Eileen's
Passover Crafts
Pesach Crafts
Elijah or
Miriam Cups
 Having a special glass to use to welcome the Magical Elijah
to your house can be another addition to your familiy Judaica.
Again many people have family/inherited wine cups they use for Elijah. But
making one is also great. Also one site on this page also suggests a
special cup to honor Miriam. This sounds interesting and I will look into it
for my next seder.
Clay on Glass Kiddish Cups
See my Clay page or my clay on
glass pages To give you ideas on making kiddish cups using a glass goblet
covered with Polymer Clay and to see additional pictures of cups. Since you may or may not drink from this, you have
to be careful to make it safe for drinking. (Some people sneak a dring from the
cup to let children think that Elijah was at their house.) If you use
polymer clay like Sculpey and seal with a Sculpey Gloss, should be able to use the kiddish
cup. I prefer to use a glass goblet rather than just shaping a kiddish cup
out of clay. The glass gives it a great feel and seems safer as a liner for
drinking. I suggest you do not go over the lip
of the goblet. Stop at the edge. Since grape can stain things it might be
worth using White grape juice or wine for these cups.
Shrink Art
Shrinky Dink:JewelryMagnets
Name TagsLabels for
Pesach place tags.
This is a fun craft and easily adapted to a Jewish Theme. Shrinky Dinks are
Shrink Plastic Sheets. What ever you can draw or trace with color pencils or
permanet markers can be made into a
key chain, magnet, jewelry etc. You bake the plastic on cookie sheets in your
home oven or toaster oven. They shrink about 1/8th the size and thicken. I have done
this craft with even 3 year olds using colored pencils. (on roughed up sheets - see
their prebuffed ones.) We at camp used 1/4 sheets, punched with paper punch and
made great key chains. No limit to the imagination on this craft. For Pesach
try drawing Seder plates or pieces of Matzo. Makes great Pesach jewelry.
Passover Rubber
Stamps Projects
There are some great Jewish Rubber stamps that can be used in many different
ways for Pesach. They can be used on the Shrinky Dinks above or on paper. The teacher or
parent can stamp the designs for the kids to keep them cleaner. (kids and
papers.) I have xeroxed my stampings and then had the kids color them in. The
new gel pens are great. These stamps can be used as labels for place cards.
Pesach Place Mats You can also stamp directly onto a paper to decorate your
Pesach Place mats. These look great for each place setting. You can cover with
clear Contact paper or if you are lucky to have access to a laminating machine.
Laminate.
Passover Pillow Cases.
Most families have a special
Matzot cover. But how about pillows? One of the commandments for the Seder is
to lean or recline during the seder. Many people have special pillow for at
least the Seder Leader. How about pillows for all of your guests? Of
course we all have nothing better to do before Pesach! But if you make the
pillow cases cute but generic, (don't put peoples names.) You can make one or
more each year until you have a set.
Rubber Stamps with Fabric
Paint
Rubber stamps with fabric paints are
just one idea for painting the pillow case. The rubber stamp companies have
many Hebrew letters and designs.
Hand PrintsHand prints are another way to make
original pillow cases. Of course dating the pillow cases too.
Plague Bags
More and more I am seeing Day schools and
commercial sites selling some kind of bag with toys in it for the preschool
(and others) to have during the Seder. I have heard that some have toys that represent each of
the plagues. You have to be creative with plagues like Boils!
Toy frogs are a favorite of these bags. I have not seen the bags in person but
some of you other creative people may be able to email me with what you used
for your bags. I just wanted to through the idea out there. Can't imagine
what they would do with the killing of the first born! Scarry just to think how
you would even discuss this one with child.
Plague Bags by Sheri Wald
Preschool teacher at Dallas JCC
BloodUse little see through plastic containers or bottle filled with
water, oil and add red food coloring or red water color from Discount
Supplies.
Frogs Every year, I go out and look for cool toy frogs. One year, I found some where the eyes' bugged out when you squeezed them, the kids loved it! I have used the plastic frogs you make jump, and sometimes just plain small frogs.
Wild Beasts I have used animal masks and I have used plastic animals
Locusts, Flies and Lice I use plastic bugs. I have also used bug and fly stickers
Hail I have used balls of foil, plastic balls (like ping pong balls), and small styrofoam balls. Since the hail was actually "fiery hail" I found these clear bouncy balls a couple of years ago, when they bounce, they light up reddish/orange. These are my favorite.
Boils We used bubble wrap
Darkness I have used blindfolds (bandandas) but usually use wild sunglasses
Cattle disease We have a picture of a cow laying on it's back, and plastic cows we turn upside-down
Slaying of the first born we have a picture of a baby with a circle and slash drawn over it. Some people I know use small plastic toy knives.
 Plague bag by Shelly Kosack
 Shelly made these plague bags for her shul's
community seder. Blood - Juice boxFrogs - FrogsLice -
SpidersWild Animals - Koosh animalsBoils - HandsHail
Ice cubesLucusts - Flying bugsDarkness -
SunglassesDeath of First Born- BabyThanks Shelly for sharing.
Make Your Own Chocolate
Seder Plate 
I
have made a few of these the last few years.
I have melted lots of chocolate in
other molds and new it would be
very easy. Especially with microwave melting. This proved the same. I bought
4 molds (see link below) with the idea of using some later for plaster. But
after two years now I realize I need all for food. Everyone loved them as
gifts.
Plus you may need some for dairy and some for parave! I have found Shifra bittersweet
chocolate for Passover. Parave! I do not usually like bittersweet but I also
can't eat anything dairy, but this chocolate was incredible and smooth. It took 2 15 oz bars to make 3
plates. One suggestion is to make sure to fill the mold right to the top so
the indents do not show at all. Otherwise it will be thin at these spots. I
ended up adding chocolate after I filled the mold the first time. It just meant
smoothing it with a dull knife to make the layer added look smooth. It was a
big hit for my hosts at the seders as was the brownies (see Mom's recipe
below.) and the chocolate covered matzah. (Also see link below) We could not
resist. I had to list this
craft as I found on
Candylandcrafts.com
Jewish candy molds. Some hard to find Jewish molds for making candy. Including
this large mold for making a chocolate seder plate. It is pretty close to a full
size seder plate! They sell supplies for soap and candies. They have been
wonderful in trying to find kosher products. They said many of their
supplies were O-U kosher. The are carrying the Shifra chocolate but you will
have to ask if any of it is the Kosher for Passover on the label. I have
bought other brands of Passover chocolate and they were fine too. Candlylad made an incredible effort to get all
of their Kosher products and Jewish molds listed on their website. It was a pleasure to work with them. I also bought their catalog
which is huge.
DON'T WANT THE CHOCOLATE? MAKE IT IN
PLASTER?
Plaster
I will have to ask some
Rabbis but most chocolate molds can be used for plaster of paris molding. Just
buy a second one as you don't want to use one for food and chemicals like
plaster of paris. This may be a great project for a fun seder plate. One the
kids can make and "play" seder but not one you might want to use for food. If
you use a shellac or spray lacquer you could probably use it for the plate and
use clear glass dishes for the food to sit in.
Seder Plaster Wall Hanging
Or put a wire hanger on the
back when the plaster is wet. Make sure to balance on the edge of the mold or it will sink
totally into the plaster. Then you when you are finished painting etc you can
hang it on the wall as a new piece of Judaica! If you use the Faster Plaster
Brown antiquing finish you can make it look like wood. Just paint over the whole
thing either plain or after the paint dried. Let dry for a few seconds or a
minute and wipe off. This makes it look old or wooden. Finish with sealer.
Jewish Pesach Craft Kit Resources:
Check out my Jewish Resource
page for ordering of catalogs or online shopping with Passover items and craft kits. For
example: The Just for the Mitzvah catalog online store Shrinky
Dink CompanyZum Gali Gali Rubber Stamp Company Jewish
Education.com. Candylandcrafts.com
Not Crafty?
In a Hurry?
Many of the online stores sell premade items for
Passover too.
Passover Must Have Recipes.Eileen's recipes have moved to their own printer friendly
pages.
Eileen's Family's Favorite Passover recipes pages.
Passover Brownies
Bulkie Rolls
Passover Rolls(sandwitch or hot dog rolls) Matzah
Almond BarkMartha's & Tzvi's Passover GranolaAuntie's
Mandlebrot recipesFried Matzie (Fried
Matzah/Matzah Bria) The brownies and rolls were my mother's
recipes.
I don't know where she got
them.
She used them for years.
Everyone loves them and always wants the recipe.
If you tell me they are from some book or someone else, I will believe you and
give them credit.
My mother never used recipes other than for Passover
and Purim.
Everything else was trial and error. Hope you enjoy.
Need more recipes?
Kosher4passover.com's huge
recipe file
Star Chefs.com's Passover
Recipes. They have a great collection of recipes including Passover ones
from famous chefs and many from users of the site.
Spike & Jamie
Passover Recipes.
Chabad.org's Passover RecipesCheck out their
video lessons
you can watch online or buy for making matzah and
wine.
Shalom Y'ALL!
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