Make Your Own Kanzashi Kits and a Birthday Sale

Over the last few days I've been very busy ironing, measuring and cutting lots of gorgeous little pieces of kimono fabric....

After many requests I've finally fulfilled my promise to put together little kits to make your own kimono kanzashi.  The tutorial has been available on my blog for a while, but the kits give you access to the little hard-to-get-your-hands-on pieces such as the kimono fabrics and special brooch backs.  You can find them over here.

My other little piece of news is that it's my birthday this weekend!  To celebrate, I'll be having a sale with 20% off everything in both my stores, here and here from Saturday until Monday AND a chance to win an additional 20% off.  I'll put the sale details and exclusive coupon code up mid-tomorrow morning, after a birthday weekend sleep-in first of course.

Free BrisAsia Workshops

Starting next week, Brisbane Brown Owls will be hosting a range of Asian-inspired craft workshops as part of the BrisAsia festival.  I'm very excited to be running two different workshops myself.

Firstly I'll be teaching how to make Japanese Tsumami "Kanzashi" style flowers using vintage kimono fabrics.

And also how to make these adorable traditional Japanese paper dolls.

Workshops are being run by a number of inspiring Brisbane artists including Liana Kabel, Rebecca Cason of Edward and Lilly fame, Gill Pyke of Catamation and Dyani Edwards of Little Deer Creations.  And even better - they are all free!

For more information on the workshops and how to book a space head over here.

Fashion Paper Dolls

Looking for something fun and different to do with the kids this weekend?  These fashion paper dolls are just adorable!

Photo from and full tutorial by Giddy Giddy.

Pinning on the Go

On Saturday, while teaching a workshop at Piece Together, one of my lovely participants was wearing a pincushion ring she had made.  It was not only really cute, but a great idea for when  crafting on the go.  I can imagine wearing one while hand stitching on long drives or at markets.

Then this morning, I stumbled upon this ring pincushion tutorial on Pinterest.  What a great use for those cute little scraps you can't bear to throw away.

Hmmm... but then, I found some adorable ones on Etsy that someone could buy for me.... hint hint for Christmas....

A really cute red barn and and an owl.... 

And this sweet little house...

Hmmm... barns and houses... can you tell that I've had our hopes to buy a little home in the country next year on my mind...?

All photos from their respective sources.

Pencil Jewellery

I love some of the pencil jewellery I've been seeing on the internet lately.  While my favourite is still the amazing work by Maria Cristina Bellucci some of the more simple pieces are also really sweet.

Recently on Pinterest, I stumbled on this pencil jewellery tutorial by Design Mom.  I really love the brooch and the pencil beads.

Photo from Design Mom

These pencil necklaces by Karolin Felix are really sweet too, I love the detail on the pencils.  She also has some simple brooches in her store.

Image taken from Beyond Beyond

Hmmm.... I think my little one had better start guarding her pencil case... I can feel some crafting coming along...

Homemade Wall Decal

I'm having a great time getting ready for Life Instyle in a couple of week's time.  I love what I do and I love the variety that my business offers, all the different hats that I get to wear, it keeps life interesting.

Over the last couple of days, I've been working on my booth design.  I will keep my signature black trees and red blossoms, but have some new additions as well.  This time I've invested in a larger space so to still keep to budget, I'm doing a few things myself.

The first one is to make the trees.  In the past I've had them custom made, but with the size I need, it's quite expensive.  So what you see below, is the one I made myself this morning.  I have to say, I'm really pleased with how it came out.

I've simply cut it out of black contact paper.  Remember the stuff you used to cover your school books with?  And granny used to line her shelves?  That stuff.  It was super easy to use, I just drew out a design, cut, joined branches to give it more width and smoothed it onto the wall.  It's removable and doesn't damage the walls (I believe, but don't quote me on that, unless you're my landlord reading this and in that case - it won't damage the walls).  And the best thing is, rather than that single tree costing me over $100, it cost me $4!

I'll leave this one in the little one's room and I'll get some different colours to add flowers, leaves and a grass trim.  It was so much fun to do, and so cheap that you could even change things around for the season....

If you're coming to Life Instyle, I'll be upstairs in the Gallery Level, booth G30 and you can see the final result in the flesh.

How To Make Japanese Paper Dolls

Last Sunday, I had a ball teaching the Brisbane Brown Owls group how to make "Ningyogami" - Japanese paper dolls. I think everyone was surpised at how easy they were to do.

What you need
* “Kimono” paper (I prefer Japanese Yuzen or chiyogami) about 5.5 x 12.5 cm
* “Obi” and “collar” paper about 1.5 cm wide, the length doesn’t matter too much. You can use different papers for the obi and collar.
* “Obi-jime” paper (again, I prefer Yuzen or chiyogami), narrower than the “Obi” paper. You can use a few different ones to layer if you like.
* “Hair” and “Fringe” paper – I use Japanese crepe, but a standard crepe paper will do.
* White card for head and body. The head circle is about 2cm in diameter, the body about 3mm wide, length isn’t too important.
* Double-sided tape (you can use glue, but I find tape is less messy).
* Sticky tape
* Scissors

1. Cut a small length of the collar paper and fold it in half to create a narrower strip. Fold this around the “body” to create a collar (actually the collar of the under kimono). Make sure that (as you’re looking down on it) the left goes under the right. This is the way a kimono is worn by all except for the deceased. Run a strip down the length so that it hangs over the edge, you will use this soon.

2. With the wrong side up, fold about 1cm of one end (if the pattern on the paper has a top and bottom, do this at the top).

3. Flip the paper over and fold about 0.5cm back over. This forms the collar of the kimono.

4. Tape the body and under-kimono collar into the middle so that just a touch of the under-kimono peeks over the top.

5. Fold the left side of the kimono over the under-kimono collar. Only press the top of this fold, not the whole length.

6. Fold the rest of the side over to create a straight edge down the kimono.

7. There may be a corner of the collar that goes further than the rest of the edge. Trim this so that it is all straight.

8. Fold the other side over. To get the angles matching at the top, I find it easier to crease from the bottom up. Crease the straight line up to the point of the slight corner on the other side and then fold in the top to match. This side doesn’t fully cover the other side. There should be a few millimeters of the first side showing. Trim anything that hangs over the side.

9. Put the piece of “obi paper” around the kimono so that it sits just below the collar and covering the angled folds in the kimono (where the angle of the collar change to the straight edge of the kimono). Tape this at the back. The long hair will cover the tape later.

10. Put a decorative piece of “obijime” over the obi. You can do a few of layers of this if you like.

11. Place a bit of the crepe paper on the head to make a fringe. It should sit about half-way down. Make sure that the grain of the crepe is running down, like hair would do. Flip the “head” over and trim off the excess. The trimming doesn’t need to be too perfect, this will get covered by the rest of the hair in the next few steps.

12. Tape the head onto the body leaving a bit of “neck” showing. I use double-sided tape, as this gets stuck to the rest of the hair in a moment.

13. Tape the back of the head onto the hair piece so that there is some space at the top.

14. Fold the hair to that it angles up to the middle (or a little past, you don’t want your doll to end up with a bald spot). I like to do a few folds to give the hair more volume.

15. Do the same on the other side and hold the top of the head.

16. Twist the top of the hair and then fold it behind the head. If using the doll to go on a card or bookmark, it is fine to just tape the twist in place on the back.

She’s finished!

Watch out, making these can get addictive.