New Year Creative Resolutions & why I celebrate the new year twice

Being Jewish has its perks and one of them is celebrating New Years twice! First the Jewish new year that is on Sept. 13th (this year) and then the regular new year on Dec 31st. If you are wondering why I celebrate the Christian new year on Dec 31st it's because this is the calendar we all use and live by. The banks, newspapers, everything with a date works according to this calendar. So having the chance of a Do Over is really nice. I can have a new year resolutions list on September and review it on December or even have a new list.

Another great thing about it is I get to have a year and four month to complete the list because I can start on September, which is the Jewish new year and end on December which is the end of the regular year. You can say I'm fooling myself and I probably am, but what the **** I'll take what I can get!

So here's my New Year Creative Resolution List which I hope I'll follow through on all of them or at least some...

Complete an inspiration board Yes I'm one of those who still don't have one...I want to make one SOON!
Be retweeted a 100 times I still haven't figure out the mystery that is Twitter...
Post daily on Instagram I need to develop a personal mechanism for posting one GOOD photo on instagram every day in the hopes of increasing my following.
Post Daily on Google+ I only post there about my videos tutorials so I need to do that more.
Master Facebook I want to master the art of posting on facebook, getting lots of comments, likes and shares.
Finish at least 2 new classes by 2016 I know you are waiting...
Arrange my Wall of Inspiration I have all those beautiful canvases that i need to hang on the wall!
Get Better at writing blog posts diversifying my topics and improving my writing skills
Double the number of items on my Etsy shop have more stuff for sale and more products categories.
Try a new craft or technique at least once a month.
Get on two design teams two teams that I really love their products
Plan better find a way to plan ahead my week and month better so I can get more done
Stop procrastinating...
Start a video club something I've been planning for a long time but haven't done yet. Details to come...
Have a product line with my name on it what do you think, stamps, papers, stencils?
Find out what Periscope is and if I want to be on it.
Research new social media places like Vine.
Finish the Netherlands travel book I started it but now I'm stuck.
Purge my craft studio get rid of unwanted and unused supplies.
Work less and rest more...ya' like this is going to happen...

I'll be happy to get your feedback and help on this list. maybe you can give me some tips or share your experience. Let me know on the comments and share what your new year resolutions are.

Don't miss out! Keep up with all the crafty goodness by subscribing to the Einat Kessler creative newsletter

Have fun creating!

Hanukkah Altered CD Mini Album

Every year I create a Hanukkah mini album for the holiday photos and every year it stays empty. however this year i made a promise to myself to add all the photos!
The mini album is created from CD's in red and yellow colors which are two important elements that need explaining.

 

Many Jewish holidays revolve around eating specific, traditional foods: matzah for Passover, hamentaschen for Purim and challah bread for Shabbat. On Hanukkah, Jews celebrate the miracle of the oil in the Temple that miraculously lasted eight days when it was only enough for one.
Accordingly, Hanukkah celebrations revolve around the miracle of oil and the menu features fried foods (not very healthy I know). Crispy fried potato pancakes take center stage at the beginning of a Hanukkah dinner, and in Israel and elsewhere, jelly donuts, called sufganiyot, are the most popular Hanukkah food.

Both foods have round shape like a CD which makes it perfect for a Hanukkah mini album!

In regards to the colors...traditionally in the US the colors of the holiday are white and blue, and sometimes silver. The explanation for that are probably the colors of the Israeli flag. However, I think that yellows and reds which are the colors of light and fire are a perfect fit too. After all this is the festival of Lights in which eight candles are lit.

The album design is very basic. All pages are covered with patterned papers. Each page is embellished with candles according to the days of the holiday from one to eight. The candles are created from rolled scraps of paper and a flame I cut from paper and adhered to the rolled paper.
All pages are interactive to allow room for more photos and include decorated tags for journaling.

Follow me on Facebook and YouTube for more crafty treats!
Happy Holidays!

Have fun creating!
Einat

8 Dayz of Light

We'll be celebrating Hanukkah in just a few days so I thought I would share with you a mixed media layout you can create with your holiday photos.

In this layout I used a few easy but really cool techniques to create the festive light effect I wanted. I started with creating a corrugated paper. I had a piece od corrugated paper I got from IKEA but it was covered only on one side. So I covered it with a 12X12 patterned paper to create the cover. Then I tore it to create a layered effect.

I created dripage with acrylic paint to mimic the melting wax of the candles.
I added more layers of paper all in orange and yellow colors like the colors of a candle's flame. I also embossed some of the papers with a Spellbinders embossing folder.
I finished my page with hand made candles I created from rolled pieces of paper and layers of flowers in matching colors.



 

 



If you were looking at this page and asking yourself "what exactly is Hanukkah anyway, why 8 candles?" Here's the Hanukkah story in a nut shell...

* In 175 BCE, Antiochus Epiphanes, invaded Judea (ancient Israel).

* The Temple in Jerusalem was looted and services stopped, Judaism was outlawed. 

* Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. He banned circumcision and ordered pigs to be sacrificed at the altar of the temple.

* Antiochus's actions provoked a large-scale revolt. By 165 BCE the Jewish revolt was successful.

* The Temple was liberated and rededicated, it was cleansed, a new altar was built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels were made. 

* Olive oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple, which was required to burn throughout the night every night.

* The story goes that there was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight-day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle - Hanukkah!

You can easily create the same layout for Christmas simply by changing the color scheme and using green, gold and red.

Have fun creating!
Einat

Happy Hannukah card with Spellbinders

Hanukkah is just around the corner! In two weeks we'll light the first candle and start the eight days holiday which is one of my favorite holidays.

Here's the first card I created for the holiday, first of many I still need to do...

This card tells the story of Hanukkah through it's bright yellow and red colors which mimic the colors of the candle's fire. It will also look great next to the Menorah because it can stand on its own.

For this card I used papers from the amazing Sunset collection by Prima. I created the front of the card with one of my Spellbinders embossing folder Numbers and letters. This embossing folder I so easy to use and has such an amazing effect! I cut strips of paper to create the candles and added flames I cut from the same paper. To finish the card I added a big 8 and a title.

Don't wait until the last minute to make your holiday cards like me...

Have fun creating!
Einat

Have a wonderful year card

Tomorrow Jewish people around the world will celebrate the new year.
Here's a simple card I made for the new year to give to a special someone tomorrow evening.

One of the symbols of the holiday is a pomegranate which is a seasonal local fruit. The pomegranate has a lot of seeds inside that are a symbol of the Torah's commandments. According to tradition there are 613 seeds in a pomegranate like the 613 commandments of the Torah (I counted the seeds once and there were much less seeds then that but why argue with tradition...).

One of the common blessings of the holiday is that your year may be filled with good things like a pomegranate.

I wish you all a wonderful, creative and happy year!
Einat

Wonderful Year Mixed Media Card

In a few days Jewish people around the world will celebrate the new Jewish year. One of the customs of the holiday is to send and give each other cards wishing a happy new year.

This Saturday MIXTRAVAGANZA is dedicated to this wonderful holiday! I created a mixed media card wishing someone special a wonderful year.

I've used Prima products including resist canvas pages which are one of my favorite thing to create with. Of course I added all kinds of embellishments and I didn't forget to design the inside of the card as well.
Check out the video for all the tips I share and don't forget to subscribe.

Wishing you all a wonderful year!!

Have fun creating!
Einat

New Tradition?

In the Jewish religion a woman lights two candles every Friday evening to welcome the Sabbath (Saturday). The kids in Kindergarten have the same custom at the end of the school day on Friday. Each week a different girl is the Sabbath Mother and she lights the candles (with adult supervision of course). My son decided he wants to be a Sabbath Mother and all the explanations that this is a girl's job didn't help, so....we and the kindergarten teacher played along!

I used a paper "flames" on it and added yellow and orange embellishments to create the atmosphere of candle light.

 

I made this layout in a very minimal design because I wanted to let the photos tell the story. There is no doubt this is one of the cutest most funny things my son has ever come up with!

 

Have fun creating!

Einat



Happy Passover

Today we are celebrating Passover, one of the most important Jewish holidays, celebrating freedom, Miracles and faith. It's also celebrating spring and the awakening of nature.

 

Here's a little freebie tag you can print and use as a gift tag, card or name card.

 

 

Here is the story of Passover in a nutshell: After many decades of slavery to the Egyptian pharaohs, God saw the people’s distress and sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message: “Send forth my people.” But despite numerous warnings, Pharaoh refused to heed God’s command. God then sent upon Egypt ten devastating plagues, afflicting them and destroying everything from their livestock to their crops.

 

At the stroke of midnight of 15 Nissan (The Hebrew month coinciding with April) in the year 1313 BCE, God visited the last of the ten plagues on the Egyptians, killing all their firstborn. While doing so, God spared the Children of Israel, “passing over” their homes, hence the name of the holiday. Pharaoh’s resistance was broken, and he virtually chased his former slaves out of the land. The Israelites left in such a hurry, in fact, that the bread they baked as provisions for the way did not have time to rise. Six hundred thousand people, left Egypt on that day, and began the trek to Mount Sinai and to the Promised Land.

The highlight of Passover is the Seder, a fifteen-step family-oriented tradition and ritual-packed feast.
The focal points of the Seder are:

* Eating matzah.

* Eating bitter herbs to commemorate the bitter slavery endured by the Israelites.

* Drinking four cups of wine or grape juice—a royal drink to celebrate our new found freedom.

* The recitation of the Haggadah, a liturgy that describes in detail the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

I want to wish all my friends a Happy Passover!

May you have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!

 

Have fun creating!

Einat

inspiration Scroll

We will be celebrating Passover in just a few days. In ancient times the bible and the story of Passover were written on parchment scrolls and were rolled to keep them safe. This has inspired me to create my own scroll, a scroll of, for my Susan Weckesser DT project!

I glued together two Susan Weckesser's patterned papers and created a scroll. I distressed it a little on the sides and inked it to give it a more real look. Then I created my inspirational sentence with Susan Weckesser's stamps and some letter stickers.

I added Washi tape and a little bling (You can't create anything without bling right?) and misted everything with Glimmer Mists.

To create the scroll handles I cut cardboard and rolled it. I stained it with some brown ink and added a golden button on each side. Then I adhered the scroll to the handles and tied it with string.

Inspire yourselves with a project, it will make you smile!

Have fun creating!
Einat

Boo!

Happy Purim friends! We are celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim. The happiest holiday of the year, when we ware costumes, have parties and generally celebrate life!!
Here's a digital layout I created with a photo of my pirate son.

For those of you who don't know what Purim is, here s the short version: The story of Purim is told in the Biblical book of Esther. The heroes of the story are Esther, a beautiful young Jewish woman living in Persia, and her cousin Mordecai. Esther was taken to the house of Ahasuerus, King of Persia, to become part of his harem. King Ahasuerus loved Esther more than his other women and made Esther queen.The king did not know that Esther was a Jew, because Mordecai told her not to reveal her identity. The villain of the story is Haman, who hated Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow down to him, so Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. The king gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Mordecai persuaded Esther to speak to the king on behalf of the Jewish people. She told the king of Haman's plot against her people and he overturned Haman's verdict. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman was hanged on the gallows that had been prepared for Mordecai.

The word "Purim" means "lots" and refers to the lottery that Haman used to choose the date for the Jews' massacre. It is customary to wear costumes and hold carnival-like celebrations. We are commanded to read the book of Esther as well as eat, drink and be merry. In addition, we are commanded to send out gifts of food or drink, and to make gifts to charity.

Here's a part of a children's pop-up book I created for my kids with photos of the same costume.

Have fun creating!

Einat

8 Days of Light

Hanukkah is one of my favorite holidays! It's a special holiday that celebrates remarkable miracle of light!

Here's the story of Hanukkah:

In 175 BCE, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, invaded Judea.  The Second Temple in Jerusalem was looted and services stopped, Judaism was outlawed. In 167 BCE Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. He banned circumcision and ordered pigs to be sacrificed at the altar of the temple. Antiochus's actions provoked a large-scale revolt. By 165 BCE the Jewish revolt was successful. The Temple was liberated and rededicated, it was cleansed, a new altar was built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels were made. According to the Talmud, olive oil was needed for the menorah in the Temple, which was required to burn throughout the night every night. The story goes that there was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight-day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle - Hanukkah!.

Happy Hanukkah and Happy Holidays to you all!!

 

Have fun creating!

Einat

 

Hanukkah Cards

Hanukkah is just around the corner, but there's still time to create some last minute cards! These are really clean and simple cards without a busy design or too many embellishments. Hanukkah is all about light and the best color for light is yellow. Both cards have yellow colors and shiny sparkling motifs.

The first card has a simple light background with a gold rub-on. I added a punched border with a white flowery ribbon. Since Hanukkah is all about light I used a soft yellow ribbon for the bow and a gold sparkly embossed star as a shiny embellishment.

The second card is shinier and has a yellow background with a flame like stickles dots swirl and ribbon's border. I created two candles by rolling two pieces of paper to a pipe shape and added a little glittered flames on top. I adhered the H on a glittered yellow star to emphasize the title. For a finished touch I added a few small stars.





















Happy Holidays!
Have fun creating!
Einat

Susan K. Weckesser and Unity Stamps Blog Hop!

Hello friends, we are so very excited you are joining us for our first ever Susan K Weckesser

Design Team Blog Hop with Unity Stamp Design Team!

During this 2-day hop, both Susan K. Weckesser and Unity Stamps Design Teams will be sharing Simple Christmas and holiday Card Ideas using Unity Stamps designed by Susan K Weckesser Inc.
You will be inspired and in awe of all the fabulous creations shared by members of these two talented design teams.

So, what did I create?

I created a holiday card suitable for Christmas as well as for Hanukkah (since as a Jew I only celebrate the latter...). Here's how I did it:

1. Start by stamping and embossing a background paper and then mist it with Glimmer mist.

2. Stamp Susan K. Weckesser house stamp, my favorite stamp!, on paper and cut it out.
3. Add bricks with a mask and distress ink.

4. Created the snow on the roof with Mica flakes and some white paint.

5. Adhere the house to the card and add another small house. Add some more Mica snow on the bottom.
6. Punch three stars and color them with Glimmer Glaze.
7. Add a fence and a title. For a final touched ink the edges.

We are giving away two chances to win an amazing prize package containing a generous variety of Susan K Weckesser stamps co-branded with Unity Stamps.

For a chance to win, visit each blog and leave a comment.Then come back on Dec 3 at 6 PM CST to find out if you are a winner at Susan K Weckesser Inc and Unity Stamp Co blogs.

Here is the blog hop order: You can start hopping from the blog on the top of the first day's list and continue all the way to the second day! 

Day 1 – November 29th

Susan Weckesser: http://mysweetearth.blogspot.com/

Angie Blom: http://www.angieblomdesigns.blogspot.com/
Erin Lee Schreiner: http://www.erinleecreative.com/
Carisa Zglobicki: http://ladyguineveresinkyfaeries.blogspot.com/
JJ Sobey: http://1-goodthing.blogspot.com/
Lisa Arana: http://dahlhouse-designs.com/
Tracy Easson: http://queeniesscrapmad.blogspot.co.uk/
Lisa Henke: http://www.mylittlecreativeescape.blogspot.com/
Julie Short: http://timetocreate-handmadetreasure.blogspot.com.au/
Vicky Varvadouka: http://vartig12.blogspot.gr/
Natalie Dever: http://www.dougnat.blogspot.com/

Day 2 – November 30th

Unity Stamp Co Blog: http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com/

Einat Kessler: http://scrapinit.blogspot.com/
Renee Aslette: http://www.reneeaslette.blogspot.com/
Rita Barakat: http://letsembellish.blogspot.com/
Robyn Weatherspoon: http://robynweatherspoon.blogspot.com/
Shilo Miles: http://papermeetsglue.blogspot.ca/
Jennifer Hottinger-Sloan: http://www.lifebescrappy.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Muzzulin: http://www.handmade75.blogspot.com
Thienly Azim: http://modpaperie.blogspot.com/
Cheryl Boglioli: http://cherylswindow.com

We hope you enjoyed the hop and got inspired to create your holiday cards...it's not too late, so get to work!

Have fun creating!

Einat