Gotta Catch 'Em All!

I wanna be the very best like no one ever was. 

To catch them is my real test,

To train them is my cause.

I will travel across the land, 

Searching far and wide.

Each Pokemon to understand

The power that's inside!

There is just something about this song that always makes me smile and want to sing along (and if I'm at home, I do :P ) The Pokemon TV show was part of my childhood and at one time, I knew all 150 pokemon. Of course now, there are a lot more than that and I have stopped following this series but it continues to be a part of all my younger cousins' childhoods. 

While surfing the internet looking for interesting patterned origami star paper, I came across these two designs: one from RosyAutumn on Deviantart, and the other I found through Google Images. 

Gotta Catch 'Em All! Pokemon! 

Schroeder and Beethoven Live On...

My formerly 16-year-old cousin (the previous recipient of my Mario birthday card) has now turned 17 (whoa - I can barely believe it!) and so, of course, I made him yet another card. Aside from video and computer games, I know that this cousin really enjoys playing the piano. He does an amazing job playing theme songs by memory and it's always wonderful listening to him.

Ever since I came across some shaker cards while blog-surfing, I have been meaning to put my collection of random confetti to good use. I have a variety of confetti accumulated from graduations, birthday parties and dollar store visits. The shiny shapes have always screamed 'craft material' but honestly, I had yet to come up with a good way to incorporate them into any projects. This was perfect and I had a cute little box of music notes that I wanted to use first. 

Of all the Peanut characters, Schroeder is my favorite (well...him and Linus). I really wanted to use him but first, I had to make sure that my cousin even knew who he was (it is an OLD comic after all) - luckily, he did.  Therefore, Schroeder and his iconic piano made it front and centre. 

By the way, this is how a shaker card works:

This is how it looks at first. Give it a little shake and...

...a symphony appears!

A window is cut into the front of the card. A clear pocket is made of a piece of folded acetate which contains confetti and the sides are sealed off. A second piece of card cut to size is glued onto the inside of the card to hide all the tape which attaches the clear pocket behind the window. 

See? All neat and tidy. 

I have a music note punch as part of my set of 40 punches and so I sprinkled a few of the punched shapes on the inside to break up the expanse of white. 

I am really happy with how this card turned out :). Now I just need to figure out what to do with my dinosaur confetti...

It's a Girl!

Having already made an It's a Boy! card, naturally, I needed to make an It's a Girl! version. This one is for some friends whose daughter was just born two weeks ago. I got the chance to play with my Sizzix for the first time and I love it! I'm already making a list of all the new dies and folders that I want to get for it. (Yes, cardmaking is an expensive hobby if you really get into it...which I have.)

I decided to take some in-progress shots while making this card so you can follow along. The design is pretty simple so it only took me an hour to complete.

I started with an envelope. I have a whole shoebox of random envelopes which my mother has amassed over the years. Pack-rat tendencies are inherited :)

I then measure out a piece of cardstock to fit the envelope.

I try to maximize any piece of cardstock I use to reduce waste. (I also want to have as much space to work with as possible.)

I scored along the centre fold with the tip of an empty mechanical pencil. When you are using cardstock, scoring is an important technique to make sure that your fold is as accurate as possible. 

The sheet was then cut down to size. 

I folded along the scored centre line. For thick card, I recommend wetting the score line slightly so that the paper does not fray or crack when folded. Use only the tiniest bit of water though - you don't want your paper to warp.

I used a Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly punch to create ombre pink butterflies from paint chips.

1 paint chip = 17 butterflies :)

Out came the Sizzix! I punched out some trendy letters with one of my many letter dies set. This machine was such a bargain! 

I positioned all of the elements onto the cardstock and then sketched in the rest of my design. I borrowed the image from one of the sticker packs I bought from Dollarama.

With everything glued down and my doodle drawn in black fine liner, here is the final result!

I actually made this card a few weeks ago and it has been proudly sitting in my display case for the last little while. The choice of pink was deliberate since my sister has already purchased a cute pink jacket for the baby. So far, all our baby shower gifts have been accompanied by a coordinating card and I really didn't want to break that trend.

Of course, I need to add my signature.

I liked the design so much and it was so quick and easy to make that I threw together a purple version as well.

I used a smaller paintchip which is why there aren't as many butterflies. 

I have another friend who is now pregnant (it's like an epidemic :P) but she wants the sex of the baby to be a surprise. I guess my next card is just going to have to say "It's a Baby!" :)

Do you want to build a snowman?

Meet Johann!

"Do you want to build a snowman? Come on, let's go and play!"

If you don't recognize those words, you have clearly been hibernating. (It's from Frozen, by the way.) My aunt asked me why I didn't name him Olaf and that's because he looks nothing like Olaf! Instead, my sister named him Johann - we're going for a German feel.

His head and body was made from some off-white/grey scrap paper that I found eons ago. I had assembled the bulk of him a while back but had never gotten around to putting on features. I had originally thought of making him a mouse or bear but then ran out of paper for a snout. He has been sitting on my shelf, featureless and collecting dust for over a year now. I finally gathered enough motivation to put him together last month. His hat was by far the most challenging. That messy collection of paper strips is held together by glue and hope.

I was pleasantly surprised by how absolutely adorable he is. I debated for the longest time whether I should give him arms because he looked rather cute without them. I posed the question to my brother on whim and he replied, "Not all snowmen have arms. Maybe he lost them in a snowstorm accident." That's right. Johann, my paraplegic snowman. As you can see, in the end, I decided an amputee snowman was too avant-garde and stuck on a pair of arms. His upraised hands give him a bit more joie de vivre [I'm just full of French phrases this week :)]

Now compare him to this work of art:

The fifteenth member of our Career Group retreat proudly looking out to the lake behind our cottage. :)

Okay, maybe this guy doesn't quite have Johann's bright dewy eyes but I will admit, there were a lot more laughs in making him (or her. To be honest, I'm not sure what he/she is...).

Don't you just want to build a snowman? :)

Fuji Paper Apple

I've been meaning to make more paper fruit to accompany my 3D origami Granny Smith from two years ago. I have so many 3D origami modules which haven't been assembled yet, collecting dust in my craft cupboard. This is why, while watching TV the other day, I decided to finally just throw something together.

Simple, quick and could be done with my attention divided between a TV drama and my hands. 

Rick Rack Scarf

I love knitting scarves. I really don't need another one, but scarves are my go-to project whenever I want to make something relatively simple and portable. They're also great for using up the yarn stash, which is currently overflowing from the closet despite my best efforts to reorganize it. 

The pattern I used is the Rick Rack Scarf from Purl Bee. I fell in love with the stitch pattern when I first saw it. It's only two rows to memorize and knits up relatively quickly. It also looks good on both sides (very important for a scarf). 

I used two skeins of Red Heart Soft Touch yarn. It's really thick and cozy. 

Here's more close-ups of the amazing stitch pattern:

Throw-Back Thursday: My First Sweater Vest

The lighting was really nice over the weekend, so we finally got around to taking pictures of some of my old knitting projects. 

My first sweater, a cropped yellow cardigan has since been unravelled because I didn't like it and never wore it. This vest was my second sweater project and much more of a success. I'm really happy with how it turned out and I've worn it several times since knitting it. 

I used the ever popular Heather Hoodie Pattern from the Fall 2009 issue of Knitscene. My yarn was thinner than what was called for in the pattern, so I compensated by using the directions for one of the medium sizes. I also didn't have enough yarn for a hood so I made a crewneck collar instead. In retrospect, this was probably a better idea anyway, since if I'm honest with myself, I never actually use the hoods on my hoodies anyway. 

Please excuse the way the collar is puckering. It usually sits flatter. 

The yarn I used came from my mom's yarn stash. She had bought it about twenty years ago. My grandmother had picked it out for a vest at the time. (I guess yarn-hoarding runs in the family) It's a really interesting grey. The yarn itself is a light grey, but it's also threaded through with white and these flecks of different colours. I haven't seen any yarn that's similar to it. 

This vest was finished probably about two years ago, but it's held up really well - no pilling or holes or anything. It looks the same as it did fresh off the needles. 

DNA Fingerless Mitts

These were made for my sister, who loves both fingerless mitts and genetics. They were a challenge because it was the first time I had knit with such extensive modifications of patterns. 

The DNA helix came from ChemKnits DNA Helix Kindle Cover. I loved how the chart had mirrored double helices, which ended up working really well for the left and right mitts.

I wanted the arms to be more fitted so the shaping is loosely based on the CanCans Fingerless Mitts by Erica Lomax.

Overall I think they turned out fairly well. The yarn is a cotton-silk blend, so really soft. It's not all that hard-wearing though, as unfortunately after a few months, these are already looking rather worn. At least we managed to take these pictures while they were still in their prime. 

[Linky parties this post has joined: Friday Finds Link Party!]

Ten Thousand Paper Wishes

Last year, I thought of doing a feature chronicling the creation of a vast collection of origami stars. It would span several posts as I gradually added more and more stars made of different patterned papers and materials. It needed a catchy number so I thought that "One Million Wishes" had a grand ring to it. Then my rational, analytic mind kicked in: just how long would it take to fold one million origami stars? Therefore, I did a little math. Assuming that it takes about one minute to fold a star (it doesn't really but I decided to give myself a little leeway in terms of time) and I spent about one hour per day folding stars, then it would take me 45.6 years to finish - WHOA! That was definitely not happening. Then I thought, 'Am I really going to count all the stars that I make?'. The answer is no but that's still no excuse for faulty advertisement ;).

So as much as one million is a sexy number, I have decided to lower it to a less sexy but far more manageable number: 10,000. Doing the same calculation, this could be achieved in 5 and a half months. Shall we begin?

Origami stars are my fall-back craft. Even though they don't serve any useful function (although, come it think of it, pretty much most of what I make falls under this category) they are fun, quick and almost meditative as you get into a rhythm of folding them. Whenever I browse through Chinese/Japanese novelty shops, I am always tempted to get more star folding strips. Anyone with an internet connection and a colour printer however, will find that there are hundreds of free patterns to be found on deviantart, pinterest, tumblr, etc. I came across this one on deviantart. It's by CandidCandy and you can find the printable sheet here. They would be great as baby shower decorations - provided that there are no children around (definite choking hazard unfortunately).

I am still on the hunt for interesting jars to display my stars in. I will probably be combing through garage sales come summer :)

[Linky Parties this post has joined: Friday Finds Link Party!]

My Top 5 Pinterest To Dos

I pin...a lot. Most of the stuff I pin, however, is just for inspiration or just for admiring. There are a few pins though that I actually plan on trying - eventually. The road from dreaming to reality can be a long one even for crafting. So, in order of intentions, here are my top 5 Pinterest to dos: (click on any of the pictures to get to the original website)

1)

It was the caption on this pin that really caught my attention. I have lived in a total of three different houses and I have the keys for all of them currently collecting dust in some drawer. They are a bit too heavy to scrapbook but I think this would be a really neat wall hanging if I had a map of the neighbourhoods behind each key along with a picture of the house. It could be a timeline-like display.

2)

I am such a pack rat and among my many collections are ticket stubs (and accompanying programs for theatre performances). This would be such a cute way of storing all my ticket stubs and displaying them. I could have an attached rack for holding all my programs as well. 

3) 

Remember shrinky-dinks? I do...vaguely. I never made any as a kid but I always did find them neat. When I came across this on Pinterest, I really wanted to try it and I spent several weeks examining every plastic box we had trying to find number 6 plastic. I've finally got one :) Now, I just have to wait until summer so that I can take my toaster oven outside - I'm not keen on having the smell of melting plastic permeating my house.

4) 

I completely forgot about this pin this Christmas. *sigh* I really want to try it for myself and attempt to take these types of pictures. I guess I'll have to wait for next year. There are some really neat examples on the internet. I think they would make fantastic pictures for Christmas cards.

5) 

I saw a paper ball garland made from paint chips on Etsy a while back and thought that it would be a fun way to use some of those paint chips and other paper scraps I have lying around.

If you check out my Pinterest boards, you will notice that there are a lot of other projects on there (and more are being added all the time!). So many crafts, so little time. Do you have any crafts that are on your to do list? Care to share? :)