Recent Posts:

  • Summer Camp Crafts: Pine Cone Pineapples

    Summer Camp Crafts: Pine Cone Pineapples

      I have taken this craft out of the archives and dusted it off as it is a great partner to my pine cone animals post. Plus it truly is one of the cutest nature crafts ever, right? And pineapples can be any color, not just yellow as long as you have a few yellow…

  • Summer Camp Crafts: How To Make An Acrylic Pour Painting

    Summer is here, which means whether or not summer camp is a part of your summer, you can still do messy, activity oriented crafts (outdoors?) that one might do in summer camp. Acrylic pour painting fits right into that category perfectly, so lets take a look at this trendy painting process. If you are like…

  • Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

    Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

    Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! Summer is here, and that means hot days and fortunately generally cool nights here in our mountaintop location. While the surrounding fields and meadows are mostly gold with pops of purple thistles, my container garden is just getting started! This year I have…

  • A Peek In My Sketchbook: Learning To Draw Simple Botanicals

    A Peek In My Sketchbook: Learning To Draw Simple Botanicals

    I am happy to say that my sketchbook endeavors are consistent, and I am slowly but surely filling up a sketchbook that has been sitting half empty for 20 plus years! I started on May 18th and have now completed 46 pages, phew! Okay the pages aren't filled with brilliant art, but rather simple botanical…

  • Learning How To Use An Airbrush

    Above: Photos courtesy of airbrushboston.com The world of airbrushing is interesting and exciting, but takes some knowledge and practice. If you want to learn how to use an airbrush, and become familiar with what might be involved, you have come to the right place. My teen daughter has been hand drawing and using a spray…

  • Summer Camp Crafts: A Graffiti Logo Sweatshirt With Splashes Of Color

    Summer Camp Crafts: A Graffiti Logo Sweatshirt With Splashes Of Color

    I am so grateful that my teen daughter loves crafting, as with no school for months now due to Covid-19, she has had lots of time to delve into creative activities that she loves, the latest being grafitti sweatshirts! Her friends are begging her to make some for them, and while I was just thinking…

  • Summer Camp Crafts: A Simple Graffiti Sweatshirt In Black And White

    Summer Camp Crafts: A Simple Graffiti Sweatshirt In Black And White

    Summer is here, and yet this summer is not like other summers, sigh. Here at CJM central we seem be in the middle of eternal vacation, well sort of, with the future of schooling this year very uncertain. Rather than dwell on that, and whether some of my kids will actually get "summer vacation" when…

  • Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

    Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

    Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! Time is just flying by, and with my three teens still not back in school. Maybe it is because life is just much busier with day to day family obligations! With much of the country back in school there was a significant rise…

  • Enhancing Your Children’s Creativity Through Connecting To Nature

    Enhancing Your Children’s Creativity Through Connecting To Nature

    Above: Pomegranite tree in bloom in Northern Israel on June 4th, 2020 Fostering your children's creativity is something that starts at home. Online classes and art books can definitely help boost your child's creativity, but at the end of the day there's nothing like getting in touch with nature to really get creativity flowing. I…

  • When Life Gives You Art Supplies: Upcycle Old Candles To Make More Candles

    When Life Gives You Art Supplies: Upcycle Old Candles To Make More Candles

    There is something about me that you may not know: I hate waste, and I have a problem throwing out things that have great crafting potential. That of course is one of the reasons I love recycling crafts, together with of course the creative challenge that goes hand in hand with being resourceful! Someone like…

  • A Peek In My Sketchbook: Learning To Draw Simple Flowers

    A Peek In My Sketchbook: Learning To Draw Simple Flowers

    My sketchbook practice has been neither consistent nor significant, and yet time and time again I find myself wishing that I could just start a daily creative practice in a sketchbook or art journal. On May 18th, 2020, not sure what happened exactly, but the planets apparently shifted and I started sketching in sketchbook that…

  • Simple Watercolor Poppy Wall Art

    Simple Watercolor Poppy Wall Art

    After sharing a few posts last week showing the watercolor poppies I used to make holiday decorations I decided to hold off and publish this watercolor poppy wall art separately so that it wouldn't get lost in all the gorgeousness of the watercolor poppy cut outs and the watercolor poppies centerpiece! After making those watercolor…

  • How to Reduce the Size of a PDF File Like a Pro

    How to Reduce the Size of a PDF File Like a Pro

    With so many of us now working at home, which means working on the computer, honing our skills is more important than ever! After all, there is life to be lived away from the computer. So make a list of all the things that could be improved regarding your technical knowledge and start crossing them…

  • Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday

    Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday

    Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, thanks so much for joining me here! This past Friday and Saturday (shabbat) we celebrated the holiday of Shavuot back to back with Shabbat, so two days of family time, spiritual time (getting up at the crack of dawn on Shavuot for the customary prayer service, to receive the Torah)…

  • Blooming Watercolor Poppies Centerpiece Is Festive And Very Budget Friendly!

    Blooming Watercolor Poppies Centerpiece Is Festive And Very Budget Friendly!

    I am totally in love with the watercolor poppies in a pot centerpiece, well one-sided centerpiece really, and I have already made two more! This idea, is something that you can play around with depending on your own needs, and there are so many ways to go! I actually made a small one using a…

  • Watercolor Poppy Cutouts To Make NOW!

    Watercolor Poppy Cutouts To Make NOW!

    Please take my word for it, these watercolor poppy cutouts are one of the best things I’ve made in a long time, as there is just something about them that looks AMAZING! And that is even though my illustrations and the paint job were a bit lacking…….So get out the biggest watercolor paper you can…

  • Simple Balloon Cactus Is Perfect Anytime!

    Simple Balloon Cactus Is Perfect Anytime!

    This balloon cactus party centerpiece idea is truly a keeper, and I will very likely be making many many more of these simple balloon cacti in the future. I tend to need ideas that can be made for 8 to 10 tables, on a budget, and this is perfect! I can't take credit for this…

  • Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

    Welcome To Craft Schooling Sunday!

    Welcome to Craft Schooling Sunday, and thanks so much for joining me here! This week we have had a huge heat wave, which has been a bit exhausting, despite air conditioning! (I did see that in cities in Southern Israel the high was 107F, which is wow, HOT, so I'm grateful for or relative coolness.)…

WHY NOT START A NEW CROCHET PROJECT?

Or delve into relaxing watercolor, or a sketchbook practice? Just do it!