Silver and Blue Kusudama

Last December I shared with you my Cream and Gold Kusudama, mentioning I had another one in the works... Well, I did in fact get it finished before Christmas was over, but never had a chance to photograph or blog it. So, here we are!

It's been nearly a year since I made it, so I don't exactly have much to say about it, although wrapped in bubblewrap it has held up just fine in storage. I used the same tutorials as last time, the details of which are in the post linked above. I really love the intricacy of these decorations, though the amount of effort involved is currently ensuring I do not start another one!

[The blog is a bit quiet at the moment due to personal reasons. But I have a huge selection of inspiration for Christmas decorations in my Christmas tag!]

Cream and Gold Kusudama

This marvelous ball of flowers made from folded paper is called a Kusudama. I am not at all knowledgeable about it, but it is beautiful! It is relatively simple to make, though quite time consuming - that tends to be the way with origami! The tutorial I originally followed was on a site called Folding Trees, however this appears to have been replaced by a new site, PlanetJune. The basic petal/flower tutorial is still available here, but a donation is now required to view the full instructions. I suspect a Google about how to assemble an origami kusudama could help you find your way :)

I made this kusudama with half cream flowers and half gold flowers. because my gold paper was single sided, and thus had white edges, I applied gold ink to the centre folds for more colour and sparkle. I hung the kusudama using organza ribbon and some lovely complimentary beads from my stash. If you're wondering about adhesives, I used pritt stick to form the petals, double sided sticky tapes to form the flowers, and then my glue gun for final assembly. Despite it being a rather larger task than I anticipated, I already have another one in the works! Here it is on the Christmas tree:

Paper City [Made by Joel]

The website Made by Joel has a great collection of craft ideas for kids of different ages, including lots of free printables. When I saw some of these printable images I knew they would a great Birthday present for my 6 year old nephew - a quiet time colouring activity but with the goal that they'd make a great background for his trains and cars!

I combined the following printables to make a complete set for him to enjoy: Paper City & People, Vehicles, Helicopter and Landing Pad and Road Trip. I cut them all out and gathered them together in a box I decorated so that all he has to do is colour and play!

If you have children in your life (or like me just enjoy colouring!) I really recommend you check out Made by Joel's website :)

Ahoy me hearties!

A pirate card for my 5 year old nephew. Although, I nearly ended up framing it and putting it on our bedroom wall I love it so much! The pirate design is based on an image from a Crayola sticker set I had as a child. Nowadays with Google, one can find any simple line drawing and transform it into a 3D work of paper art!

Christmas Banner

You may remember earlier this year I made a series of Happy Birthday banners? Well while I was at it, I also made this Christmas banner! It was lovely to pick out an assortment of wintery colours and textures of paper and card - some shimmery, shiny, sparkley, mottled and textured...  Basically what my winter wonderland is filled with :) I was tempted to do another in red and green, and I still might, but not quite yet...

Birthday Banners

Every time a birthday arrives in our house, I realise we don't own any Happy Birthday banners. I had no interest in buying them when I knew I could make ones unique to us, but every birthday seemed to arrive without any banners actually being made! So, when my birthday was over this year, I got stuck in to it! Two for me, two for the Mr, and one for Christmas (which I'll share later this year!)

Making these was actually so much easier than I expected. My normal white card won't feed through my printer, so I'm used to printing on to paper, and then having to transfer to card, which is a whole extra stage! But, I recently picked up a lighter weight card, and it feeds through! So I was able to simply print the lettering backwards on to the card, stick the card to my decorative papers (or paint the card, in one instance), and cut the letters out.

And, not only did I get to use some of my beautiful second hand wrapping paper selection, but I got to get my paints out too :)

Inspire: The Fairy-Tale Princess

For me, I never know when inspiration will strike. Where I will be, or what I will be doing. Whilst waiting for my husband in a shop this week, I picked up this book, and fell in love with the imagery.

Can you imagine how long it will have taken to illustrate a book full of fairy tales by creating these models? Amazing.

And just look at the detail! It feels so whimsical and textural. So delicate yet structrual.

I love the strongly coloured backdrops, they help to bring it to life. I also like the glimpses of colouring within the sculptures, such as pieces of clothing highlighted.

I think this is a project I will save for when I have children. Pick a fairy tale and at least recreate one scene, bring the story to life for them. Although, I could also see it working with Star Wars for my husband!

You can see more of Su Blackwell's stunning artwork on her website.