Glass Subway Tile Mezuza

Siddur cover

It's that time of year!  Kindergarten graduations and siddur parties. Our school makes the parents create the siddur covers providing only a cloth cover for the book itself.  I've made a few like this one over the years.  It's an easy format that can be adapted in a variety of ways.

I started by grabbing a photo of my son against a plain background.  I used my phone.  For this project, the resolution should be fine.  I then resized on my computer.

I printed the photo on Avery transfer paper for dark fabrics.  It looks like this:

I then cut around the edges of my son's photo. For this one, I wanted to do a "praying at the Kotel" type scene.  To make the "kotel", I bound a piece of Stitch Witchery to a fabric scrap in a neutral color.  

I then took my scrap and blocked out a scene, cutting the "kotel" piece to fit the cloth cover and laid out the basic scene with my son "praying" in front of it. If you are starting from scratch, the cover is just another fabric scrap folded to cover the book and hot glued on the inside flaps to hold it in place. (An example can be found here: http://www.twotwentyone.net/2013/07/fabric-covered-books/)

Next, following the instructions for the Stitch Witchery and then the photo transfer, I fused them both to the fabric cover (the ironing instructions vary - make sure you follow the ones for your fabric).

At this point, I added detailing with fabric markers to make the fabric scrap look like the bricks of the Kotel and heat set with my iron one last time. 

I finished it off with fabric paint to seal down the edges, add a little more detailing and add a name. Voila! The final product: 

I have created similar covers in the past, using the same technique. 

Superman Tzitzis

Superman Tzitzis

I am currently dealing with a 5 year-old who is less than impressed with tzitzis ("They're itchy!") and the kippah?  Eh, not so much.  The t-shirt tzitzis I bought him have been received more favorably, but less than enthusiastically.  Solution?  Superman tzitzis. (though with an A for "Avishai").  

I was able to create a basic template using only Microsoft Word.  I wanted to find a font with a serif to get the same feel of the Superman "S".  "Georgia" fit the bill, and I used word art to make a large "A".  I then inserted an inverted triangle and superimposed it over the "A".  If you are trying this at home, make sure you use the "no fill" option so that you can see the position of your letter.  I printed this out, cut off the corners and added a border.  The result looked like this:

I used this as an underlay to trace the design on the tzitzis: 

From here on out, it is a simple paint-by- numbers project. I used fabric paint, but simple acrylics can be used as well.

Finish it off with a fabric marker outline:

Voila!  A quick dry and then set the colors with a hot iron making it color fast and washable. 

Superman comics originated with a couple of nice Jewish boys from Cleveland and contained Jewish themes.  You never wondered about that name, Kal-El?  There are theories about Superman themes being takes on Jewish ideas and values, top among them Superman/Kal-El being the comicbook world's first Marrano. While this might not be what creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster imagined, they have provided the inspiration for this Jewish Superman (er, "Superboy"?) in his crime fighting mitzva performing cape tzitzis.