Sukkot in July?

It's not as crazy as it sounds. The summer is a great time for making projects for the sukka. There's time for crafts without the stress of homework or holiday preparations. Everyone is home looking for something to do. Sunshine is abundant, perfect for drying paint outdoors.

Who has this kind of time in Tishrei? Go take a look at the calendar. The holidays are very early this year. Sukkot begins on Wednesday night, September 26.

The kids were away this weekend, so I started without them! I love making banners for the sukkah. It is easy to do and takes no talent. They keep from year to year, and hold up well in the rain.

It's easy to find appropriate passukim for the banners. Just about any uplifting tree-wilderness-wandering quote will do. Once you start seeing prayers as potential banners, it becomes hard to concentrate on davening!

This past shabbat, the last lines of the haftorah struck me with their beauty, their comforting nature, and their sukka-worthiness. (Jeremiah 2:2-3.)

I've been planning to use lines from Shir Shel Yom Shabbat (Psalm 92) as a banner for the sukkah since last Summer.

I use the banners from Dharma Trading Co. They take paint and dye beautifully. These were on hand, as I bought in bulk in previous years, in order to have enough for the kids to make multiple projects.

	BANNER 1: I used a quilt cutting guide to make guide lines in pencil, then sketched the words in pencil. This helps with the spacing and spelling. It's easy to lose track of words when painting individual letters.
	I painted the words with Lumiere metallic paint with a metal applicator tip. This allows the paint to be applied directly from the bottle, similar to writing with a pen. Notice how I didn't match the penciled words exactly. Not to worry: when all is dry, I plan to erase the guidelines and the penciled words.
	The banner is set to dry on a horizontal surface, to minimize dripping. The quote is Jeremiah 2:2-3.
	BANNER 2: This banner has curved text. I used whatever bowls I could find to make the guidelines.
	This is a round glass platter that helped me make the pencil guide lines.
	This banner is a quote from the end of Psalm 92
	We have a stockpile of plastic-backed disposable paper table cloths from Costco that we use for art projects. They cost less than $1 each.
	After the paint is dry enough not to drip, hang vertically to save space. These were moved to our mudroom because it started to rain.

I plan to let these dry completely before using a pencil eraser to remove the guide lines. I'll probably wait until after the three weeks to decorate the banners with other-than-words.

Just this morning, I came across this site, with instructions for making roses from Maple leaves. That's a project that will have to wait until Autumn when the leaves begin to fall.

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For more Sukkot projects, click here.
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