Simchat Torah Is Here!

It took some thought to decide what kind of a project I should post this week. I've been looking at videos on YouTube of Simchat Torah celebrations. The term Simchat Torah means "Joy of Torah" and these celebrations are certainly joyous! The Torah scroll is the center piece of this celebration and there is so much dancing and singing around the written Word of YHWH that a second theme can be introduced to our crafting.

This year I decided on making another little decorator pillow with a dancing theme.

I try to use crafting materials I already have and this was no exception. I chose some purple and white satins and cut them to the desired size. The white satin was applied to the purple with heat bonding web and outlined with glitter glue to seal the raw fabric. The words were written with a gel pen and Simchat Torah was written with glitter glue. When the glitter glue was dry (this took some time to dry...be patient) I then went to the sewing machine and sewed the back of the pillow to the front. A shoe shape was cut out from glitter encrusted canvas left over from a Purim project and glued on the pillow. The last touch was adding ribbons gathered together.

Now put on your dancing shoes, turn up the music and dance around the precious Word of our King. Celebrate! with Lenny and Varna singing Simchat Torah.

Have You Thought Of Doing This During Sukkot?

SUKKOT IS HERE!

Lev 23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

 Lev 23:40 And you shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

Lev 23:41 And you shall keep it a feast to the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

Lev 23:42 You shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:

Lev 23:43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.


I've found many sites on the internet that display different ideas for Sukkot...decorations for their succahs, recipes and crafts. Many people invite family, friends and neighbors to join in the celebration. Taking videos of the festivities is a great idea but, for those who don't have access to a video camera, the next best thing is taking still photos.

I thought an interesting idea would be to print up those pictures and give little albums containing those photos to your guests as a memento of these Feast Days. So off to the craft stores I went in search of supplies.

I found the holographic star paper (card stock weight) for the cover, the blue with white stars paper and the heavy weight black construction paper for the inside pages.

I decided on the size of my album and cut the paper the appropriate size but twice as wide to accommodate folding it in half. Then I proceeded to measure out where to 'sew' the pages together. I shared this technique on a past post...http://asweetsavor.blogspot.com/2013/03/bookbinding-and-amidah-prayer.html

The holographic paper I used for the album cover suggested the theme of my album 'Sukkot Under the Stars 2013'.

I just can't resist adding embellishments to my creations. I finished the album with fringy yarn, sequins and beads. All that's needed to to attach my photos with self adhesive picture corners.

Chag Samaech to all my viewers. Have a wonderful Sukkot celebration!

Yom Kippur

A song for Yom Kippur.

May your name be inscribed in the Book of  Life.

Happy Yom Teruah!