Purim basket

It is hard to believe that today is March 1st. This winter is just refusing to give up and today we had to miss Lila's roller derby clinic because another snow storm decided to show up and mess with our plans.

But the calendar insists that we indeed reached March. March brings Purim and anticipation of spring. I immediately knew what I want to make for the Scrappy Hands box challenge - a decorated box for Purim or as we call it - "mishaloach manot".

I started with a wood box that I decorated with vinyl stickers cut on Silhouette Cameo. I filled it with sweets and added a paper tag with greeting.

Here are few more boxes I made as custom orders. Here the names are in Hebrew. Check what other DT members did for this challenge. Love how different all project are! What about you? Do you like to make altered boxes?

Keep calm and light on

Two days before Hanukkah!! I should check the calendar more often. Feel totally not ready.

Except maybe in the decorations department. I try to make a Hanukkah decor project every year.Some of my favorites are this shadowbox and this star mini-album.

This year I made another shadowbox. I was inspired by the Scrappy Hands challenge 28 - Light

I used white 8x8 shadow box frame that I filled with small wood dreidels. I used blue glitter vinyl to cut the words and Crafting Jewish Style Hanukkah paper for the background.

Check the Scrappy Hands blog to see all other beautiful projects, and share your take on the challenge with us.

Happy Hanukkah to all who will light the first candle on Tuesday night,

Scrap It Girl April Challenge and Passover decorations

Today is April 1st and that means that one quarter of 2014 is already behind us and finally it looks like spring. It also means that Passover is only 2 weeks away! I decided to use Scrap It Girl April challenge as an excuse to make Passover table centerpieces. This month's theme is tags and bags.

I made two tags that I tied on simple metal watering cans filled with daffodils. Nothing says spring to me better than daffodils. Passover is also called holiday of spring so it all felt very appropriate.

 I cut the tags and the daffodils with Silhouette Cameo.

 One in English and one in Hebrew.

We will be traveling the weekend before Passover Eve so it feels good to know that at least I will have pretty centerpieces for the holiday table. Hmmm, not really... maybe I should get started on my matzo balls ;-)

Check what other DT members did for this challenge and don't forget to share your take.

Hanukkah star album - guest post at D's Paper Studio

Debby from D's Paper Studio kindly invited me to write a guest post for her blog while she is celebrating the arrival of her new granddaughter. The blog post was up yesterday and I am reposting it here

When Debby asked me to write a guest post I knew I wanted to share a Hanukkah project. We take a lot of pictures during the eight days of Hanukkah - pictures of food, gifts, people, menorahs and more food. My favorites are pictures of candles. There is something magical in looking at the flickering candle fire. That is one of those rare moments when I feel connected to my ancestors.

After giving it some thought I decided to make a mini book, but not just any mini book - a star mini book. Years ago I took a class from Big Picture Classes (Big Picture Scrapbooking at that time) By Tena Sprenger. The class project was a hand sewn star mini book. I made one with pictures of my babies and it is one of my most favorite mini albums. I decided to make another star minibook  with some changes.

The original book is 6x6 and has 7 signatures. I made it 6x9 to include more pictures (did I say that I have a lot of pictures?) and used only 6 signatures. My star has 6 points like the Star of David.

I used three colors of Core'dinations cardstock for the book signatures that are hand sewn with waxed cotton thread. The patterned paper is from Hanukkah collection by Crafting Jewish Style.

For the cover I chose the patterned paper with an image of the Hanukkah Menorah and just added the title. The letters are Heidi Swapp invisible stickers lightly brushed with gold mist and the numbers are American Craft Thickers, of course. I added distress stickles in Antique Linen to the candle flames to make it a little more festive.

Here is how the album looks closed with all it's sewn signatures stacked neatly.

For the inside of the album I went with very simple design - one picture on the left in the Polaroid frame, two pictures of the right matted with coordinating cardstock.

I designed the Polaroid frames in Silhouette Studio software and cut them with my brand new Silhouette Cameo! Let me know if you are interested in the cut files, I will gladly email them to you.

The patterned paper is so bright and colorful that I didn't feel it needs anything else. The only embellishment is the file tab with a small Star of David sticker.

 

 

 

 

Small binder clip is holding the book covers together when the book is open.

For the next six weeks this book is going to live in our living room, reminding us about great time spent together with family and friends.

I can't wait to make new memories and take even more pictures this year. Five weeks till Hanukkah!

I wish you all happy and festive holiday season! 

That's was it. What do you think? I had so much fun designing these little frames in Silhouette Studio. I can't wait to do more and constantly planning other projects! Anyone else addicted to Silhouette??

Long time no blog

It is probably not a very good idea to stop blogging for 10 days in the middle of the Blogging for Scrapbookers class, but that's what happened. Between my DT assignments, other commitments I took on myself, spring break and life in general, not much time and even more important, not much energy was left for blogging. But I am back. At least for now :) I do have a fun post planned for tomorrow (hint: look for the blog hop button on the right)

Last week I was totally consumed with this project. I committed to make 2 items for the fundraising auction at our local Jewish School. I made a set of Passover cards and a Hanukkah trey, similar to the one I did for myself. The card design was inspired by Nichole Heady card.

Supplies: patterned paper (Colorbok), doilies (Martha Stewart), stamps (PaperTrey Ink), ink (Ranger, Brilliance), dove punch (Martha Stewart), circle and scallop punches (Fiskars), silver pen (Sakura)

I made 10 cards, 5 of each design. Each card was put in a separate bag with a matching closure.

I hope people will like them. After spending hours trying different designs and colors I think they turned out cute :)
I have more than 1000 unread posts in my Google Reader only from my Blogging for Scrapbookers classmates. I feel a little overwhelmed... Let's see how many I can read with my morning coffee.

Getting ready for Purim

Stop by Crafting Jewish Style blog to see a little project that started from this:

And ended up looking like this:

Lots of hamentashen, cookies and sweet treats will fill the box by Saturday. I even made a downloadable ferebie with Purim labels. Find the link at Crafting Jewish Style blog.

So much to share!

I can't believe I didn't blog for so long! Last few weeks were so busy and I just didn't have enough energy to blog. I did manage to scrapbook so I have a lot of projects to show, but first, few things I wanted to share:

Sketches2Scrapbook app is now on sale in the iTunes Store!!

There are two versions: a FREE Lite Version with 12 sketches in it for everyone to demo the app, and a FULL version with another 104 sketches for the low price of $4.99 (US Dollars) - the FULL version also gets you the sketches from the free version (so a total of 116 sketches)
Link to Full Version: itunes/sketches2scrapbook

Link to Free Version: itunes/scketches2scrapbook/lite

I think one of the best features of this app is different search options. You can search by style, by number of photos, even by supplies! So cool! Visit Scrapbook2Sketches website to see more sneak peaks and videos. I am so excited to be part of this project. I made 2 layouts for the app.

Crafting Jewish Style 8 Hanukkah Nights and Giveaways

Hanukkah is getting close and Crafting Jewish Style design blog is helping to get you in the mood! 8 special Hanukkah posts started on November 24th and will continue till the first night of Hanukkah! There are 2 big giveaways - Crafting Jewish Style prize and Hanukkah Party Giveaway from The Frog Prince Paperie. How cute are those milk carton boxes??

Here is a quick card I made based on this sketch. I love the label stickers that come with the Hanukkah kit - so cute!

Supplies: cardstock (Recollections), patterned paper, tag and label sticker (Crafting Jewish Style), border punch (Fiskars), jewels (K&Company)

Tomorrow I am going to share my October DT work for Scrapbook Express. I am having a blast there!

12*12*12 Holiday Blog Hop - Chocolate Coin cookies

Welcome back friends to my second and last post for this Holiday blog hop!

I am not a big baker but in the spirit of Hanukkah I decided to make chocolate coins. I found a recipe on Martha Stewart website, dig out of the closet my old Tupperware pastry sheet and rolling pin and got to work.

Here is Martha's recipe with my comments

Ingredients

Makes about 3 dozen (I used small cookie cutter and got about 4 dozen cookies)

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I am going to try semi-sweet next time or add more sugar)
  
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest (optional) (I put the zest from the whole orange)
  
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg; mix until well combined.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, flour, salt, and orange zest, if using. Add flour mixture to egg mixture; continue mixing until the ingredients are just combined, scraping down sides of the bowl.
3. Scrape dough onto a piece of plastic wrap; flatten into a disk. Wrap, and chill at least 1 hour or overnight. (1 hour was enough)
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place granulated sugar in a small bowl.
5. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch-round cutter, cut out cookies (My cookie cutter was a little bit smaller)
6. Carefully press each cookie into granulated sugar. Transfer cookies to sheets, spaced 1/2 inch apart.
7. Bake until cookies are firm, about 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Wrap in foil. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Here they are, ready to be wrapped. I punched 2" circles from the gold paper and stamped them with Menorah and Star of David stamps. I don't remember where I bought the stamps, probably at Jo-Ann from the $1.99 bin.

Ella helped me to wrap each cookie in foil and we attached the stamped circle with adhesive.

I think it will be cute to put few in the baggie for the quick Hanukkah treat. I can also envision them wrapped in silver foil with cute Valentine sayings as Valentine party favors.

Ella loved the cookies, they are perfect for the pure chocolate lovers. I thought they came out not sweet enough. Next time I will try to use semi-sweet cocoa powder or add more sugar.

That's all for today! You have just one stop left - Julie from Just Our Story will share another fabulous project with you at 8pm exactly.

Thanks for stopping by!

12*12*12 Holiday Blog Hop - Hanukkah Tray

Welcome to my first 12*12*12 Holiday Blog Hop post!

I will share how I made the Hanukkah candles tray. I borrowed the idea from the great book by Rivky Koenig called Crafting Jewish. When I saw it in the book I knew it will be the first project I will make.

I started with the plain 11x14 picture frame. I decided to use Martha Stewart paper pack that had some pretty silver papers.

I opened the frame and used the piece of paper inside as my base. The paper I used for the middle is embossed and has a nice texture. I punched the border with the Fiskars Upper Crest border punch and added a border of the Menorahs made with this Quickutz die from the light silver paper.

I added another layer of the punched border from the same silver paper.

To finish my tray I printed Hanukkah blessings in Hebrew and in English on a piece of vellum and adhered it to the middle using 4 tiny glue dots. 4 rhinestones at the corners and stamped dreidel give the last touch.

Here it is - ready for tonight. If you are asking were the gorgeous Menorah is from, it is hand painted by Ella :)

Supplies: picture frame (Michaels), patterned paper and rhinestones (Martha Stewart), punch (Fiskars), die (Quickutz), stamps (Papertrey Ink and unknown)

Hope you are enjoying our blog hop! Next stop - Julie at Just Our Story Stop by her blog at 2pm and then come back later for more!

Eight Night of Hanukkah and 2 giveaways

Today's post will be short and sweet, at least I hope it will be sweet :)

Few hours ago we lit our Menorahs for the last time this year and ate the last sufganiyot. It was the most memorable Hanukkah for me because of you all. Thank you for allowing me to share my holidays with you! It was a lot of fun and helped me to make our family Hanukkah celebrations more meaningful.

I want to share this quick project I made today. It is multi-layered collage that goes into shadow frame.

I picked 9 pictures that I liked and used Picasa to make a collage. I then printed the collage 3 times on matte photo paper (It says photo paper on the package but it is more like cardstock quality)

I than cut the collage into separate squares. When I need to trim pictures printed at home I love to use my Fiskars by-pass trimmer.

I than arranged the 9 pictures on the piece of 9x9 back cardstock and glued them down. After that I decided what squares will have 2 layers and what squares will have 3 layers.

I added the 2nd and the 3rd layers using the pop-dots.

All done. The collage goes into the shadow box from Ikea. The light in my basement is not the best but you got the idea :)

Now let's see who is the winner of the RAK #6.

Here are your random numbers:
13
Timestamp: 2008-12-29 05:28:21 UTC

Meital - you are the winner. Please email me at maya.orendahan@gmail.com

Today, I have two RAKS.
RAK #7: Heidi Grace special edition Bouquet scissors and two Studio G clear stamp sets. One has Happy Day and Smile stamps and the second has Sweetheart, Love and I Love You stamps.

RAK#8: Heidi Grace Under the Sea kit: 10 patterned papers, Punchboard Box set Add-ons, Glitter Hearts Accents. (well, it's not really a kit, I am just sharing from my stash)

Leave a comment to be entered into the random drawing. You have till December 30. I will post the winners on December 31st.

P.S. Do you see the little owl picking out behind the shadow frame? He is the subject of my next post.

Latkes and other stuff

Yesterday I finally finished my Christmas cards. Just need to buy stamps and mail them out. My Hanukkah cards were mailed some time ago already. Hopefully everybody will get them during the Hanukkah, not after.

The round Christmas cards are done using Cloud 9 paper, fiskars circle border punch and some cute reindeers from Michaels. I did the tree cards using the Jo-Ann kit that I picked up last year. I added Cloud 9 raindots and fiskars star punch. Oh, and I also played with the glimmer mist trying to spice up the background. The Hanukkah cards are just made from the strips of patterned paper by Heidi Grace.

Now latkes - we made some few days ago using the recipe in the book. they were good but not as good as my dad's latkes. So I had to call him and ask for the recipe. Here it is - the super-duper secret recipe:

1. Grate about 10 potatoes - very thin. I did it by hand.

2. If the potatoes give a lot of liquid add 3-4 tablespoons of flour. I added 3

3. Add salt. I added about one tablespoon.

4. Heat a lot of oil in the heavy skillet. wait till oil is hot.

5. Fry latkes from both sides till golden.

6. Add sour cream and enjoy.

What can I say - it was delicious! Just the way I remember them!

Don't you like this menorah with tall white candles? It's from Crate and Barrel. I need to stock on those candles - just love them!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah to everybody who will read this post! That's if I will decide to send this link out LOL

Anyway, just wanted to post a picture of the project I did that makes me very happy. I adapted the idea of the advent calendar for Hanukkah. The original idea is from marthastewart.com. I saw it on Ali Edwards' blog. The photo is lousy and it really doesn't work well with the white wall but you can get the idea. There is a lot of silver, white and 2 shades of blue. Here it is:

Each box will be opened on one of the eight night of Hanukkah to reveal a gift or a note that says what the gift is. Yesterday we opened the first box and Miss E. got a note saying:

The winter is here, all covered with snow.

Today is the first day of Hanukkah glow.

7 more days to come, so without any delay,

Your first gift of Hanukkah is for outside play.

Go find it!

The gift was a form to make snow bricks and snow balls and was hidden in the living room. We did a small treasure hunt. She loved it! She loves to play in snow outside!

Miss L is not getting any Hanukkah gifts this year but that's a different story :-(

Here she is this morning, playing with her new toy before the school

Now I need to decide who will get the link LOL