Made for Xmas... ;)

,

I made a few "table mobile" to give as Xmas present.... I like it, though my mom like the flower vase better... This mobile were quite easy to make, as I bought the circular wood base and only painted with black paint, the hard thing was the wire... to make this circular shape... somehow I managed it! hehehe

For my aunts I made a Flower Tree, using origami flower, cinnamon stick and a vase... I saw it in a page and thought it was so cute, it is very easy to make, but too much work!

カエル

Last week I did a lot of folding... I made 400 lucky frogs!

My cousin wanted lucky frogs cards to give as memento of her store.

It is said that frog charm is believed to bring money and fortune, as the japanese word for frog (カエル）means both frog and return, and also that s why it is frog charms are frequently carried by travelers to ensure a safe return from their journey.

new projects

This is a electra kusudama origami, inside it there is a tsuru... this is quite easy to make and I really liked the final result...


I had bought a kit for this sakura kusudama long time ago, but it was to difficult to understand the instructions at that time.. This week I decided to give it a try again, and that was the result...
it has 13 cm diameter, so i dont really know exactly what i can do with that...

tutorial origami xmas tree

I made the origami xmas tree (previous post) using this youtube video http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=htA_kyOpO9A but it gets a bit hard to understand at some point, so I made this photo steps... hope it helps for those who wants to make one...

this is for the upper part, and you need for  origami papers sizes 15 cm , 13 cm, 10 cm and 7 cm .

For the bottom part you will need one origami paper size 15 cm.

Hope it makes easier to understand the way this tree is folded... have fun!!! feel free to contact me if you have any question... I know the photo is too small but I m just new to this Imac computer and dont really know how to use photo program yet.... sorry for that.

X-Mas is around the corner so I decided to prepare some origami x-mas tree.

The one in the back a friend of mine, Mirian, gave it to me, the ones in the front I made this week.

The one full of ornaments I made for my sister, some of the ornaments I made using quilling (the cat and the baby car), cotton, ribbons and origami (star, tsuru and rose).

by the way... my sister is expecting a baby girl!!! I m so happy!! She is going to be the first baby in the family!

more kurumie

As I said before.. I got addicted!!! My cousin went to japan and brought plents of shikishi... so I have suply for a long time... :)
This is my latest works... the first one is my own design... the others I took from a book.

This thing is quite addictive!! This is my last work... the first one is small and the second one is medium size.
The second one is my own design, a Maiko (geisha apprentice) in front of Toji temple in Kyoto ( a place that will be always in my heart!)

One more...

This last weekend I made another paper doll...

This one gave me a bit of work cause it has more details, but I loved the final result.
I just wanted to post the photo of this new work.

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I last posted, during this time I went to Japan... it was so nice to be back there!! I bought some craft books so I ll have many things to try!
Today I started a craft which is called "くるみ絵". I'm not sure Im doing it right, but I liked the result...

Basically what I did was copy the picture and after that cut the pieces and paste... quite easy, huh? (the paper in the back is a shikishi and for the kimono origami paper).
I wish I had drawing abilities so I could do my own pattern, but for now I ll be using the ones I found in the book (やさしいくるみ絵 by 沖原とし子　植田 みよ子）.
The book has many patterns.. so I ll have a lot to play with ;p

Recicling...

My brother decided to give away some of his old clothes (it wouldn't fit him anymore) and as I did like some of the fabrics I decided to recicle it and from 2 shorts I made two small reversible bags!

Before:


After:


I liked so much the result that I made two more bags (luckly my brother didnt fit in many of his shorts... hihihi). And I gave as a bday present, one to my cousin and the other one to my friend Priscila. I didnt take photos :(

I must say that now I am more confortable with the sewing machine, but I still struggle a little bit so the final result is not so professional... But I am proud of my bags... ;p

Bags

Few years ago I decided that it was time to lear how to use a sew machine, at that time I didn't want to spend money buying X-mas presents and I thought it would be nice if I could make my presents.

One thing that I thought it would be easy project was a tote bag, I must say that I made a mess but in the end I came with something near a tote bag!! and I became a bit ambicious and decided to make a bag, I looked over the net and found this site, and it didn't seem so hard to make one.

So I started the first one, and then something went wrong...

To cool down a bit I start another project which was my brother's present, as he was always in bussiness trips I made him a toiletbag and it was way much easier to make! (unfortunately I dont have photos)

Back to the bag... started the second one... something wrong again!!!

Third one.... almost giving up!!!

Finally the forth one was ok, and became my sister's X-mas present (dont have the photo either), after having succeed in that bag I began others projects...

This year while I was organizing my fabrics I found the 3 bags I had started and never finished, as I was much more familiar with the sew machine I tried to fix the mistakes and see what I could save... so.. here are the bags.

well... didnt turn so bad afterall but in this photos you can't really see how it really looks... anyways, better than I would expect!!!

my plants...

The other thing that I enjoy doing while I'm bored is taking care of my plants...

The one I care the most is the momiji tree (first photo)... I have so many photos of momiji that I took while I was living in Kyoto and now I can have my own tree (thanks to jimmy's dad)!!! I can't wait for my momiji to grow bigger and I do hope it gets red leaves... Though it is still so small and the weather here is not (at all) the same as in Japan...

One of the things that I always wanted to have and thought that I could never have was a Jabuticaba tree! In my house there is no space to plant a tree... but a friend of my mom gave us the tree (second photo) and the only thing we had to do was buy a huge vase :) if I only had thought of that years ago... But I must say the difficult thing is keeping my mom away of the tree, she also loves jabuticaba and keeps eating the fruits!!!

The last photo is my small kitchen-graden, I have pepper, oregano, basil, parsley mint, and also have some flowers, lavender and roses.
I must say that I wasnt good at taking care of plants, I have "killed" some before. But I guess now I am more responsible or either have too much time in my hands! hihihi

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

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