The Craft Fantastic
It’s been a while since I’ve updated my progress on the handmade goodies I’ve been working on for my friend’s wedding. I’ve lost count of the number of kusudama flowers I’ve made, but it’s well over 100! Things are nearly finished, though; buttonholes are all done and delivered, bouquets so very near. At the weekend I fully completed one of the bridesmaid bouquets – what do you think?
These beautiful flowers are quite simple to make – a little time-consuming but well worth the effort. I’ve made a couple before, just because they’re so pretty, but a good friend of mine recently got engaged (whoop!) and wants a lot of things to be handmade, so I have been enlisted to help out! I’ll be making lots of paper flowers: one bridal bouquet, six bridesmaid bouquets, six buttonholes and maybe a wrist corsage or two! Oh, and being queen of notebook making, I’ll be doing the wedding guest book, too. I’m looking forward to the challenge enormously and have been practising making these origami kusudama flowers. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
Happy with my progress so far! Updates to follow.
Following on from last week’s post on origami and art (yes! I actually followed up :D) I decided to have a go at some larger origami models. I have a few old rolls of wall paper which I thought would be ideal for this, as the paper is thick and sturdy; note for future reference though, take time in cutting as precise a square as possible.
Starting with something I’d made before seemed like the best plan, so I folded a Kabuto (Samurai helmet):
Then transformed it into a goldfish!
Not quite sure what I’ll do with this chap now but I’m sure I’ll think of something! It’s definitely inspired me to try more.
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’:
This cosmic 3D project, using folded paper, tape and lights:
This epic elephant, folded by Sipho Mabona (with a little help!) from a specially-made single sheet of paper:
This totally fabulous dress:
And finally this great example of jewellery from the linen cat:
With just less than a month to go until Christmas, things are getting busy in The Craft Fantastic workshop! Ok, it’s just me in my living room. Still, I have been quite busy planning and making things for the festive season. Over in my Folksy shop you’ll find some lovely handmade gifts and original tags to help you wrap them. Check out these miniature notebook necklaces – the perfect stocking filler for book lovers:
There’s also a few sets of my origami gift tags, all hand folded from lovely paper:
I’m also free to take commissions on any of my origami gift tag designs, past and present, including all these designs from last year:
Plus the silver printed snowflake designs:
They’re all 4 for £2 and you can mix and match as you’d like – postage will be £1 for one or two sets, £1.50 for anything more than that.
Football on TV last night (yawn) so I spent some time trying out different paper and origami crafts for the festive season! Some folded paper stars and Christmas trees, done from sheet music – both very simple, I’ll post tutorials soon. Also started on a lovely delicate paper flower but have run out of paper!
Not quite as far along with these as I’d like! The start of this year’s handmade Christmas gift tag stock – at the moment it’s just a little origami forest.
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!):
Check out the tutorial here. Happy folding x
This weekend I have mostly been making lots of these little guys:
In order to make these:
Pretty, huh? These German paper stars, called Froebel stars, are made using four strips of paper. They look as if they might be quite complicated but once you get the basic steps down they’re easy. I found the perfect tutorial here – very clear step by step instructions.
With a Christmas craft fair coming up in November (details soon) I’ve been deciding what things I’ll be making for it- focusing on mobiles and hanging decorations this week. As well as the paper star wreaths above, I have these origami hanging decorations:
Plus lots of little origami lucky stars, which I love!
These little origami hanging people remind me so much of the hanging monkeys my grandma had! I don’t remember there ever being a barrel.. I was quite content just linking monkeys…
