Showing posts with label origami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label origami. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

How to Cut Snowman Snowflakes (2 ways!)


Ah, winter time.  Hot chocolate.  Cold weather.  Early nights.  Stir crazy kids?  Hrmm.  Just me? Well, whether you find yourself in that situation (or not) here's a fun winter craft that will help lift everyone's spirits!

Today we're making snowman snowflakes!



2 Ways to Make Snowman Snowflakes!


2 ways to cut snowman snowflakes with kids! Fun winter activity
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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Gorgeous Accordion Fold Fall Paper Leaf Banner

Today we're continuing with the theme of easy fall crafts.  Couple of days ago I shared this really beautiful Sewn Leaf Art project that I made with my preschooler.  Today I just wanted to share this gorgeous folded paper leaf banner.


How to make a gorgeous accordion folded paper leaf banner with kids


I came up with the idea after reading some fall-themed books with my son.   Seeing all the beautiful colored leaves in the books made me miss the fall leaves back on the East coast.  And then it hit me- why not make our own?  Bring a bit of fall to our forever-summer state.   And so, my son and I got to making and painting together.  The results came out so beautiful that he insisted we hang the banner up in his room to spruce it up.


Friday, July 17, 2015

Easy Kirigami Fish Craft

Howdy! For those of you living above the equator-- how's summer so far?  I'm slowly recovering from illness (hooray!)  Our days are packed with swim classes, trips to the library, play dates, and night time walks.  Is it just me, or is summer just as busy as the rest of the school year?

Lately, I honestly haven't had the time (or energy) to craft.  (Do you ever feel that way too?)  Well, in case you wanted a quick, summer craft to do with the kids, I'm sharing this easy kirigami fish craft today!  I've always enjoyed paper cutting and folding crafts, so I thought this was a really great way for young children to get creative with scissors and paper too!

Let's make some Kirigami Fish!



Easy Kirigami Fish Craft for younger children

Monday, May 18, 2015

Make Origami Faces

This past weekend I spent a bit of time figuring out how to make some adorable origami faces.   After several failed attempts, I shortened the directions... and voila!  I love how they turned out! Sculptural and modern, they are so fun to make and uber cool to display!

Paper Sculptures- Making Origami Faces with Kids!  


How to fold origami faces with kids- fun craft and art project, step-by-step tutorial included (with video)
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Monday, May 11, 2015

Calder-Inspired Sculptures (and our 20+ favorite art books!)

As a child I really loved Alexander Calder's sculptures.  Whimsical and colorful, they let me see that art can be fun too!  Today I'm sharing a really simple paper sculpture project inspired by Calder's large scale metal ones.  They take only minutes to whip up and certainly would also make for fun scissor practice with younger kids as well!

Kids Calder-Inspired Art Sculptures  


Easy Kids art idea- Make Calder-inspired paper sculptures!
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Wednesday, May 6, 2015

How to Make Tissue Paper flowers

Are you looking to create gorgeous, realistic tissue paper flowers with the kids?  Then this is the tutorial for you!  These flowers are beautiful and super easy to make.  Just grab a bunch of tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and scissors and you're all set to make a colorful bouquet for someone special!

How to Make Tissue Paper Flowers

How to make beautiful 2 color tissue paper flowers! Super easy and beautiful results. Great for kids to make and give to someone special in their lives!
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Sunday, May 3, 2015

Slinky Rainbow Garland

Are you looking for an easy, fun, and colorful kids craft?  Well, then today's slinky rainbow garland is just up your alley.  I've been digging rainbow crafts lately.  They're just so fun and happy! And these rainbow garlands are totally rocking my world.  I was inspired by Minieco's folded rainbow paper garlands and decided to make some of my own!  Chuck loves playing them like an accordion and watching them wiggle around. (Ok, I kinda do too. They're mesmerizing!)

Slinky Rainbow Paper Garland


how to make a slinky rainbow paper garland

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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Make a Colorful Paper Garland

For some reason Spring seems to bring in parties galore.  Birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, boy, oh boy, it seems like every week we're celebrating something new.  Is it that way for you too?  Spring is definitely a happy season for us.  So with that in mind, I came up with this super simple paper garland that you and the kids can easily whip up within minutes!  Tape them up and then poof, instant party!

We're currently digging rainbow crafts over here, so of course I had to make one of every color!

Colorful Paper Garland

make a colorful paper garland- super easy paper cutting activity to do with kids!  Instant party!


Friday, April 24, 2015

How to Make Colorful Kirigami Flowers

Spring is here! La la la! Although our current grey skies don't exactly scream "warm, sunny, bursting-with-new-life weather," today's kirigami flower craft certainly does!

How to Fold and Cut Kirigami Flowers

How to cut and fold kirigami flowers- super easy and fun spring craft
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Now, I had a lot of trouble naming this craft.  These flowers kinda felt like origami... and yet they weren't quite origami because I used scissors to make the designs too.  Luckily Mr. Google taught me the term kirigami.  It's a Japanese term that basically describes origami that also involves paper cutting too.  Bingo!  So cool right?

By the way, if you love these flowers, you'll also love these


Sunday, April 5, 2015

How to Fold and Cut Origami Stars

Lately I've just been digging Origami projects.  There's just something so relaxing about folding paper to create lovely things.    For today's post I wanted to share a recent origami project- these folded and cut origami stars.  They are really, really beautiful and of course, super simple to make!  (I'm an origami newbie, so if I say it's easy... it's totally doable!)

How to Fold and Cut Origami Stars

How to fold and cut origami stars- Really easy and simple process with great geometric results.  This would be a super fun kids' activity!
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So keep reading to see how I made them.

Oh yeah.  Guess what?  I took the plunge and actually shot videos of me folding the paper and explaining my process.  I know, I know.  Video is a completely new medium to me and I still have a lot of kinks to work out (like how to make things brighter!)  But, I think the videos explain the process better than the photos.  So I've included them in the post.


Monday, March 30, 2015

Woven Paint Chip Easter Egg Banner

Last Friday we held an early Easter get-together at our place.  I wanted to "spring-ify" our place up, but didn't want to spend a fortune to do it.  So during a trip to our local hardware store, I picked up a couple  oh let's be honest, A WHOLE LOT of paint chips.  (I can't help it! The colors... the colors!!!)  And then I wove myself a colorful Easter garland.  :)

Woven Easter Egg Banner

how to make woven Easter egg garland



I love how the eggs are just so colorful and modern looking!

how to make an Easter egg garland



So if you want to make this simple and FREE Easter decor, visit DIY Candy for my woven Easter Egg Garland tutorial today!  Plus, you can always find other easy Easter crafts on the blog too! 

Let's keep in Contact!

Check out other fun and easy ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  (Or subscribe to my email mailing list by filling out the pink bar at the top of your screen.)

Happy creating, friends!

Monday, March 23, 2015

Origami Artwork With Kids

Ever have just a crazy, crazy, week?  I'm sure you have... and last week was mine.  Chuck was sick the entire week and hubby had to work late hours.  So at night I found myself trying to relax by catching up on my favorite shows (currently Brooklyn 99) and folding origami.  Yup.  I'll hopefully have some cool origami projects  (like these origami black catorigami jack-o-lantern, and origami vampire lips) to show you in the next couple of weeks.

I'm not an origami ninja.  A lot of times projects just don't turn out quite how I imagined.  Lines aren't folded correctly and have to be refolded (again and again).  When imperfect projects are finally finished, it always seems like a shame to toss out the paper.  So I thought to myself, "Why not turn my old origami projects into art?"  And that's how this idea was born!

Make Origami Artwork with Kids

make easy origami artwork with kids
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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Lego Snowflakes

Do you enjoy cutting snowflakes from paper?  Do you like Lego?   Then I've got a treat for you! Combining both, I recently figured out how to cut out Lego snowflakes!


DIY Lego Snowflakes!


how to cut lego snowflakes
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Hubby and I both grew up loving Lego toys. Chuck loves his cars and train Duplo sets.  And every year I find myself cutting all sorts of paper snowflakes to decorate our windows.  So this year, I was inspired by this neat Batman snowflake design to create two cute and easy-to- cut Lego Snowflakes.  


Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Angel Craft- Paper Cup Angel Luminaries

Ah, paper cups.  They're such a great crafting material because they're versatile and cheap.  We've used them to make DIY Animal Nose Paper Cups and popsicle stick ice-skating dolls.   Today I'm over at MollyMoo sharing how I turned a couple of plain old clear plastic cups into cozy, glowing  Paper Cup Angel Luminaries!



Wouldn't these be such a magical craft to make with the kids?


Let's keep in Contact!

Like this idea?  You can always find other fun ideas on my Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts!  Or, just sign up for the weekly newsletter in the pink bar at the top of the site.

Happy making, friends!

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Twisty Snake Sculpture! (Template Included)

Do snakes and reptiles set your heart aflutter?  A couple of months ago we found a small garden snake sunning in our backyard.  Chuck and I watched it slithering away, mesmerized by how it moved.  In honor of our reptilian visitor,  I'll be sharing 2 easy and fun snake crafts today and tomorrow on the blog.  

Twisty Snake Sculpture!

Twisty snake sculpture- Easy kids animal craft with printable template included
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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Easy Origami Vampire Lips!

The quest for cute Halloween themed origami continues!  First we folded ourselves an origami cat.  Then we folded these three origami jack-o-lantern pumpkins.  Today, I'm continuing the trend and showing you how I folded up these Origami vampire lips!

 Origami Vampire Lips


super easy way to hold origami vampire lips
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Now full disclosure here-  I'm NOT an origami expert. I'm a complete novice.  I first saw a tutorial for cute vampire lips from this fun Halloween origami book.  However, hubby and I tried and tried... but we just couldn't figure out how to fold the darn thing!  So I looked online and saw a bunch of other really hard directions.  

Since I really liked the way the vampire lips looked, I ended up making up my own way of folding them.  So I guess the post should really be titled "Faux-gami."

If you want to try this faux-gami tutorial, check out the directions below!  I promise you, it's super easy and the results are really cute.

Let's get faux-lding!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Origami Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin

Can you tell that I'm really digging Halloween origami?  Last week I shared how to fold a cute origami black cat.  Today I'm continuing the theme and sharing how to fold an origami Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin!  


Origami Pumpkin

How to fold an origami Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin for Halloween

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I'm still an origami novice and I found these pumpkins to be much easier to fold than the black cat.  I just followed the original tutorial here.  It was shown with very few words and lots of arrows.  So I took photos of my process in hopes that these photos and descriptions will make things clearer.  (Although if you run into trouble, definitely check the original source!)

Let's get folding!

Friday, September 19, 2014

Origami Black Cat

Halloween is coming! Halloween is coming!  My favorite holiday is coming!  I love the candy!  I love the costumes!  I love carving pumpkins!  And I especially love the Halloween crafts!  So I'm starting off this year's Halloween crafts with this really cute origami Halloween black cat.

Origami Halloween Black Cat

how to make an origami Halloween black cat
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The directions for this cat came from the book Horrorgami.  I'm definitely an origami newbie, so I wasn't able to do as many of the crafts as I would have liked.  But if you love folding paper, this book has a ton of great Halloween-inspired origami.

Ok.  Onto the cat craft!


Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Make a Folding Popsicle Stick Fan

So our move is currently underway!  Eeek.  The movers just took away our boxes and we're doing some "urban camping" in our apartment (aka sleeping on air mattresses and living without a tv and toys) for the next week. While this is happening, Chuck and I are still trying to find moments to create.  Today I'm going to share with you a super easy tutorial for a folding popsicle stick fan that we recently made.  Yes.  It really folds.  Pretty neat, right?

Make a Folding Popsicle Stick Fan


Make a folding popsicle stick fan!

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The idea came to me after watching a tv show explaining how women make traditional folding fans in Asia. After the episode ended I knew I had to adapt the steps for a kids' craft.  This fan doesn't open as smoothly as its real counterpart.  But it's still a neat kids' craft because it highlights a traditional art form.   Now let's get making!

Friday, December 14, 2012

Crapty origami boat ornaments and Christmas crackers

This weekend we're hosting a gingerbread house party.  To prepare, I purchased a whole bunch of candy, graham crackers, and icing.   I also crapted a couple of origami boat ornaments.  They were folded from magazine paper.  My little boats were inspired by this origami boat necklace that I won in a recent blog giveaway.  (First time I won one of these giveaways, hooray!)


I also made a bunch of psuedo Christmas crackers out of my ever growing pile of paper towel rolls.  Each guest is going to take one home as a gift.  Inside the cracker they'll find a balloon, a corny Christmas joke, a snowflake, cute band-aids  and a couple of candies.  I think traditional crackers are supposed to pop, but I couldn't find the cracker snaps, so mine will just look cute.  

Hope you have a great weekend.  See you on Monday!