A little Earth Day treat…

| | Posted in Giveaway, Vinyl art | Tagged , , ,

Happy Earth Day!  Did you do anything today to honor the earth? Take advantage of any of the fun Earth Day giveways out there?  I decided to finally label our laundry room garbage and recycle bins.  Here in Seattle, there are so many bins to choose from- we have a bin for garbage, one for recycling and another for compost/yard waste.  I’m proud to say our garbage is the smallest can of all.  But, it can get confusing for guests to know what to put where.  So, I’ve been meaning to make labels for a while now.  I created some cute labels using Silhoutte Studio and then cut them out on red vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo and then, (after giving the cans a little buffing using stainless steel cleaner), I applied them.  I love the result!  They look great next to our red washer and dryer. What do you think?  Want some for yourself?

I will send one lucky person a set of your very own trash/recycle vinyl labels in your choice of white, black or red to help put an end to your guests’ trash confusion.  In order to enter this giveaway, just leave a comment below.  And you can enter an extra time for each of the following (just leave a corresponding comment for each additional entry): 1) Follow Made by Mamaleh via email; 2) Follow Made by Mamaleh on Facebook; 3) Post a link to this giveaway on FB.  Comments must be received by midnight (PST), Wednesday April 25th to be entered to win!

Happy Spring!

| | Posted in Crafts, Decor | Tagged , , , , ,

The sun is finally out in Seattle and it’s feeling like spring.  I generally change the welcome sign by our front door with the change of seasons/holidays but the only one I have a with a Jewish flare is a “Happy Hanukkah” one.  So, I decided I wanted to do a simple Shalom (shalom is Hebrew for peace and also a greeting of hello).  I started with an 8×24″ canvas and a can of chalkboard spray paint.  Then, using my Silhouette Cameo cutting tool, I designed the word “Shalom” in the “Sholom” font in Silhouette Studio to fit the dimensions of the canvas.  Next, I cut out the word in vinyl to use as a reverse stencil on the canvas.

Adhering the vinyl directly to the canvas proved a bit tricky so I ended up spraying a coat of primer first just to give it a bit more to grip to.  Even then, it took a lot of patience to stick the vinyl letters to the canvas.  Once you have them in place, you just have to make sure they are really pressed down in order to minimize paint seepage.  Then it was time to spray the chalkboard paint.  You need two coats to get a good chalkboard surface.

After the paint dried, the next step was to carefully remove the vinyl letters.  The edges were a little uneven and I could have left it for a rustic look but decided that I’d be happier painting over the letters with white paint to clean them up a bit.  I also attached some hanging hardware to the back so that I could attach a ribbon for hanging.  And if I ever wanted to move this indoors and put it on the mantel, you could do that too because the hardware is hidden in back. The beauty of this is that I can now change out the ribbon to fit my mood the season(can’t wait to use my matzoh ribbon for Passover!).

For the lovely spring day we’re having, I went with a nice rainbow ribbon, then added a little message with my chalk pen (also customizable to the occasion) and ta-da, our new welcome sign:

Hope you are out enjoying some sunshine!

A Very Toddler Passover!

| | Posted in Kids, Passover, seder, Toddler | Tagged , , , ,


Since I am home with a sick boy, I thought I’d take the opportunity for a little Passover follow-up. The Passover story we tell every year is such a rich one but it often gets lost amidst hunger and outdated haggadot. This year our 2nd night seder was tailored specifically to our youngest guests – a group of toddlers from our PEPS group (if you aren’t in Seattle, PEPS stands for Program for Early Parent Support).

Using the URJ’s seder for toddlers age 2-3 as a template, I copied the content and added my own into an easy to hold program just for the adults using MS Publisher.  I even pre-assigned the sections to help expedite things! The content was written for kids and they really did a good job of following along and paying attention.

In addition to this, I pre-downloaded this song about the 10 plagues which we played at the appropriate part of the seder and which was a big hit with the kids.  Since a group of toddlers is very into numbers and colors, this was the focus for our seder table.  For the 4 cups of wine, I used clear plastic shot glasses (a novel use for these I am sure) and used the print and cut feature on my die-cut machine and clear label paper to create numbered toddler-size cups for each of the four glasses.  I also created plague bags with a  label with the numbers 1-10.

Placemats were made using primary colors of scrapbook paper which made for not only easy cleanup but easy personalization, with each child’s name written across the bottom.  The dishes were ones I had picked up at Target a couple years ago on sale – I love them!  Each kid got a toy hammer for pretending to hammer along with one of the songs.  Such fun!

The plague bags themselves were filled with stuff to go along with the song.  You’ll note the “blood” confetti above that I made using red cardstock and my die-cut machine and a raindrop image.  Even my husband was surprised when we sang about the blood and I suddenly tossed a handful of confetti at the kids.  The bags themselves contained a little shaker of confetti (hail), sunglasses (darkness), wind-up flying bug (lice), flies (flies)sticky frogs (frogs) and a band-aid (boils).  We didn’t have something for every plague but that was just fine, there was plenty to keep the kids engaged and involved in the seder.  Oh and one other tip, little bowls of cucumbers and carrots (karpas) for the kids to dip as necessary before it’s time for the actual meal.

Overall, it all turned out really well.  My husband said it was the best seder he’s ever been to!  I can’t wait to do a new variation next year!  Hope you all had a lovely Pesach!

Shalom! Welcome!

| | Posted in Misc

This blog has been in the works for quite a while (probably since college when I said I wanted to be the Jewish “Martha”). I keep trying to find the perfect time to start and make everything just so but with a job, a toddler, a husband, doggies, a cold, you name it, the timing is never quite right. I figured why not NOW, for Passover! So, much like life, this is a work in progress so please bear with me as I set off on this journey. I promise to check back post-seders with some seder highlights including some fun toddler stuff to hopefully inspire you for next year (since I didn’t have it together to do it ahead!) Chag Sameach!