Incorporating Symbols Of Faith Into Your Surroundings

Hi everyone! I'm so glad to be back after being absent from this blog. I'm already planning more projects for future posts. The whole idea of starting this blog in the first place wasn't intended to be a look-at-what-I-did-aren't-I-great blog but a way of sharing ideas. I hoped to provide encouragement for readers to surround themselves with objects and material that remind them of the true foundations of their faith.

Having left behind the pagan holidays and embraced the Feast Days of Yahweh, I've found very limited  availability of Hebrew Roots or Feast Day themed items. So, I thought why not make my own and encourage others in the same pursuit. Pinterest is a great website to garner ideas. I find it a challenge to take ideas from there, or anywhere else for that matter, incorporate and combine them into finished projects that are encouraging to me and can also be a witness to visitors.

If you are still involved with the past holidays that most of us were brought up to celebrate, I'm not going to beat you over the head with a Torah scroll. As I learned about the Feast Days, seven in all, I found I was too busy trying to keep up to miss the others. I had left Halloween and Easter behind some time ago in my journey but not Christmas until about 5+ years ago when I started pursuing the Torah. Christmas was a big holiday time for me with all it's trimmings, but I now have seven holidays to celebrate that leave past holidays in the past. I would encourage readers to have fun and decorate and craft to your heart's content. Personally, I think our Abba delights when His children operate in the giftings He has placed in us.

Now that I've said my peace, I'll share two new items that I'm adding to my decor. If you check out the craft supplies list tab on the top of this page, you'll find a source for the stencils I used for this project.

A 6 inch square canvas stenciled with acrylic paint and a small pillow, stenciled,trimmed and sewn, stuffed with homemade potpourri. It smells great and I think I'll leave it on my desk to enjoy.

I combined the menorah picture on a  wall with a past project, a reminder to pray .

Wait until you see my next post. How can you combine Hebrew roots with snowmen? You'll see.

Looking Towards Spring

I wasn't sure if I would be posting again before Purim so I didn't have another Purim inspired project planned. However I have been working on a new flag for my garden. Since snow is still on the ground and the garden is still asleep I'll have to wait to hang this in the garden.

I made the flag from outdoor canvas left over from making last year's flag. The Hebrew prayer stencil was designed by Jessica Sporn and can be purchased at http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencils-s/1846.htm   For those of you who can't read Hebrew (Don't feel bad, I'm not even at the Dick and Jane level yet) this is the priestly blessings from Numbers 6: 24-26
               May YHVH bless you and keep you
               May YHVH cause His face to shine upon you
               and be gracious to you
               May YHVH lift up His face towards you and give you peace.
This stencil was rather expensive compared to all the other stencils in my collection but it was perfect for my project. I also plan to use it on other creations. If anyone wants to purchase one but it may be too expensive for you (it costs almost as much for shipping as the purchase price) consider sharing the cost with another crafter.
To fill out more of the space on the flag I added the same Menorah stencil I used on my candle jar snuggy in a past post. That stencil can be found at http://www.craftcuts.com/menorah-stencil.html
I'm not affiliated in any way with these sources but I just wanted to share them with you.
The flower vine stencil was one purchased at a local craft store.

I can't leave the glitter alone and I embellished the candle flames with glitter glue. Time with tell if the glitter will survive the summer weather.

Now I really can't wait for spring so I can hang my flag out where it will greet my visitors.
              

A Hanukkah Pin For Cross Stitchers

The past two weeks have been a wild ride for me. After dealing with a relative's health issues and my own bad cold, I really appreciate having a couple of backup projects to share. Both projects are Hanakkah themed and were created last year before I started this blog. I'll share one of them with this post and the other at another time.

I enjoy designing various pins and when my daughter purchased a Menorah charm for me at a going-out-of-business beading store, it was the perfect embellishment to use on a pin.

This measured just under 1 square inch.

To make this pin I used a 2 inch by 3 inch piece of 18 count cross stitch fabric for a base. I stitched a very simple pattern on it to simulate a tallit and straight stitches for the wording. Blue cross thread and silver metallic thread was used.  The Menorah was attached with stitching and gold beads were stitched on to simulate candle flames. Then felt was glued on the back and the edges were finished with blanket stitch. The bottom was fringed and strands of beads were added at the bottom corners. Lastly a pin was sewn onto the back.

After I finished I realized that maybe Hanukah wasn't spelled right. What to do? I looked it up on the internet and found at least 16 or more different ways to spell it and this was included. Whew! I had visions of having to take it apart and redo it. I was glad not to have to.

Hopefully life will settle down to a roar very soon. I want to do much on this blog to make it more interesting to my viewers. Maybe more instructions, links and ideas to run with.

Hugs! Roxanne

A New Display

I designed a new display for the shadowbox that is hanging in my entryway. Again I have tried to keep it simple enough for others to duplicate.

The menorah shape in the shadowbox is an unfinished wooden cutout that I ordered from http://www.craftcuts.com/menorah.html  I applied acrylic craft paint to the shape and gold glitter paint to the candle flames.

Next shiny fabric was used to mimic a tallit. Craft ribbon was sewn onto the fabric for decoration and a tzitzit was added to the fabric.

And remember my recent post with the counted cross stitch picture of Tetragrammaton? It looks like it belongs on the top of the shadowbox.

A Jar Candle 'Snuggy'

Do you have a scented candle housed in a jar? The scent can be very nice if it's a higher quality but all of them have labels that can be rather ugly. And they never go with your decor. I've seen covers for these candles in craft magazines and decided to share my version with you.

I measured the circumference of my jar along with the height that I desired for my jar candle 'snuggy'. I added a 1/4 inch seam allowance to the height measure the top and bottom and extra to the circumference for a healthy overlap for the closing. I cut the fabric I wanted to cover the jar with to the those measurements. A backing was cut, placed face to face with the chosen fabric, then sewn together like a pillow with an opening left to turn it right side out positioning button loops made of trim at the back edge. After turning the piece right side out I then top stitched around the edges of the rectangle. I added a menorah previously stenciled to a different square of fabric on the front and gold trim around the edges. It was finished off with two buttons for closure. I'm sorry I couldn't get a closeup of the stenciled design which, by the way, came from http://www.craftcuts.com/menorah-stencil.html   After stenciling the menorah I added some glitter paint to the candle flames.

For the sewing challenged this could be made by using a heat activated webbing to attach everything together. That is except for the buttons. LOL And you could also use velcro closures instead of buttons. Or you could make the whole thing from felt. I would advise, however, that you remove the snuggy from the jar when having the candle lit. Better safe than sorry.

A Menorah In Cross Stitch

A while back I made a cross stitch Menorah from a free pattern at this site: http://crossstitch.about.com/od/patternsfromyourguide/ig/Lighted-Menorah-Pattern/  I had to ponder how to use this pattern and I came up with the following.

Since I am a sewer/quilter I decided to turn this into a wall hanging. Sashing was added to the cross stitch peace as a border. Then ribbon and rick-rack were added as trim and I sewed beads on the purple trim and on the candle tips to mimic flames. Lastly strings of beads were sewn on the top and bottom corners and a ribbon added for a hanger. Before I added any of the beading I sewed a backing onto the front pillow style and turned it right side out. I found that it started to droop when I hung it up so I tacked a shortened skewer on the back to stablize it.

I also made a similar one for a friend. The difference was basically that I added the strings of bead to the bottom left and right corners. This gives the flavor of a tallit to the hanging.

I hope you enjoyed my hangings and that you try making this yourself.