Arabic Resource

2nd Annual Seattle Arab Cultural Camp {Outing}

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Do to popular demand, I have decided to bring back the Seattle Arab Cultural Camp this summer.

The mission is to spend some time creating the art projects from this blog that educate about the Arab culture.

We will discuss language, food, music, artists, dress, holidays, etc, to learn more about the 22 countries that make up the Arab world in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

By spending a week looking at the MENA area, we hope this opens children’s eyes into seeing more about that culture.

It will be held in the Seattle suburb of Redmond the week of July 15 to July 19, 2019. We will start our day at 8:30am and pick up will be at 3:30pm. Extended hours available.

Kids will stop mid day for an exercise and lunch break and each day will include a service project to give back to the community.

I am still working out the final schedule, but it will be very similar to last year’s camp, which can be found here.

The camp will once again be limited to 15 participants on a first come, first served basis.  I will be taking children entering grades 1-6. Camp will be $200 a week to cover materials and visiting artists fees.

There will be an open house for interested parents, to check out the studio and experience a sample art stations, on June 22th.

If you are interested in learning more about the Arab Cultural Camp, either contact me or fill out an

Arab Cultural Camp ApplicationDownload

If you would like to be involved in camp, please let me know as I will be grateful for a few helping hands to turn this into a larger scale project.

Arabic Valentine’s Day Cards {Printable}

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Valentine’s Day is this Friday. It is a day to celebrate romance in many regions around the world and slowly starting to make it’s way into the Arab culture.

Children, where I currently live, give each other miniature Valentine’s Day cards in school, often attached to candy. Sometimes they build little mailboxes to collect these mini cards on their school desks.

This year, due to the severe snow storm that has hit our area, my daughters will not be at school. I decided to make them the mini cards so they could exchange them with neighborhood friends.

Of course, I had to add an Arabic twist. Each card has a little bit of fun with the alphabet. I used the same letters from my Arabic Parents Guide.

You can download them for free here.

Check out other fun holiday downloads on A Crafty Arab Printables board.

ACraftyArab Booth at MENAL Fest 2019 {Outing}

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A Crafty Arab was honored to be asked to take part in the MENAL Festival, held at University of Washington, Bothell, located outside Seattle.

The Middle East and North African (MENA) Literature Festival provides a platform that magnifies MENA female voices, allowing them to be heard, and to engage with the public at large.

MENAL Fest featured Tatreez & Tea as the first annual keynote speakers for MENAL fest! This organization teaches about the centuries-old tradition of tatreez (the Arabic word for Palestinian embroidery) and the meanings it carries from generations past and today as a symbol of resilience.

I created a table with the following tutorials to teach about the MENA region.

There were a few other booths from the community as well.

The lecture was standing room only, overflowing so much I gave my booth chairs to others. Afterwards, I had a chance to take a photo with Wafa Ghnaim, the author of Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora and her mother, Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow. We are all wearing Palestinian thobes, an Arabic word for long, flowing garment, all hand embroidered with tatreez.

The next day, a workshop was help to learn how to embroidery and I was able to attend as a participant. I choose to work on a Tree of Life design with my favorite colors. I choose the most difficult design as I had cross stitched before, but I still was not able to finish it as I spent most of my time talking to my table mates. Here is the final project, finished at home.

I was so excited to be a part of this event, first to teach others about the Arab world, then to learn myself new things about the Arab world.

If you would like to have an A Crafty Arab educational book at your next event, please contact me. Be sure to check out other ACraftyArab outings on Pinterest.