Extraordinary picture frame

Helo there, I'm still here! Here is one more easy craft for kids. Probably from now on I'll be posting more adult crafts as my situation has changed and at the moment I don't work with kids. But still some ideas left, so here we go! 

Here is my Tekila's photo framed in extraordinary frame we made with kids during last summer. All you need is : some colored tissue paper, carton (old box is perfect), glue and a stick or a straw.

Cut the shape of the frame - its just a rectangle (it might also be a square - as you wish ) with  cutted rectangle in the middle. (This one might be dificult to do for the kids the slves. Strong adult hand requiered).

Bit by bit put some glue on a carton and start sticking bits of colored tissue paper (you cut paper to small pieces, not neciserely very even). The trick is that for sticking we use a staw: put straw in the middle of the paper, wrap it a bit and stick. Only the center of the piece of tissue paper is glued, all sides are sort of sticking out. Which is good. Try to put paper as close to each other as posible, so carton could be seen. 

Good luck!!!!

Quilled angel

I'm not a professional of quilling, I don't use any special tools or special paper. Just recycling and quilling by hands.(More about experimental quilling with kids here and here) That's why it would be hard for me to give any step by step instructions because all of my quilled works are result of experimenting.

Here is a guardian angel I made for my friend in winter time. A few weeks ago I made another one. Although I'm not very keen on repeating myself.  The second time I think I did a bit better, don't you think?

Also finally I made a quilled sheep. Had this plan for ages because seems to me quilling technique is just perfect for making these cute animals in a clover meadow. As usual: no instructions, no rules. Just would like to encourage everyone for experimenting!

Crazy peg faces

As they say in Cyprus: "Long time no see" :)  But it doesn't mean we were on holiday. Many new ideas for crafts just waiting to be written. Let me start from very simple craft for kids we made today.

 

I got some old pegs to throw away what I, of course, didn't do. Instead we came up with this craft idea to stick some crazy faces made from color card.

Simple and really fun. All you need is some color paper and glue and - as always - imagination! We made a whole family. You can use these fun pegs to separate your glass in a crowded birthday party or to put it on a flowerpot so your cactus wouldn't feel lonely :)

Kanzashi flowers

It's sure been a while. But finally here it is - all the tricks I've learned making a kanzashi flowers.

First of all you need to find some fabric for making a flower. Also later you going to use needles, matching color strong string, some beads and chucks or anything you want your flower on. One more thing we going to use for making our life easier - simple gelatin. Yes that's right. You can find some no flavour gelatin in any shop I believe.

I used gelatin to make fabric more like paper. And in worked like magic. I read before that for the same purpose starch was being used but to tell you the truth I was a bit afraid that it might leave some white spots on my black fabric. So here is step by step instruction.

•  Gelatin you melt in some warm water (read an instruction on the package and use just a bit less water then it says). Take your fabric (I cut some old clothes, as long as material is nice you can do the same.) put it into gelatin water and nicely place it on a table. You have to do this really carefully as you want fabric to dry really flat. You might have to wait 6 hours or even more.

•  After fabric is dry it's feels like a proper paper so it's really easy to cut it into squares. I used some dry soap to draw the lines so I could cut as straight as possible.

• After you have the squares you start making the petals. How big they are, how many petals you going to use and other things absolutely belong on you. Just try to make some flowers and find your own way. Here you can see simple photo instruction how to fold the petal. The rest - experimenting!!!!!

I don't use glue at all for making these. I stitch the petals, sew them together, put bread on the centre and also stitch it on a safety pin in order to make a brooch. NB!!! All the time use a thimble in order to avoid accidents. Even if you think it's easy to thread the needle into petal remember you have quite a few layers of fabric and it might be not easy at all. Safety first! 

This and that

It's been a while since I posted something. Still problems with internet. Oh, well. It's Cyprus! But it doesn't mean I stop playing with paper and stuff. In fact have some new materials to play with, and some new ideas too. But before I want to share something I've been working lately. Just some pictures from this and that. 

The smallest traditional Japanese crane. More about it in here.

Kanzashi flower brooch. I wrote a little bit about material flowers in here. I'm stuck a little bit with making these, but I already found some good tricks how to make things easier. Like for example I actually used gelatin to make fabric more like paper, so it makes measuring,cutting and folding processes much easier. More difficult to sew thought. Anyway, I promise a full and detailed post after I finally finish experimenting. 

One more bird - sort of peacock - for 3D origami family. I saw the instruction somewhere and I'm sure it's easy to find a few versions of it on internet but to tell you the truth I was absolutely improvising. 

Oh and this thing now is on the wall in my new temporary  bedroom. Just tried to make it look more cosy. Oh well, I borrowed the words from proverb "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow" and added "feel" to it. And also butterflies. I finally managed to sit down with an amazing Michael G. La'Fosse's origami butterfly book and actually learn how to make few sorts of there creatures.

I thought it might be fun to make a dream catcher with kids. Using all these bright colour feathers and breads I have. And in between experiments I'm still making kusudamas. Here are a few: