Origami Bird

You often see these at weddings and parties hanging from the trees... now here you can make your own origami birdies.  They are the most impressive when made in "bulk" the more the prettier.

You need to start off with a square piece of paper.  I'll explain in a step by step fashion so that it is easy to follow!

Step 1: Fold the square in half corner to corner to form a triangle.

Step 2: Fold the triangle in half, corner to corner, to form a smaller triangle.

Step 3: With the triangle lying in front of you with the point away from you and the flat side towards you, open up the top part of the triangle, and fold the inside of the right corner to the inside of the left corner.

Step 4: You should have a shape that looks like a square with a triangle to it.

Step 5: Turn over with the long flat side towards you, and the triangle point to your left.  Repeat step 3. 

When folding it over bring the left inside over to the right bottom inside.

Step 6: You end with a square. Place the square in front of you with the "open side" towards you.

Step 7: {Step 7 and 8 are just to give you lines to fold it on in step 9, but you need those lines to fold it} Fold  the left and right corners towards each other as in picture below.

 Step 8: Fold the top corner down as in picture below

{Then open the folding of steps 7 and 8}

Step 9: Open the bottom top piece only and fold the paper on the creases you have made with the previous 2 steps. You with end with a kite like shape on the top.

Step 10: Turn the paper around and repeat steps 7 to 9

{Ending with a kite shape}

Step 11: With the kite shape lying in front of you with the sharp corners to the sides.  Fold the top part of the end that points towards you, and fold it open away from you. You will see now the end pointing away from you has 3 layers and the end towards you only one.

Step 12: Turn it over with the 3 layers pointing towards you.  Then again fold the top one up, away from you. You will see that the right side will show two points as in picture below.

Step 13: Fold in half folding the left sharp point over to the right, where the two split points are.

Step 14: Turn over and repeat.

{To end with a triangle}

Step 15: Open up the two outside layers and pull the two split points out, till were you feel is enough {see picture below} and crease the paper so that they will stay there.

Step 16: Divide the point on the one side and inside fold it to form the head.

Step 17: Hold at the front of the bird {you need to hold the bottom of the wing} and put the wing down  until it stays there to make a rounding the wing.

And there you have your basic bird... if you want to play with it you can pull on the tail and the wings should go up and down :-) but to hang it...

Step 18: Thread some embroidery cotton from the bottom through the top angle of the bird {make a knot in the thread to keep the bird there, and cut just under the knot} you can put a lot of them on one thread and just make a knot to secure them at the different levels.

Hang in a tree and enjoy!

Balloon dipped

This is such a brilliant idea... get your dipped look but not having the mess of paint that's running and not even.  I got this idea from Brit+Co where they "dipped" mason jars.  I think this is great to bring colour to a party. And the best part is you can remove the balloon in a jiffy and use the container for something else!

What you need:
Balloons
Glass jars or bottels
Scissors

1.  Cut off the narrow part of the balloon off, then just the point of the "fat" side of the balloon

2. Pull over the bottom of the bottle or jar and up the sides so that it is neat
3. There you have your dipped bottles

You can put in some flowers, straws... anything you can think of.  What a super way to put colour to a table or on your shelf in the kitchen/office.

Advent calendar

It's 6 November and all the shops are filled with Christmas goodies. I can't believe the year is already coming to an end.  So we probably have to start with our Christmas decorations and advent calendars before it's too late.

I have made a cute advent calendar that is so easy to make and it looks beautiful to hang on the fireplace, or to use the natural twine against a wall and hang them all on there.

I love making advent calendars it's such a special build up to Christmas of loved ones.  I put in a little verse or write something special in each day's parcel with a chocolate. 

FYI

An advent calendar is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas.  The days often overlap with the Christian season of Advent.  Despite the name, most commercially available Advent calendars begin on December 1, regardless of when advent begins, which can be as early as November 27 and as late as December 3.  Usually there are 24, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day.  One is opened every day leading up to Christmas.  The  calendar can reveal an image, poem a portion of a story (such as the story of the Nativity of Jesus) or a small gift, such as a toy or a chocolate item.  Some calendars are strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content.  wikepedia.com

For this calendar I used 

24 white paper bags

10 m Natural Twine

300g Air dry clay

Number stamps

a star cookie cutter

Kebab skewer

Rolling pin

Firstly I rolled out the air dry clay so that it is about 2 mm thick.  I then stamped the number on the clay and cut it out with the star cookie cutter.  For the hole to thread the twine through I used a skewer.

Wait at least 24 hours for the clay to dry before threading the stars.

Then you can put your card or chocolate or what ever you wish in the bag, fold it in four and wrap it with the natural twine.  Then thread the start through.  

Remember to keep the one piece of the twine long enough to hang it up with.

Enjoy making these for special people in your life.  

Stamp making {foam}

To make a DIY stamp, there are various ways that you can do it.  The cheapest and easiest one is probably to make the  foam stamp.  The other methods is making a stamp out of rubber {like an eraser} but your stamp can't be too big and Linoleum {where you will need cutters and various equipment} but the linoleum is probably the best for a longterm stamp and the closest to a "real stamp".

But today I made a foam stamp.

What you need:
Sheet of Foam
Cold glue
Wood block

Firstly, use your pencil and lightly {don't push too hard} draw your image or word on the foam.

Then using a sharp scissors cut on the outside line of the writing and image that you drew and remove the inside parts if for instance a round circle with a whole in the middle.

Now you need to stick the foam to the wood block. Spreading the glue evenly on the wood block.

Stick it with the side that you drew on down on the block {When you stamp writing needs to be stuck on the block backwards - just if you forgot about this}

Wait for it to dry.

Now you can start stamping.  If you don't have a stamping pad or you don't have the colour you want to stamp with these stamps you can even use craft paint.

Evenly spread craft pain with a sponge brush over the image, not to thick.

Then stamp.

I made this one for a candy table for a wedding.