Confession

I have a confession.

I've been sick, exhausted, and barely keeping up with our daily routine. But... I shouldn't complain too much.

There is a good reason for it: We have a new Ricefield baby on the way.

Yep. I'm pregnant and just getting over the first trimester. Looking forward to having a bit more energy, but it doesn't like it's getting better any time soon. I'm not going to lie, pregnancy doesn't make me glow or thrive. It makes me sick. But yes, the end result is more than worth it, so all's good.

We're due in August by the way.

Other than that... We had a good valentine's day with pink cupcakes and origami boxes with treats for N.'s friends and teachers.

Ok, hit me with your good news.

Butterfly garden shadow box }{ Tutorial Thursday

Just a reminder: Don't forget to enter my 6-month celebration giveaway here. 

I've had a handsome little boy on my mind a lot. Today's craft and tutorial was made with him and his family in my thoughts - a little butterfly garden.

Looking back at it, there are a few things I probably could and should have done differently, so I'll start by listing them. If you try to make this, you can always try my suggested improvements. 

1. Make smaller flowers and butterflies, or use a bigger box.
2. Make different sizes of butterflies.
3. Add some sparkle or drawn designs to the butterflies.
4. Make flowers that are lower to the ground, rather than tulips.

Just a few things that might improve today's project, and that I plan on trying myself next time we make something like this. 

Ok, on to the tutorial.

Materials:

• shoe or any "shallow" cardboard box
• origami paper
• green tissue paper
• glue
• utility knife
• thread
• scissors
• sewing needle
• gesso
• craft paints (blue, purple, white)
• paint brush
• an old plastic card (like a phone or grocery card) you don't use anymore

How to make it:

• step 1: make some origami butterflies. You can find instructions for a whole lot of different butterflies HERE and if you prefer a video, go HERE for an easy one.
• step 2: do the same with the flowers. For directions in pdf, you can check for these instructions HERE, or for a video go HERE.
• step 3: with a utility knife, cut out whatever you need out of the box so that the front is wide open.
• step 4: cover the inside of the box with one coat of gesso and wait for it to dry. If you don't like waiting, use a blow dryer to speed it up. Alternately you could glue some pretty paper.
• step 5: after the gesso is dry, drop a little paint on the background. Using the card, spread the paint over the background until you're happy with it. I actually added some extra gesso over the paint to add whites and make the background a bit more muted.
• step 6: glue the green tissue paper on the ground to make grass, then glue the flowers to the grass.
• step 7: using the sewing needle, make a hole on the top of the butterfly (around the middle) and pass the thread through it. Glue the thread to the top of the box and wait for it to dry. 

step 1

step 2

step 3

step 5

step 6

step 7

This whole process took about 2 hours, longer than I originally intended, so I didn't have time to add any designs or other embellishments to the garden. But there we have a small butterfly garden shadow box.  I'm thinking you can also do the flowers as a mural and do a butterfly bunting over it. If anyone tries it, I'd love to see what modifications you come up with.

Happy Thursday!

Origami

I love playing with paper.

And have you seen some of the things you can do with it? A-mazing!

So yeah, I'm not anywhere near being anything more than an amateur, but it's so much fun. And I love making boxes to put snacks or candy for the little one or my friends.

And, since it's *almost* full on Spring (it snowed here yesterday........), I decided to make a little birdie with eggs in its nest. 

And if you want to check out more origami, including easy ones, some for kids, etc, check out this site: origami-fun.com.

お正月 (oshougatsu) at our house

So. It'll be a new year in a few minutes. Wow. Time to say goodbye to 2010

Here's to a great New Year for everyone!

To celebrate:

I made some super easy origami boxes and put some candy for the new year coming in.

My husband made new year's soba.

And he'll be up all night making osechi. Yum.

Happy New Year!