How to Create a Hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing) Picnic at Home

As mentioned in my previous post about hanami (complete with origami cherry blossom tutorial), I wanted to recreate a cherry blossom viewing picnic scene that’s very common in Japan right now.

I decided to use a variety of cute sakura kirigami/origami to create a peaceful hanami atmosphere, then I added some common hanami staples like a cute plastic ground sheet (used as a tablecloth), cherry blossom chopsticks, onigiri (rice balls), noodles, grilled fish, sweet snacks, and the last but not least, beer and wine.

 

 

To stay on theme, I also used my felt cherry blossom coasters, kirigami cutout sakura placemats, sakura printed placemats, and a couple of mizuhiki sakura that I made a few years ago.

 

 

 

Please let me know what you think!  I’d love to hear suggestions for future picnic setups!

 

Cute Japanese Bento Accessories for Hanami

Before I show you the complete hanami lunch setup, I want to show you some of the adorable bento accessories that I have straight from Japan (you can also find some through Amazon here).

This is a lovely metal cutout set that you can use one cheese, deli meats and vegetables like carrots:

This is a very sweet set that has a variety of shapes, including individual petals to decorate dishes.

It even comes with extra decorations that you can add in your bento boxes.

This mini mold makes cute little shapes for tiny onigiri (rice balls).

You can make bento with mini rabbit heads, star shapes, flowers and little bear heads.

A three set of rice ball shapes. These are medium sized and some with three different shapes.

You can make rows of hearts stars and bear heads…. aren’t they cute?

You can make the shapes as simple or as decorated as you like. Most people like to make the onigiri shapes and decorate them with Japanese nori (dried seaweed paper). I don’t have any special seaweed shape punches, so I’m stuck cutting everything out by hand, but you can get seaweed shape punches on Amazon.

Origami Sakura to Celebrate Spring

If you are living in Canada like me, chances are you feel like Spring will never ever arrive, but I still have hope for Mother Nature!

In Japan, hanami (cheery blossom viewing) season  will soon begin and I still miss it very much. In an attempt to make our home feel a little more like hanami, I decided to make a bunch of mini origami sakura from small origami paper and my stash of Japanese washi/chiyogami.

If you would like to make these adorable origami sakura for a fun Spring craft, check out the diagram below, or check out the Origami Club animated instructions here: http://en.origami-club.com/flowers/sakura2/anime-sakura/index.html

You can arrange these sakura blossoms on cards, canvases, hang them up, dress up mirrors/windows, create jewelry -anything you can think of!

Check back soon to see what I did with my mini sakura origami.  I hope you love it!

How to Make Envelopes from Heart Shapes

I love all kinds of crafts. Normally, I love to try intricate and difficult craft projects, but most days, I just feel like making something quick and easy.

For those of you wanting to recycle magazines or scraps of paper, here’s a sweet and easy envelope that you can make out of a heart shape.

You will need:

• Scrap paper (magazines, newspapers, gift wrapping…)

• Scissors

• Pen

• Double-sided tape or glue stick

 

How to Make It

Start with your piece of paper. Any size will work, but just remember that the bigger your piece, the bigger the envelope.

Fold the paper in half lengthwise.

Draw half a heart shape from the folded edge (the folded edge should be the middle of the heart). Cut it out.

Open it up.

Flip it upside down and fold in the sides (about one quarter in).

Fold the bottom end up (about one third). Secure the sides with double-sided tape or glue.

Fold the top third down.

There you are, quick and easy envelopes with a cute sweetheart design when the envelope is opened up.

Make them from excess wrapping paper to match gifts, use up interesting pamphlets, flyers and magazines or decorate some plain scrap paper for a more personal touch.

Simple Gift Box Decorations – Sophisticated “Goodie Bags”

Here are a few small boxes that I decorated as “goodie bags” for my Birthday (yes, I still enjoy giving goodie bags and I think I always will).

The plain kraft paper boxes are approximately 10cm x 10cm x 5.5cm and only cost $1 each.

I tied them up with plain string and added a mini card made from Japanese paper.

I adore these boxes because they were cheap, helped me use up craft string that I already had at home and scraps of my favourite type of paper. Afterwards, the boxes can be reused in the same way or decorated with a collage, paints or even gold leaf.

They are simple and have a soft nature theme, which is exactly what I love.