Ishmael & Family Story Shadow Puppets Tutorial

Today was a very long day to a very long weekend.  Our neighbors celebrated the fourth of July with fireworks that keep everyone up for hours. All. Weekend.

In fact, it is Sunday evening and I just heard some fireworks right now. 

To help calm the nerves (and tempers) of children, who have had no patience for siblings all afternoon, we talked about the story of Ishmael and Hagar.

Last year we created this story out of stones and fabric, but this year I thought we would make shadow puppets since the sun was so strong and bright (alhumdual'la).

We are looking forward to also trying this craft at suhoor, when we'll turn off all the lights and bring out the flashlights.

Supplies
Bamboo skewers
Tape
Cardstock
Scissors
Pencil
Xacto

Draw out your designs on the cardstock.

 Cut out your design with scissors.  We also used our Xacto to cut out some details inside our puppets.

 
 Place a bamboo skewer on the back of your puppet and tape down.

That is all there is. Here are all of our shadow puppets together.

Djibouti Treasure Tin Tutorial

Do you have one of those craft days where what you start doesn't want to be finished?  Yeah, me too.

We tried to make this Djibouti Treasure Tin, but I have to warn you, it took us two days. We wanted to jazz up an old Altoids tin into a business card holder by adding a Djibouti flag.  Now it's much easier to find in a purse.

We choose Dijbouti because it's flag has such beautiful colors. Plus we had never seen a Dijbouti craft before and thought it was about time for one on the internet.

Today was a cloudy, rainy day in Seattle and our latex paint did not dry in time for us to continue till the end.  So the final part we completed the next day. Now our tin is in mint condition and ready for use!

Djibouti Treasure Tin Tutorial

Supplies
Latex paint
Altoids tin
Star punch
Sponge brush
Paintbrush
Paint holder
Red, blue, green and white cardstock
Newspaper
Mod Podge

Eat all the mints in your Altoids tin, but not at all at once. If you are in a hurry to make your treasure tin, find another container for your mints and clean out the tin.  Lay out your newspaper and paint the top and sides of your tin with the latex paint.  We kept our lid on when we painted the sides so that the lid was able to close after the tin was dry.

Cut one strip of green and one strip of blue from cardstock.  To make the white triangle on the side of the flag, we just cut a corner of our cardstock.

Punch out a small star from the red.

This part you'll have to do the next day as the latex on the metal takes forever to dry. Since we'll be adding the cardstock to the top of our tin, make sure it's completely dry and free of debris before you add the Mod Podge.

Place a light coating of Mod Podge on the tin and a little more on the back of the cardstock.  Lay the blue cardstock on the top of the tin, closest to the hinges.  Do the same for the green cardstock.  It's okay if they overlap the tin edges.  Lay another thin layer of Mod Podge over both pieces of paper and add the white triangle on the left side of the tin.  Lay another layer thin layer of Mod Podge over that and add your star.  Let everything dry.

Once your flag layers are dry, take your scissors and trim off any excess paper around the edges.

Give your treasure tin out as a present, or hide it in the garden for someone to find.  But Mod Podge is not water proof, so if you want to protect your tin, make sure to place it in a plastic bag if you are burying it.

Red, White & Blue Hanging Eid Favor

Happy Birthday America!

Today is July 4th and to celebrate we took the girls to the 30th Annual Naturalization Ceremony at Seattle Center hosted by the Ethnic Heritage Council. My daughters were there to represent the Middle East as part of the Children of the World Welcome Committee. Of course there was red, white and blue everywhere to represent the American flag and it really was spectacular to see over 450 people from 70 countries become United State citizens!

When we got home, we made this paper favor box that I had seen on a Pinterst board. But instead of filling it with cookies, we decided to add Jordanian almonds before dropping it off at a friend's house. And we also placed an Eid Mubarak (Blessed Holiday) leaf tag and wrote on the back of it so our friend would know it was from us!

Supplies
Circle punch (ours was 2 1/2 inch)
Scissors
Glue
Leaf tag cut out
Hole punch
Twine
Paper slicer
Red, white & blue paper

Use your paper slicer to cut your paper into one inch long pieces.

Use your circle punch to cut out two circles.

Punch holes on one end of all your strips of paper.

Place one circle on your table and cover the outside edges with glue.

Place five white stripes of paper in a star design on the glue.  Note that we are not placing the ends with the holes on the circle. Place more glue and add three random stripes of red and blue between the white, except for the bottom, where you will only add two.

Don't forget to keep adding glue as you add the layers, adding one more layer of glue before placing the second circle on top of everything.

Give it a few minutes to dry. Start adding the twine to the top of the stripes of paper.

When your stripes of paper are all combined, add candy to the bottom of your favor and tie off the top.  We also added a Eid Mubarak tag in the shape of a leaf that we hand cut.

Here is what our eid favor looked like when it sits down.