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Valentine Scrapbooking with Washi Tape

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I have some awesome washi tapes and tags from Downtown Tape lying on my desk, so I made a scrapbook project for this upcoming Valentine’s Day. It is so fun and colorful to work with washi tape, basically, this is a fail-proof project. Even kids can do this for their parents

Working with washi tape is easy, the tape is tacky and at the same time it is adjustable. If you stick it at the wrong position, simply lift it up and stick again immediately. No trace of glue line left behind and it won’t hurt your paper as well. The colorful prints and patterns are great for decorations too.

With the template I have prepared for this project (in pdf format), just download it and print it on your plain card-stock and you are good to create a pretty pinkish Valentine’s Scrapbooking Display with the tutorial on next page.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Christmas Craft: Pom Pom Christmas Tree

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Besides the easy Styrofoam Christmas Tree Ornaments I posted a few days ago, I have got another quick and easy Christmas tree that kids can do as well: Pom Pom Christmas Tree. Too easy for you? Want an advance you may try the Kanzashi Christmas tree I have made a few years back.

This tree is approximately 5 1/2″ tall, depending on the size of the pom-poms and the stand of the tree, you can make it bigger or smaller by using different sizes of them. When choosing the pom-pom, get those which is harder and fuller, not those with long hair and soft.

Again, I hope you enjoy making some Christmas projects, click here to get more ideas of what to make for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

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Make: Christmas Tree Ornaments

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When the year is ending, I really get into the mood to DIY some Christmas projects and ornaments to decorate my house and Christmas Tree. Though my current home it is not as perfect as I want it to be but I am sure next year will be better when I am at my new home. Just can’t wait to get over the renovation, I want to move in now!

Last year, I bought a new Christmas tree, a 7′ Royal Douglas Fir, it is huge and bushy, so big until it looks empty without adding more ornaments on it. This year, I made a few mini Christmas tree to hang on it. Hopefully I will be able to add more DIY ornaments every year until I can replace all the store bought ones from the past years and proclaim the tree to be Tree Of DIY Ornaments…. dreamer syndrome attack again but I surely hope that this wish will come true one day.

The concept of making these little Christmas tree ornaments is similar to my popular tutorials – Pencil Holder and the Candy Cone Memo Holder, that is by wrapping yarn or twine around the form, follow by embellishment. Younger kids can do it with some supervisions and helps from adults and older kids should be able to handle it without fuss.

I hope you enjoy making your own Christmas ornaments to decorate you tree as much as I do.

Merry Christmas!

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Pom Pom Brooch For Mother's Day

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I always wanted to come out with something quick and easy to make for Mother’s day craft so that kids can make it for their moms too. My little pom pom chick immediately came to my mind (remember I made a basket out of them?). This time I am converting the chicks into turkeys (I make another 2 smaller white turkey chicks) by adding pipe cleaners tail and make them into a mommy-baby turkey pom pom brooch, especially for this coming Mother’s Day celebration!!! You can get the pom pom and chenille pipe cleaner from Michaels.

Now, I am done with the Mother’s Day craft, I better start thinking of Father’s Day. Getting into panic mode is not fun and I don’t want to trigger a heart attack and can’t even say bye-bye to you all… lol… just kidding! Woopsss… looks like my annual body check-up has been overdue for years, let me ring up the medical center to schedule one soon. Hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day, remember, a better life needs a good health!

Are you thinking what I am thinking after seeing the brooch? How about turning this turkey brooch into Thanksgiving Card Placeholder in November?

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How to Make Easy Pom Pom Chick

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These pom pom chicks are easy to make, even older kids can do it. Just glue up with all-purpose adhesive to the pom-poms and attach the chicks features. Be it just a basic pom pom chick for Easter decor, or, you can develop into accessories. I showed 2 examples, mobile phone charm and pencil topper. I am sure teenage kids will love to have this pom pom chick mobile phone charm and younger kids will love to bring the pencil topper to school during the Easter season.

I got the idea of making pom pom chick for Easter while shopping at a Japanese dollar shop. I stumbled upon these colorful pom-poms, packed in plastic bags and hang on the display rack, too colorful and too beautiful to resist from buying them home.

I am sure I will have more Easter crafts this year as I still have time to make them . At the mean time, view the following Easter related patterns and tutorials from the previous year:
1. Bunny Sachet
2. Mini Amigurumi Easter Eggs
3. Amigurumi Baby Chick (guest post)
4. Amigurumi Bunny Pencil Holder

For inspiration (no pattern and tutorial):
1. Painted Easter Eggs in a gift box.
2. My Melody Sling Purse

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Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, I would like to wish all my Chinese readers and visitors a very Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Ca! 新年快乐，万事如意， 龙马精神，身体健康, 恭喜发财！

During the 15 days of Chinese New Year celebration, the most common traditional event you will get to see is Lion and Dragon Dance. I can’t make those big real size dragon costumes but I found a kid craft tutorial of making a Chinese Dragon Puppet at Family Fun, hope you like it.

This year, Chinese New Year comes a little early than usual, normally it falls between end of Jan to mid of Feb. According to Chinese / Lunar Calendar, the year change to Dragon on 4th of February, the official day of Spring [立春]. Baby born after the day of spring [立春] is called dragon baby, whilst who born before 4th Feb 2012 is still a Rabbit baby.

[The Chinese dragon (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng) is the highest-ranking animal in the Chinese animal hierarchy, strongly associated at one time with the emperor and hence power and majesty (the mythical bird fenghuang was the symbol of the Chinese empress), still recognized and revered. Its origins are vague, but its "ancestors can be found on Neolithic pottery as well as Bronze Age ritual vessels."[17] Tradition has it composed of nine different animals, with nine sons, each with its own imagery and affiliations. It is the only mythological animal of the 12 animals that represent the Chinese calendar. 2012 is the Chinese year of the Water Dragon.
Source: Wikipedia]

I will be back with more crafts after this short break to celebrate Chinese New Year with friends and family. Watch out for an upcoming giveaway after I come back in a few days time.

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Remold Oil Pastel into Colorful Star

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As I cut and fill the pastels into the mold, it creates lots of waste debris on my table, very small and can hardly pick up by hand. So, I collect them and pour into one of the molds. Surprisingly, it turns into a star dust with all the colors I have used. One glide at the tip will give stripes of colors, my daughter shouted out: “Mommy, it is like a rainbow! So beautiful!”

Kids will be kids, they just like to fight over the same thing. When I remold the star pastel, I kept in mind to make sure that 2 stars must be identical in color and shape. Even with all my hard-work to try to duplicate the twin-star pastel, they still fight, sigh….. “Mom, I want that piece she is using, it has more red in it”, “Mom, not fair, my star is smaller…”, “Mom, sister used my star…”, “Mom…..” …… What can I say? Just love my kids the way they are… even sometimes they really made me steaming mad with all the mess and fights around. If you have kids like mine, welcome to my MOTHERHOOD….

Get the tutorial on how to make the Colorful Star Pastel after this:

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Halloween Candy Corn Memo Holder

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This candy corn memo holder is perfect for desk decor during the creepy October. You can make the mummy pencil holder to pair with it and they make wonderful companion on your desk while you work. Or, as a table number holder or menu holder on your dining table if you are having friends and families coming over for a Halloween dinner or party.

It isn’t hard to make and I have gotten this candy corn idea after drinking from a disposable paper cone cup of a water dispenser machine. While I was drinking, I think: “Can I do anything with this paper cone cup?” The idea struck and so I took some of the clean cone cups and put them inside my bag… shhhh… don’t tell the manager that I st*le some cups from him yay… lol… As a reward for not telling him, ahemmm, here you are, the method to make the Candy Corn Memo Holder made from a paper cone water cups.

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Rhinstone Bear Charm Keychain

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While shopping for craft materials few weeks ago, I accidentally stumbled upon some basic color polymer clays. As I shop around, I found some mini cookies cutters which is so cute that I can’t leave without buying them. What came straight to my mind was that I can make some easy keychain charm for my daughter. The keychain charm is for her water tumbler so that she can differentiate it if someone brought the same water tumbler to school.

Not only this polymer clay bear keychain charm, I made some other things with the polymer clay too. Please browse through the above photo album to view the other 4 projects.

Materials:
1. Polymer Clay (brown color)
2. Rhinestone (flat base or those used for iron-on or manicure)
3. Keychain ring or other jewelry accessories

Tools:
1. Oven [please do not use the same oven for food after it has been used for curing polymer clay]
2. Cookies cutter (Bear shaped)
3. Tweezers
4. Rod (ball pen ink cartridge)
5. Thick hard-cover book or similar
6. Metal sheet or baking tray.

Prepare and gather the materials & tools as per above list.
I used brown color polymer clay bought from a Japanese dollar store (Daiso).

Prepare your polymer clay. The polymer clay is hard and dry initially when you take out from the packaging.
When trying to bend or fold the polymer clay, it will become chappy and falling into smaller pieces.

Hold the polymer clay in your hand to warm it up a moment to soften it.
Then, used your fingers to knead it.
You will find that it is difficult to knead initially as the polymer clay keeps on cracking and falling apart. Later when it gets soften, it will be easier.
 
[Tip: You can also use AMACO Pasta Machine or its equivalent to knead polymer clay, please don't use it to make pasta after using it for polymer clay. Read manufacturer instruction if it is your first time using this machine.]

A softened and kneaded polymer clay. Not quite ready yet as you can still see some chappy holes on the right. Continue to knead a little longer.

Roll the polymer clay into a ball, round and smooth.

Use a hard-cover book or something similar to press the clay ball evenly. Flatten it to about 3/8″ thick.
Or, you can use the pasta machine if they can produce this thickness.

Position cookies cutter on the polymer clay, press to cut it out.

If your polymer clay is big enough, you can do 2 bears together. Otherwise, repeat the kneading, rolling and pressing on the balance polymer clay.

Use a hollow rod to punch a hole for the keychain ring.
I used the flat end of a used ball pen ink cartridge.

Position the rhinestones on the bear with tweezers. I used 15 rhinestones, you can decide how many to use depending on your bear size and rhinestone size.

Use the rod to press the rhinestones down so that they sink into the polymer clay.

After all the rhinestones are pressed, set it aside and wait for baking.
Preheat your oven to 210 F or follow the instruction come with the polymer clay.

Place all your polymer clay crafts onto a metal sheet or baking tray.
Cure for 30 minutes or as per instruction on the packing.

After it is baked and cured, take out from oven and let it cool to room temperature.
Install keychain ring or other jewelry accessories.
~ Done ~

This is rather a fast and easy tutorial to make mini pom-pom with your own 2 fingers, some yarns and a pair of scissors.

It started when I need some mini pom-poms urgently for a crochet craft and I was lazy to drive tenths of miles just to get to a shop that sells them. Just in case you are like me and have some stash yarns at home, you can easy make your own mini pom-pom with just 2 of your fingers. If you use the same yarn to make the mini pom-pom, it matches perfectly to your project.

Material & tool:
1. Stash yarn
2. Scissors

Wrap a significant amount of yarn onto your 2 fingers. The more yarn you wrap, the fuller the pom-pom will be. But, be moderate and don’t go beyond what your 2 upper part fingers can take.

Tie the yarns in between your 2 fingers. Tie it strongly and securely. If you need someone to help, please ask, but I can do it just with my other hand and my teeth.
Take out the yarns from your fingers, cut the loops and trim it to round shape. Trim a little at a time so that you won’t over trim it. Gauge the roundness of your mini pom-pom from all angles.

Apply this mini pom-pom to make Angry Birds crafts. Photo and tutorial from Make And Takes.