Toji Shrine Fair

I had the pleasure of attending the Toji Shrine Fair this past November. (The fair is held every month on the 21st.).  As we usually do, we started by buying persimmons from a booth at the front gate.  We bought about a dozen really sweet and crisp fruits and several bags of delicious dried persimmons.    

We meandered down the dirt paths and tried to swivel our heads to be sure not to miss a single thing.  Of course the booth displaying handmade wooden cooking utensils caught my attention.  I purchased two fistfuls of beautifully grained spoons including the newest one, the 'saimin' spoon.

Next I spied some gorgeous handmade purses which incorporated fabric from silk kimonos and embroidered obis.  Of course I couldn't resist getting some artist designed bags for gifts (including one for me).  I also purchased some kimono fabric for a mere $2 which I plan to use on my own hand sewn purses.

The area of the fair that always makes me excited and where I spend the most time and money is the flea market area. In the alley ways you can find an assortment of used and antique items.  I always discover a good deal on crafter/artist made bowls, vases and other ceramic pieces that I love to collect. Often times I discover one-of-a-kind art pieces being sold by dealers just trying to clear out their homes.

As we leave the fair we realize that we haven't eaten anything so we nibble on roasted chestnuts, grilled bamboo shoots, mochi, takoyaki (octopus) balls and other delightful treats.  Oh yes, in case you  decide to attend the Toji Shrine fair in the future, you can rest assured that there is even a really nice, clean, many stalled bathroom in the fairgrounds.  Everytime we've attended the fair there has been a small,cute theater prduction outside for the public to enjoy for free.  All in all the shrine fair is probably the best thing we visit on our trips to Japan....in fact we plan our trips around the 21st....but then we are not the normal toursists. LOL!

Cookie Box Upcycled Into a Baby Gift Container

Recently, I acquired some Japanese cat postcards and thought one of them would be perfect on an empty cookie box to recycle it into a gift box.  I started by just covering the top part of the box that had some designs on it.  I simply traced the box top (leave a slight margin around the box) onto a sheet of printed Japanese washi paper. (Large sheets are available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.) I glued the washi paper onto the box (with Fabri Tac 3 in 1 glue) and then trimmed the excess paper.
 

Next, I picked out a postcard to glue onto the box top. Amazingly, the postcard fit perfectly on the box.  To add more interest to the box, I tied a cord (covered with Japanese fabric) around the box and glued on some die cut pink vellum paper cherry blossoms.

This box was really a very simple container fashion from a single sheet of cardboard.

Using origami paper with cat designs (from a pack with four different scenes), a Daiso cherry blossom label, and the leftover paper scraps from the box, I fashioned a card and evelope to match the box. I plan to house a little girl kimono in the box as part of a baby gift.  Maybe I can find a kimono that will match the box and card....one made from cat design printed fabric?

Kadomatsu Decorations for the New Year!

 

Kadomatsu displays are traditional Japanese bamboo and twine decorations put on display by the 28th of December and removed on the 7th or 15th of January.  They are supposed to bring good fortune.  After January 15 they should be burnt to appease the gods.  I learned this information from the internet, not my relatives. LOL!  The Kadomatsu in the photo above was made by a friend.  I added the bird/pinecone decoration because I thought it needed more colorful interest. 

I'm not sure that this is a Kadomatsu but it was alongside the other displays in a Japanese department store.  It does look festive and I plan to hang it in our entryway. I probably won't burn it though, too pretty! There were literally hundreds of varieties of Kadumatsu for sale in almost every store we passed.  I just couldn't pass up getting these Rilakkuma Kadumatsu because they were so cute and creative.  They inspire me to think up some new modern versions of Kadomatsu to hand craft...for next year. LOL!

Xmas Tags from Printed Cardstock Scraps

 Hey!  Don't toss your leftover Christmas cardstock papers! You can easily turn them into tags for next Christmas.  All you need is a tag die.  I like the extra large tag dies from Hero Arts and Little B because they allow me to write a message on the back of the tags.

Here are a few of my favorite tags that came out of this tag making session.  I used both peppermint twine and fluffy white yarn for the tag ties.  Over the years I've collected an ever expanding collection of Xmas plastic do-dads (mostly miniature Xmas tree decorations from HM Ben Franklin Crafts) and stickers (some of them are so old they've lost their stickiness so I had to glue them on..Hahaha!).  I had fun matching the tags with the do-dads and stickers.  I hope you'll take the time to recycle your scrap Xmas card stock papers.  You'll have fun and feel good about not wasting your craft supplies. Happy New Year of Crafting!

Gnome On Shaker To-Go Cup Gift Card Holder

 When I saw the Lawn Fawn Coffee Cup Gift Card Holder die set, I knew I had to get it and make a shaker style cup card holder.  It wasn't difficult to assemble the card holder by first cutting one cup out of vellum and two of white card stock.  Carefully line the edges of the vellum and card stock cup with 3 in 1 Fabri-Tac glue. Between the layer of vellum and one white card stock cup place a couple of pinches of Sprinkletz 'Yuletide Fun' confetti before pressing the pieces together. Glue the last card stock cup behind the two glued ones.  Die cut the belly band from All the Sparkles Lawn Fawn star print paper.  Glue it onto the cup and add theWhimsy Stamps sticker.  Stamp, color and fussy cut the Whimsy Stamps gnome. (Because the Copic pen ink bleeds through the card stock, you will need to glue a second piece of card stock behind the colored gnome and fussy cut out the excess paper.) I added some extra confetti pieces to the cup lid and stamped the words using a Misti tool.to get the correct alignment. 

Here's what the cup looks like with the HM Ben Franklin Crafts gift card in it. I just love the movement of the sprinkles shaking in the cup!

I loved the shaker to-go cup so much that I just had to make one to attach to a card.  This version has more space for a message inside.  I think the recipient would be happy with cash instead of a gift card in the slot. Even though this gift card idea is a bit late for the season, I can see using this cup die to make birthday, graduation, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc. gift cards by just changing the character and papers. I think you will be very happy if you purchase this LF die set from HM Ben Franklin Crafts because it will making gift giving so easy and fun. Okay, Go Shopping Now! 

Gnomes at Home

 This year I collected even more gnomes.  Mostly they are from Daiso (so reasonably priced) but some are from Japanes boutique stores.  The two large gnomes in the back are wooden ones from Daiso. I plan to paint the names of my grandsons on the brims of the caps. I like the gnomes that have dangling legs because they can be hung over the edge of a table.  There are gnomes that have matching baby gnomes...so cute!  While I love the gnomes that have the caps with sweater designs, my favorite gnome is probably the pink one just because she's a girly girl!  I hope that you will consider collecting gnomes. They are so cute and can be used as decorations for many occasions.  Bring some gnomes home for Xmas and you just might have little bearded coneheads as your friends for a lifetime!

Singing Mice Snowglobe Ornament

Making the snowglobe ornaments shown in my last post were so easy to do, I decided to create another version using the Lawn Fawn stamp and die sets, Caroling Mice.  For the background I chose a printed card stock with a village scene. (Sorry it's hard to see in the photo.) I think the mice show up well because the paper is not too bright or busy.  However, the back of the paper was not interesting so I selected another one before cutting it out with my circle die. (See the back of the ornament in the photo below.  The paper had just the right print, some music and holiday designs.)  I created the snowglobe in the same way explained in my last post but added different 'snow'. I chose Buffalo Snow Flakes (sold at HM BFC) instead of glitter snow which is finer.  As with the previous snowglobes, I finished off the ornaments with pipe cleaners, miniature holly sprigs, and red pips. On this set of ornaments I tried using the LF stencils to color in the mice but found the results were not great because of bleeding under the stencils.  Perhaps my Copic pens were too juicy.  The stencils worked well on other stamped images.  To rectify the problem, I colored over the miscolored boo-boos with a white gel pen (sold at HM BFC too!) I learned this tip from another crafter when I complimented her on her neat coloring. Hahaha!  I think you'll find that there are a lot of great holiday stamp images that will work well in a snowglobe ornament. Hope you'll make some too, and have some fun playing with snow!