A Shop a Week

Well, it's not really a-shop-a-week any more. More like a-shop-a-month... But, hey, we're still here, so it could have been worse... My life feels like a total chaos in the last month or so (I'm back to part-time work, after a year and a half, I began studying again but still at home with the little one), so I neglected the blog a bit. Hopefully it will get better soon...

Anyhow, Green Queen Eco Design is a fantastic shop. I've been following it for a while now. They sell mostly fabric lampshades. I actually fantasize about making one myself, but meanwhile let's just take a look at these beautiful lampshades.

I love the color palette of this lampshade

And this one is more on the romantic side

I want this for my craft room! And my bedroom. And the living room...

And this one is not a lampshade nor made of fabric, but it's a great idea as a gift for kids that have everything already.

Pebble Dominos

Don't forget, if you know of any amazing online shop, or if you own one, let me know :)

Merry Xmas Everyone!!!

DIY Umbrella Tutorial

I don't know how the winter is where ever you are, but here, in Israel, we had a few stormy days last week, winter has finally arrived! And so we found ourselves needing umbrellas. I wanted the kids (and myself!) to have personal umbrellas, so we sat down and began working. It's super easy!

You'll need -

- Transparent umbrella

- Permanent markers

- Acrylics

- Stencils (you can either buy them or make yourself using empty boxes, like my guitar. I used empty cereal box to make it)

- Piece of fabric and a brush (the fabric will be our ink pad for the stamps)

- Stamps

The most important thing here, is to remember to work on the inside of the umbrella. We want to try and protect our decorations from the rain.

Place a stencil on one of the triangles of the umbrella (insind, remember?) and paint using the markers or acrylics. To hold it in place, you can use scotch tape. If you're drawing details, you'll find it easier to work with the markers.

When you're done, carefully remove the stencil. If the paint smears, you can gently take it off using Fresh Ones. If it's already dry, or if you want to remove a big part of it, use nail polish remover.

In the next triangle you can try working with stamps. Use the brush to apply acrylic paint onto the piece of fabric, dip the stamp in the paint, place on the umbrella and press.

If you're making it for your kids, it's always useful to add their name (or write whatever you want!).

You can use a stecil for that too, just don't forget that we work inside the umbrella, so you should mirror write it.

That's Hebrew...

Decorate all the triangles the same way. Now you just need to wait for the next rain to come...

Have a warm winter and Happy Holidays!

Guest Post - Yael from Derech Hayetsira

Hi Everyone!

I'm Yael from the Israeli blog Derech Hayetsira.
I started my blog about a year ago, when I began crafting again (mostly cards) during my maternity leave. On my blog I post about activities with kids (I have three adorable kids), interesting events and of course, my projects.
I enjoy Tal's blog and proud to be her guest.
Today I made a card for a new baby using the Paper Piecing Technique.

First, I chose a cardstock to be the base for my card.

Then I folded it in the middle (I want to write inside).

I drew a stork on a piece of white paper.

        Then I chose some nice cardstocks and papers for the different parts of the stork (I chose solid papers, because my background is a bit busy).

         I copied the different parts on the papers I chose (on the wrong side).

Pay attention to the direction of the stork, it's important to copy all parts in the same direction.

Cut all the parts of the stork.

I glued all the parts together and drew around with a black pen (I think I should have used a thicker pen).

I used thick double sided tape for the eye.

Here's my card -

Congrats!

Yaelush

Inspiration for Hanukkah and a quick menorah tutorial

Sharon from the sweet Israeli blog Gonna Be 40 invited me to write a Hannukah post for the 8 days of miracles series she has on her blog.

Since the original post is all in Hebrew, I translated it for you, and here it is in English...

So we're still licking our wounds from the huge summer vacation (plus almost another month of holidays for Rosh Hashana, that we had here in Israel), and now Hanukkah is knocking on our door. If you celebrate Hanukkah, I guess you also find yourself hosting a lot these days. Almost every day we have guests over – our friends, friends of the kiddos, family, neighbors – and we light candles in our 342 Hanukkah Menorah's (the kids are making maybe 100 of them every year!!!) and eat latkes and Hanukkah doughnuts. So to help you have the most amazing Hanukkah party, here's a round-up of some great Hanukkah ideas.

Oh, and how can you have a Hanukkah without a DIY menorah?… Scroll down to see an easy tutorial for a natural menorah.

 

So any good party needs some nice decorations, right? On the blog Style at Home you can find a cute tutorial for dreidel garland. Anyone said Christmas?…

And if you want to involve the kids in all the preparations, you can have them make these great dreidel paper dolls from the blog Bringing Chesed Home.

If you want your Hanukkah to look a bit like Christmas, here's a beautiful Hanukkah tree!

The Etsy shop FrogPrincePaperie offers DIY Hanukkah printables. The set includes a banner, cupcake toppers, cupcake wraps, dreidel boxes, food labels and more.

The most important moment of any Hanukkah party is the lighting of the menorah, of course. From all the menoras I've seen online, this one, from Aunt Peaches, is my favorite! I'm definitely making one this year!

For the snacks you can make marshmallow dreidels…

And even Hanukkah gelts (these cute chocolate coins), like the ones on Oh Nuts.

And you will need something to hold these coins. How about these dreidel boxes from Martha Stewart?

If you need more ideas, take a look at my Hanukkah Pinterest board.

Now, like I promised, a menorah tutorial.

The whole idea about this menorah is to look around you and use stuff that you can find in your surrounding. You can also follow my steps below, but feel free to go wild!

Search for a nice, straight branch. If it has a section taller than the other, it's even better, this is where your Shamash will go.

You can leave your menorah natural or paint it. My son wanted a colorful one, so we painted… You can use spray paint or acrylics.

Just like that -

Now find a pine cone, try to find one with scales open. Again, you can choose if to paint or leave it that way. If you decided to paint, you can paint now or after you disintegrate the scales (I'm lazy, so I painted before disintegrating it…).

Disintegrate the scales.

Assembly time. Use hot glue gun to glue 3 scales at a time in a flowery shape. Make 8 of these plus one Shamash.

In the center of each flower, glue a small, simple, candle holder.

That's it, your menorah is ready!

Happy Holidays!

A Shop a Week

I have some good new and some bad news.

The bad news are that I decided to stop the weekly Pinterest party for a while. I will still feature my favorite pins once in a while, so please do keep on pinning to the board, but as it's taking a lot of time for me to choose the best ones and feature them every week, I felt it leaves me with almost no time for tutorials, recipes, DIY projects etc. I'm still going to feature a special shop every week, though.

Now to the good news... Have you noticed things here were quiet lately? Well, it's because lots of good things are happening. If you checked out my blog in the last few days, you saw I guest posted on Plucky's Second Thought and Sugar Bee Crafts. Tomorrow I'm at Gonna Be 40 with a Hanukkah post and there are many tutorials and other posts on the way (and this is a great opportunity to remind you that I'm always looking for cooperations, so if you have an idea for something we can do together, please email me!)

Anyway, let's move on to our weekly shop. This time we're visiting Gala Studio, a shop by the very talented Gal Almog. Gal says she tries to bring happiness and optimism into people's homes, and I think she does a great job - her works are colorful, bright and beautiful.

I can already see those pretty hooks on our bathroom door

I just love those Japanese earrings!

Cool robot hook

I just couldn't ignore this beautiful Matrioshka hook!

And remember, if you know a cool shop, or if you own one, let me know :)

My Menorah Tutorial is on Sugar Bee Crafts!

Do you know the awsome blog Sugar Bee Crafts? Well, if you don't, make sure to check it out n-o-w! It's one of the best crafty, DIY blogs out there!

And while you're there... I'd love you to check out my menorah tutorial for Hanukkah...

Rainy Day Chalkboard Tutorial - Guest Posting at Plucky's Second Thought

Can't remember whether I told you or not, but I'm Plucky's Second Thought new DIY contributor. If you don't know Plucky's blog, you should check it out - she has great tutorials, blogging tips, recipes and more cool stuff.

My first post there is a tutorial for a cute chalkboard that you can easily make. Check it out here.

A Shop a Week

I know, I know, it became a habit, I'm posting this Shop a Week a day late almost every week now... So I'll just say (again!) that I'm sorry and then quickly move on to this week's shop...

So this week's shop, Sky Rain Soap, belongs to Maria from Ohio, who makes these super cute soaps in many many different fragnances, some are traditional soap fragnances, some are, well, kind of weird (mojito? Popcorn?? Zucchini bread???)...

The Girl would LOVE it!

And The Boy would kill for these Lego soaps...

How About something for Hanukkah? Maybe a soap that lasts 8 days?...

And for Christmas?...

One set for The Man

These adorable robots will be mine one day!

And, as always, if you know any cool online shop, or if you're the owner of one, let me know :)...