Crafty Ramadan

Ramadan Pull Away Calendar {Tutorial}

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Our family likes to make a Ramadan calendar to help the girls grasp the concept of how many days they are required to fast.

 

We have made calendars that have projects for each day and calendars that have treats. We kept it simple one year with a countdown chain that was really fun to break apart.

 

I thought we would go back to simpler times and have a calendar that would be able to pull away to reveal the next day written in Arabic.

 

Supplies

Foam core
Letter stickers
Hole punch
Foam brush
Mod Podge
Binder Clips
Double sided tape
Twine
Washi tape
Card stock cut into various triangles and banners
Arabic numbers from 1 to 30

I wanted to continue to to teach the girls counting numbers from واحد, wahid or one in Arabic, to ثَلاثونَ or thalathun, how you say thirty in Arabic, so I typed them up in Word for this year’s calendar.  You can do the same, or use stickers, like we did for the year 2017, to keep things eays.

We then placed the ثَلاثونَ or thalathun, thirty in Arabic, at the bottom and stacked the others numbers over it, making sure the tops were even. We added binder clips on the two sides to hold the papers together.

We added three coats of Mod Podge to the edge, giving the coats enough time to dry in between. We set them aside, between coats, while we worked on the next few steps.While the numbers are being bonded to each other, we put the stickers on our larger banner to spell out RAMADAN. Before gluing anything else down, we put it on top of our foam core to play with placement.

Our smaller banners didn’t have holes for our twine, so before we added the 2017 stickers, we had to punch holes first.

Once all the stickers were on and we were happy with the final layout, we turned everything over and added doubled sided tape to the back.

We added twine to the banner at the bottom and the side banner that spelled RAMADAN.

Now that our numbers were dry and ready, we cut off a piece of washi tape that was a bit longer than our numbers and added it to the top of ثَلاثونَ or thalathun, thirty in Arabic.

We then taped our numbers pad to the top of the green banner.

Now that we are on Ramadan 2, it was time to tear away our first number واحد, wahid or one in Arabic, to show إثنان or ithnan, two in Arabic.

Please stop by A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to enjoy past Ramadan crafts that are part of our annual 30 day challenge.

 

 

Basmala Beaded Square {Tutorial}

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To begin our 7th Ramadan crafts 30 day challenge, we spent our day learning about the Basmala.

 

The Basmala is commonly known as the Islamic phrase b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi written in Arabic as بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ . The translation of Basmala into English is: In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

 

It is used by Muslims when they begin prayers, a project or many other situations. Basmala is also included in the constitutions of Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries world wide.

 

Arabic-speaking Christians sometimes use the name Basmala to refer to the Christian Trinitarian formula: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is written in Arabic as  باسم الآب والابن والروح القدس and spoken as bismi-l-’ābi wa-l-ibni wa-r-rūḥi l-qudusi.

 

While we were looking at all the ways the Islamic Basmala was written online, my daughter saw one design that caught her eye.  She decided to use Perler beads to recreate the square.  Since we have used Perler beads to start our last two #CraftyRamadan challenges, we hope you have plenty of beads on hand for this calligraphy project.

 

Supplies

Perler beads
Square pegboard (includes ironing papers)
Iron
Square shadow frame

 

Choose your colors, note that our Basmala will need three: one for the Arabic letters, one for the dots for those letters, and one for the background.  We went with yellow and purple, with red dots.  Start on one end and lay out your design on the pegboard. It’s okay if it takes you a little while to figure out your pattern. the great thing about these beads is you can move them around.

Once your beads are all in place, you’ll want to use the special paper that comes with them and iron for a few minutes.  Watch to make sure your beads don’t get too hot and start to over melt.  You should only need a few seconds.  Flip your square, place another ironing sheet (or remove your original if you only have one) and iron the second side.

That is it, your Basmala is done and ready to be placed into a square shadow frame.

 

If you enjoyed this Perler crafts, be sure to visit

Khatam Bead Coin Dish DIY {Tutorial}

Perler Crescent Moon {Tutorial}

Stop by A Crafty Arab on Pinterest to see more Ramadan crafts from our past challenges.

2017 Ramadan Crafts 30 Day Challenge {Resource}

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Ramadan Mubarak! May you experience a generous Ramadan 2017.

 

Ramadan Mubarak means Blessed Ramadan in Arabic. Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar and commemorated with daily fasting, extra prayers and alms giving.  It is celebrated in a majority of the Arab world as the month the Quran, the holy book, was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon Him).

 

Please stop by 99 Ramadan Children Books to fill your bedroom shelf or coffee table with great books for kids to teach them about Ramadan.

 

I use this time to teach my daughters about the Arab world, by holding a 30 day crafts challenge I started in 2011.  To see roundups of years past visit 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, or 2016. Or feel free to see the tutorials on A Crafty Arab on Pinterest.

 

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