if you have some extra time, go ahead and carve a top or two, and experiment, or better yet, enjoy my photos and just skip it all together?

The assortment of citrus halves do look lovely just as they are. Don't you think? And while my family won't be surprised when I actually do this on Tu B'Shevat, yours certainly can be! 

For complete instructions, see the original post on this subject on Apartment Therapy and entitled How To Make A Clementine Candle. You can also choose to watch their How To Make A Clementine Candle Video, which I'd advise if you want to work through all the kinks that I encountered. And as far as working with lemons and oranges I removed the fruit by cutting around the perimeter as one would when eating a grapefruit. Have fun with this one!

Note: In case you are not familiar with the floating wicks that you see in my photos, they are widely available in any Judaica store world wide, and possibly in the Jewish foods sections of major super markets with a Jewish clientele. (They are generally used for lighting Shabbat and Chanukah candles using olive oil, and come in little boxes slightly bigger than matchboxes.) Or you can always order them online, even through Amazon! Just google "round floating wicks" and you'll find lots of sources. Oh, and in my last photo you can see the "large" size and the "regular" size, which refers to the size of the little round cork floater. Okay enough about floating wicks, you'll love them!

Welcome Back To Craft Schooling Sunday!

Welcome to back to Craft Schooling Sunday! After a little break for the month of December and some additional weeks in January, it's great to be back. Looking forward to catching up with all of the wonderful regular contributors from around the world and hopefully meeting some new ones too! Feel free to link to several projects to bring us up to date on what you've been up to, and looking forward to another crafty year together.

Purim Decorations From December Closeouts

It is not too soon to be thinking about Purim dear readers, and especially since it has just recently come to my attention that in the month of January, when all the December holiday decorations are marked down to almost nothing, one can find some great things for Purim! 

And so, for those of you who live in the United States, or just about anywhere other than Israel, raid your local craft supply store, in my case it was a Michaels, for some colorful and glittery stuff that's perfect for Purim. Some of the things here in the photo were around 30 cents each, and I bought some smaller things that were marked down to as little as 11cents! So run, don't walk and get yourself a head start on Purim, I'm certainly happy that I did!

Yes, this is snow in the background, so I'll let you in on a little secret, I was in New York for the last two weeks, which is where I purchased and photographed these little gems. Great to be back and now after a two week blogging/crafting break, it's on to Tu B'Shevat and Purim crafting! See ya around.

Crochet Rib Stitch Simplified

Crocheting a rib stitch won't get you ribbing exactly like a knit rib, but it is possible to come close. Or, if you're looking for a way to add some texture to say a basic scarf or cowl or even a little baby blanket, then I'd recommend making a double crochet rib that looks like my example here. Plus the edges have a sort of chevron look to them and actually look much nicer that the edges would of a piece that was just made with rows of double crochet.

The oh so simple secret to this? Double crochet in the back loop only of every row, and after turning at the end of each row, chain 3, but do not count this as a stitch. It's that simple!

Watercolor Painting Birthday Card

This watercolor still-life painting birthday card was made by my daughter a few weeks ago, and I can't wait to frame it! I grew up making birthday cards, so I'm passing along the tradition to my kids, and have finally realized that if I want them to make traditional cards that open, then well I need to give them a blank card. Not difficult really, and together with some watercolor paints and a pencil, well the resulting works of art can certainly be sweet.

With all the scrapbooking and paper supplies out there today which enable one to make cards that look store bought, it's time to get back to basics and encourage the creativity that comes with basic drawing and painting. As you can see if you've been following this blog, I've been trying to do that a bit more in our home, and with great results, so do join us as we continue draw and paint our way through the year, you'll be so glad you did.

Oil Pastel On Black Paper Cityscape Drawings

We enjoyed drawing with oil pastels on black paper so very much, that we just had to do it again. This time we all had a great time drawing city scapes with the idea of totally covering the paper with the exception of the black paper peeking through as windows and doors.

Now, with many projects it's a great idea to sit down yourself with your kids to get them interested, so that's just what I did. Though I must say, my drawing on the lower right hand corner looks way to perfect and controlled compared to their works of art, sigh. And even my not so craft inclined son did a drawing too!  My six year old loved this project so much he did around four separate drawings! There's just something irresistable about pastels on black paper and a subject matter that young kids can master is that much more exciting for some.

You'll Need: Black paper, preferably card stock weight, oil pastels and pencil

How To:

Start by drawing a line across the paper to separate the street from the buildings. If you'd like to make a set of drawings that will look amazing hung together horizontally, draw the horizontal line in exactly the same place so that the drawings will match up as one large street scene. Draw the outline of the buildings as well as any details with a regular pencil. Then get to work filling in the shapes with the oil pastels, layering colors and defining areas with strokes where needed. Encourage your kids to try and produce artful imperfect drawings! I had to tell them over and over that their drawings were so much nicer than mine, which is indeed the truth though they didn't quite believe me.

I'd love to mount all of our drawings on a long piece of cardboard and hang this somewhere, of course taping them together would be great too. A whole room with a line of these drawings hung around the perimeter would be stunning, go for it!

Spoon Puppet Theater Kid's Craft

A few weeks ago I introduced you to our latest spoon puppet craft, and now I'm at long last getting around to telling you how we made our sweet little spoon puppet theater. I did this project with a group of about 70 girls, so I can attest to the fact that it's a great project for a range of ages, and an alotment of at least 1 1/2 hours.  Many of the younger girls, say ages four and five could make the puppets on their own, but did understandably need quite a bit of help with the theater.  From the looks on their faces, all of the girls were really happy to go home with such a complete project!

You'll Need:

• wooden skewers, 5 per theater
• colored paper, preferably card stock weight
• pre-cut pieces of either foam core or corrugated cardboard, for the stage front
• yarn or string scraps
• black markers
• scissors
• tape and glue
• spoon puppets, see my spoon puppet tutorial

How To:

1. Make the frame work for the curtains by binding one horizontal skewer to a vertical skewer on each end with small pieces of yarn. You will now have an arch made with three skewers.
2. Using a letter or A4 sized piece of colored paper, fold the top 1 inch or so of the paper over, and then draw two gathered curtains on the paper with a black felt pen. Make details on the curtain, such as gather lines, with a felt pen. Cut out the curtains and then attach to the skewer arch by poking the skewer through the fold and then taping.
3. Wrap your piece of foam core with paper and tape to secure. Decorate with black felt pens. Poke the skewers through the top edge, through the paper and into the foam core to secure.
4. Make additional decorations such as the crown and diamonds with a contrasting color of paper and embellish with black felt pen. Attach with tape or glue.
5. Once the stage is finished, carefully poke two skewers through the stage front portion as legs which will allow it to stand.
6. Got it? Take a careful look at the photos of my daughter's version and I think that will be easier than reading my directions! And of course, you could also make a giant version of this with a cardboard box which could be lots of fun too!

Enjoy this great winter craft that really could keep your kids busy and creative for hours. And if that concept seems more like a dream than reality, then I'd just like to add a few words of encouragement and suggest that while getting your kids to enjoy crafts for hours on end may not happen over night, it can happen with just a little bit of effort and encouragement and patience on your part as well as of course un plugging from any electronic distractions (with the exception of music) that may possibly be inhibiting the creative play in your home. You can do it!