Upgrading Pillowcase Tutorial

The Beatles were my first musical love. When I was 14, my dad decided it was about time I listen to some real music. So he put some records on and introduced me to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and The Beatels. Oh, The Beatles. The first Beatles album he chose for me was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. A terrific choice, if you ask me. When he saw that I actually liked it, he went on and bought me my first Beatled cassette. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship :) 

So when Michal, an Israeli blogger, decided to do a Beatles project, I just knew I had to be a part of it. The idea for the project, as Michal said it, was very simple - choose a favorite Beatles song and write a post about it. It can be anything this song makes you feel. Use it as an inspiration. Hmmm. OK... A favorite Beatles song, right? That's like asking me which kid of mine is cuter when asleep. There's no answer to this question. It's impossible to choose! So I can try eliminate songs, but I'll still have a lot of songs to choose from, and anyhow, in different times in my life, I have different favorite Beatles songs. Don't you?

So I started with my list...

And pretty much all of Abbey Rd...

And yes, there are many other songs, but I had to stop somewhere. And then I began searching Pinterest. Check out my inspiration board:

Follow The Crafeteria's board Beatles on Pinterest.

And somehow I managed to choose a song. I chose Come Together, from Abbey Rd., that Lennon started writing as a campaign song for Timothy Leary, a campaign that ended when Leary was sent to prison.

So what do we do?

We upgrade a pillowcase.

You'll need:

A pillowcase (duh...)

Freezer paper (you can get it easily here)
Exacto knife
Fabric paint
A piece of foam or foam brush
A piece of cardboard
iron

Start by printing or drawing your design. Copy it to the non shiny side of the freezer paper.

Use an exacto knife to cut your design, save the inner parts of the letters! Cut around and place with shiny side down on the pillowcase (don't forget to place the saved inner parts as well!). Iron the design onto the fabric.

That's how it should look:

Prepare your paint...

Insert the piece of cardboard inside the pillowcase (we don't want the paint to bleed through to the other side) and start painting. Wait a few minutes, and if needed, paint another coat.

Wait for it to completely dry and peel off the paper. Done!

Here are the other post from the other bloggers on the project (all are in Hebrew, but use your Google Translator!)

Ro'a Olam

Colourful Way

Tamari & Me

Hug Hakotev Hatsfoni

Regaim Ktanim

Orot Verazim

Fashion Tails

Sukkot Decorations

I have a confession to make - I don't really like holidays. That is the Jewish holidays that we usually celebrate. The only one I really like is Purim, which is similar to Halloween, but I'll talk about that in another post. My no. 2 fave is Sukkot. It's quite a simple, easy-peasy holiday. Not too many holiday dinners and all I have to do is decorate the sukkah with the kids. Piece of cake. We already have a box full of decorations from past years. We only open it on Sukkot and sometimes on birthday parties, and each year we add some more decorations.

Here are some of the ideas from our magic box:

Take fabric leftovers, cut to strips 3 cm (1.2") wide and in different lengths. Tie each piece to a long piece of ribbon, and that's all. Then you can hang it above the entrance to the Sukkah or on one of the walls.

String lights are always a huge success. You can always use a store-bought one, but it's more fun to make one yourself. So how can you make it?

Prepare in advance a few cups (paper ones or regular) wrapped in plastic wrap and place them upside down. Take a few small crochet doilies that you don't need anymore, dip them in a mix of 2/3 Elmer's glue and 1/3 water. Put on cups and wait for them to dry and harden (24-48 hours). Now you can just attach them to a set of regulat string lights.

OK, this one is a cheat :) Do you know these paper balls? You can get them in many colors and different sizes and they're super cheap. Just buy 20 or so and hang around your Sukkah. Pretty and useful - by the end of the holiday you can just fold them back and store them for next year.

This tissue paper pom poms are a must in our Sukkah. There's a great tutorial by Martha Stewart here.

And this is a miniature Sukkah that we made last year. It actually had more details to it, but for some reason I only found this picture. After it was ready, the kids used little Playmobil people and accessories to play with it, until it just collapsed... Well, that's a great excuse to make another one this year.

And last thing - I prepared a Pinterest board all about Sukkot. I'll keep on pinning to it in the coming days, so make sure you follow.

Follow The Crafeteria's board סוכות - Sukkot on Pinterest.

I really want to see your amazing Sukkas! Please send links in the comments section or post pictures on The Crafeteria FB page.

Happy Sukkot!

Heart Wand Tutorial - My Post for Plucky's Second Thought

Things have been quiet here lately...

I'm not really complaining, but lately I feel like I'm missing 5-6 hours a day. Although I really do my best to manage my time and although I promise myself every evening that I won't go to sleep past 10 pm, somehow when the clock strikes midnight, I'm still up and awake.

Here's what happens -

One baby still at home with mommy +
Product design studies, I just started 2 months ago +
New part time job
2 kids that still supply their share of work for mommy +

Home stuff, you know... +

Articles I started writing for an Israeli lifestyle website +

The man also needs some attention =

Thank god we decided to wait with the dog we wanted to take...

Anyhow, I'm still Plucky's Second Thought's DIY contributor, and this time I made a heart wand for Valentine's Day. My girl loves it, I hope you'll love it too. See the full tutorial here.

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!

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.

Fabric Covered Decorative Letters Tutorial

This post was originally published as a guest post on the fabulous blog Someday Crafts, and I'm posting it now here on the blog as well.

When we moved to our new place, the wall above my daughter's bed seemed empty. I wanted to hang something there, but didn't know what. That was when I saw cute decorative letters, and decided to make those for her. It's pretty simple, and I prepared an easy tutorial so that you can make them too!

You can use store bought wooden or paper mache letters for this project, but it's so much fun to make these yourself, so I'll teach you how to do that.

For the letters you'll need -
A piece of cardboard
Empty toilet rolls
Scissors
X-Acto knife
Glue Gun

Using the cardboard, trace your chosen letters, twice of each, and cut them.

Draw parallel lines on your empty paper roll, about 2.5 cm (1") apart, then cut.

Using hot glue, glue your circles onto one of the letters.

Then apply glue to the other side of the circles and place the other letter on top. The hot glue dries quickly, so work fast and gradually.

Cut a few strips of cardboard (if you're using regular cardboard box, make sure to cut the cardboard perpendicular to the waves).

Using these strips and glue gun, finish your letter. It doesn't have to be very accurate, as we're going to cover it with batting.

Let it dry for a few minutes, then you can move on to the next step - cover your letter with fabric!
For that, you'll need -
Your letter (obviously...)
Fabric
Some sort of batting
Scissors
Spray adhesive
Piece of felt

Cut the fabric and batting to match the shape of the letter. As we're going to work with curves and corners, make sure you leave enough fabric for mistakes. Place the batting on the letter and the fabric on the batting. Using the spray adhesive, glue the fabric to the back of the letter. This part can be kind of tricky - each letter and its own problems...

A few words about working with spray adhesive - Spray from a distance of 20-30 cm (8"-12") on wrong side of the fabric and on the back of the letter, wait 10-30 seconds and carefully apply fabric onto letter. If you have wrinkles, lift fabric and apply again.

Now to the back of the letter - cut a piece of felt a bit smaller than your letter, then use the spray adhesive to apply onto the back of the letter.

That's it! You can now hang your letter or word on the wall. Since they're made of cardboard, they're super light, so it shouldn't be a problem. You can glue a loop of yarn to the back or just use double stick tape.