Easy Origami Valentine Heart Card Tutorial

My daughter needs to prepare 18 Valentine's day cards for all her classmates until Monday. We decided to take handmade cards to school, and we made these adorable Origami Hearts yesterday. They are really easy to make. So I think I should share the how-to with someone who needs to make the last minutes Valentine gifts.

I am going to show only pictures of process. So if you have any questions, feel free to ask in your comment or send email to me at harujiondesign{at}gmail{dot}com. I used a 15x15cm (6x6 inches) Origami paper. If you don't have Origami papers, don't worry. Cut papers whichever you have in your house in square. I like to use recycling papers like pages from old magazines. OK, let's start now.

 

Turn it 180° around.

Turn it over.

Turn it over.

Done!

I added a little more detail to my heart. I cut out another paper in a key shape and glue it in the center of the heart.

When you open the door of my heart, you will see the massage from me! It says "Be mine". How sweet is that?

We are going to print out pictures of Nina's smiley face, and put them in those colorful hearts with messages.

Happy Valentine's day!

My Dogwood Tote Bag

This is it ladies! My new Dogwood tote. I looooove it soooooo much!

I took my time for picking the fabric to combine with my sweet Dogwood flowers. I decided to use this lime green tone gingham check for the gusset and bottom. I am so glad I made a right decision. It brought a perfect look  to the bag for my spring style. The handles are ready made colored leather imported from Japan. These handles were standing by in my stash for months. Eventually I found the role for them.

On the back, There is a zip pocket with a quality YKK zipper. (I bet you got to know how much I love those zippers made in Japan ;-)

For the closure I used a set of magnetic snaps. There are two inside pockets. One of them is for my cell phone. The size is perfect for carrying my everyday stuff. There is a medium weight fleece sewn in between the outer and the lining so it feels soft and steady.

I am sure this bag will be around as my every day bag from now on. Maybe, some ladies who love sewing will stop me and ask about the bag at Joann Fabric or a local fabric store where I shop once a while. (That kind of things have happened before. Of course I liked it!) If you see a woman who has this bag, it's me! Because this bag is one of a kind. 

Please stay warm and have a nice weekend !

Mini Boston Bag for Kid

As I mentioned in the last post I am going to show the bag I made with the embroidery which is designed by my daughter Nina.

This looks like an ordinary Boston bag. But there is one uncommon feature in this bag.

That is the size. This bag is very small for a Boston bag.

 I made this for my daughter, and it was also an experimental project. I have been planning to produce a line of bags for children for my shop. I want to make something quality like grown-ups even want to have. I want children to have something well made which they can learn the goodness of hand craft. Then I thought of reducing the size of bags without losing the detail and its quality. It was  pretty hard to sew small details like a zip pocket and organize all the complicated seam allowances inside. There are some problems I need to solve yet. But I learned a lot from this project and I got some good ideas in my crafty brain.

The front fabric which has the embroidery on is a Japanese linen blend. I just love these white polka dots on baby blue and the feel of linen blend. I used a cotton velvet for a gusset and handles. And baby pink zipper for the opening. The flower looking felt piece is a little removable brooch. I made a yo-yo with wool felt and put a vintage glass button in the center.

There is a zip pocket on the back. The pocket opening measures only 4 inches but it is a decent pocket. Nina can store her valuable plastic jewelries in that safe pocket and carry them around with her.

The lining is adorable. It is a Japanese"Kawaii(cute)" type of cotton print featuring little fawn and lots of hearts. There is also a simple pocket with my shop label inside. I made it just like I always do for bags for grown-up ladies.

Here is the big smile of my recipient and co-designer. She gave me a big hug and a lot of kisses. I'm the happiest crafty Mom.

By the way, I made another bag for MYSELF with the Dogwood embroidery. This is a little sneak peek of the finished bag. I will write about it next time.

Thank you for reading. Have a great crafty dream everyone.

Experimantal Embroidery Project

I have a big pile of my daughter's drawing. Children's drawings sometimes look very rough and primitive, but there is purity and honesty in it. It is pretty much interesting to me and I love that. So I would love to keep all of them if I could. But sadly I need to organize them once a while before my house get filled with all those doodles. I through some  into the recycle bin and I put some of them I really love in folders. I have been thinking if there is a way to use her drawing in my work besides just putting them in the frame and hanging up on the wall. One day I traced some of her art pieces on tracing papers and waited for the time I can work on it.

Then, it is time to do it! This is an experimental project. I decided to embroider this design of adorable two persons. The size of this embroidery pattern is small and the lines are pretty intricate. I wasn't sure if it would work well but anyway I gave it a try.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you what this drawing is about. It is "Me and my Mom". Isn't is sweet?

I used back stitch for most of outlines. For her curly hair I did couching stitch. As you see in those two pics, I changed the color of her lips.

This girl above is my daughter Nina. Original drawing doesn't have colors. I added colors and some patterns on our dresses.

This is me! Nina didn't forget to draw earrings on my ears.

This is the whole design. I tried pretty hard not to ruin the original look. So this looks like almost exactly Nina's original drawing (I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture of it).

I am very happy with the result. I have a lot more waiting to be made up. I am motivated pretty much now. Anyway, I finished this embroidery and actually made a bag using it on the front. I will write about it in the next post. 

If you have a little kid and you think he/she is a genius artist, like I do :-p, you should try this. I am sure it will make you and your family smile.

Thank you for reading!

Princess Palace

Please let me show you what we built on snow days last week. It is a Castle. Nina was given this Princess Palace last Saturday by her grandma's best friend "Grandma" Vivian. And it was just perfect for us and perfect timing too! We just needed this to have some fun in the house on these No school days.

This castle is made of durable cardboards and 1,500(!) pieces of mosaic stickers. It was too hard to assemble all the parts and build the structure for a five years old. But if you, parents were crafty or just like to create something with your hands, it would be perfect as a family activity for a boring week end. Kids can help finding out which parts goes where, and actually putting all the mosaics on is simple but really a big job which you all can be involved in.

Look at all the detail on the walls. And on the balcony, there are........

How romantic is this! And this is what's going on in the top of the tower ( ;-o)

I love that they designed the entrance to have a "marble" step under the door. I love the heart shaped windows, and purple 3D flowers climbing up the walls.

I guess everybody has spent about three hours to finish this! You know, sometimes very simple work can be addictive :-)

Thank you Grandma Vivian! We love our Palace.

I hope you all have a happy crafting week !

Crochet Tutorial / "Ready for Spring" Garland

About a month ago, I made this crocheted garland for Nina's room. I linked twenty simple motifs together then add a long chain for hanging. It is a very simple project. Nothing is complicated.

What you will need ; Fingering weight yarns (as many colors as you like), a crochet hook size US B/1 or C/2  (UK 12, Japanese 4).

The yarns I used are "Palette" from Knit Picks. I used a Japanese #4 crochet hook which is 2.5mm diameter. There is no 2.5mm hooks in US size. US B/1 is 2.25mm and C/2 is 2.75mm. This project doesn't have to be so accurate in size, so I just suggest to use one of them which you feel comfortable to go with the yarn you selected.

Here is a chart of the motif below. I drew this chart in common way in Japanese crochet patterns. I hope it is clear enough for you to get what you are going to do now.

For the first row / ch8 ; Join with slip st to form ring.

The second row / ch3, 1dc in the center of the ring. Make a picot.( Work three chains, one slip stitch into the top of previous double crochet .) ch 1. Repeat {2dc together, picot, ch1} 11 times. Work a slip stitch joining the last round.

OK, now you have a first motif done. From the second one, you are going to make motifs joining one after one. In the photo below, it is showing  the second motif in half way done. Well, seven picots are done.

Then when you make the eighth picot, work one chain, and one slip stitch through a picot of the first motif you already made.

And one chain, slip stitch into the top of previous stitch (which is {2dc together}).

Then keep working until finish the second motif. After that repeat the same process and link them up as many as you want.

When you connect the third motif (and all of the rest ) to the previous one, make sure that the picot you are going to insert the hook is the sixth picot from one already connected to the previous motif. So you will have even numbers of picots on both sides of two connections.

It is time to add a long chain string for hanging. I used white yarn for the hanging chain.

Ch 7, join with slip st to form ring.
{Ch 10, slip st into the picot of the first motif. ( Follow the picture below.) } Repeat {} to the last motif, then ch 18, slip st into the eighth chain from the end.

Hang two chain rings on the both ends of the string to the hooks on the wall.

Look! Now you made such a pretty crochet garland! Hooray!

To be honest, I have spent hours on writing this little tutorial in English! I am ashamed to say that I am tiered out now. I need to strive for better tutorials in my study of English writing! I wish I improve my English skill a little more. I really appreciate you to read this patiently and keep following my blog . I hope this post gives you some inspirations to you. 

Have a happy crocheting week end you all!