Categories
Art Craft Inspiration Origami Paper

Weekly Inspiration – Origami as Art

It is said that origami (from the Japanese ‘ori’ (folding) and ‘kami’ (paper)) is the art of folding paper. Without getting too philosophical, does that make all origami art?!

Well, no, but some of it certainly ticks that box. Personally I like making things that either look pretty or are functional (flowers, hearts, boxes – the usual, in fact); while other people have actually challenged themselves. Go them! Note to self: challenge accepted.

Of course there are some really great articles to be found already on this subject- see here for one such article from the Huffington Post.

Here, though are my favourite finds and inspirations from the wonderful world wide web.

This awesome Parisian street ‘graffiti’:

Origami Street Art Graffiti

This cosmic 3D project, using folded paper, tape and lights:

3d-origami-art

This epic elephant, folded by Sipho Mabona (with a little help!) from a specially-made single sheet of paper:

origami-sculpture elephant

This totally fabulous dress:

Origami dress

And finally this great example of jewellery from the linen cat:

Origami necklace

Categories
Inspiration Notebooks

National Stationery Week 2015

It’s back, baby! It’s back and it’s SOONER THAN I REALIZED.

NSW - GBW 2015 (sponsors horiz’)

NSW 2013 with date and website and partners (no website)

Also, part of the National Stationery Week deal this year is ‘7 Days Of Stationery’ – and guess what? Thursday is notebook day!! Woo!

7 Days of Stationery

That is just all kinds of awesome. And… freeze-frame jump for joy!

Categories
Craft Inspiration

Pom pom flower bouquet

Success! Using some pretty light coloured wool, my pom pom maker and some dried-out raspberry canes:

Pom pom flowers

That’s two of my Pinterest Picks that I’ve actually tried out so far. One to go!

Categories
Craft Inspiration Paper Tutorial

Pinterest Picks

Everyone knows Pinterest is a great place to find craftspiration (sure, it’s a word… just go with it…) and I often find myself pinning project after tutorial after project on my craft board and not doing a single one. I’ve decided to try and narrow my picks down to a few a month, and take the time to actually try them out – and then post my findings! So, here are my first lot of Pinterest Picks:

  • Paper Feathers. They look so delicate and would make great displays or table decorations:

Paper feathers

  • Pom pom bouquet. I bought a pom pom maker just before Christmas and *might* have got a little carried away. Making these pom pom flowers will be a great way to make use of any extras I may have:

Pom pom bouquet

  • Nail varnish flowers. This looks like it would be so simple to do but I’m wondering if it will work that well in real life. We shall see!

Nail varnish flowers

 

 

Categories
Craft Inspiration

Top autumn crafts ideas

Well, the weather has finally turned and it looks like autumn has settled in. The cooler weather is the perfect time to stay indoors and try out some new crafts! Here are my favourite inspirations for autumn:

  • Pumpkin carving This doesn’t just have to be for Halloween night. There are lots of ideas out there for seasonal patterns that would make a great display for your home at this time of year. These ones using punched-out or drilled holes look gorgeous:

Hole punched pumpkins

  •  Wreaths There are so many ways to create an autumn wreath, apart from raiding the garden for leaves and twigs. Why not try making one from fabric or paper? As always Google is your friend here! There are some fantastic examples out there so get looking for ideas.
  • Leaf bunting A a simple but effective trick for all the surplus of leaves at this time of year is to turn them into bunting to decorate your home. You can simply string them together for an instant rustic look – win! Bigger, thicker leaves work best for this. Check out this post from sea, field and tribe, who make it look utterly fab:

Autumn Leaf Bunting

  • Filled vases You know those little glass pebbles and things you get to put in the bottoms of glass vases/candle holders? Fill them with conkers and other autumnal finds instead, and it makes for a very seasonal display:

Autumn-chestnuts-in-bowl-of-water-with-floating-candles

Conker filled vases

That’s all from me – I’ll be trying out some of these this weekend I think! What have you been up to? Let me know if you have any unusual autumn craft ideas 🙂

 

 

 

Categories
Craft General Inspiration Stationery

Weekly inspiration – the craft room

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about turning our teeny tiny bedroom into a craft room. The hardest thing is coming up with ideas. Where to start? The internet, of course. Just had a quick image search to get some inspiration and thought I’d share my favourites!

Categories
Art Books Craft Origami Paper Tutorial

Creative book folding

First proper attempt at creating art/sculpture through book folding! Quite pleased with the result. I just did a very basic one, folding the top and bottom edges back to align with the spine, creating a point. I left a few pages free and simply tucked the pages round. Will be more adventurous next time.

Book folding

Categories
Craft Inspiration Origami Paper

Weekly inspiration- Paper Kawaii

I’ve been doing a lot of origami recently and having pretty much exhausted my current instruction books, am feeling a bit unsatisfied. Don’t get me wrong, I still love folding paper, I just feel like I’ve been stuck in an origami rut; I’m confident doing my existing models (my craft space is full of paper cranes, butterflies and flowers!), but now it’s time to improve.

Paper Kawaii is an amazing resource for anyone interested in origami – at any level. There’s a fantastic array of models to make, from beginner to advanced, all with clear instructions and/or video tutorials. The site is beautifully designed and easy to navigate to boot!

It’s my mum’s birthday soon and I’ll be boxing her up some handmade chocolates in a beautiful box (attempt to be made this evening!):

Origami candy box tutorial from Paper Kawaii
Origami candy box tutorial from Paper Kawaii

Check out the tutorial here. Happy folding x

 

Categories
Books General Inspiration

Happy World Book Day!

Book lovers of the world, rejoice! For today is World Book Day.

world-book-day-2014

But what does it actually mean? Surely every day is World Book Day? Well, according to their site “It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading.”  Take a look here to find out the full story.

It’s a fantastic incentive to get kids all over the world reading. Children can get £1 books via special book tokens and there are plenty of events on so head on over to worldbookday.com and check it out!

Categories
Craft Inspiration Paper

Weekly inspiration- top Halloween paper crafts

Halloween is nearly upon us and it’s the perfect time to try out some simple paper crafts to decorate your home spook out your neighbours and guests!

Here are my favourites:

  • Paper shadow mice

Paper shadow mice

There are some fantastic Halloween crafts to be found on the Martha Stewart site but these simple paper mice are my favourite.

  • Paper pumpkins

Paper pumpkin

You can find the tutorial for these simple and effective paper pumpkins over at

Craftaholics Anonymous.

  • Cloud of paper bats

Bat silhouettes are easy to do and if you make enough of them they can be used really effectively:

Bat cloud - paper

bat cloud 2 - paper halloween craft

Check out this simple template from Country Living.

  • Paper bag puppets

halloween-paper-bag-puppets

Made by painting basic brown paper lunch bags- these look like they’d be so much fun to do! There’s a handy little tutorial here.

  •  Hungry house!

Why not try this idea for decorating the outside of your house: just cut big triangles of paper and turn the porch entrance into a giant mouth!

Front porch teeth 2 Front porch paper teeth

Have a happy Halloween!