Keys....with The 3 muses....

To more keys....with the three muses

at last...........

Japanese Art Party….

The Formula

Tween + color + Japanese paper doll = Japanese Art Party

                                                       add to that

A touch of traditional + a touch of todays Japanese style

A blank wall becomes party ready with a collage of colorful paper fans.

• Paper poppies …Martha Stewart  
• card set by papaya art
• Paper Japanese doll from …. Dust of Enchantment  (She was the inspriation for this party.)
• Ice cream dishes and blue vase from………All U Can Handle 
• Izze soda
• How to fold a star napkin …Roter Ochs       paper fans…..Asian Ideas
• Origami paper…. Blick's
• Mini marshmallow Japanese Candy recipe from {the decorated cookie}  (the candy is one of the art activities)

Art Activities:



A medley of fun from origami, candy making, painting, scratch art and cut and spin tops.

 1. Scratch art is a fun and simple art that can be done at any time during the party. For the tween set I would suggest cutting some of the sheets down into fourths and ATC size (2½" × 3½") and make available a few stencils to get the girls started.

  • mix scratch art and tape from activity 2 and decorate cards and envelopes ...
               ATC size cards  and scratch paper from Blicks
   • buy inexpensive bamboo frame from the dollar store to frame art
          
  2. What could be trendier than to make your own Japanese color tape. Find out how to from Julie K in Taiwan.
    Use to decorate:
   • treasure boxes
   • tags
   • cards

3. Next we have a little traditional origami, you can either buy a kit from Yasutomo or learn how to fold Kusudama style from the Folding Tree.

4. Candy who doesn’t love candy! This Japanese art candy will be a big hit with any age group. Candy making from {the decorated cookie}.

Meagan ever has a recipe for marshmallow fondant that can be prepared before the party. Fondant recipe here...

5. Starburst candy + tween = tiny paper cranes
I found this SoCraftastic! youtube and fell in love with these tiny paper cranes.
Perfect for a tween party I must say. 

6. Paper tops are pretty and fun, printable from Creative Park .....

                                   *********************************          
                                       

Happy Spring..............

I can't believe it, I woke up to a dusting of snow!

I would love a bit of sunshine please and snowdrops instead...

TIME...............

  with  The Three Muses.....   this week's theme is time, we all have time we just use it differently. 

I question the time that is slipping by, I celebrate the time I have….

                 

"There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself."

— Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)

2010 To be continued project almost done....

I have not posted in a very long while; this summer has been an odd one and flew by fast….

However,  I did take the end of the summer to finish up a project that I started awhile ago.

 

Please Meet Trinket Amelia .... 

She is a reproduction Simon and Halbig Mignonnette done

by Doll Artist Carl Armstrong and she stands five and a half inchs tall.

 Her Victorian naturalist  Presentation box  was inspired by this book….

 

   

 It is funny how inspiration works; I have had this project in the planning stage for years…. It was going to be done in pinks and silks and all outfits were going to be made by me.

Here is the mignonette-in-waiting project.

A flair up of some hand problems changed all of that and I realized that I was going to have to buy more for this project than planned so I put it on the back burner for a later date….

While working on another project I took my copy of the Beatrix Potter Journal off of the shelf to see how something in the book was done. This Beatrix Potter book is an interactive journal with envelopes with letters to read, flaps to flip up and see and hidden in the back a reprinted copy of Potter’s first Peter Rabbit book. I spent about a half of an hour flipping through this fun little book when the idea for this  presentation  box hit me. A few hours later and a little shopping online, I had my inspiration board done and I was ready to get started.... I just had to wait for the mail carrier to bring me my

paper from the Botanicabella collection by Graphic 45

And this Wool felted  Miniature Squirrel made by the

Little Elf’s Toyshop

His name is Hickory in case you were wondering.

Still need to get the butterfly net from Swan House Miniatures….

I spent hours at this site…..

Some of the miniatures are thousands of dollars ….click here……

The rest I had on hand…..

I covered a matchbox with an envelope tag to hold specimen bottles…

And arranged tiny nature domes

and made tiny copies of pictures that I found on   The Graphics Fairy….

I added a tiny fairy notebook for Trinket Amelia to keep notes in and a walking stick and hat that I had left over from another project.

****

I cut and glued and coverd the box.

Underneath there is a drawer that  pulls out, this is where I will put her wardrobe. On the bottom of that drawer is a ledger page with all the information that includes artist names and dates.
This page will also include her story which I have not written yet.
***

I am not sure if I am going to leave the outside of the box as is or add lace or some other decorations…

Now that this doll project is almost done I am inspired to start

another one for my

French fashion doll whose story starts like this…..

Luna and Thomasina Wellington are sisters who live on Pearl Street, a street of lovely old homes and well kept lawns. A Street that anyone who walks down with its light breeze of sea air wishes that they too could be part. However Pearl Street does not have newcomers, a fact that as long as anyone can remember and as far back as records state each and every house on Pearl Street has been owned generation after generation by the same families. The houses all were built in the same year by settlers who arrived in the same season to the struggling sea coast town. And within a year of the arrival of the newcomers the town began to flourish. The lumber mills, stores and those that resided benefited from this stream of incomers that appeared in the spring of the same year. So no one questioned and no one asked but there were those that were curious. But as time went on things became even better and the inquiring minds became less and life was as life is in this small seaside town.

To be continued in 2011……

this is Thomasina

in the mail......

  " Letters are expectation packaged in an envelope."

                                                                        Shana Alexander