Saturday, January 26, 2008

SALSA .... valentines card

One thing that I love to do is dancing salsa... since I moved to SP I ve been to 3 salsas night club... bouboun, rey castro and last thursday Azucar. I gotta say that I suck at it but it doesnt stop me of going to those places, and every time I tell my self that I have to start taking salsa classes!!
I love the way that people move when dancing and how fun is when you're dancing!
And it reminds a lot of my last year living in Kyoto!! I had so much fun going to El Coyote and learning and dancing with friends... Who would believe that I would fall in love with this dance! I really hated when my friends started going to salsa... hihihi but now can not wait to go dance again!!! Fun!!! fun!!! fun!!!

As valentines day is coming ... (though in brazil is only in june) I posted in crafster a kirigami card I had for years... thought I posted in here as well...

I bought the card back in 1992, I gave that away... but made a diagram one paper for me... other day I was putting my craft stuff in order and found it...
diagram I made for my self from the card I bought
tools needed to make the card
Just cut where is indicated and  mark the lines and fold valley for the pink line and mountain fold for the purple line... for the corners I cut with the punch....

 

Flowers....

This week I made more flowers, this time I decided to make fabric ones... Days before I came across with this tutorial and did a little research on the subject...

These flowers are made by a japanese technique, to make hair ournament called tsunami kanzashi. I still can not believe that I lived in Kyoto for five years and just now got addicted to all japanese craft!!! but at that time I was doing my masters/ phD, and whenever I had free time I was taking photos, visiting temples, making friends...

Anyways, this flowers are quite easy to make and very cute!!!

The japanese technique uses rice glue, here in this site you can watch a video of the making process, maybe one day I ll get there! hihihi




Monday, January 21, 2008

Roses, roses, and more roses....


This is my new addiction!!! My first attempts were very frustating... but now they look like roses!!!

This is a variation of Kawasaki's rose, I checked some of the diagrams over the internet and some videos on youtube, I found this one where a kid was making the rose... and I thought, if a ten years old can do it why can't I?

I won't lie saying that it was easy to make the rose cause it was quite hard for me to follow his direction, but when I was almost giving up I came across with this japanese website, which is the easiest one I found to follow (I might say that I was relieved cause my pride would not let me give up! ;p)

It is amazing how a piece of paper can become such a beautiful rose, don't you think?



The book where you can find the "real" Kawasaki's rose is 折り紙夢WORLD 花と動物編 by 川崎 敏和.

I haven't tried the one in the book, but maybe one day when I feel more prepared... for now I'm happy with the one I'm making...

"magic wallet"

My latest challenge was making this wallet, my sister bought it as a Xmas present to her husband and I found it very interesting... you put your card in the middle of the wallet, close it and open from the other side... and voila... your card inside the rubber....

I also bought some to give to my friends, but I thought that I could make one for myself, as I had some nice japanese fabric at home and did not know what to do with them...

But I was not sure if my sewing machine would work on paper so for my wallet I used hot glue... and yes! my poor skills made me burn my hand so many time that I almost gave up!!
First of all you ll need:
2 - paper card 7 x 10.5 cm
4 - rubber band (not sure how it is called) 11 cm

I sewed the rubber bands to the paper card as you can see in the photo, I left a space of 2cm from the top and 1 cm from the side, and the same for the bottom part 2 cm and 1 cm.

for the fabric you'll need the follow dimensions +1.5 cm for each side
2 rectangle 7 x 2.5 cm
2 rectangle 7 x 7.5 cm
2 rectangle 7 x 10.75 cm

for inlining you ll need:
2 rectangle 7 x 2.5 cm 2 rectangle 7 x 7.5 cm
2 rectangle 7 x 10.75 cm
4 rectangle 7 x 16.5 cm fold it 9cm up and 7.5 cm down

I do hope that the photos can explain the how to make, cause my lack of ability with the words makes it hard for me to explain step by step.

I also noticed that I should have taken more photos and I promisse that if I ever do another wallet I will take those photos, but for now I dont think I will as I still have the burn marks on my hand not only from the hot glue but also from the ironing....

No, no it is not difficult to make one, is only that I am not really good at doing this craft things, though I really love it! And believe when I say that if I can do it, anyone else can do it too!!!

By the way, first I made one using paper just to make sure that I woudnt screw up... I was really afraid of wasting my nice fabric!

Starting

I decided to post things I do when I get bored... or things I check on the net when I get bored ;p
My new addiction is ORIGAMI, but there is many other crafts that I love to do...
I am not really an artist and poor at new ideas, so I check the internet to see what is interesting, usually I have a look at http://www.craftster.org/, many of the users also post tutorials and it makes a lot more easier for me :)
I also decided to post some of the things I made, as I feel that I m only "taking" and not "giving" anything...
I will post my works and whenever is possible "how to..." or at least the link so you can check it.
Hope you have fun... as I much as me!

my posts at craftster
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=221153.msg2384568#msg2384568
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=221954.msg2393803#msg2393803
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=268179.msg3020287#msg3020287
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=279289.msg3161274#msg3161274