Birkat Chaverim Blog

As school is approaching here are some related projects. Above is a desk organizer made out of plastic bags and clear tape. It was made by a student in my chug/class. Also useful for school are notebooks. Another participant made this notebook cover: Continue reading »

I made this one with my daughter (she chose to do a cat) but prior to that we made some of these in my chug/class (I havent found the pictures yet! When I do Ill post them.) Continue reading »

Summer is a good time to post these two projects made by two girls in my class. First is a water scene made out of plastic bags and fimo. I thought it was really neat. She tested what happens when you iron plastic bags a little too long and then made use of the piece as the ocean. She didn’t have to. You can actually iron other pieces together but she liked the effect. The fimo was shaped using a mold I bought that made sea animal shapes. Continue reading »

We have been making travel games over the last few weeks in our chug/classes. The idea was that almost all the girls are going away somewhere once school is out and all of the “somewhere” require traveling. Having some travel games would make the traveling part of the trip more fun. For inspiration I pulled out a HABA game I bought my daughter a while back (see image.) I also pulled out three books that I thought might be useful for ideas: Continue reading »

If you are looking for a project for a Bat Mitzvah around Shavuot, you could try floral arrangements with old nylons. Nylons can be dyed using store bought dye or food coloring and vinegar. There are a variety of examples on the web for inspiration and tutorials, or you can get a copy of The Art of Handmade Flowers.

For online tutorials and examples of nylon floral arrangements see:

Ehow tutorial with picture
Get Crafty blog with several examples
Creation Blog with small purple flowers
Flowers that Last store which has a photo gallery of examples

Our own modest example with pipecleaners as seen in the post Tu Bishvat flower ideas.

Tu B’shvat is really about figuring out a date for terumot and maasrot-tithing (old fruits versus new fruits, which year they are from so the fruit could be given to the correct recipients.) In the Bnei Akiva bencher, we actually do include the blessing recited when taking terumot and maasrot, but I didn’t really want to do a post about that. Its not very crafty. I also wasn’t really interested in doing something about Tu B’shvat seders or dried fruit. Instead, I’m thinking about flowers. Before fruits become fruit they start as flowers, so there you go.

My daughter and I made pipe cleaner flowers with stockings as a very simple no sew project. We did some experimenting with coloring the stockings but mostly we used the stockings as-is.

In the chug we also seem to be focusing on flowers lately. Here is one flower barrette one of our participants made.

She chose to make this barrette after we looked at a bunch of different designs and styles online. I found a tutorial of how to make this one (and of course I’m having trouble finding it again to post a link to it now.) The idea behind this one is to make four flower shapes with six petals, fold them over and attach them in the middle. That provides the depth. This participant chose to use two colors for variety. Other floral barrettes that have been made recently include another flower made of felt, but using overlapping flowers of different sizes and a large fabric flower for a headband. I’ll post images of those soon.

Here are two other sources for flower ideas:

Do it yourself alternative flower arrangements

And this youtube video on how to make flowers from dryer sheets:

Tutorial for a really cool tree and swing card made of paper discovered via Whipup

See also: Dried fruit “trees” and “flowers”

I have not yet written any posts yet about what we are doing this year in our chug (class), but I hope to start posting about that next week. In the meantime I wanted to post a few ideas for Chanukkah/Hanukkah crafts that can be found here, around the web or are simple enough not to need a tutorial.

Feltboard menorah with candles: Basically choose a menorah shape you like from your own imagination or using a clipart shape you can find. Cut out the menorah shape from any color felt you like. Cut out nine rectangles (I did white but given the variety of colors for Chanukkah candles one could use whatever colors you can think of)  and 9 “eye” shapes from yellow/orange felt. Use a rectangle shaped piece of felt as a backboard and you’ve got a Chanukkah felt board. Candles and flames could be reused for Shabbat candles.
Continue reading »

Everyone knows that on Chanukkah (Hanukkah or Hanuka- however you want to spell it!)  you eat oily foods. The oily foods most connected with Chanukkah are potato latkes (pancakes) and sufganiot (donuts.) This tutorial will show a very simple latke pattern.
Continue reading »

These are not such original ideas but they can be a fun holiday toy for a young child in synagogue or wherever. The idea of using a matchbox as a house came from colouredbuttons.com, where she has many lovely ideas in general, but in particular really sweet things out of matchboxes.

I just modified her idea for the holidays and for use with a smaller child who is a bit rough on toys. I did not add many embellishments because they were liable to be chewed or pulled off and I didn’t make them into necklaces. I made a sukkah with a little girl doll (bead, pipe cleaner, part of an old shirt, yarn), and a shul with felt Torah, Torah cover, kiddush cup and synagogue backdrop. This is a really quick project. It could probably be used as an actual matchbox holder for lighting candles for Shabbat and holidays. It is a great project to do with children older than mine, although she had many ideas of what I should put in the box (“Ima make a shofar, make besamim.” “Ima can you make me a house too?”)

I had actually been saving the matchboxes to make into rolling ball games using historic Jewish sites, but I have not gotten around to that yet. Perhaps we’ll do that this year in the doll clothing classes (we do go off topic sometimes.) I will probably add a lulav and etrog to the sukkah and some other items to the synagogue.

I wanted to post pictures of some of the finished projects from the doll clothing classes. The girls are very creative and are always coming up with new ideas. I don’t have pictures of all the works made in the class, but I’d like to share what I can.

Finished shorts:
Build a bear sheep is sporting a happy birthday hat. The shorts are made from an old t-shirt (seen in other posts). I like how the tail part of the shorts came out-

Shoes:
Patterns is based on a Martha Stewart baby bootie pattern and modified for the doll. Ribbon was added to make ballet slipper type shoes.

Jacket:
This was completely designed by a participant based on a jean skirt in our scrap pile. It came out really well and did not require alot of sewing.

On a different topic- one participant designed a “Dress a boy” felt board.

An earlier project design by a participant who wanted to do something without any sewing whatsoever.

These are not all the projects, but unfortunately I didn’t manage to photograph everything. Some participants have also made foam visors in addition to other clothing items that didn’t make it into pictures.

For other examples of doll and bear clothing and accessory projects see some of the earlier posts:
A Doll Clothing Chug is Born
Doll Clothing Making Course Week One
Doll Clothing Chug Week Three
Barbie Gets a New Hat