Kirigami Craft Book Giveaway

I haven't had a giveaway for a while so I thought I would host one to ring in the new year.  I actually have two things up for grabs, the Kirigami book pictured above and a pair of tabi socks.  I purchased both the items at Daiso, my favorite store.

Pictured above are some of the kirigami projects from the book.  It comes with templates printed on the paper so you know exactly where to cut. 

And here are the tabi socks.  I liked that they had kokeshi dolls on them.  Tabi socks are designed to be worn with sandals; that's why the toes look a little funny.  I actually bought a pair for myself too.

On to the Giveaway. . .one  lucky reader will win Kirigami-Chic Japanese Patterns and a pair of tabi socks. To enter, please share if you've ever seen tabi socks before or if you wear them. One entry per household. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you win. The last day to enter the contest is Sunday, January 6  2013. I'll announce the winner Monday, January 7 2013 on this post. If I do not hear back from the winner after two weeks, I will choose a new winner. Open to everyone.  International friends welcome :)

Contest Closed

Congratulations to Melissa who is the winner of the tabi socks and book!

As always, thank to everyone who participated.  I loved reading all your comments!

Printables to Ring in The New Year

Photo Credit: Lisa Storms

Are you ready to ring in the New Year?   If not, here's a list of printables to help you get started with your party planning. 

Printable Numbers by Lisa Storms on Basic Grey

Banner, Drink Flags and Champagne labels by Paper Muse Press

Photo Props by Oh Happy Day

Party Hats by Merriment Design 

DIY Oversized Sequins

I hope you don't mind, I'm re-posting this craft from last year.  I haven't been making much in the last week.  Instead I've been eating way too much, hanging out with family, playing games and just enjoying the winter break.

Last year's post below. 

When I think of New Year's Eve, images of glitter, disco balls, and sparkly dresses come to mind. Playing on that theme, I decided to make some oversized sequins to hang from the ceiling. I also made a few smaller ones to decorate the table. If you're still looking for some last minute ideas, these might be fun to make. They're pretty quick and easy to create too.

Supplies:
Metallic cardstock - I got mine at Paper Source. You could also use wrapping paper. If possible look for double sided metallic paper.
Scissors
Scoring tool - bone folder, popsicle stick, etc.
Ruler
Exacto knife

Cut out a circle (any size you want). If your paper isn't double sided, cut out two circles and glue wrong sides together. Let dry.

Find center of circle and cut a small hole in it using your exacto knife.

Place ruler in the center of the circle, crossing the hole you just made. With scoring tool, make two lines, one at the top and one at the bottom (refer to picture below). Turn ruler to a 60 degree angle from first line and make two more lines. Do this until there are six scoring lines on your circle (refer to picture).


Using the ruler as a guide, score the purple lines in the center of the circle to make a hexagon.

Now you will make creases on all the lines you just scored. Start with all the lines on the outer edge of the circle. Next fold each section up until the circle looks like a sequin. This might take a little finessing to get it just right. Your sequins should look something like the one in the picture above.

Here are some smaller sequins I made to decorate the table.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

With Love,

The Okui Family

DIY Tissue Paper Garland

The other day my daughter asked me how to make paper chain people.  It brought me back to when I was a child, curious how paper chains were made.  As a kid, the whole process seemed very mysterious.  Keeping that in mind, I decided to create a paper chain garland that would be simple for a child to make.  Since it's close to Christmas, we made gingerbread tissue paper garland. We used tissue paper instead of regular paper for a couple reasons.  One, it's easier to cut through than standard paper.  And two, since tissue paper is longer, you can make longer chains.

Supplies:
Tissue Paper
Cookie Cutters - Choose your shape
Pencil
Scissors

First thing you will need to do is fold your tissue paper.  Start with a strip of paper slightly taller than the height of your cookie cutter.  Fold tissue paper in half (refer to fig. 1).  Continue to do this until you get the desired width.  The more times you fold, the more images you will get.

Place your cookie cutter over the tissue and trace the outside with a pencil.  It's important that the cookie cutter overlaps on both sides of the tissue paper.  The two white lines drawn on the folds is where the trees will connect.

Cut out the tree making sure not to cut on the folds highlighted with white lines in the step above.

Unfold carefully and admire your pretty garland.

*Tip - You can iron tissue paper.  Just make sure that the iron is on a low setting and you keep it moving.  I ironed the tissue paper so it was nice and crisp before I made these.

Recipe: Spicy Chocolate Ginger Guys

Baking gadgets just keep getting better and better.  Last week I was at World Market and discovered a cookie cutter designed to make a cookie that hangs off a cup.  Clever right?  Well for $1.29, I couldn't pass it up.   Of course, I had to test it out right away to make sure it actually worked.  It had nothing to do with eating lots and lots of cookies.

And it just so happened that I also had a new recipe to test out, Spicy Chocolate Ginger Guys.  It was sent to me by Andrews McMeel Publishing to promote one of their newest cook books, The Daily Cookie by Anna Ginsberg.  I liked the recipe so much, I asked Andrews McMeel Publishing if I could share the recipe with all of you and they were kind to say yes. Recipe below.

Spicy Chocolate Ginger Guys

The Daily Cookie: 365 Tempting Treats for the Sweetest Year of Your Life

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup hot coffee

8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup mild molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3 3/4 cupps all -purpose flour

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center.  Line two baking sheets with nonstick foil or parchment paper. 

2.  Dissolve the baking soda in the coffee and set aside.

3.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy.  Beat in the salt, egg, molasses, and vanilla.  Add the cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg and stir until mixed.  By hand or using the lowest speed of the mixer, stir in the flour alternately with the coffee mixture.

4.  Roll out the dough about 3/8 inch thick on a floured surface.  Cut out gingerbread men and arrange them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the guys appear set.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. 

* I refrigerated the cookie dough before I made it.  The recipe does not state to do this but my dough was a little soft.  It's possible I mixed it a little too long. 

This cookie is slightly sweet, as you might have guessed since it only calls for 1/2 cup of sugar.  This cookie would be perfect for a Christmas tea.  It also goes well with eggnog (pictured above).

Part 3: Knit Wrapping

To be honest, there wasn't supposed to be a "Part 3 Knit Wrapping" but when I stumbled upon these Ugly Sweater Christmas tags, I had to share.  They fit perfectly with my Christmas wrapping theme this year.  Love VS Design created these not so ugly gift tags for all to enjoy.  You can get the free download on the Love VS Design blog.  The ugly Christmas sweater gift tags come in two other cute designs.

Closeup of the not so ugly "Ugly Christmas Sweater"

A Christmas Card with A Surprise

 Photo Credit: The Witchcraft

The other day I was just clicking link to link, looking for new sites.  Ever do that?   Usually it ends up being a big time waster but that day I made a wonderful discovery.  I found the The Witchcraft blog which I promise you has nothing to do with witchcraft and everything to do with lovely, lovely crafts.  One of my favorite projects on the site was this Christmas card.  One of the first things I thought while I was looking at this was, "what happens when you pull the string".  Want to see?  Scroll down.

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 Photo Credit: The Witchcraft

Ta-da! What happens is you get the cutest little paper Christmas tree.  There are even directions on the site how to make this ornament.  Click here for the full tutorial on The Witchcraft.

Happy Friday everyone!

Play with Your Soap

 

 Photo Credit: Lush

A couple weeks ago I was at our mall checking out the new Lush store.  I wanted to check out the shower jellies  but came across something much more interesting, FUN soap.  It's soap with the consistency of playdough and you can actually make stuff with it.  Once you're done creating, you can use it to wash up.  It can be used as soap, bubble bath and even shampoo.  

 Photo Credit: Lush

Originally, I purchased a roll of the soap as a gift.  But as it sat in my room, I began to get more and more curious about it.  I started to justify why I should open it:

1.  I can always buy another tube to replace the gift, right?

2.  It's practical, it's soap, we would use it everyday.

3.  My daughter is about to run out of shampoo, why not use this one.

4.  I could write a post about it.  Craft research?

And before I knew it, my daughter and I were creating hearts and other fun things with the soap.  I also had her use it as shampoo.  It seems to work well.  I discovered you only need a piece the size of a marble or less to wash your hair.  I only let her take about that much into the shower otherwise it will all disintegrate in the shower. We purchased the cotton candy scent and the fragrance is very strong. 

Anyhow, I thought this would make a fun gift for Christmas so I'm sharing.  Hey, that's another good reason for me opening up the soap, to help you with your holiday shopping *wink*.

Part 2: Knit Wrapping

As I shared last Monday, my Christmas gift wrap theme this year is knits.  Last week I posted about the herringbone paper and today it's all about mittens.  This little knit mitten topper is a pattern by My Mom Knits.  It's actually a pattern for an American Girl doll, but I thought it would make a cute gift topper/ornament too. The wrapping paper was purchased from Hallmark.

 

Bonus, the mitten also doubles as a gift tag holder!

Snow Globe Christmas Card

I've been playing around with the bubble wrap again.  I have an entire roll of the stuff so I'm trying to put it to good fun use. This time I'm making bubble wrap Christmas cards.  The bubble wrap is really what makes this card come to life and gives it a 3-D effect.

This snow globe card is easy and fast to make.  The template is created to make two cards.  Simple directions below.

Supplies:
Template - Click here for printable template
White Cardstock
Large Bubble Wrap - circles should be 1 inch in diameter
White Glitter
Glue
Scissors
Toothpicks
Round-edge punch - optional

1.  Print template out on cardstock.  Cut in half to make two cards.  Fold in half.

2.  Sprinkle a little glitter on the snowman.  You do not need to glue it.

3.  Cut out on bubble wrap circle.  On the flat side of the bubble run glue around the edge of the circle.

4.  Place bubble on the printed blue circle.  Run a toothpick around the edge of the bubble to secure it to the paper.

5. Clip corners of card with round-edge punch.

Tree Photo Props:  Past Kindergarten crafts made by my children

Christmas Printables by Tiny Me

Tiny Me has a new set of Christmas printables and it looks like they thought of everything.  There are gift tags, cupcake toppers, cards, garlands and more.  All you need is some spare ink. For the free download visit Tiny Me.

They also have printable Christmas crackers which I have my eye on.  I've always wanted to make these for Christmas but can never find the time.  Have you made Holiday crackers before?  What do you like to put inside them? 

Knit Wrapping

The first gift of the season is wrapped!  One down and way too many more to go. Not all of them will be topped with these cute snowman but they will all have the same theme, "knits". You see, each Christmas I like to have a theme for my gift wrap.   This year's theme was inspired by this herringbone wrapping paper created by Mara Mi   purchased at Target.

Topping the gift is a snowman standing at only 1 1/4 inches tall. The knitting pattern for this little guy is by Anna Hrachovec.  You can purchase the pattern at her site, Mochimochi Land.

Do you like to choose a theme for your Holiday gift wrap?  If so, what are you doing this year?  Please share.