Last Minute Gift Ideas for Paper Lovers and Crafters

 

Disclosure: I was sent these products in order to provide honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy at school. We finished our first semester on Friday. I finally have some time to craft more, but Hazel is also home for break, so a lot of my evening time at least is spent with her. I have four amazing products to share with you that are perfect for paper lovers and paper crafters. They make amazing gifts as themselves or for you to make gifts for others! We will begin with a book that literally is called Book for Paper Lovers: Color Your World by the Editors of Flow Magazine. There is no suggested age on these products today due to them being for adults however this one definitely works for kids who can write and create!

A Beginner's Guide to Modern Calligraphy and Brush Pen Lettering -- a Crafty Sundays Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Happy First Sunday of Summer!! As a teacher and a mom, I love summer!! It means more time doing things I love and more time with family!! With my teaching schedule this past year I feel like I really earned my summer vacation. I need time to recharge and get ready for next year. One thing I always try to do when I'm stressed out is craft. My mind needs it!! I am always amazed by the people who have beautiful penmanship. You know the ones that make beautiful words with what looks like little effort. When I was young, I took classes on calligraphy and discovered if I take my time and put effort in and I can write in calligraphy pretty well. But it always takes time. These days there are more modern writing and fonts and I always love trying them but usually without much success. Today I am going to share a book with you that helps train you to write in those modern fonts and use a brush pen. The book is A Beginner's Guide to Modern Calligraphy and Brush Pen Lettering by Maki Shimano. 

Mother's Day Gift & Crafts with Amazing Gift Wrapping Paper

 

Disclosure: I was sent this gift wrapping paper in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It is hard to believe that Mother's Day is tomorrow!! I have not seen my mother since November since someone is always sick for every holiday this year. We are finally able to go see her!! I wanted to bring her a small gift for Mother's Day. What better than some jewelry made with my paper beads! This week I am sharing three packages of amazing gift wrapping papers that make beautiful paper beads as well as wrapping beautiful gifts. We will start with the one I have used the most. It is Marbled Patterns Gift Wrapping Papers - 12 Sheets from Tuttle Studio. 

Catalog Paper Beads -- Recycling Catalogs -- Tween & Teen Craft for Earth Day

 

This week I started thinking about paper beads with something different. I had an Oriental Catalog sitting around and decided to try making beads from it. I was thinking this would be a fun Earth Day craft for tweens and teens. I tried different shapes and methods which I will share with you here. Most of the paper beads I have made have been recycling paper, but most of them were with special paper that I had. I wanted to find something that people would have in their homes to recycle. I came up with catalogs. I started with the Oriental Trading catalog that came in the mail recently. I still have pages of it even with all the beads I made.

Experimenting with Making Paper Beads -- Crafty Sunday

 

This weekend begins my spring break. I finally get to rest for a couple of weeks. We really don't have much planned as Hazel still has dance classes and her college classes this week. I just know I need down time desperately. As I have been trying to give myself time to craft more since it relaxes me, I have been doing a bit of paper quilling. Paper beads have a similar technique as paper quilling. I made paper beads a few years ago out of wrapping paper. 

Bringing Origami to Geometry Class -- Product Reviews

 

Disclosure: I was sent these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

One thing I love to do is bring origami into my classroom. Whether using the old patty paper methods to discover theorems and such or doing origami and perhaps an origami project to demonstrate using geometric terms or just to have cool geometric shapes around the room, I love adding origami. I actually have a box of origami paper in my room-- a boot box covered with Asian wrapping paper. Students come in all the time to have a piece or two just to create something for a relaxed moment. Today I am sharing a book full of geometry and geometric shapes all created by origami and two different packs of origami paper (which all will be added to my classroom supply). I have a shelf full of origami books and kits as well. The book is The Art & Science of Geometric Origami by Jun Maekawa. The packs of paper are Origami Paper 300 Sheets Vibrant Colors 4" (10 cm) and Origami Paper in a Box Japanese Washi Patterns. 

Congruent Triangle Gazebo -- Geometry Class Project

 

One of my goals now that I'm teaching is to share some of the projects I am doing with my classes. Before break I was teaching my geometry classes the congruent triangle shortcuts: SSS, SAS, SAA, ASA, and HL (for right triangles only). In one class I assigned a congruent triangle project. I gave the kids the choice of building a truss bridge, making a gazebo, or making a congruent triangle picture that had at least five different pairs of congruent triangles (one for each shortcut) and they needed a page showing each of the pairs as congruent with one of the shortcuts or needed to mark them in their drawing. Most of the kids picked the drawing. I wasn't in love with the gazebo tutorial, or the gazebo made in it so I thought I would make my own. Today I am going to share my gazebo as well as a project sheet to assign it. (I am still deciding if I am going to assign it to my other class or not as they are about half a chapter behind the other one.) 

Holiday Craft Fun with Jingle Stamps

 

Disclosure: I was sent a set of these stamps in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Now I know it is only October, but if you are going to make holiday cards, gifts, or wrapping paper, now is the time to begin! So today I am sharing a fun holiday stamp set with some different ideas for the fall, holidays, and beyond for you and/or your kids to make. The stamp set is called Jingle Stamps, and it includes 22 stamps and a duo ink pad of red and green ink.

Tie-Dye Paper Products Review with DIY Gift Bag Tutorial

 

Disclosure: I was sent theses products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Tie-dye can be so fun and always seems to come back on trend. We have had fun making our own tie-dye shirts and more. Today we are going to share note cards and gift wrap that both have tie-dye designs. Let's start with the Tie-Dye Note Cards. 

Fun, Useful and Interesting Books from National Geographic Kids

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

It is hard to believe summer is fast approaching. What a year we have had. We have made huge strides fighting the world pandemic. Our state is going to open up fully on the 29th. The vaccines seem to be working. We have been lucky. Hazel's age is approved for the vaccine so she will be fully vaccinated a couple of weeks into her summer vacation. She has also been in school in person all year. However I know many schools were not in person. Many kids are a bit behind so this summer it will be even more important to have them reading and learning. Today I am going to share three fun, useful and interesting books that kids will love learning from this summer. All three are from National Geographic Kids which means they are pretty easy reads without long stories or chapters and more fun facts and photos. We will start with the National Geographic Kids Almanac 2022.

Crafty Stay-cation Activities -- Crafty Sunday Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I have missed the last two Crafty Sundays because we were having a staycation. We had a wonderful week and I thought I would share with you some of our activities and ideas for a staycation especially the ones on the crafty side. My birthday fell on during the week and it was the big 50. My sister came and made me a birthday cake and dinner with her wonderful assistant, Hazel. It was a lovely social distant celebration. Then we set up a puzzle to work on for the week. I finally finished it except for the two pieces I somehow lost. Ugh! I always do that. The puzzle is Mount Fuji Japan Jigsaw Puzzle. I love setting up a puzzle and having it to work on with my family. We like to do this when we vacation at the Cape as well. 

Exploring Japan Part 4 -- Fun Facts & Resource Round-Up

For the last three Mondays we have been exploring Japan. We started with some picture books, then looked at crafts and artists and then origami. Today we are looking at fun facts about Japan and doing a resource and activity round-up. But first some facts about Japan itself. Japan is called Nihon or Nippon in Japanese. It means "land of the rising sun". It was once believed that Japan was the first country to see the sun each morning. The country is made up of 6,582 islands, but has four main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Three tectonic plates meet near Japan and cause many earthquakes. Japan experiences 1,000 earthquakes in a year. Some of these cause tsunamis. There are also 200 volcanoes in Japan. Sixty of them are still active. Almost three quarters of the land is covered by mountains and forest which make the land hard to farm or use for industry or residential. The Japanese Alps run down the center of the island of Honshu. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain/volcano in Japan and is considered sacred by many Japanese people. 

Origami: Fun Facts, Product Reviews & Craft Round-Up

Disclosure: I was sent these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

We are on our third week of exploring Japan for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. If you missed our first two weeks we did new picture books to learn about Japan and crafts from Japan. Today we are taking a look at the ancient art of Japanese origami. I thought I would start with some fun facts since I shared a bit about the history of origami a few years ago. 

Japanese Arts, Crafts and their Makers

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This month is Asian Pacific Heritage Month and to celebrate it we are looking at Japan all month long for Multicultural Mondays. Last week we started with two picture books including one on the creation myth in Japan. Today we are going to look at the crafts and craftsmen/women of Japan as well as a round-up of Japanese-inspired crafts and artists. To begin this post I am sharing a new book that is being released tomorrow (May 12, 2020). It is Craftland Japan by Uwe Röttgen and Katharina Zetti.

Kid Made Mother's Day Card Ideas with Round-Up

Can you believe Mother's Day is only a week away? This year with remote learning going on the kids are not getting help from their teachers to make cards and gifts. That means it falls on the kids and the dads. Steve brought up the idea of shopping for Mother's Day cards with Hazel and whether it was safe. I reminded him that most of our stores here are closed and will be until after Mother's Day. I suggested they go to our local Walgreen's but when push came to shove Hazel did not want to go out. She has been home since this has started except for our walks when it is nice out, a trip to her school for her yearbook picture, a trip to a good friend's house who is also social distancing but we needed to exchange things with one another and trips to her grandmother's house with Steve. I went to Walgreen's and picked up a couple of cards for her grandmothers. She was afraid one of them would not like getting a homemade card. I found it hard to believe but figured it was worth getting cards for her to give them. She can make one for me. Then I got to thinking of the dads out there who haven't had to deal with this before. I got the idea of sharing some when I got an email from Crayola featuring a flamingo card. I figured we had to try it since Hazel LOVES flamingos. 

The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki and the Thousand Paper Cranes -- A Look at the Other Side of WWII and the Atomic Bomb

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book and the various packs of origami paper in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Yesterday I shared various chapter books for different ages (7-young adult). I saved this book to be in its own post for several reasons. First it is a true story. Second part of the story reminds me of what we are facing today. I felt I wanted to do more with this book than just review it. It has paper cranes in the title and provides a tutorial at the end of the book to make your own paper cranes. I figured I had to pull out the piles of origami paper I have and start making some cranes. While I sat there making the cranes I realized this was something families could do together. I'll explain more at the end of the post. The book is The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Sue DiCicco and Mashairo Sasaki (Sadako's brother). It is recommended for ages 7 to 12.

Valentine's Day Crafts--Decorating with Love

Disclosure: I was sent these papers in exchange for honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

This year after taking down Christmas I really had a strong desire to decorate for Valentine's Day. I didn't want to use our regular decorations that we have from years past. I wanted to come up with my own new ones. I helped at Christmas time at Hazel's school with a Christmas station where the kids colored and made 3-D ornaments. I decided to make my own for Valentine's Day. I came up with six different hearts to color using My Memories. 

Reindeer Fun Facts and Craft Round-Up

Can you believe Christmas is only a week away? To get you in the mood and perhaps to entertain your kids, I am sharing some fun facts about reindeer and a craft and activity round-up.

Sharing Saturday 18-19

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. So glad you joined us!!

On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! 

DIY Gift Bows with Cherry Blossoms Gift Wrapping Paper -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing sent me this wrapping paper in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Do you collect wrapping paper like I do? I see some pretty paper and think how it will look on a gift, yet then I tend to "wrap" with gift bags for ease. What do I do with my wrapping paper? Well I have shared some craft ideas like card decorating and envelope liners, paper flowers, paper beads, origami paper and paper cutting crafts, party decorations, and a background for a photo booth.  And of course there is just plain using it for wrapping gifts!! I love how the Cherry Blossoms Gift Wrapping Papers look and recently saw a diy gift bow class.