Paper – Hopefully Creative

Paper Head v.2

A somewhat smaller model paper head.

I made a hat, it’s lovely, I’ll show you some other day. For that hat to be put on the blog though, I needed a hat stand of some sort. Cue me attempting to put the hat on Paper Head, and remembering that Paper Head is much larger than my head. The hat didn’t fit. So to remedy the issue, I made a new, smaller paper head.

Two paper heads, the left one is smaller

The original paper head has a 60 cm circumference. My head is about 53.5 cm (now that I’ve cut of most of my hair). So following the instructions that came with OrigamiTemplates Low Poly Head, I multiplied that number by .6 and found that I should print the pattern at 89% (I rounded down 89.133…%). So I did precisely that, kept my fingers crossed that it would work and set out to glue it all together. It turned out very decently.

Next to the end results with just a few glue smears on the outside, I only have a blister. I really enjoy putting these sorts of things together, even if I dislike the cutting step because of the blisters and somewhat sore hands. But I do now have a new object to model stuff like hats and earrings on. Double win: fun and practical!

Cards for 2026

Embroidered cards for the new year.

This year, I really aimed to finish my best wishes cards before Christmas. The plan had four main parts:
1. Decide on a design
2. Finish the embroidery
3. Make the cards
4. Write and deliver the cards

Step 1 went well. I had found this super cute cross stitch kit from Bothy Threads called Christmas Quackers that I thought would be perfect. Living in the Netherlands, I’m not sure how many people know the English tradition of Christmas crackers, but the duck was too cute to pass up. So once I finished another embroidery, I set out to stitch this one.

Cross stitch of duckling with a red Christmas cracker in a hoop

Cross stitch of duckling with a red Christmas cracker

Step 2 went decently. I messed up a few times (counting is hard!), but managed to fix the mistakes and ended up with the perfect duck. I really love the fly away feathers on the side. I prefer my cards to be not purely Christmas coded, so I replaced the Christmas Quackers text with Quacking 2026. It was stitched with a gold thread that was absolutely awful to work with, not worth it either since it barely shows up when I photographed it.

Card of a cross stitch of duckling with a red Christmas cracker

Step 3 only had minor mishaps. I made three kinds of cards this year. A small version for roller derby (6 per page), a medium version for work (4 per page) and a large version for sending (2 per page). The S was just printed and had a star cut out. The M was printed with two punched stars and a bit of ho ho ho fabric threaded through. The L was printed with two bits of ho ho ho fabric stuck on using a wax seal (in different colours) with stars. The printer was the main mishap machine, with random white lines appearing in the middle of the image sometimes. Luckily I had enough of the linnen paper to print some more.

Step 4 was done in installments but I managed it all before Christmas. I know some have already been delivered but some may still be on the way. So the only bit that was laid by the wayside was writing the blog post. So I hope all the best for you and your loved ones, and a Quacking 2026!

Paper Head

Making a paper head as a stand in model

After making three kinds of earrings, I figured I needed a better display structure. I can’t wear regular earrings, so I didn’t really know how to model them. Then I thought, if I can make a fairly sturdy paper penguin, there must be paper head models available too. So google, pinterest and etsy to the rescue!

Low poly head and neck on a base made out of white paper

For my purposes this head needed to be head shaped, not too difficult to complete and have ears (relevant for modeling earrings). In the end, I had to decide between three models that seemed decently feasible: OrigamiTemplates (cheap, has ears), Lordpoly (has ears, fewer parts), PolygonalModels (has ears, high complexity). I chose the OrigamiTemplates one, mainly because it was the cheapest.

After coaxing my printer to actually accept the paper I wanted to print it on (220 grams), the eight pages of shapes were printed. There were 48 pieces to cut and score, so I did that in stages. Around 10 or so were cut at a time because I know my hands find it difficult to hold those knives and apply pressure for a long time. I used an awl to score, which was very effective.

The written instructions were very clear and there was also a video showing how it was put together in case you get stuck. It came together fantastically, all the pieces fit together and I only struggled with the ears because those have some really tiny folds to contend with. Once those ears were on, it came together really quickly and I finished it in one afternoon.

The head was pasted on to the base and it seems quite stable. If it will tip over in the future, I’ll probably add some curtain weights in the bottom of the base. I like that it’s still open on the bottom for modifications like this. The last thing I did was punch a hole in the ear for earrings. You’ll probably see this head from time to time to model things like earrings and hats. I do like to do paper projects every now and again, and combining the useful with the fun is always great.

Happy 2025!

Happy new year!

As usual, the end of November meant some paper crafting time. This year for the cards, I settled on wanting to use (a) button(s) and have a terrible animal pun. The original plan centered on (s)nail it, but I couldn’t really get it to work. So I trawled pinterest and google for cards and found the use of ‘whaley’ as ‘really’ and thought that was a pretty decent idea. It’s also possible to make a little round whale that I could stick a button on.

Blue card with 'Have a whaley great 2025!' printed, a small whale with a button attached with a yarn bow.

Red card with 'Have a whaley great 2025!' printed, a small whale with a button attached with a yarn bow.

For the actual design, I picked a new font: Edo SZ and wrote the text in a word file. Since I didn’t necessarily want to have a copyright problem, I built the whale fin shape and its firework fountain from word icons. Is that the designer way? It very much is not! But I did really enjoy playing with the stock images and manipulating them until it did what I wanted. The origin is fireworks, leaves, a moon shape and a circle.

Three blue cards with 'Have a whaley great 2025!' printed, a small whale with a button attached with a yarn bow.

Three red cards with 'Have a whaley great 2025!' printed, a small whale with a button attached with a yarn bow.

To put them together, the files were printed on some paper I found in my stash. The buttons were attached using a short length of self-dyed thread. All the buttons also came from the stash. I didn’t have to buy anything new for this card. In the end, I also made a separate version for my roller derby team and wished everyone: ‘let’s have a whale of a time together in 2025!’. These were on some linen stock that was also from my stash.

So for now, happy holidays and may you all have a whale of a time in 2025!

Octopus Award

Making a plush to celebrate a fellow skater

Our new tradition of making an award for the end of roller derby season took place again. I got to make an award for one of our newest skaters. My inspiration came very late, but when it did, it hit hard. My skater is someone who does all kinds of things; in her daily life she’s a hairdresser and a barber, is getting married soon, moving into her house etc. I wanted to reference all of that, and include her way of turning around on roller skates, which is more of a ‘disco turn’ than a step transition. So I decided to make an octopus plush with a disco ball for helmet.

Gray and yellow octopus plush with a sequin 'helmet' and cardboard icons around its tentacles.

Back of gray and yellow octopus plush with a sequin 'helmet' and cardboard icons around its tentacles.

I already had the Octopus plush pattern from Choly Knight, so I decided to reference that. Since the normal round arms from the pattern wouldn’t be conducive to give a ‘holding something’ impression, I wanted some longer arms. Reddit came to the rescue with this post by CynamonoweKrzeslo, where the sewist also helpfully shared the pattern for their tentacles. I enlarged the pattern a little until it was the size that I wanted and cut some out in a grey fleece and yellow bobble minky. The test-tentacle looked great! So I cut out eight more before heading to bed.

The next morning, I assembled all tentacles and needed to decide on the size of the head. In the end, the original Octopus plush pattern head shape, the eyes and laughing mouth were all enlarged 150% and printed out. This looked great, so I embroidered the eyes and mouth on and assembled the plush together. One of its arms is put into the disco fever pose with a little hook that you can hang a tiny loop on. The helmet is made from foam and an overlay of sequin fabric (for a disco ball effect) – I am still finding sequins in my house. The pattern was based on the normal head shape of the octopus plush with a little extra space. Some ribbon is used for the straps.

Gray and yellow octopus plush, with zoom on the ring and key cardboard icons around its tentacles.

Gray and yellow octopus plush with a focus on the donut and comb cardboard icons around its tentacles.

To reference all the items, which I wanted to keep removable, I chose word icons (to keep a similar style) and printed them on cardstock. I put two together with a loop of sticky tape to get them to stay around the tentacles. There are two roller skates, a ring, a donut, a cupcake, a comb, scissors and keys. I also wrote a rhyming poem to explain what I did. The helmet is also removable, so it can also be a ‘naked’ octopus.

I think he’s adorable and I hope she’ll enjoy having him around!

Happy New Year

Wishing you all a Faunatastic 2024!

This year, there were two versions of the New Year’s Card; both variations on the same pun. The simple one had three animals cut out and a print of the new year’s wish in an animal paw font. Then I added a random assortment of stars from my stash (several old Christmas card ‘chads’). The first image was taken on a red background to show the stamped out fauna. The card itself is white linnen paper.

The second one used a cutting and embossing machine that I got myself in the lead up to Christmas. I’m not entirely sure how much I will be using it, but I have now purchased enough cutters to last a while (one would hope). This one is a round ‘tree scape’ cut from marble paper, and two or so different animals cut from either discarded marble paper or black paper. This is all glued onto some white linnen cardstock and cut into the shape of a drop. The hole is made with a snowflake punch, and the slogan was printed on some Christmas card stock and then had a raindrop punched in. They are attached using the strings of an old graduation tassel. I like these and the machine a lot, but after 25, I was sort of done. And I needed some more for work; hence the simple version above.

In any case, I wish you all a faunatastic 2024!

May you experience joy, stay (or become) healthy and continue to be hopefully creative!

Aurea & Center Street

Self striping zebra yarn boleros, no raccoons in sight.

My first shipment of wholesale yarn included a kilo of Superwash Zebra DK, a 100% merino wool that has black and white yarn. I was massively interested in seeing how that would knit up, so I started a project in June 2022. I cast on the bolero Aurea by Berroco Design Team and planned to incorporate the eyelet details of the Center Street by CJOriginals on the back. When I look back on the project and what the Aurea pattern says, I did not follow the instructions. I didn’t make separate pieces for the back and fronts and instead knit those all in one piece. Once the main body was done, I put it in a corner and only looked at it again in May 2023.

At that time, I decided to start knitting the arms. Again not wanting to deal with seaming, I tried to do top down set-in sleeves. I’m fairly certain that I didn’t make the sleeve cap large enough, so that’s something to keep in mind for next time. But the sleeves are there and that’s all that really counts. I then started on the neck edge, which was frogged a few times before I was happy with it. It needed a lot more stitches than I initially thought.

I do really like this yarn, it’s so soft and the way it stripes is really interesting. I do find it funny that there is less of a raccoon arm effect, where the stripes on the arms are much wider than those on the body. I guess the knitting in the round of the sleeve and the much longer knitting back and forth in the body almost cancel each other out. I haven’t yet entirely figured out how to wear it, because it does gape a little. I think I’m going to find some sort of pin to keep the fronts together and see how I like it then. For now, I’m happy with it because it is cute and warm.

Cards for 2023

Healthy & Happy 2023!

As with every year, I wanted to send some cards to celebrate the new year. It’s been a bit of a draining time with lots of stuff to do around work and personal life so inspiration was slow to flow. At some point I resorted to Pinteresting just to see if there could be some idea available. I found something that I liked in this pin. It’s the year turned sideways to create a Christmas tree and some well wishes below. I figured I could use my extensive word-art skills to achieve something like that.

I decided that I wanted to make the trunk of the tree out of other well wishes and that it of course needed an exclamation mark in the year. So I put those in and then tried just about every font in the Word catalogue, before settling on Rage Italic – not sure the name is very Christmassy, but ey. I chose healthy and happy because they fit in well with the angle of the first 2. And of course because everyone deserves health and happiness. The trunk needed to be brown and the year green, for optimal tree effect. A light coloured circle was put around it so I could cut them to shape on the off-white linnen paper. Once that was done, I punched a star hole at the top of the tree. Et voilà: card.

So to everyone, a healthy a happy 2023!

Paper Rabbits

A cute little polygon rabbit that was super easy to put together.

I recently rediscovered the Canon Creative Park Paper Craft pages with the help of a friend of mine. These are mostly fairly simple paper crafts that you can download for free. There are many different things available, from more bendy models to the regular polygon types but also post cards, moving toys and other art. I also found a set of stacking animals that is absolutely great and I am planning to make at some point.

I looked for a bunny that I thought a colleague would really like, and managed to find a polygon rabbit. So I printed it out and left it in the corner for a few weeks. Spurred on by the plan to have lunch, I decided to get going and actually cut and stick the creature together the night before. While the instructions were slightly different to other paper crafts I’ve done – no numbers but coloured dots – it went very smoothly.

The end result is a pretty sweet, two-toned standing rabbit. What I appreciate a lot about this specific pattern is that it instructs you to cut a hole in the bottom piece. This makes it so much easier to stick the last few bits together as you can just get your fingers in. The paper I used was 160 grams, but not the suggested Canon photo paper. This worked just fine, though. I look forward to making more of the Canon patterns as they have so many lovely ones available.

Dice-adjacent

Three projects based on dice.

While browsing though Pinterest a little while back, I found a paper calendar in the shape of a 12-sided die (d12). The one I found originally had weeks starting on a Sunday, which my brain can’t cope with, so I searched some more and found a calendar that started on Monday (here). I printed it out on craft cardstock, cut and scored on the relevant lines and glued it together. It now lives on my desk as an easy way to look up what day something is. I thought that would be that with dice shaped things for a while, but it turned out that it wasn’t.

The dungeon master of the Pathfinder campaign – a table top role playing game – I play in had his birthday recently. I wanted to think of a nice gift but he already has everything / my imagination was limited. So to harken back to our evenings filled with adventure, I decided to make d20 (20-sided die) pouch. I’d found a pattern from 2009 by Evil Mad Scientist (here) and got to work. I cut the 40 pieces almost entirely out of scraps and then had to add numbers to the faces. I did that by printing numbers on paper (font GoodDog Plain) and then cutting them out and painting in the holes. This worked quite well. Some interfacing was fused on and then the sewing started. There were so many mistakes, the interfacing was wrong, the sewing was inaccurate, the zipper was too close… I finished the outside and part of the lining and then gave up. It’s in the clothing scraps bin now and if I ever feel the need to make something like it, I will aim not to rush. However, this was not the end of the dice projects.

Because I then thought “wait, I can also make a d12!” It has less pieces, I can use the hexagon paper piecing that I’ve done before and I can sew it by hand to be more accurate. So I set out to do that. The original d20 pattern that I used, also listed a d12 pattern (here). I rejigged some of the pieces, found the fabric I wanted to use and chose a different fusible for stiffening. The same templates were used for the numbers, but I decided to add some ‘fun’ and made the 1 face out of a mouse fabric and the 12 face out of stars. The 12 face is the one that opens, but I only figured out a solution to keep the bag from losing dice everywhere after I’d already completed the outside and the lining. The closure was tackled by adding in a sleeve that can tighten down. The 12 face can then be buttoned on top and that should prevent accidental dice spills.

All in all, I had some fun with impromptu projects that I had not anticipated. I still have some other things that I need to finish (dinosaur coat v2, black sweater and graduation project) or start (graduation project if I can’t figure out finishing the original graduation project). So I’m not sure I should have made time for these, but well, sometimes when inspiration strikes, you need to follow its lead, right?

Category: Paper