Hanukiah made using discarded discs and boxes

A quick Hanukkah post today. For the second time in a row, our Hanukkah Menorah (or Hanukiah) made of recycled materials won first prize in the school contest. That was a big challenge to our craft skills. How many new craft ideas can you come up with, really? This year we made our Hanukiah of round cheese containers and old compact discs we had been collecting for almost two years. The cardboard containers were assembled together to build the body of the Hanukiah, which was then painted dark brown to make a good uniform backdrop for the brightly colored decoration.

The Hanukiah was decorated with mosaic made of discarded CD/DVD discs dyed using permanent markers. It's important to remember that not all discs can be used. Try cutting a CD or a DVD with large scissors: some of them can be easily cut while others just break apart. The mosaic created with small pieces of old discs turned out beautiful as you can see. The kids enjoyed dyeing discs and gluing pieces very much. I didn't allow them to cut the discs though.

For the cups of the Hanukiah we used the top part of 0.5l plastic bottles. The flames were made of colored paper strips (using quilling) attached to burned out matches.

For more Hanukkah crafts please check out Hanukkah section of my Judaic crafts page.

We want to wish happiness and love to everyone, and Happy Hanukkah to those of you who celebrate the Festival of Lights.