Whenever I write letters to my kids at camp, I inevitably write something like “sending hugs” or “sending kisses” or “sending good vibes.” But do they actually feel my hugs, kisses, and good vibes?

This year, I sent an actual hug to my daughter at sleep-away camp! The craft is so simple, you won’t believe it.

1. First trace your hands onto cardstock.
2. Decorate the hands with colored fingernails, rings, freckles, tattoos…anything that will make the hands feel like yours!
3. Cut a piece of string or ribbon that is the length of your arm span. (Fun fact: our arm span is usually pretty dang close to our actual height!)
4. Glue the ribbon or string to the wrist area of each hand, and then write your message on the palm-side of the hands. Write some funny instructions like “Put one hand over your left shoulder, wrap the ribbon around you body, close your eyes, and feel my hug!”

When should you send a hug in the mail? Here are some ideas:

• Grandparents Day
• For a cousin who just went off to college
• Valentine’s Day (duh!)
• An “I’m thinking of you” moment
• Congratulations on making the soccer team!

These Accordion-Book Boxes Are the Perfect Craft Project for Book Lovers

Is it a box? Is it a book? Is it a craft? It’s all three!

Surprise — it’s a box with a book inside! Turn a ho-hum gift box from your gift-wrap stash into an art book keepsake. Get creative with your page-turning masterpiece — comic books, counting books, and photo albums are all fair game! These can also be made as elaborate birthday or holiday cards for special loved ones. You can write a long message or tell a fun story like a comical history of your friendship. The options are limitless!

What you’ll need:

• 2-piece gift box
• Paper roll 
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Felt
• Tacky Glue
• Letter stamps
• Ink Pad
• Markers
• Crayons
• Colored pencils

Make it:

Cut a long strip of paper the same height as the inside height of the box. Accordion-fold the paper so that each “page” matches the width of the box. 

Cut a piece of felt that matches the height of the box and is about one to two inches wider than the depth of the box. 

Glue the felt to the top of the box, and wrap it around to glue to the back — but not too tight! Leave a little slack in the fabric so it curves out a bit around the “spine” of your book box.

Give your book a title! If you have small letter stamps and an inkpad, use them for the title. You can also write the title on the front with a marker or colored pencil. 

Use stamps, drawing utensils, or collaged paper to create your pages. These books can be scrapbooks, comic books, or story books. You can even print small photos to make a memory book.

Use the glue stick to adhere the first page to the bottom of the box.

Pipe cleaner crafts are like a beginner course in Wire Sculpture 101. They are lightweight and easy to shape into whatever you dream up. This craft is a super-fun way for kids to explore facial features…making round eyes, short noses, long ears—all at the bend of a pipe cleaner! And because this craft does not require glue, there are no mess-ups. Just give it a facelift and start again!

What you’ll need:

• Thin wire hanger
• Pipe cleaners (edit note: or would you rather say chenille stems?)
• Large beads
• Scissors
• Thick yarn

Make it:

1. Stretch out your wire hanger until it forms a head shape. An adult might need to help a child with this step!
2. Use pipe cleaners to make the facial features.
   1. Nose: For a long nose, you’ll need two pipe cleaners. Twist one to either side of the base of the hanger’s hook. Twist them together about halfway down and then form the pipe cleaner into a nose shape at the bottom; twist to close.
   2. Eyes: Slip a bead over the end of a pipe cleaner and wrap the pipe cleaner around the bead and into the other hole. Cut another pipe cleaner in half and form a circle. Twist each end onto the eyeball pipe cleaner to form an eye shape. (Eyebrows and eyelashes are optional!)
   3. Mouth: Form a pipe cleaner into a mouth shape. Twist a straight pipe cleaner to the bottom lip and twist around the hanger. Trim off excess.
   4. Ears: Cut a pipe cleaner in half. Bend each end over the wire hanger on the sides of the head.
3. To make the hair, cut 4-inch strands and knot them onto the top edge of the hanger head. Experiment and play with bangs, ponytails, and various fun hairdos!

These are so lightweight that you can hang with a dash of washi tape!

It is Hanukkah time! Admittedly, we are kind of limited with the crafts that we make on this holiday (where are the partridges, drummer-boys and gingerbread houses?), but the variations on the classics are endless! Menorahs, dreidels, and lots of Jewish stars.

I always like to start the holiday with a menorah craft that invites kids of all ages to light their own menorah. I know my kids love to have their own menorah set-up, and if you have little ones that are too young to strike a match, this is a great flameless menorah craft that allows them to feel a part of the holiday.

You can find all of the steps and materials below— feel free to use whatever you have on hand for the flames! I used yellow pom-poms, but you can use felt, tissue, paper, construction paper, buttons,… The options are endless!

Materials: You can find a link to all of the materials here.

• 8 medium clothespins, 1 large clothespin
• thin wash tape
• hot-glue gun
• wooden tongue depressor
• 2-inch wooden block
• yellow pom-poms

1. Adhere thin washi tape strips to the front of 9 wooden clothespins (8 medium sized and 1 larger).

2. Add stripes of matching tape to a 2-inch wooden block to make a stand for the “candles”.

3. Use hot-glue to attach the backs of the wooden clothespins to a wooden tongue depressor. You can glue the tallest clothespin as the shamash either in the center or on either end. You can glue the two parts together but it’s kind of convenient to keep them separate.

4. Each day of Hanukkah, clip a yellow pom-pom, a teardrop cut from yellow felt, or a tuft of yellow tissue paper first onto the tall candle, and then on each candle corresponding to the day of the holiday.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that yearly, I post about our family Yom Kippur ritual with my kids.