Pinwheel craft by Martha Stewart 
Regretsy By April Winchell
Just for fun I decided to make some cards with Japanese masking tape. They were very easy to make. All I did was cut the tape into different shapes and applied it to the card. It's a good project if you don't have a lot of time but feel like making something. And lately, I've been feeling like there's not enough time.
This card was supposed to be a little girl wearing a birthday hat. However, when I look at it, all I see is an elf. What do you think, birthday girl or elf?
You know those cute little Japanese food erasers? Well now there are kits you can buy to make them. I purchased a set from JBox when I ordered the paperclay. I figured if I was going to be spending a lot on shipping, I might as well buy a few things to make it worth while. The eraser kits were something I had never seen before so I decided to test them out. Below I share how I made the erasers.
Here's the eraser kit I used. There's all different kinds of sets such as doughnuts, fast-food and cakes.
Here's what the eraser clay and molds look like. What's the nice about the molds is that they can be used for other things such as paperclay.
Knead the eraser clay and place it in the molds. Open it back up and clean the edges of any excess clay.
Take erasers out of mold. Microwave them in water for about five minutes (kit comes with a special box for that). Transfer to cool water. Once cooled off, pat dry. 
Assemble your erasers for the perfect dish of sushi.
Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini
Last weekend my daughter was invited to a birthday party so I decided to knit up some cupcakes for the present. Unfortunately with that nasty flu I had last week, I only managed to knit up one. Which is probably for the better anyways because as soon as my daughter saw the cupcake she claimed it as her own. In fact, when I was knitting the cupcake liner, the cupcake mysteriously disappeared along with my bag of poly-fil (later to be found in her play kitchen). I don't know what she was doing with the poly-fil but it was everywhere. It looked like a blanket of clouds touched down in her play area. And, I'm still missing a knitting needle!
You may recall a couple years ago there were photos floating around the internet of Hello Kitty bouquets. About a week ago I stumbled upon one and was curious if the bouquets were available for sale anywhere. To my dismay I couldn't find anyone selling the flowers so I decided to make one of my own. It was surprisingly easy to make so I'm sharing the process with all of you.
Tightly bind 4 carnations together with some floral tape. You want it too look like one giant carnation so try to avoid any gaps.
Wrap wire around the back of all three buttons (refer to picture). The wire tail should be about 2 1/2".
Place button wires into the flowers to create the face (make sure they're secure). You might need to trim the wire a little so your buttons sit flat on top of the flowers. I also recommend looking at a Hello Kitty image to get the nose and eye spacing correct.
Tie a traditional red bow and trim off tales. Attach a floral wire to bow. Cut two rounded triangles from the white foam for ears. You'll want the ears to be slightly bigger opposed to proportionate. Glue one of the ears on the back of the bow. Tape the other ear to the floral wire. The wire should be 6" in length.
Situate ears at the top of the bouquet. You will need to bend the ears back about 90 degrees. The flowers should cover part of the foam ears (this is why we made them larger). With floral tape, wrap wire and stems to secure in place.
Last are the whiskers. Cut 6 thin strips of black card stock measuring 2" in length. Pin three strips to each side of the face inside the flowers using straight pins. You now have a Hello Kitty Bouquet. For more color surround it with other flowers or wrap it in cellophane and tissue paper.
I hope you guys don't mind but I'm going to re-post one of my older crafts from when I first started blogging. I'm currently fighting a horrible flu and just don't have the energy to be crafting/writing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I'll be back to normal my Monday.
Here's one of the rice bags I used. This is a plastic rice bag. The fabric ones are hard to find. Cut all around the edges of the bag to get two pieces per bag. Choose the the two best looking pieces and cut them to 17" x 11 3/4".
Hem the top of both large pieces of plastic. This will be the top of your bag.
For the handles cut two strips of the rice bag to 16 1/2" by 3". Fold in half , wrong sides together, sew down the length of the strip.
Center handle to wrong side of bag and pin in place. Top stitch a box with an x to secure the handle. Refer to picture above. Do this for both handles.
Pin right sides of bag together. Stitch all around the edge of bag (refer to picture). Trim excess plastic. Mainly the bottom angled corners. Turn right side out. done
When I saw these little mini sticky notes, I knew they would be perfect for a giveaway so I bought them. There's ten of each little bear which is about the size of a quarter.
One of my readers, Renata, sent me this cute package with a letter from her trip to Tokyo. It was so cute, that I wanted to share it with you. Don't you just love that little stamped doily she added to the package? And she also added a dried sakura from her travels to Tokyo. I just thought everything about the letter was so thoughtful and creative. Renata's site, Coisa Pakka, is just as lovely as the package above . It's in Portuguese but you can use Google Translate to read it.
Happy Boy's Day everyone! In honor of the Japanese holiday I decided to make some miniature boy's day kites to hang from a pencil. They're super simple to make and require just a few materials.
Right click, copy, save, and print out fish on basic white printer paper. Fishes should be about one and half inches in length. Cut out fishes.
Place double stick tape (or glue) on the back of each fish. Place string on top of tape. Place matching fish on top of string.
Place thumb tack half way into the pencil eraser. Tie all fishes to the tack. Trim loose ends.
Push tack all the way down. You now have a miniature Boy's Day Fish Kite on a pole (pencil).
Anyone else celebrating Boy's Day?
Ever since I discovered Japanese paper clay molds, I've been dying to test them out. I've worked with paper clay before and really liked it. It's got a great texture, it's light, you can stamp it, paint it, and it air dries. So, I was excited to test out the paper clay on the miniature food molds. Below I share how to make miniature food with the clay molds.
I purchased this Mouse-Chan Fuwa Fuwa paper clay set for $16.80 at JBOX to make the miniature food. It came with clay along with a mold to make all the food you see in the picture above.
Rub a little vegetable oil with a cloth onto your mold. Add Paper clay. Close up mold.
Open mold. Carefully pop out clay by gently pressing the mold. A toothpick is helpful to get the clay out as well.
Assemble all your pieces. I recommend gluing everything together because the clay is so fragile. Let dry overnight. Done.
The diameter of this macaroon is a little larger than a quarter.
