I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

I know it's not even Halloween but I just posted this for someone else and made me remember the big response I got last year. And if you'd like to do it, you'll want some time to prepare!



I took these pics for our Hanukkah card last year. I made the dreidel myself, quite easy and quite free!

Keep your eye out for a small rectangular box, the size of the dreidel you want to make. With all sides being the same width, to keep it square around but taller to have a rectanglar dreidel shape. Although dreidels come in all shapes and sizes! So it does not have to be perfect.

Cardboard box, tape, steak knife, white glue, 1-2" paint brush, beach sand.

I cut off two flaps on the top. Close and seal with packing/masking/painters tape. Seal all around all four edges. (tip: I used blue painters tape. In hindsight, I'd use clear or tan masking or duct tape as you'll need to do less coats of sand to cover up a colored tape later)

Use one of the cut off flaps to fold/roll into a triangle shaped tube to use as the "handle". Cut it to length. Trace this triangle in the center of the top. Use a steak knife to cut/saw a hole. Slice up about 1" at all corners at one end. Stick that end into hole and fold over flaps on inside of box. Tape to inside of box to secure handle. Add tape to outside for extra strength.

You have two choices with the bottom flaps. You'll notice I have raised V's at the point of my dreidel. This was because I made the mistake of thinking my flaps would meet up to make a point. Nope. Too short. Find some extra cardboard to cut longer triangles with the ends being the same width of each side of the box. So I taped my longer triangles to the inside of the flaps so I had that dimension as a real carved dreidel would. You can tape them to the outside of the flaps if you wish. They do not have to be perfect. If you leave the small flaps on the ouside like I did, tape or glue them down to your triangles. The sand will hide some imperfections and you want it to look like a carved sand castle. The points do not have to meet at the bottom as that will be burried in sand. In fact, I left mine open so that I could poke a stick in the sand to hold the dreidel upright/at an angle.

Reinforce all seams with tape so it's fairly sturdy.

Search and print out in the size you need the symbols for gimmel, nun, hay and shin . Trace them onto extra cardboard and cut out. Use white glue to glue them to each side. Let dry. Again, not perfect. You want it to look like you carved it in sand.

Set newspaper or plastic table cloth on your table. You'll be vacuuming sand up for days anyway. I did the "sanding" over a rimmed cookie sheet so that I could reuse the sand. Fill a paper plate or bowl with white glue. And have your bucket of sand handy. I used a small measuring cup to scoop and pour.

As you'd glitter something, paint glue on your dreidel in small patches and sprinkle with beach sand. You can overlap areas. Doesn't matter if you get sand in your glue or glue in your sand! I'd do two sides then let dry before I did the other two. Then the handle.

I think I did about three coats of sand as mentioned above, to cover up the blue tape I used. Also if you're box has lots of writing, slice it at the seam, fold it inside out then retape. Just saves in the sanding coats. You can just paint glue right over the dried sand and sprinkle more. It dries differently than it looks while you're doing it. If you do a coat in the morning and a coat at night, you can finish in 2-3 days!

Then you'll have yourself a giant sand dreidel photo prop!!!



And people did ask me if I really carved it out of the sand!

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

that's so funny because that was my first thought as well Awesome craft/prop idea!

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

I was wondering how much glue was needed to hold all that sand together!

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

That is genious

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

That's awesome!

Lol can I rent it from you for our Chanukah pictures?

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

That's such a great idea!!!!

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

that is awesome! I love it!

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

Umm...is it wrong that I'm sad we are not Jewish so I can make that??

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

what an awesome idea!!! very crafty!!! and adorable!!!

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

I love it D. I am definitely borrowing it!!

Re: I know it's early but wanted to share a Hanukkah idea (photo card prop).

And I made that card on Photoshop to print at Costco so it's their photo card size. If anyone wants the template (and I can figure out how to share or email a PS template, if it's easy as that ) let me know!