This is how the project looked like after working on it for around 14 hours...

And on the next weekend, it was done! I took a quick trip to the crafts shop to find some things to jazz up the wreath, and found some silver and round stars for a dollar each. I also bought two sheets of metallic paper (silver and red to match) for ribbons (I found actual ribbon material too expensive for this).
So I cut the metallic sheets into thick trips and taped them together to form long ribbon material and glued the stars randomly.
Project finished! It now adorns our living room wall.

Technorati tags: Christmas craft

There are quite a number of 3D movies coming out lately, but 3D glasses are hard to come by (especially if the DVD does not come with it). But aside from watching 3D movies, 3D glasses

What you need:
Some fairly sturdy/thick paper
Pen to draw the glasses on the paper, or you may choose to download the template from the NASA site and print onto the paper (like I did).
Pair of scissors
Coloured cellophane: red, green, and blue (available from your local craft shop)
Glue

Procedure:
Draw your glasses on the paper and cut these out. I am making 4 pairs of glasses for us and a guest (thoughtful of me! hahaha)
If you are using the template from NASA, don't forget to include extra bit of paper at the ends of the temples (the part which connects to the frame) so you have a bit to put glue on (see below). I also decided to create two frames per pair of glasses to make it sturdy.
The colors needed are actually red and cyan. Cyan is difficult to find as is because coloured cellophane usually comes in blue and green only. But cyan is a combination of the two, so what I did was to cut blue and green film and overlap them to create cyan. And since I am using two layers of film for the right eye, I also used two layers of red for the left eye.
So I glued on the film, followed by the hinges, and then the second frame. Ta-daa! Ready to use. For some 3D photo fun, simply google for anaglyphic images! Beware though that prolonged use can cause eye strain so be sure to take a break every now and then.

Technorati tags: craft

Taking the recycling initiative a bit further, you can use magazines with colorful pages for the next step: make the wreath fluffy. But in this case I used some Japanese paper which we bought from the dollar shop.
Umm... that's my son Jo-Lo's foot right there :-)

What you need: a pen, a circular container, a pair of scissors, homemade paste. I found the 1/3 measuring cup perfect for this purpose.

Repeatedly fold the paper until you get a thickness that you can still cut through. Draw a circle on the folded paper and cut. This way, you get many circular papers in one go.

Using the pen, press its flat tip onto the center of the circular paper and wrap these up, like so:
Now take a piece of circular paper, place the flat tip of the pen at the center, and dip onto the paste such that the center gets pasted up.
Press onto the wreath and repeat.

Yeah, this is the part where your persistence is practiced. It's not really so bad. I do it a couple of hours each night while watching / listening to the news on TV.

I learned that the best approach to this is to fill up the outermost and innermost areas first. It can become quite tricky when you do the easiest parts first (the top) then more into and outside the sphere.
As you can see, I am no longer doing the opposite side because it will hang against the wall anyways.
So far I have spent a total of 10 hours in this routine, and I am nearly done...

Itutuloy...

Technorati tags: craft

Here's a worthwhile project you can do in time for the Yuletide season: a Christmas wreath made of newspaper! The finished product looks really nice and people just won't believe you made it yourself.

For the first phase of this project, you will need some newspaper, paste, some scotch tape, and a piece of twine.

The first thing we need to do is establish the size of the wreath you want to do. I was ambitious at this stage and wanted one that was at least 10 inches in diameter on the inner circle. You can use wire as the basis for the circle but in this case I started out by folding some newspapers and overlapping and taping them together.
Then I started to roll pages into this rough circle to make it thicker, taping it in areas.
I discovered that rolling the paper over and over is not the way to go if you want your base to be think because it will take a rather long time. So I prepared some homemade paste and proceed with the papier mache process.

To make a big batch of paste, you will need regular flour and water. A ratio of 1 cup warm water to 2 heaping tablespoons of flour should do the trick. Mix it up in a pan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Soon enough, the mixture will boil and become gooey. Depending on how runny or how thick you want your paste to be, you can go with what you have or add a bit more flour.

I then crumpled newspapers and placed laid these on the inner part of the circle. I tore strips of paper, drenched it on paste, then started sticking the crumpled paper into the base.
Try to retain the circular shape as you do this, inserting crumpled paper and plastering over with strips in areas where it appears to be breaking into an edge so it will maintain its roundness.
Nearly there...

When I was satisfied with the shape I want, I let it bask in the sun to dry. It took me 3 hours to make the base. It was fun, and my son Jo-Lo also joined in the crumpling and tearing of the paper.

This is how it looked like the following day. Now, take a piece of twine, tie up the base and then create a loop. This is where you are eventually going to hook the wreath for display.
Here is a closer shot of the loop I made. Then, get some more strips of paper drenched with paste and plaster across the twine so that the loop will stay there and not slide into the top of the wreath when hanged.
Itutuloy...

Technorati tags: craft

Technorati tags: comic book
Coraline is a 2002 Neil Gaiman novel about a girl who found an alternate world through a magical door, but what she found therein wanted to take over her reality. Whoops, did I just release a spoiler?

I first heard about this work through TV, because a film adaptation was made and released early this year and was quite successful. It was made using stop-motion technique and rendered in 3-D. Critics in general approved of the adaptation, although some said it can get quite scary for kids. The DVD was released recently, with a 3-D version and 4 pairs of glasses with it. I am contemplating whether I should purchase the DVD; I am a sucker for things 3-D.

I was not able to find the novel, actually. Instead I got hold of a graphic novel version of Coraline as adapted and illustrated by Craig Russell, who had done similar adaptations of other novels previously. The illustrations were superb. I enjoyed the comic book, and surely I would have enjoyed the novel too. Which got me thinking, I wonder if kids these days look out for the movie or graphic novel version of a book assignment before first?