How to Make Paper Bows Kirigami

Kirigami is Origami with some cutting. These bows are beautiful!!

Below is the first bow I made. Points to note - I used printed scrapbooking paper. Something lighter would be better. The square bit at the centre should have been a little bigger. Because it is so small, i had trouble inserting the points inside. So I had to glue them down.

 

Noel

One more Christmas layout. Design copied from a digital layout. I am enjoying the challenge of trying to create with paper something similar to these cool layouts! The three sides are gold mesh, stapled down. While I was messing around with the mesh I was wondering why no one has come up with self adhesive mesh - or have they? I am a bit out of the loop these days.

Now - am not so good with supply lists and stuff but I just wanted to point out that the curvy white rectangle under the photos is handmade - with French curves. The thin red border is hand drawn with an embossing marker and then embossed with red EP. The frame around the round sticker is done with the Basic Grey tool.

Christmas 2007

This layout is for my son’s album. I love the look of excitement mixed with sleepiness on his face. I used the same bow stamp from Onyx Expression but here I de-constructed the image after embossing and used it as a corner embellishment. The word "Christmas" is actually a whole sentiment but I used a marker to ink only the word I needed.

Paper - Tell your story by Collage Press; Roxbury by Sarah Milne for Scenic Route

Big Bow & Swirl Stamps by (Onyx Impressions)

Bottle Green EP

'2007' - Thickers Alphabets

'Christmas' - Stamp by PSX

Remember Today

This Christmas holiday I sat and worked on the photographs from last Christmas! Felt nice too to use all the holiday colours and relive the excitement that all of us experience when opening up our gifts. The following layout is for my daughters’ album. Her expression, first wondering what the little package held and then on discovering a completely unexpected iphone in the package, is wonderful.
Layout design copied from a CK magazine. The bow, which is an Onyx Expressions stamp is stamped and embossed in multiple holiday pigment inks and embossing powders.

Paper Designed by Sarah Milne for Scenic Route.

Coaster - Mixed Dates White by Imagination Project.

Big Bow - Stamp by (Onyx Impressions)

Holiday Red & Bottle Green EP

Chipboard swirl - Cherry Arte

Cardstock sticker - Designed Nisa Finn for Fontwerks

Track Santa ...

Merry Christmas, everyone!! Santa has been here already. I am now waiting for the children to wake up. I am like a little child too ... cannot wait to see and feel their excitement when they open up their gifts!

Don't forget to track Santa on his travels across the world!

NORAD Santa Tracker

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Personalised Video message from Santa

How would your child like to get a personalised video message from Santa?

Portable North Pole

Santa's Secrets revealed!

How does Santa Claus manage to deliver all his presents to children all over the world all in one night? A scientist in America explains how this mammoth task could be performed.

(Link)

Japanese descendants of Jesus?

The story of Jesus Christ gets another twist. Meet Junichiro Sawaguchi who claims he has descended from Jesus. He lives in Shingo, Japan where the locals believe that a mound of earth with a cross on it is the last resting place of the Messiah.



Seven hours north of Tokyo by train and bus, Shingo only had garlic farming to to put it on the map until a scroll was found in 1935 by a Shinto priest in nearby Ibaraki Prefecture that was identified as Christ's will and, bizarrely, identified Shingo as his last resting place.

The scroll is on display in the "Village of Christ Legend Museum," which closes in the tourist off-season between October and April, and is the basis of a very different take on the incredible tale. According to the document, Jesus arrived in Aomori at the age of 21, where he took the name Daitenku Taro Jurai, studied the Japanese language and developed a deep affinity for the country and people. Eleven years later – conveniently the same period in the Bible that his whereabouts cannot be accounted for – he returned to Judea but fell foul of the Romans.

Instead of being crucified, however, the Romans got the wrong man and nailed his brother, Isukiri, to the cross. Carrying his brother's ear and a lock of hair from the Virgin Mary, Jesus fled across Siberia to Shingo, where he grew rice, married a local woman called Miyuko and had three daughters, it claims. At the ripe old age of 106, Jesus died peacefully and was interred in the mound that sits on Mr Sawaguchi's land.

(Link)

Blue Santa cards

Blue Christmas cards - I wanted to try another colour for this batch - not just red & green. And I love the blue and silver combination. All the embossing is done with detail silver EP. The holly stamp used on the border is from Club Scrap. The postage stamps on the tags & the frame stamp in the middle is by Hero Arts. The frame actually has a little leaf image in the centre but I cut that out. Background Celtic lettering is by Judikins.

Click to enlarge

Letter to Santa

Just in case you have not read this one (it has been doing the rounds for a while now) - it is cute!! Always makes me LOL but there is quite a bit of truth in there.
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Dear Santa,

I've been a good mum all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:
I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any colour, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, 'Yes, Mummy' to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting 'Don't eat in the living room' and 'Take your hands off your brother,' because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products,I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container. If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,
MUM...

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

*Santa has asked that this gets passed on to all the mummies you know.

(Thanks Michi!)

Hedge becomes giant Christmas pudding

An English couple turn their hedge into a giant Christmas pudding to help celebrate the festive period. The festive topiary is the creation of the appropriately named Mr and Mrs. Holley from Somerset, UK. They got the idea from their granddaughter who remarked that the hedge looked like a giant pudding.

(Link)

Animals singing Christmas song

From the BBC Breathing Places website.

Christmas turkeys cause floods

How many of you dispose of the cooking fat by taking it to your local household recycling centre? Or do you put it in a container and throw it out with the garbage? Or perhaps you are one of the many who rinse the fats down the drain? For those of you that do the drain thing, did you know that fats, oils and greases quickly solidify when they hit the cool walls of the sewer and sticks to the side. Over time this builds up; preventing the normal flow of waste water and debris from passing through. With no way through, the wastewater backs up in the system, coming out of drains, sewers and potentially your home.

People who pour leftover turkey fat, cooking oil and grease down the drain after roasting the Christmas dinner can block drains, a spokesman for Gloucestershire county council said. "The traditional Christmas roast, with all the trimmings, may be one of the highlights of the festive season - but it could also be a hidden cause of flooding. It is a little known fact that pouring leftover fat, oil and grease down the drain is a major cause of sewer blockages in the county."

No one wants to suffer the consequences of raw sewage flooding their gardens, driveways or worst still, inside their homes. The only way to rid the sewers of these fat blockages is to use a high-pressure jet to loosen the fat and wash it away - none of which is a pleasant job. Much of this jetting work could easily be avoided if people didn't regard their kitchen sink as an extension of the dustbin
(Link)

Getting into the Christmas spirit ...

... a bit late but then I had to finish with the exams, and then sleep for 2 days to recover lost time in la la land and now am shopping (which I have not completely done with - yikes!) and wrapping (which I have just started - double yikes!!).

Anyhoo ... the heart gladdens with news of the Christmas Spirit from all over the world. For example, the homeless in Milan will be getting a rare treat this festive season - beluga caviare!! Always knew the Italians did things in style ;-) though I do wonder if those consuming this precious commodity will be able to appreciate its value/taste. I hope that they also get a hearty meal(s?) to go with the little black balls. My suggestion would have been to sell the little cans and then give the cash to charity. But maybe Italian red tape does not allow that sort of thing.



Down-and-outs and hard up pensioners in Milan will enjoy a rare Christmas treat this year: choice beluga caviar confiscated from traffickers. Italian police seized over 40 kg (88 lb) of the delicacy, worth some 400,000 euros ($558,300), from two men who last month smuggled it into the country from Poland for sale in the shops of Milan and the rest of the wealthy Lombardy region.

The head of the local forest police who carried out the raid kept the bounty in barrack fridges for several weeks, but realized it would soon go bad. "Tests showed us the food was still perfectly OK to eat but it couldn't be stored much longer, so we decided to give it to the poor," Juri Mantegazza told Milan daily Corriere della Sera.

A small amount of the sturgeons' eggs have been kept for further analysis while the rest has been sent to voluntary associations, charity kitchens and old people's homes. "Everything that comes our way is very welcome, even though most of our guests don't even know what those little black balls are," said Virginio Colmega, a priest who helps run the House of Charity in Milan.
(Link)

Something to get you into the spirit of the season!

How much fun is this dog having!!?!!



And some folks really have a lot of time and money on their hands! Christmas lights:

A Santa training school in South Korea!

Want to learn how to say 'Ho Ho Ho' just right? Or maybe do the Santa dance moves (what are those?!) ... Off you go to South Korea to learn how to be a Santa. And then maybe to Germany for a month long working holiday? You have got to get used to globe trotting anyway - it's part of the job description.

A South Korean amusement park is teaching students what it takes to be a good Santa Claus during the festive season. Dozens of Santa school students gathered on Wednesday (November 26) at Everland Park, which is about an hour's drive south of Seoul, to master the Santa technique. Instead of riding a sleigh, the 30 male and female Santa students rode on the roller coaster, they were also trained to perfect their chuckle, dance-moves and carolling.

(Link)

Germany needs Santas!

The job pays up to $75 (60 Euro) an hour. Even though the job is only for a month, the pay is not bad, is it? Qualifications: Chubby, cheerful and no criminal record. If you have a white fluffy beard growing from your chin, it will be an added bonus. But not too many takers around!

Germany is running out of qualified Santa Clauses and needs to recruit and train them fast, a leading job agency says. Germans are trying to shut out the financial crisis by taking comfort in traditional festivities, and there is an acute shortage of Santas to entertain children at shopping centers, Christmas markets and private parties.
"Being Santa is not an easy job," says Jens Wittenberger, in charge of Santa Claus recruitment at the Jobcafe Munich. The job center wants its Santas to be child-friendly, good organizers, reliable and have acting skills. They also need a clean police record. Recruitment sessions are being held in cities across the country, and while the job may be stressful, it's better than being jobless.
(Link)

Christmas Cards

Christmas cards made with printed images from Altered by Design. Crafted for SS Reflections November issue. Click on the link for details on how to make the cards.

Share the Joy!

First layout done with Club Scrap Winter Wonderland kit. Stamp of woodland creatures painted with watercolour pencils. Hero Arts 'postage' stamps & QK alphabet. This kit came with sticky journalling panels. I never liked them. But now I am finding them great to use for cutting out alphabets! Corner rounder in use again!!!

Second layout uses 7 Gypsies paper, Thickers alphabets, MM foam stamps & chipboard from unknown source, painted with gold acrylic ink. Everything from a kit by Scrapologie.

This layout is for Ricky's album ~ Christmas of 1999.

This layout is of Lily and my mother. They always spend a lot of time together. I love this photo of Lily explaining the 'Puzzle' series of books from Usborne to my mum. The kids love these books! They have every one from the series. We have the books for at least 9 years and both Lily & Ricky still pick them up for a read!! I recommend them wholeheartedly! And yes, they call their grandma 'Didu' or shortened even more, just 'Du'.

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Turn up the volume and prepare to be amazed! If this does not give you the goosebumps and bring a tear to your eye, I don't know what will!

And just because he makes me smile, even though I have seen this video so many times!

Natale 98

First layout done with Club Scrap Evergreen kit. Some star brads. Some gold acrylic paint. And some stitching. From Christmas 1998.

Second layout is an old one. Could not manage to finish 2 today! Layout is of Lily & Ricky at the playground. Ribbon, rub-on title and number stickers. Cannot remember who makes the papers.

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Here is Middle Ages Tech Support!

And this guy solves the Rubik's cube in record time!