Simple Crane Ornament (Origami Week Day 4)

So here we are on the second to last day of origami week, and I have just a simple picture for you. I made these this winter and sold many of them. No real meaningful words, no explanation of how it's done, just a picture. Think it over, if you figure out how it's done, congrats.

Working on the Crane Chain (Origami Week Day 2)

Everyone learns to make paper cranes in school, well everyone I know has learned this in school. While many people forget this knowledge and just move on from this lesson, I did not. I memorized the lesson, kept it me, and have made cranes on and off for most of my life. The problem becomes, what do you do with all these cranes?

Cranes are lovely and beautiful on their own, and origami papers come in so many lovely packs, generally they have a theme: all solid, all patterned, all in one type of pattern. Well these patterns are lovely and bold, and the rainbow of solids are amazing and crisp, but you rarely see anything that uses them to their best ability.

I took the next logical step and turned my cranes into a rainbow chain to hang in my window! This is a great way to display the cranes since you get to see all the variation and color that the pattern has to offer.

More stars?!? (The Start of Origami Week)

Again I ask you... who doesn't love stars!? Stars are a great thing to play with! Tattoo artist seem to ink more stars to flesh than anything else. Nautical, puffy, flashy, they really are the "in" thing.

A few years ago I was in a Sanrio store and found the most amazing things. Little strips of paper for folding stars! Well being the fidgety person that I am. I took to these like a duck to water. I would keep the papers with me at all times, furiously folding little puffy stars! I still have a habit of doing it.

I love to go to music shows and will bring them with me. It's funny, the more stressed out I am the more I fidget, so I will take things to calm the core of me. Well... as you can see it's been a stressful week and I have been busy. I will soon show you what I make with these adorable little origami stars. So here is to the first day of Origami Week! 5 full days of origami... WOOOO! Here's hoping it's rocking!

Hello Kitty Anyone?

So today I was working on something new.. What to do with a big square metal trashcan that has seen better days, and a 2004 Hello Kitty calendar notebook. Turns out the best thing you can do is some decoupage!

The trashcan had been rattle canned white inside and out since it originally had a horrible painting of some grapes. Seriously Horrible, like the 60's and 70's called and wanted it back, but they had decayed so badly that they didn't have the strength to get back to their proper time period.

My Grandmother had given me the book of Hello Kitty from 2004. She works at a booktique and they get in lots of things they can't use. It had a few math equations, but nothing really in it. It was super cute. Hello gold, Hello black, Hello everything. =^..^= I know it's wrong a twenty eight year old who likes Hello Kitty. I can't help it. I've tried so hard. Well, moving on to the process.

I cut out as many versions of Hello Kitty as possible and laid them aside to be used at a later time. I then took my scissors to the patterns that were left behind from cutting out Hello Kitty. Roses and dots, stripes and stars... way too much fun!

I broke out some rubber cement I had lying around, and started the background with different patterns and colors, wrapping around corners, cutting away and adding more. It was a lot of fun! fun! I took out some water and some glue (yeah for elmer's!), and got Hello Kitty plastered to the side! I also put a couple Hello Kitty cut outs in the interior too!

Remember! Whatever you want to make, you just have to think it through! Don't jump into something without a plan (even if it's just a rough estimate). Anyone can craft! Just think about it, it's just paper, it's just glue! It's like kindergarten all over again! So today's word is play, it's what makes life worth living.