Paper flowers for Shavuot from Crafting Jewish Style

 When decorating for Shavuot flowers are the way to go. Homes and synagogues are customarily filled with flowers to remind us of how flowers bloomed on Mt. Sinai at the time of the giving of the Torah. I usually decorate with whatever is growing in my garden, supplementing the bouquets with some stems from the local supermarket. I find that if  I follow my ABCs of flower arranging they usually look great!
A.cut the stems short , remove all extra foliage,and place the blooms in a low container .
B. stick to a basically monochromatic color scheme.
C. Use loose, puffy,large-headed flowers such as peonies, hydrangeas, old fashioned roses, or even carnations.

                           Shutter Beach Style                                                           Martha Stewart

This year in addition to my natural bouquets I decided to try my hand at making some paper flowers. These flowers seem to be all over the design, decorating and scrabooking sites and they look like a fun and easy activity to do with kids. I followed this tutorial from Jones Design Company with some really nice results.

Jones Design Company

Crafting Jewish Style version

What you will need:

scrapbooking or copier paper 

florist wire or pipe cleaners

scissors, pencil, low temp glue gun

How to do it:

1. Cut a out an 8" or smaller wavy circle from your paper (I used an assortment of papers from the Hanukkah and Rosh Hashanah lines)

2. Cut a spiral in the circle.

3. Starting with the outer loose end roll the spiral into a tight coil. It should begin to look lie a rosette.

4.  Release the coil and fluff a bit then hot glue the coil to the center of the spiral. Press down to adhere.

5. Glue a wire stem or pipe cleaner to the bottom of the flower. Cut out a leaf shape from green paper pinch and glue to over the stem at base of flower.

Variation: Flower place cards and/or napkin rings

Instead of gluing a stem onto the flower adhere a ribbon to the base to be tied around the napkin. Or, stamp or write your guests name on the leaf and then adhere to the base of the flower for a simple and pretty place card.

 I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. How do you decorate for Shavuot? Will you be celebrating with friend and family? Check this site out for more info about the holiday and some great recipes.

May Sketch

It's time for a new sketch. This month's sketch was designed by our own Nili. It has room for 2 photos, journaling, and plenty of space for creativity.

Lisa used the sketch to create this wonderful layout of her daughter's confirmation. She added a few doilies which very popular right now, and work perfectly for a girl layout.

Since today is the last day of Hebrew school, I decided to use the sketch to make a card for one of the teachers.  I used the Rosh HaShana collection and some Jewish-themed stamps that I had.

I hope this sketch inspires you to create. We would love to see what you've done.

Yom Ha'atzmaut according to a 3 year old

My younger daughters celebrated Yom Ha'atzmaut at their pre-school two weeks ago.  They had a big party to celebrate.  Everyone, including the teachers, face painted the Israeli flags on their cheeks.  When my husband asked M what they did in school today, the journaling is their conversation. 

It says:
Dad - How was school today?
M - Fun. We ate Israeli cake. (note: I made the cake with store bought cake mix)
Dad - Why did you eat Israeli cake?
M - Because it was Israel's birthday.
Dad - How old you think Israel is?
M - I think old.  Probably 4.




 

I guess when you're 3.5, 4 is pretty old.  

I hope you all enjoyed your Israeli cake for Yom Ha'atzmaut!
Julie