Here are 2 super-quick craft projects you can do with your little ones.
Here are 2 super-quick craft projects you can do with your little ones.
Posted at 06:03 AM in children's crafts, crafts, recyclable craft, summer | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
Posted at 07:16 AM in children's crafts, crafts, Japan, papercraft, tutorial | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
Summer vacation has started at last. In Japan the school year begins in April and runs until March and summer vacation is typically only about 5-6 weeks long. It's taking a bit of time to find our groove, but I made a list of daily goals and jobs. One of our goals is to do a daily craft. Here's some of what we've done so far.
Posted at 07:05 AM in children's crafts, crafts, summer | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
We escaped Tokyo over the weekend for a little weekend trip with friends to Mt. Fuji and a lake called Yamanaka-ko. While the rest of the group went into a hot spring and went swimming, I dug into a bag of felt and fabric scraps I'd brought along for some handsewing projects because it was so wrenching to be torn away from my sewing machine just when I'd started falling in love with it so.
Posted at 06:55 AM in crafts, felt, Japan, sewing | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the highlights of our children's Japanese kindergarten was the annual "play store" (omiseyasan gokko) where the oldest children would create beautiful handmade toys, origami sweets and vegetables, jewelry, sushi, and other such things for the younger ones. One of the things our boys learned to make there were trucks and vehicles like these, with real working wheels.
Posted at 05:07 AM in crafts, recyclable craft, tutorial | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
Posted at 07:54 AM in children's art, crafts, Japan, papercraft, recyclable craft, tutorial | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
On another note, I had so much fun the other day. I went to a huge Japanese craft store called Yuzawaya. It's quite far from me, so I rarely get to go these days - no more than once or twice a year. It was such an exciting day for me.
I've been wanting to build up a fabric stash for so long. I have so many projects burning away in my head and I can't even begin until I have a few more scraps and pieces here. Plus the boys are always coming home from school telling me they need an extra handkerchief (required), lunch mat (also required), little bag, etc. I'm still not happy with my stash - I love Japanese fabric and feel lucky to have such sheer variety here but I am longing for more vibrant patterns by my favorite designers who are hard to find here. But the longing is eased somewhat. One thing which helped was that I was able to pick up a bunch of fat quarters as well as a bias tape maker. As soon as I got home I started experimenting:
I also picked up a bunch of plain linen and linen-cotton blend fabric. I love the soft colors. I have a few secret projects planned with this, mostly gifts so I can't say more right now!
Posted at 06:46 AM in crafts, Japan, sewing, tutorial | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
I thought it would be fun to share a few simple origami projects and ask - is there anything you'd like to see more of? I'm already preparing a tutorial for the baskets below for next week:
Posted at 06:09 AM in crafts, origami, papercraft | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|
One of my favorite things about living in Japan is the fact that my children have learned so many beautiful crafts at school on a daily basis. Their Japanese kindergarten, which each of them attended until age 7, was completely play-based and all the children burst out of school every day with recycled shopping bags filled to the brim with playthings they made. Our job as parents was to regularly provide the school with clean, empty recyclables (milk cartons, plastic bottles, shopping bags, miscellaneous boxes and ribbons and papers), and to find a place for all these treasures once they came home. The best thing about making your own playthings is that your child learns to see treasure in trash and found materials, and gains confidence that he can always make something for himself to play with. Daily crafting gives fine motor skills a real boost, too.
Posted at 02:30 PM in crafts, tutorial | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
| Digg This
| Save to del.icio.us
|
Tweet This!
|

