Paper Craft

I've never really been into paper craft - I don't often work with paper, and I don't have any paper craft items in my house. Paper is just way too fragile for someone like me - my boyfriend often jokes that I'm not allowed to have nice things since I will most likely break them. And I think he's right.

That's not to say that I don't appreciate the amazing things people do with paper. I nearly cried at the end of the video for this Jum Nakao show. It's amazing papercraft fashion - the textures are so light and delicate.

I seem to appreciate paper cut designs the most when combined with fashion. Like the work of Bea Szenfeld pictured above. She transforms the paper to something SO much more.

Joel Cooper has a tutorial with the beginnings of how to make these amazing origami masks - still too daunting. They are folded from a single sheet of paper. Wow.

Amazing Letterhead!!

I found the most amazing letter paper at the dollar store today! It's Korean, and I can't get over how ridiculous it is. Most of the paper is taken over by that amazing image. Here's a close-up of the detail at the top:


And here is a close-up of the little stickers that come with it.
My favourite is the happy little dear leaping in front of a rainbow in the upper right-hand corner. You can't read it in this image, but the text below it reads: "Don't Touch Me"!!!

White Queen and Adventures in Matching Plaid

On Friday, my friend had an Alice in Wonderland Dress Up "tea" (aka booze) party. I had just gotten back from Maui (that's right, you're jealous) and I thought I was going to have no time to throw together a costume, but felt inspired at the last minute. So, I went out and bought a white slip and a ton of lace and made the following costume:

I can't believe how well it turned out considering how last minute it was. (See the real White Queen here) The only serious downside was that the wonderful tan I picked up on vacation really didn't help the costume. In fact, I think that with the blonde wig it made me look more like a drag queen than anything. Also, white is not my colour.

I also had to throw together a costume for my boyfriend at the last minute. I was inspired by this post I found through the Craft Magazine blog while at work, and so I "Recycled" a couple of filing folders into a Dormouse mask. It took 15 minutes to make!

He looked so adorable with it on, too.

I also have had some time to work on my wool coat, and I love how it's turning out. I bought all the fabric they had left on the roll, and boy am I glad there was 0.6 meters more than I needed. Plaid that big is a BITCH to match. I double checked the match before I cut anything out. A good thing too, because I caught some mistakes. I also had to re-do so many seams because the plaid was just a little too much off.

I learned something while cutting out the fabric. I have a new rotary cutter and self-healing mat (so nice!) that I was using to cut out the pattern, and I learned the hard way that rotary cutters do not work well on pattern paper! It does not cut with a soft background like fabric, it TEARS! Cut out the pieces to fit you before placing them on the fabric!!

Sadly, I finally cut into my lovely leather coat to make the collar. I like how it matches, but I think I need to add some stitching to make it sit right. I also had to go and buy new buttons to match with the leather, since the original ones didn't quite look right.

With a little luck, the coat should be finished in the next day or two. Now, I'm thinking I will have to make a matching wool-and-leather purse with the leftover fabric.