I Made This Just For You!

I wanted to make a gift for someone who loves the Japanese story, Totoro.  While in Japan I found some Totoro origami paper in a pack of 6x6 sheets.  I thought that the pack had just the one design but there were only four sheets of this design in the pack. Wanting to conserve my supply, I decided to use just one sheet on both the pencil case and journal. I found a beautiful scrap of real marbled paper (hoarded so long that the bugs had made holes on parts of the handmade sheet...sigh) which I felt would look well with the origami paper and give the gift a rich look.

I used Merikan double stick tape (from Ben Franklin Crafts) because it doesn't warp the paper. The ribbon was adhered with 3 in 1 Beacon glue.  The opening for the snap in the Totoro paper was made by aligning the paper and pressing to mark the position of the snap.  Then it was a simple matter to punch a hole with a regular paper hole punch. There was even enough of the marbled paper to cover the pen which was included with the Sierra Pacific unlined journal.

Here is what the journals and colored pencil sets look like before being decorated.  Notice that the pencil set even has a sharpener in the cap.....so neat and reasonably priced.  You can make a bunch of these gifts for party favors, office grab bags, teacher gifts, etc. and not go broke.

Oh, I wanted you to see just some of fantastic ribbons I found at Ben Franklin Crafts. These rustic ribbons will give your crafts a shabby chic look. My Totoro set has an autumn feel, but with a change up of paper you can make Christmas journals or sketch books to use all year long.  Happy gift crafting!