Lily-of-the-Grunge

My father was the one who initially taught me how to fold origami. I can still remember waiting impatiently while he folded me yet another paper basket so I could pretend to go on a picnic. I gradually learned to make paper fox puppets, mail boxes, whales and swans out of scrap paper. As I grew older, I started attempting more complicated patterns like scorpions and dinosaurs but in recent years, I have mainly been interested in making origami flowers.

Paper flowers are versatile as decorations and crafting embellishments. I have been wowed by elaborate Oribana flower arrangements and have been tempted to make my own. Lately, time has been my enemy for this ambition but because I had a few minutes to spare today, I thought I would make a start.

I was surprised by this lily-of-the-grunge-look that I managed to achieve by gluing the flowers on the ends of some straightened paper clips and putting the whole ensemble in a can. I plan on wrapping the wire in floral tape later on, cutting out leaves and creating a full bouquet. For now, I will enjoy this blooms-in-a-concrete-jungle feel.

A close up so you can see all that lovely detail in standard printer paper. : )

There is almost a light-from-heaven-upon-Easter-lilies effect in this shot. I thought it looked interesting.

Quick Stamp

I have been so busy these last few weeks. Sadly, far too busy for crafting or at least, crafting any project that would take more than an hour at most. Still, on a sunny post-call day, I could not resist at least making something small and quick just for the fun of it. I pulled out my stamps and some blank cards and whipped together this cute card set in under an hour. I plan on using these as thank you notes – there are several people I need to thank for helping me get through this crazy month.

I have always been fond of clean, spare designs. Not adding too many frills really lets the stamps shine.

Materials: White index cards

Tools:  Recollections™ clear stamps, Recollections™ Signature Dye Ink Pad Ruby, Recollections™ Signature Dye Ink Pad Cricket

Time to Make: <1 hour

Album of Scraps

Last week, I had a crafting session over at a friend’s house. She is a serious album and card maker and has a dizzying variety of cardstock, paperstock, envelopes, stamp sets, ribbons, washi tape, stickers and crafting tools. She even has a dedicated craft room! (I was so jealous.) I was fascinated by just the pieces left over in her scrap box and rummaged through it all afternoon. By the end of our session, I ended up making a notebook cover (which I will feature another day – I still need to sew in the pages) as well as this cute little album. These are all discarded papers from my friend’s scrap box, trimmed to size and glued together. The washi tape finishes everything off just perfectly. 

I was waffling about whether or not to add a strip of washi tape on the spine. Perendie said to go for it and she was right.

There was no coordination of colours - I just cut and glued whatever was in the  box in a random order. 

It's a small thing, measuring only 6.5 x 9.5 cm. Good for stickers, wallet sized photos and short notes. 

Just a Little Package

One of my friends was feeling down last week and I wanted to cheer her up. However, when I thought of putting together something, it was 10 pm and I was a little short on options. My philosophy is: if life hurts, feed them candy. Unfortunately, I did not have any around at the time, so I figured gum would have to do.

Wrapping paper did not seem right for the occasion but neither did just handing her the pack of gum unwrapped. In the end, I flipped through Pinterest and expanded on this idea:

Confetti Gift Tags! So simple yet cute. Unfortunately, I could not find the original source so I cannot give credit for where its due.

I whipped it together in a few minutes late at night. The smile on her face made the effort worth it!

Petite and Pink

I made this little elephant last year. She's only about 2 inches from tail to trunk. Initially I was a little skeptical about the tiny beaded animals, since they just didn't have the detail of some larger patterns. After making her though, I was completely sold on the idea. She's so cute! They're not really visible in the pictures, but she even has little tusks. A small detail but I think it really adds to the design. 

All credit for her design goes to a Chinese craft book I found at the Hong Kong library.