Yes Virginia, Jewish Stamps do exist!

Here's a peak of a portion of my Jewish themed rubber stamp collection... If you'd like to know what a particular stamp is let me know in comments and I can reply if I have the information so you can track it down

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Making 5 Jewish stamps from 1

Well, technically I bought 3 stamps, but they are all the same design.

This stamp was one of the $1.00 stamps by Studio G bought from Michaels.

This is not the first stamp that I have done this to, so I'll post the rest later for ideas.

What I did is left the first original stamp untouched, and cut apart the other 2 leaving me with a total of 5 stamps (I could have 6 if I wanted the outer circle).

This allows me to freely stamp without having to mask! All for $3.00.

How's that for Jewish stamping on a budget :)

Hanukkah, Chanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah - Rubber Stamping Tips

(Updated and re-posted on 12/13/08)

This is another time of year that cards are given, but probably not as frequently as you think.

Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of re-dedication, also known as the festival of lights, is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev (which means that it is NOT on the same day every year and it doesn't always happen close to Christmas - make sure to check your calendars).

Hanukkah also can be spelled in many ways. Don't be afraid that you've misspelled it...

• Chanukkah
• Chanukah
• Hanukkah
• Hanukah
• Hanuka
• Chanuka

No matter how you spell it, Hanukkah traditions stay the same.

It is also known as:

• The Festival of Lights
• The Feast of Dedication
• The Feast of the Maccabees
  

Hanukkah is probably the best known Jewish holiday because of its proximity to Christmas. Many non-Jews (and Jews too) think of this holiday as the "Jewish Christmas" and have adopted many of the Christmas customs, such as elaborate gift-giving and decoration. It is bitterly ironic that this holiday, which has its roots in a revolution against assimilation and the suppression of Jewish religion, has become the most assimilated, secular holiday on our calendar.

The only true symbol of this holiday is the lighting of the Menorah. The candles are set in a Hanukiyah, better known as a Menorah, which is the Hebrew word meaning "candelabra." A Hanukiyah has nine candles: one for each night, plus a shamus (servant) at a different height to symbolize the difference from the other candles. (This is a nice note if you are stamping cards with candle stamps - you would stamp 9 total and shift one at a different height). The menorah is usually placed outside of the doorway on the left side (when entering) opposite the mezuzah. If this is not possible, it can be placed on a window sill facing a public street, providing the sill is not more than twenty-nine feet above street level (no point if you live in a high-rise and no one can see it right?). If neither of these are possible, the Menorah can be placed on a table inside the house.

Contrary to popular belief Hanukkah is not an important religious holiday. Hanukkah is not even mentioned in Jewish scripture as the story is related in the book of Maccabbees, which Jews do not accept as scripture.

Another tradition of Hanukkah is the Dreidel Game - dreidels are marked with four Hebrew letters: Nun, Gimmel, Hey and Shin. These letters stand for the Hebrew phrase "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham", which means "a great miracle happened there", referring to the miracle of the oil. (I'm sure you can find the story online if you wanted ) Most people play for matchsticks, pennies, M&Ms or chocolate coins - so there's a few ideas for your stamping. Dreidels were first used during the rule of Antiochus before the Maccabees' revolt. During this time, it was forbidden to study the Torah. Anyone studying the Torah would keep a dreidel handy and would then pull out a dreidel and pretend to be playing whenever soldiers investigated

Dreidel is played by placing coins (or some other object) into a pot. Then, each player spins the dreidel and one of four things happen, depending on what side the Driedel lands on:

• Shin means you lose your coins.
• Nun means nothing happens. You neither get coins, nor lose coins.
• Hay means you take half the pot.
• Gimmel means you get the whole pot.

===================================================

Some ideas for stamping cards during the Hanukkah season:

• Star of davids (AKA Magen Davids)
  
• Dreidels
• Menorah
• candles (birthday candles will do! Just make sure you use 9 total)
• winter scenes are acceptable since this is usually the time of year that Hanukkah happens depending on your area of the world (at least it does for me in the US).
• coins (gelt for dreidel games)
• wrapped presents (I find blue and silver colored images work nicely, since presents are usually given on each night)

No Jewish stamps? That's okay - a simple "Seasons Greetings" will do - trust me - you don't have to go out and buy a Jewish stamp set just because your new neighbors who moved in are Jewish. Just please no "Merry Christmas" - although it is appreciated by most.

Colors

• Silver and Blue, but you can incorporate any color really - there aren't any rules here..

Some sample sentiments are:

• Happy Hanukkah
• Eat, Light and Be Merry
• Dreidle Dreidle Dreidle, we made you out of clay... and when it's dry and ready. With dreidel I shall play....
• Light the Menorah, and Spin the Dreidel!
• 8 great nights!
• The menorah lights are shining, the holiday season is here. Let's have a party, dance the hora and cheer!
• Wishing you a joyous Festival of Lights!
• No matter how you spell it...Happy Hanukkah!
• Wishing you eight whole days of love and happiness
• Come and take a spin (for a dreidel card)
• Nes Gadol Hayah Sham (Means: A Graet Miracle Happened There)
• Nes Gadol Hayah Poh (Means: A Great Miracle Happened Here (Isreal))
• Nes Gadol Chai Poh (Means: A Great Miracle is Alive Here)
• Nun, Gimel Hay, Shin (The characters on the Dreidel)
• Yitromeyn libeynu, tshovav nafsheynu, b'hadlakat neyr shel chanukkah (Means: May our hearts be lifted and spirits refreshed as we light the Chanukah candles)

Some sample stamps and companies to get you started:

• Stampin Up has 4 or 5 Hanukah sets (check ebay if you can't get them from your demo!)
• CTMH also has a few Hanukkah sets (also check ebay if your demo can't get them for you)
• Ruth's Jewish stamps also carries a large selection
• Hevea Art Stamps also has a nice selection
• Zum Gali Gali also has a few stamps!
• Stamping Bella - home of the "Bellas". Check out the Menorah Bella and other great Hanukkah Stamps

Eight Crazy Penguins?

Trying for a little Jewish humor (and probably failing miserably) - introducing Eight Crazy Penguins. The inside of the card has an additional penguin resembling the Shamash candle. (Don't know what a Shamash is? Ready my Hanukkah Stamping Primer HERE)

I may eventually modify the penguin arms to hold a candle.. or maybe one of the penguins hold a menorah - but I have to find either a punch or stamp that would work...

The Butterfly Project

http://www.hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/index.html

1,500,000 innocent children parished in the Holocaust.

In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting
1.5 million handmade butterflies.

The butterflies will eventually comprise a breath-taking exhibition, currently scheduled for Spring 2012, for all to remember.

As of Summer 2008, we have already collected an estimated 400,000 butterflies.

Please facilitate the
“I Never Saw Another Butterfly” activity and create as many handmade arts-and-crafts butterflies as possible. This project may be completed by all ages as individuals or groups.

Butterflies should be no larger than 8 inches by 10 inches.
Butterflies may be of any medium the artist chooses, but two-dimensional submissions are preferred.
Glitter should not be used.
Food products (cereal, macaroni, candy, marshmallows or other perishables) also should not be used.
If possible, e-mail a photograph of your butterflies, to butterflyproject@hmh.org.

Please send or bring your butterflies to the Museum by June 30, 2011, with the following information included:

Your name,
Your organization or school,
Your address,
Your e-mail address, and
The total number of butterflies sent.

Mail or bring your butterflies to:

Holocaust Museum Houston
Butterfly Project
Education Department
5401 Caroline St.
Houston, TX 77004
USA

For questions or additional information, please e-mail butterflyproject@hmh.org.

Rosh Hashana Card

Ok... so I'm a little early to post this one.
Seasonal Tree stamps are from Whispers/Sugarloaf stamps (one of my favorite stamp companies that no longer exists - they are sort of Inque Boutique now but the original wood mount stamps are no more).

The numbers are also by Whispers/Sugaroaf Stamps. Inks are by CTMH.

Enjoy!

3-D Hanukkah Card #3

Another easy to make Hanukkah Card.

I used "Postage Stamp" stamp from All Night Media then I used an alphabet stamp set to stamp the letters. The Star of David is from an unknown stamp company. I used foam mount to make the stamps pop up a bit from the card.

Come join me on Flicker - Jewish Cards group

I've created a new group on Flickr.com for Jewish Cards called "Jewish Cards"

This is for all Jewish themed cards that are hand crafted (stamped, drawn, painted or other).

Please join me by adding your cards to the group

More info at http://www.flickr.com/groups/957093@N21/

Once there are new members, I'll post the flicker group here and rotate the images for everyone to see.

Every Occasion Card

This is an all-occasion card I created using the standard rainbow colors. I stamped each image 1/2 inch apart from the next and bordered it in black cardstock. I left the bottom blank since I can quickly chose any random saying (like Mazel Tov, or L'Shana Tovah) and make up a quick card to give to someone. You could even use this style for a quick Happy Birthday card.

I used Close to My Heart inks in the Spring color selection; Cranberry, Sunny Yellow, Orange, Clover Meadow, Pansy Purple and Star Spangled Blue.

I hope you enjoy! (I did realize the last purple star is a little off.. oh well.. it's handmade...)

Hanukkah Card #2

Another simple card to make. I used a stamp from Stampin Up's Right at Home set. Although my photography skills are lacking, I can assure you that in the windows are tiny hand drawn Chanukiahs that are lit.

My preference for modifying line drawn stamps like this is the Staedtler Pigment Liner 4 packs. It comes with a .3, .5, .7 and 1.0 sized pens. They are archival safe and acid free. They are also waterproof on paper which is the reason I use Stazon. I can blend and I don't get any smudged lines.

Hope you enjoy!

Happy Hanukah Card #1

This was a very simple card to make. I used

• #90202 Dreidel by Stamps Happen and cut out the individual Dreidels stamped on colored cardstock.
  
• #2210E Hapy Hanukkah by PaperSalon

Hope you enjoy!

Hanukkah Cards

It's that time of the season to make Hanukkah Cards again! I've got a list of wonderful cards listed below to spark your creativity from SplitCoast. I'll be posting mine soon - Enjoy!

mandypandy's card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1123968?si=Hanukkah

its_me_susan's cards: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1107015?si=Hanukkah

Bluedragon's hand carved stamp card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1087380?si=Hanukkah

Yahpa's card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1053649?si=Hanukkah

Another of Yapha's great cards: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/753865?si=Hanukkah

Kersilver's Hanukah Planner: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/753348?si=Hanukkah

LynnAnne's Menorah Bella Card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/754674?si=Hanukkah

Freeindeed's great Hanukah card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/738907?si=Hanukkah

merryf's card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/737487

WordTrix's unique star menorah card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/737347?si=Hanukkah

Vicky Gould's Hanukkah card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/736442?si=Hanukkah

I hope this is enough to get you started on your creative journey - please post and share a link to your designed Hanukah cards in the comments section. I would love to see them!

I'm back

It certainly has been one busy year for me - sadly not all of it very good. But I have not forgotten about this blog and hope that going forward I can post more updates to it like I want. I've also added a sister blog that i'll post more about soon as well for my Jewish Polymer Clay art.

I have a few ATC's that I am planning on uploading soon as well as a few more cards I've done. So keep a look out on new posts coming soon.

I also want to thank everyone as it seems you have been busy since our last count of 1000 users - we now have reached over 3000 users.

1000 visitors!

I just want to say thank you to all my recent visitors - we've reached 1000 hits!

I have a few updates in the works coming, so be sure to check back soon.

Blog Candy! *WINNER ANNOUNCED*

Lynn Anne - send me an email with you address and I'll get your package out in the next week. shayla dot anthony at gmail dot com.

Everyone else is doing it - so why not me?

I happen to have a stash of Jewish stamps that I have up for grabs during my blog candy challenge. My blog is pretty small still, and there aren't that many visitors yet. So I am going to pick a random date and comment from that date between now (December 2nd) and January 1st 2008 and that person will win my stash!



Leave a comment anywhere on this site under any post and your entered - just please make sure I have a way to reach you via the comment you have posted (if your login doesn't give me a way to reply to you).

I will give the person 15 days to claim that award if they are unreachable, and if not I will choose another winner.

• Happy Holidays clear stamps from Studio G


• Pomegranate from Faithmeadow stamps


• Peace from Studio G


• Hapy Hanukkah from D.O.T.S (JRL Designs)


• Star of David from Candadian Maple Collection


• Chanukia from Canadian Maple Collection


• L'Chaim stamp from Sugar Loaf


• Blue assorted ribbon from Making Memories


• Gold and Silver Stickles

How I'll decide... I thought about this ahead of time (and inquiring minds now want to know) - how to be fair and select someone really random. I have a 30 sided dice that I will be using to select the date. Since I posted on Dec 2nd and there are 31 days in December - the #1 on the dice will be for December 31st posts. Once the date is selected, then I will roll again for the comment on that blog date - no comments posted, then I will select another date, and continue until I have a winner.