The Ash-Shams Sun Catcher - 30 Day Craft Challenge

The ash-Shams Sun Catcher - 30 Day Craft Challenge

Salam everyone! Today I'll be posting our Day 11 craft. Our focus was on Surat ash-Shams (Arabic: الشمس‎, "The Sun") - Surah number 91 in the Holy Quran. We listened to its recitation and and discussed a little bit of its meaning. We focused on how to pronounce the word ash-Shams in Arabic as it appears in the Quran. We talked about how important the Sun is for the survival of life on Earth. We thanked Allah (swt) for giving us the Sun and the boys expressed how much they love sunny days. After this discussion we started our daily craft. 

Today we made Sun-catchers, that are meant to stick onto windows to give off beautiful multi-coloured light all day long. This craft required a lot of patience because we were pasting small pieces of streamers onto a surface so it took a little more time than the kids are used to spending on daily crafts. There is a shorter more express version of this craft - if you scroll all the way to the bottom you can see it!

For this blog post I am going to post my pictures and steps together so that I can clarify what exactly we did for this craft. Enjoy!

Materials:

• Streamers or wrapping tissue in different colours cut into small squares/rectangles
• Scissors
• School glue
• Clear Tape
• One Large sized Ziplock bag
• Yellow coloured construction paper
• Clear Tape
• Paintbrush 
• Sharpie/Permanent marker

Steps:

1. Use your scissors to cut your Ziplock bag into two separate clear sheets 
2. Use your sharpie to draw a large circle on the surface of one sheet of the Ziplock bag
   
3. Dilute your school glue with water - half water and half school glue - we will call this paste 
   
4. Take your paintbrush and start spreading the paste onto the sheet (within the circle you just drew) 
   
5. Now take your tissue or streamers and start pasting them onto the surface in a mosaic style 

   

   Here you can see us using wax paper but we re-did the activity with the Ziplock and it worked much better!

6. Be sure to cover the entire surface and feel free to overlap the tissue as you work along
   
7. Once you've covered the entire circle, set it aside and allow 2-3 hours for your mosaic to dry. 
8. In the mean time cut out a sun shape with your yellow coloured construction paper
   
   
   

   

   Fold your sun in half and cut another circle through the middle

9. Once your mosaic is dry, you can peel it off easily from the Ziplock. It still peels off from the wax paper but its not as easy to do so. 
   
10. It will look like a nice bright mosaic
    
11. Trim the edges of the mosaic to make it into a neat circle
    
12. Use your clear tape to stick the mosaic onto the sun

    

    Be sure to flip your mosaic over so the front will be framed by the sun

    
    
13. This is optional but you can cut a second sun and glue it to the back of your craft - this gives it some added neatness
    
14. We pasted the second cut out to the back of our craft so it can be appreciated from the outside of our window and the inside! 
15. I wrote the word الشمس‎ for Hadi in pencil as well as "The Sun" on the front of our craft and he traced over it in black marker 
    
    
    

    

    Tracing Fun!

16. We used our clear tape to stick the craft to our windows
    
    
    
17. We had some left over mosaic so we cut out some free hand suns and taped them as well - this is a great option if you didn't want to do the yellow construction paper part - and just want an easier/faster activity!

    

    These have a beautiful look to them as well!

    

    These are our "ash-Shams" Sun Catchers!

    
    

This is what I have for today! Keep following and InshaAllah I will see you tomorrow!

My Tasbeeh Pouch - 30 Day Craft Challenge

My Tasbeeh Pouch - 30 Day Craft Challenge

Salam and welcome to Day 10 of the 30 day craft challenge during this blessed month of Ramadan. If you've just recently joined me, I'll briefly go over what its all about. This year during Ramadan, I have challenged myself to do one Ramadan/Islam related craft with my children each day. So far, it's been an amazing experience where I've had to stretch my imagination far and wide. The kids and I have been enjoying these crafts very much and that's why I wanted to share them with you. 

Today, Hadi and I made a Tasbeeh Pouch together. This craft was a combination of mommy and child participation. I will outline in my steps which parts require some of your help as a parent. The best part of this craft is that there are no needles required - it's safe for our little ones to do. After completing this craft, Hadi felt so proud that he grabbed my cell phone and started taking pictures of it himself!

Materials:

• Felt - we purchased ours from the Dollar Store where they came in 9inx12in rectangles
• Scissors
• Sharpie/Permanent marker
• Ruler
• Masking Tape
• Yarn or sturdy string approximately 60 cm
• Optional: beads to decorate pouch - we used lettered beads to customize our pouch

Watch this YouTube video to see how we made the pouch: Here

Steps:

1. Fold your felt rectangle in half - our rectangle was 9inx12in so we folded the 12in side in half (I'm switching to cm measurements now because that's what we used from now on)
2. We measured the length while it was folded and it was approximately 22cm 
3. I made a dot where the rectangle is folded right at 11cm to represent the centre of our circle
4. From this circle, I measured out 11cm and made 8 dots all around to guide me while I cut my circle
5. I cut around these dots (while my rectangle was still folded) and when I opened it up, it was a beautiful circle!
6. Now turn your circle over and make the marks where you will be cutting small slits for your child to sew in their string/yarn
7. Leave about 2-3cm of space from the outer part of your circle and start making marks with your sharpie about 2cm apart all around your circle
8. Now use your scissors to cut small slits where you've made those marks
9. In order to "thread" the string/yarn, wrap a piece of masking tape around the edge of the string/yarn and you may want to snip the top part of it to make it a bit sharp (see picture below)
10. Tie a knot at the other end to make sure the string/yarn doesn't pass through completely
11. Allow your child to sew in and out of the slits that you made
12. They will continue this until they've gone all the way around
13. Once its completely threaded they can pull their string/yarn to make sure its equal on both sides
14. You can snip off the masking tape and allow your child to put their beads through
15. Ours was customized to read, "Hadi's Pouch"
16. Tie knots on the end of each string/yarn.
17. Now allow your child to figure out how the pouch will look if they pull the string/yarn all the way, or let loose. 
18. They can choose what items to place inside the pouch - we chose to keep our Tasbeeh and a small copy of Ayatul Kursi. 
19. You may keep this pouch in your prayer area. Enjoy!

Here's a picture of what you'll need - I've pictured two pieces of felt you'll need one per child

From the centre of the circle, make several dots representing the radius

This will guide you along to cut your circle

Cut your circle while its still folded - this is what it'll look like when you open it up

Turn it over and make your marks for the slits - be sure to leave 2-3cm of space from the outside

Here's how we cut the small slits for sewing

They will look tiny like this

This is how I taped some masking tape at the end of the string to help Hadi sew

Sewing away

He enjoyed this part very much!

He's reached the end

He's adjusting the pouch so that the string is equal on both sides

Snip off the masking tape with scissors before you start beading

Tie a knot at the end when your child is done beading

Here's what Hadi's looked like

Fill your pouch with your favourite Tasbeeh!

Pull the string and watch it collapse!

He did this several times for fun

Tie a bow to keep it closed

It can also be stored in your prayer mat

Here's what it looks like when we emptied it

Happy Tasbeeh-ing!

I hope you enjoyed following us along with this activity. Hadi was happy to do something a little different today. A lot of these pictures were taken by him because he was so proud of himself! May we have the opportunity to use this pouch for many prayer sessions to come, inshaAllah! Try it out with your children and please tag me on Instagram if you do @WishfulWaufa. Leave a comment below and subscribe by leaving me your e-mail!

Mini Date Basket - 30 Day Craft Challenge

Mini Date Basket - 30 Day Craft Challenge

Salam all! Welcome to our Day 9 blog post. Here in the Greater Toronto Area, we finally got a day of gorgeous weather after waiting many, many, months. It goes without saying that we spent the majority of the day soaking in the sun. However, I did want to fit in a very short and sweet (literally) activity. 

This activity brings on a discussion about the importance of dates in our religion and culture. There are many traditions that state that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to open is fasts with dates. I wanted to introduce this dry fruit to my children and allow them to celebrate its importance, especially in the month of Ramadan. In order to do this, we made tiny date gift baskets. Given the physical distancing situation in our communities, we weren't able to pass on these gifts to our friends and family yet. But I do pray that in future years, we are able to include these little favours in our regular visits to loved ones. 

We distributed these little date baskets among ourselves in the household and the kids got a little kick out of it. Take a look below at how we were able to put them together.

Materials:

• Single hole punch or scissors
• Mini tart pans - we found them at the Dollar Store (7.9cm x2.5cm)
• Pipe cleaners (also known as chenille stems)
• Tissue wrap - cut into a square about 13cmx13cm
• Some ribbon
• Approximately 5 dates  

Steps:

1. Use your single hole punch (or scissors) to make 2 holes in the tart pan - adjacent to each other
2. Take the pipe cleaner and wrap one end in one hole and the other end in the other hole
3. Place your tissue wrap on top of the tart pan and press in place
4. Now place your dates into the pan - try to allow them to lean against the tart pan for a decorative look
5. Wrap your ribbon around the tart pan and tie a bow - this will be the finish touch. 
6. Distribute your Mini Date Baskets to loved ones! 
7. Optional: you can attach a note with the dua of opening the fast, or a narration of our Prophet (peace be upon him) about opening our fasts with a date. 

Here's what you'll need

Made two holes as you can see

Insert the pipe cleaners and fold over 

Place your piece of tissue in the mini tart pan

And then your choice of dates 

And voila! The perfect little gift 

Enjoy :)

Thanks for viewing today's blog entry and I hope you're enjoying the content! I have several ideas flowing through my mind that I cant wait to include in this challenge. Join me again tomorrow. Take care!