Growing Up Creative

How to make a Butterfly family collection

I’ve always loved looking at butterflies and insect collections in the Natural History Museums. The patterns and colors are mind-boggling, and a great source of inspiration. I particularly like the moths and beetles collection,but that's a different project.  
This spring we have decided to make our own family collection, pinned up in a display box.
We spent some time studying Zoe’s butterfly poster, looking carefully at the different wing shapes and patterns. We tried picking one favorite, but we have miserably failed to do so. Mostly, we enjoyed working side by side, drawing butterflies from our imagination.
Following is a simple tutorial for making your own family/class or private butterfly collection.

Making the butterflies

You will need:

• Sharpies (of course)
• White Card stock (we have used water color Bristol paper because I like the thickness as well as the texture, and also that was all I had)
• Small scissors
• Pencil
• Any kind of butterfly reference (web, books, posters, etc..)

How to:

1. Spend some time looking at pictures of butterflies, study their patterns, their shapes etc.
2. Draw half a butterfly on your board, fold it in the middle.
3. Cut out your butterfly (younger kids may need some help with cutting)
   
4. Open your butterfly, and color your butterfly creating different patterns
   
   
   
   

Thoughts and variations:

• This is a great project for all age groups. Each will demonstrate different skills and ability, you might need to help the kids accordingly. Zoe really enjoyed making up the butterfly shapes - she became our expert butterfly ‘shaper’.
• The more you study your references, the more you will stay away form the symbolic butterfly (2 back to back B’s).
• We didn’t really plan our box in advance, we drew many different butterflies (it was hard to stop). We didn’t use all of the butterflies for the display box. Having a variety of sizes was effective.

Making the display box:
To cover the box I have followed a tutorial I found via Creative Jewish Mom at Litchi7.
This is the first box I have ever covered with fabric, and I have to admit…it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. If you are a little intimidated with the process, you may paint the box, or cover it with paper. I am sure you will think of a creative alternative. 

You will need:

• A sturdy shallow box such as a shoe box cover
• a piece of corrugated cardboard, foam, or cork in the size of the back of your box.
• Fabric 
• Craft glue
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Sewing pins
• Hot glue

How to:

1. Glue the corrugated cardboard, cork or foam inside the back of your box. Weight it down and set aside to dry. This is so the back of the box is cushioned enough to accept the pins.
   
2. Cover the box following this tutorial
   
   
3. Lay down your butterflies, planning the display composition
   
   
4. Place 2 pins through the center of the butterflies. ( I used 2 so the butterflies wont swivel) do it directly on the box, this way you will have all the butterflies pinned down, before you start to glue them one by one.
   
5. Start with the first one, place some hot glue in the pinhole markings, push butterfly all the way to the head of the pins, and poke pins into the back of the box, through the hot glue. The butterflies end up pinned away from the box.
6. Repeat with the rest of the butterflies.

We have added small labels for each butterfly, containing the species name and the name of the person who drew it.




Enjoy.

tali

linked on Craft Schooling Sunday

And the Sharpie giveaway goes to…

Thank you for all your comments. we (the girls and I) had a great time reading all of your fabulous ideas.

I wish I could send all of you a package of sharpies, but there is only one winner for this round. I am sure I will be able to do another sharpie give away in the future.

The winner of the Sharpie giveaway is Brooke, who thought it was a tie-dye curtain. I think that is a great idea too.

To unveil the project click here.
tali

Lag B’omer – kids craft activity

Every child in Israel loves Lag B’omer (I don’t think I am overstating this). Besides the fact that it is a school holiday, it is also customary to have bonfires and play with bows and arrows.

Why? (your asking...)

I used to think it was to symbolize the victory of Bar Kokhba over the Roman’s (approximately 2000 years ago) but I have just been reading that there is a little more to it. The answer is wrapped with mysticism and mystery.
I’ll share the details with you on my next post. In the meantime you may want to take a look at the following craft activity. Be ware, you may get some dirt under your nails….

How to make a bonfire using modeling clay:


You will need:

• Black construction paper (we didn’t have any so we painted some paper in black)
• Modeling clay, make sure you have at least the following colors: orange, yellow, blue, and brown.
• Oil pastels (optional)
• Craft glue ( white glue)
• Brush
• Candle

How to:

1. Light the candle; watch the flame carefully and identify the colors it is made of, what is closest to the center of the flame and what is farthest.
   
2. smudge the modeling clay onto the paper in a way that will resemble flames. The modeling clay will stick to the paper.
   
   
   ^{Ori's(4) drawing} 
3. Add layers of colors, slowly building up your bonfire.
4. Add some brown modeling clay for the wood
5. Complete the drawing with people around the fire, marshmallow on a stick, stars, sparks etc.
6. Using a brush, apply glue over the modeling clay, it will dry clear and protect your drawing.
   
   ^{Ori's (4) drawing
   Zoe's (7) drawing}
   

Variation:
we didn't have black paper so we used blue paper, and brushed around our clay with black water color. The clay is oil base and will repel the water based paint. If it gets too dark, you may wipe it off with a towel.

You may scrape the clay and oil pastels with a pointy object, to add more texture to your drawing.

 

I will be back with more, promise.

tali

linked on Craft Schooling Sunday

 

 

 

Sharpie Giveaway

When Elizabeth from sharpie brand invited me to join the ‘2010 Sharpie squad’, I was much exited. My first response was “GREAT, I love sharpies”.What got me even more excited was the fact that with the sharpie squad, my blog will be delivered to many more people around the world who want to inspire their kid’s creativity.

5 minutes later (more or less), the door bell rang. It was the FedEx guy with a package full of all kinds of sharpies……fat sharpies, paint sharpies, skinny ones, double sided, metallic and so many more.

Now, I love using sharpies, but I just can’t use them all even if I wanted to, so I decided to give some away to you!

So here it is,
Up for grabs is a 24 PACK OF SHARPIE FINE POINT PERMANENT MARKERS (you will need them for the next project I will be posting).

Here is a sneak pick:

To participate in the giveaway, just leave a comment and guess what the next project will be. Comments will be closed by Tuesday night, April 27th at midnight EST.

Good luck!

Take a few minutes to check out the other members of the squad

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED, THANK YOU FOR TAKING PART OF THIS GIVEAWAY. (IF YOU HAVE MISSED THIS ONE, I PROMISE TO HAVE ANOTHER SHARPIE GIVEAWAY IN THE FUTURE. )

tali

Israel Independence Day – double celebration

Try to imagine, see if you can:
13 suitcases
4 carry-on laptops
1 over sized Bear that Oren won in Circus Circus in Vegas
1 long crowded security line
1 black cat, with no tail and 6 fingers, in an overpriced carry on
1 small (but loud) dog in a matching carry on
2 excited girls that are going to see their grandparents and cousins in approximately 16 hours
2 exhausted parents that are ready to take a long long nap, but know it is only a wishful thinking.

That was exactly a year ago, on Israel’s 61st Independence Day. The day we moved back to Israel after living in the US for many (many) years. It is very symbolic to move back on Independence Day, I know, but I will let you on a little secret – (whispering) El Al had some amazing fairs on that day, which we couldn’t refuse.

I can go on and on about the good and bad of living in Israel. I actually have, but I deleted it all. The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter. I am here and so is my family - this is my home, and I feel good here (most of the times).

So now when we have a cake for Israel on her birthday (along lost tradition from my grandmother) the candles count our years of living here, and so far it is 1, many more to come (atleast 15 more)….

So here is Lechaim to Israel, and to us, and to you my dearest family, friends and readers, may this be a year of peace.



tali

How-to cut a Star of David

5 paper folds, 4 cuts, that all it takes to make a Star of David. I found this great video tutorial via Kesem Hayetzira, the video is in Hebrew, so I made one in English. 

Since Israel Independence Day is next week. Making flags is a nice way of celebrating; I hope you use this tutorial for making your flags. 

I will let you in on a secret…I tried cutting the star few times before it came out right. So don’t give up. Its really easy once you get it. Watch the video few times if you need to.
I used blue copy paper which worked fine, if you can get thinner paper that would even be better.

tali

Zoe’s ABC cookies

^{yes, Zoe still mirror the letters some times, and don't maintain her nail polish...}
Zoe had a special celebration in her English class today; they finished the ABC’s. Her task  my task was to bring 20 cookies to class. Since this was a late notice, and I had no cookies in my pantry, we had a choice: either go grocery shopping and get a box of cookies, or bake some ourselves. I prefer anything over grocery shopping (even doing the laundry), and the girls loved the idea of baking.  Keeping with the theme of the celebration Zoe suggested making little flags with the letters, which I thought was a great idea. Ori was exited about this as well, making her own pretend writing flags.

MAKING THE FLAGS
You will need:

• Drawing tools, the girls used Fine point sharpies and a silver sharpie. The fine point was perfect for the scale.
• Small white stickers 
• Toothpicks

How to:

1. Draw the letters one on each sticker
2. Peel the sticker and place it on the top of the tooth pick
3. Cover with another sticker from the back keeping the toothpick in the middle.
4. Insert the toothpick into the cookies while they are still hot (before they harden)

THE COOKIES
The dough for these cookies is my grandmother’s recipe. It is the most versatile recipe I have ever used. You can fill the dough with almost anything such as: Turkish delight, comfiture, Nutella, apples, ground beef, spinach and cheese etc.  You may use it as cookie dough or as elongated pie or cake.

You will need:

• 200 grams of butter, room temperature (1 3/4 sticks of butter)
• 8 oz of sour cream, or plan yogurt
• 2 ½ cups of self rising flour
• Nuttela (chocolate spread) or any other filling of your choice. 
• (yes, that’s it)

How to:

1. Knead the butter, sour cream and flour, add more flour if the dough is a little sticky.
2. Let sit in the fridge for at least ½ an hour
3. Divide the dough into 3
4. Roll each part into a rectangle
5. Spread a thin layer of Nutella throughout the surface of the dough
6. Roll into a long snake
7. Cut thin slices of about ¼”
8. Bake in 350° for about 15 minutes

Variations:

You may freeze the snake prior to cutting; this will help cut the cookies real thin.
Bake the snake and cut after baking. This works better if you use chunkier filling as oppose to a spread.

When I picked Zoe up, the tray of cookies was empty (as expected), she told me that everyone loved the cookies and the little flags, and that she was very happy that we chose to bake verses buying. I thought so too.

linked on Craft Schooling Sunday

tali

Our responsibility

For over 10 years I have been finding excuses why not to read Erna’s book: The Survivor in Us All: Four Young Sisters in the Holocaust . Erna is Vivian’s mom my dearest second cousin who is like an aunt to me (she hates when I call her aunt… but she knows I only mean it because I love her so).
It is not easy to sit down and open a book about the holocaust, defiantly not one about your family. But I finally did.
I finished both books (she has 2) a couple of months ago. I couldn’t stop the tears, I couldn’t put them down.  I only regret for not reading them while Erna was still alive so I could tell her how much her books meant to me. And how much I admire her strength to sit down and do it all over again in writing, so we - the future generation- will have some clue of what it was like.

We all have a responsibility of remembering the past as hard as it is sometimes, but we also have an even bigger responsibility of accepting the different and teach our children to do the same. Yes we are all different and that is why we need to try and find ways of celebrating those differences and enjoy each others' culture instead of fearing traditions we don’t know. We need to plant seeds of tolerance and acceptance instead of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.

SO...
Take your kids to cultural festivals (they are everywhere),
Try different foods
Listen to world music such as Putumayo Presents Series, one of our favorite CD's from that series is Dreamland: World Lullabies & Soothing Songs
Read to your kids books that celebrate tolerance such as It's Okay To Be Different . Or Let's Get Along!: Kids Talk About Tolerance
The Crafty Crow has recently featured a world craft series which you may enjoy also. This is the link: crafts from around the world

I would love to hear any other suggestions
Tali

What to do with your left over matzo…

I love matzo, but I had enough for this year. Only one thing comes to mind when I look at the somewhat square panels – an opportunity for building something.  And so we did.

You will need:
Left over matzo
Chocolate spread such as Nutella or Hashachar
Left over candy, marshmallow
Toothpicks - for making little people
A tray - use it as the base

How to:

1. Think of what you want to make
2. Cut the matzo along the breaking lines (below is a great short video of how to neatly break a matzo. To bad I found it after we were done)
3. Glue the panels using chocolate spread, you should apply a generous amount to hold it well.
4. Decorate with candy, make small people, play, eat.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Note:
this is not a ‘healthy choice’ project, but from our experience, building it became more important than eating it
This project can get a little messy, that’s why we did it outside.

After we were done, Ori decided it was her birth day and the castle was her birthday cake, so we played along.

There are more ideas of what to do with your left over matzo in the following video clip. Enjoy it.

tali

#06 How-to make over sized flowers made of used plastic bags

This is a fun project to do at home or in a class room. I first tried it during a craft show with some random kids that joined in, and I have to tell you that my best audience were boys with the coolest hair cut, wearing soccer uniform (approximately 10 years of age). They thought it was a great idea to make a flower for their mom. If you don’t have plastic bags to spare, I am sure your friends will, you may also reuse tissue paper.
At home we chose to decorate our bare tree in our backyard. It looks much happier waiting for its leaves to sprout.



You will need:

• used plastic bags (the noisy kind). Each flower requires 10-12 single sheets of nylon (5-6 plastic bags)
• scissors
• pipe cleaner
• string

How to:

1. Flatten all plastic bags, pile them one on top of the other, and smooth them straight.  If you have different size bags, organize them by size.
   
   
2. Trim handles and bottom of bags. You should have the bags as tubes now, stretch them out and keep them flat.
3. Trim sides, so you have single sheets.
   
4. Fold the sheets of nylon stacked on top of each other like an accordion. 
5. Twist the pipe cleaner over the center of the accordion; you may make a small loop at the end of the pipe cleaner so you can tie a string to it. 
6. Trim both ends into either a pointy shape or a curved shape as desired. 
7. Fan out the ends into a butterfly shape.
8. Open up the flower by peeling each layer separately. Do the same on both sides.
9. Fluff the layers of nylon to get a full and puffy flower. Give it a little hair cut if needed.
   
   

Things to think about:

• Depending on the plastic bags you have, you may make nice color combination.
• The flowers are great for outside as well as inside
• An easy and inexpensive solution for a birth day decoration
• If you make them smaller, you may use the pipe cleaner that ties the flowers as the stem. 
• Zoe had to add a touch of perfume to them (she sprayed it on the pipe cleaner).
  
  
   
  

I am looking forward to see your flowers bloom in the flicker shared photo pool, and please, contact me with any question.

I am linking this post to Craft Schooling Sunday

Happy happy spring
tali