Printable Simanim Party Picks
I designed these pretty Simanim party picks to decorate your Rosh Hashanah table – and make things run smoother! When you’re done, check out this free Rosh Hashanah simanim printable too. This post contains affiliate links.
After launching my kid-friendly Simanim puppets and realizing that they can be printed in small and used as fun party picks I had an idea: Why not create a classier version that’s meant to be used that way? And add the blessings to the backs of them to make it super easy to pick up a food, make the yehi ratzon blessing and then eat it?!
More about what these are about, the design process, and assembly below.
Get the Simanim Party Picks
These Simanim party picks are available as an instant digital download on Etsy. Purchase them once and print them multiple times.
Your file formats include different ways to craft this to best suit your needs:
- A regular PDF to print out and cut by hand.
- A PNG ready prepared for Print then Cut on Cricut machines
- Individual PNG images to format as you’d like.
The quality of your picks will depend on the quality of your printer and paper. Mine are a bad print – see the image preview for full quality.
One purchase and you can use it again from year to year, for large groups, etc.
What are Simanim and how these picks help
For those who need more background: Simanim are traditional foods eaten on Rosh Hashanah – or the Jewish New Year – to represent our wishes for our new year. They each come with a Yehi Ratzon – or a prayer.
Rosh Hashanah is heavy on symbolism, and the symbolic foods are the epicenter of the Rosh Hashanah meal. While many people build a menu around these foods, most observant families start the meal by going through these one by one and saying the blessings together.
These Simanim party picks feature the blessing on the back. You simply place a pick in the appropriate food, and it serves as both a label and a blessing all in one. No more hunting for the blessing – it’s right there.
All blessings are fully in Hebrew. The food is labeled in Hebrew and English.
The Design Process for making these Simanim Party Picks
These Simanim party picks were a work of passion. My son was home fake sick, and we sat together and watercolored. I was able to give him an art lesson while getting this done.
Each food was watercolored by me – some in different stages. It took many hours to get it how I wanted, and some had to be done multiple times. I wanted to get it right, and to feature real art.
Then, they were imported into Photoshop to turn them into the image I wanted.
They were then brought into Illustrator and designed by my lovely designer to look how I wanted them to. Each one has an elegant title in Hebrew and English, and a prayer on the back.
They are very specifically backed onto a hexagon for a few reasons:
- I wanted a simple shape that will work well back-to-back since these are two-sided.
- The hexagon evokes honeycomb, and honey is one of the Simanim (combined with apple, of course) and included in many Rosh Hashanah dishes.
- A hexagon is a simple, modern shape that can look very elegant.
- And finally, it’s relatively easy to cut out.
While I normally try to translate, I did not do that for these blessings, because these Simanim are based largely on Hebrew humor. And I did not transliterate due to space constraints.
The blessing is written without any names of G-d so that they can be (presumably) discarded after use (you can verify with a Rabbi if you’re unsure).
Each hexagon is doubled – and gets folded in half to be assembled – so that you don’t need to keep track or match up the fronts and the backs.
This was truly designed with ease-of-use in mind!
How to Assemble the Simanim Party Picks
Assembly is super easy. You can either cut it out by hand – and the PDF version features a faint outline on the hexagons to make it easier – or use your Cricut to cut it.
Supplies
- High quality cardstock or photo paper – the nicer paper you use, the nicer it’ll look! Using a linen or other textured paper can even make it look like real watercolor art.
- Printer – I recommend one that runs with Instant Ink
- Scissors (smaller sharp ones will allow for an accurate cut)
- -or- Cricut Print-then-cut compatible cutting machine, fine point blade, LightGrip (blue) mat
- Glue – any paper glue should work. I prefer tacky glue or gel glue pens with foam applicator tips (glues that are too “wet” can warp the paper). A high quality glue stick can work too (such as Elmer’s CraftBond).
- Toothpicks
Assembly
1. Cut out your designs using scissors or a cutting machine.
2. Fold them in half across the narrowest point.
3. Place a bit of glue, and glue a toothpick in place so that about 1cm is on the paper.
4. Place glue covering the entire opposite side (or the same side including the toothpick) and fold in half. Make sure it’s nicely aligned back to front and glue in place.
That is all you need to do to assemble your Simanim party picks!
In case you missed it, you can get the printable right here!
