limerick definition

There's a toddler I know (little girlie)

Whose hair is delightfully curly.

Bouncy ringlets like springs

Dance along as she sings,

Spins, and waltzes. (Her pink dress is twirly!)

 

definition by Chavi Beck, oedilf.com

How to paint a sky

How to paint a sky!

Just keep all the strokes going in one direction.

 

(As always, click on the picture to enlarge it.)

easy felt tissue pouch

The decorations I chose were the only complicated part; after attaching them, it took no time to sew a rectangle of felt into a pouch.

Picture Pie clown

Happy Chodesh Adar!

Just wanted to share this fun clown, who at this writing is hanging in my front room over the couch (since Sunday). I'm supposed to make her some "mishenichnas" balloons to juggle but somehow (odd?) have not yet found the time. Cute or what? This is picture pie in big; the girls traced 6" paper plates on oaktag and cut out the circles. Fun!

hamantashen

fun!

(The little girl with the necklace is a neighbor's kid.)

mazel tov siyum poster - Vayeira/ Akeidas Yitzchak

A siyum sign made on a school night!

I love this watercolor trick. Cut a simple shape out of painted card instead of construction paper, and your project looks like a million dollars. For the record, I drew the shapes, but E did the painting and the cutting out.

The blue sky paint is actually homemade paint: equal parts dish soap and water, plus several drops of food coloring. Mix it well, then consider it slightly less washable than Crayola. This batch is over a year old; it had dried to a hard jelly, but was easily resuscitated with a bit of water and stirring. Painting with cotton balls saves tons of time.

The 3D stickers came in handy again as well. And let it be known to all that regular writing, when done with a flat-edged marker held at a steady angle, works well as calligraphy.

Said Abraham, "Lord, here I am."
God said, "Burn me a corban: no lamb,
But sweet Isaac, your son."
With the deed all but done,
An angel said, "Look! Here's a ram!"

-- by Janet McConnaughey, oedilf.com

featured!

I've been featured on creativejewishmom.com! How cool is that! Thanks so much Sara.

And if you've clicked over from there, I hope you'll find it worth the click. Comments are welcome and for that matter are highly valued!

Chanukah sign 3D

Today's watercolor/ paper sculpture Chanukah sign! (It sure is nice to be crafting again.)

I gave each kid a sheet of card stock (off white; must buy a pack of bright white!) and a pencil. I also passed around a selection of circular containers and bottle caps, explaining that you choose one of those circles and then aim to make your picture that size (instead of spending forever on a masterpiece menorah and then realizing it came out tiny).

(Almost) Everyone did the drawing on one side of the page and the painting on the other side, then cut out their creations once everything had mostly dried.

Re the paint, I once bought a 4-pack of mini watercolor sets in the 99c store. (Each set is 2" by 2" and has 5 colors.) It's very convenient to have multiple paint sets; the less passing of supplies, the less chance of major spills. I also put water (small amounts) into three heavy glass mugs, rather than spilly plastic bowls. The painting was done with cotton cosmetic pads simply because I didn't feel like digging out the paintbrushes, but let me tell you the pads sure saved time! Also there was no changing colors so the water didn't get dirty. All in all it was the neatest painting project I've ever seen. (Plus, card stock scraps don't fly all over the place the way plain paper would.)

E (8) made the jolly dancing latkes and R (6) made their pot!

F (8) made the coppery-orange menorah!

R made that adorable orange man with his huge jug of oil!

B (4) made the frying pan at the bottom, and the pink latkes in it!

Mommy made the giant candles and drew the oil jugs!

F, E and I stuck everything together (with thick 3D foam stickers)!

Everyone had a great day! Hope you do too!

giant quilling for kids

1. Cut color paper into 1/2 inch strips. (You may use outdated school notices for this, or even plain white paper for that matter. Color is fun but not required. Or you could get really gorgeous and use watercolors and even glitter on white card stock... OK I'll stop right there!)

2a. EITHER squeeze some white glue onto a plastic plate and teach your kids how to use glue. ("You just TOUCH your fingertip to the puddle of glue." Admire the smallness of everyone's fingertip glue dots.)

2b. OR hand out glue sticks for everyone. If you have enough. Even neater!

3. Apply glue to one end of a strip.

4. Close the strip into a circle. (A circle, not a leaf shape. That means you have to tuck the end under, not just fold the strip in half.) Repeat steps 3-4 on several more strips.

5. When you have seven circles and the glue on most of them is dry, start gluing the circles together into a flower. Wow! How beautiful!

6. Kids who still have some zitzfleish left may make green leaves (yes, a leaf shape this time, not a circle) and glue them on, tucked in between petals of the flower.

7. When everything is totally dry, attach a 6" piece of thread (or clear fishing line if you are really fancy) and find somewhere to hang the masterpiece.

 

My three year old made this pink flower for our succah, with intensive guidance. You cannot imagine how proud she was and still is:

 

 

Here's another view... The yellow flower was made by my four-year-old, with a little less guidance.

 

 

And this butterfly was designed and made by my eight-year-old daughter, with no help.

 

 

giant-quilled shivas haminim

Check out my succah project! (Took me a while to get the blog post ready but here it is!)

 

I think of this as large-scale quilling because as with quilling, you use strips of paper to create beautiful airy light-and-shadow pictures. The difference is that these strips are half an inch wide rather than 1/8" (or thereabouts). Everything is just bigger and looser -- thus easier to handle, particularly with junior assistants -- and you get bigger results. 

 

Thanks to Sara at www.creativejewishmom.com for the inspiration/technique. I love this so much.

 

 

I made these shivas haminim* from ordinary card stock, and used scotch tape rather than glue to stick everything together. That was a good move as the tape (at least when I used plenty) stuck to itself whereas glue (at least regular white glue) would have dissolved completely in the rain. As it is, after a couple of good hard storms all of the fruits looked a little stretched out of shape. If anybody knows of some way to waterproof cardstock, please tell me!

 

*Shivas haminim = the seven species -- that's the seven kinds of fruit (well, wheat and barley plus five fruits!) that the Torah lists as specialties of the Land of Israel. They're a common succah motif.

Fw: washer necklaces.JPG

And this one looks even simpler and (if possible) cuter. Metal washers, painted as desired, then hung on cord with a cute bead to hold it in place. Can't imagine why we haven't done this yet.

 

acreativeprincess.blogspot.com

 

butterfly bookmark idea

Here's a project I found online somewhere (in different places) that we haven't done yet but hope to try: String beads on wire, then tie on several ribbons and knot their other ends. Beautiful bookmarks! Or necklaces if desired!

 

   

 

3D Jerusalem project, complete!

This is what I made with my kids, actually started as a home-daycamp project several years ago, but finally finished this year for Succos! The girls (then age 4-6) cut out and watercolored the shapes, I cut windows and doors, then we laid out and glued it together with little cardboard springs for 3D effect! I totally need to post it to chinuch.org.

 

 

Purim pics

Here are my mishloach manos pics. I wish I had more. The cookie puppets varied widely in cuteness; this photo does not show the cutest ones, but I guess it's a fair average. I've been mentally working on this puppet show idea for at least a year, possibly two. 

The limerick verses read:

    Good guys, evil men, clueless kings:
    This play has each one of those things.
        As the story unfolds,
        Here's a secret it holds: 
    Someone hidden is pulling the strings.

    As we celebrate Purim each year, 
    This great lesson becomes crystal clear.
        The quick tempo quickens -- 
        The puppet-plot thickens -- 
    He's hiding; remember He's near!

Also included for your viewing pleasure: a certain chubby little guy of whom I am a huge fan!

lingy dingy

Duckling holding a toy telephone:

"Lingy dingy, hello dolly!"

 

Come to think of it, when's the last time you heard a telephone actually go "ding-a-ling"?

Picture Pie flower border

This Picture Pie border is based rather closely on one or two of Ed Emberley's, but I don't think it's quite plagiarized. I used color coding stickers from two packs, one of multi pastels and one of brights.

notepad tutorial

Here's a lovely little notepad you can make for yourself or another favorite person!

(I found the basic idea online. I think Amy Powers or Kellie Dykast is the person to thank. Will post the link if I find it.)

Step 1. Gather your materials. You will need a sheet of white paper, a medium-sized gift bag, and scissors.

You may of course have different sources of clean paper, fancy card stock, and something to cut with.

To bind your notepad, choose one of these options: a., a smallish rubber band (simplest), b., hole puncher and cord, or c., needle and thread (most elegant).

Step 2. Fold your paper into eighths. Fold it in half, in half, and in half, and then hold it against the gift bag before cutting, to make sure the size will work. Use the folded edge of the gift bag as the spine of your notepad.

(Yes, my pages are still double-size. The folded paper is now too thick to fold properly, so I'm saving that last fold for later.)

By the way, my pad came out about 1.5 inches wide by 2.5 inches tall. If you want a larger pad than that, either use a jumbo gift bag, or use a part of the bag that isn't pre-folded and just give it a good sharp fold yourself. If the pad you're making is twice the size of mine, you might want to use a second sheet of paper so you get more pages.

Step 3. Cut on the folds. You may have fold marks; try to cut them away. If you have a proper paper cutter and got to skip step 2, lucky you! -- no fold marks.

You should now have eight little sheets of paper.

Step 4. Fold your papers in half. Fold only four sheets at a time so that can get a good sharp fold. A notepad skeleton!

You will find that the inner pages stick out past the edge of the outer pages. Don't trim them yet. You'll probably want to trim all the pages once you have the cover, so that will take care of these pokey pages as well.

Step 5. Lay the folded notepad skeleton (why, don't you think that's a cute turn of phrase?) on the edge of the gift bag, and cut a piece for the cover, slightly larger than the pages.

(Not a great pic, sorry! Hope you can see where I cut.) You may bump into the inside fold of the bag's side panel. Just keep cutting, or you can start from another direction and finish the job that way.

And voila! (Or something like that.)

 

Before we get back to work, here's a nice surprise I found. Since I cut my folder from the top of the bag, which had a neat folded edge, I got a folder for my notepad. Just about big enough to stash a postage stamp. Cuteness!

Step 6. Trim the pages, a few at a time. You want them to fit inside the cover, and to look even to each other when the notepad is closed.

Step 7. Book-binding time.

The simplest way to hold the pages together is with a humble office rubber band.

 

If you are willing to spend another few minutes for a more elegant result, I recommend you go for one of the other options.

Here's option 2: punch two holes and put a cord or ribbon through. Tie a good knot on the outside of your notepad. Voila!

 

I used the cord that came as the handle of the gift bag. Fancy!

But the nicest way to bind your notepad is with a needle and thread. I don't have a sewing machine but if you have one, go ahead and try it. Here are some pics of a notepad I bound with thread.

Secure the extra bits of thread with a tiny dab of glue.

Show me yours! I'd love to see the embellishments you come up with. I'm thinking some cute beads or buttons in the knot.

quote on tiredness

"Tiredness is a kind of sickness…It is not a matter of how long we sleep that determines whether we feel tired. It is waste and negative thoughts and actions that create tiredness. Create positive thoughts and elevated actions and you will take strength from that, and your tiredness will leave you."

--Dadi Janki (who's that?)

from "Ulysses"

I came across the quote "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield," long ago. So happy I turned up the rest of this piece. Moving, stirring, wonderful. Enjoy it.

 

 

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

 

(Tennyson)

quote on writing

Over time, one of the happy things that has become apparent to me is that
anyone who's consistently bothered by a desire to write is also equipped
with a gift for doing so. My goal as a teacher is to create an environment
in the person's mind in which the writing self can dare to emerge.
--Sarah Shapiro