Wordless Wednesday #6

I woke up this morning to the pitter-patter of rain drops that are oh-so-rare in Sunny So Cal.  Since I have moved to California, the rain is one thing I dearly miss.  While my students all agonized over the weather, I couldn't help but smile and appreciate the beauty of the thundering clouds.  Although the rain seems to have stopped, the sky is still that rare shade of overcast grey.  

The sky was the same shade when I took this photograph of an Ume in 2006 in Fuchu, Japan...

Wordless Wednesday #4

Origami TinyTulip by Mαzen from Yemen

Sometimes the best things come in the smallest packages.

Paper Flower from Helen Croft's Scrap-a-Little!

Most of my projects require very specific sizes of paper, and as a result, I have a whole box of paper scraps sitting in my living room... So in order to remedy my scrap paper problem I stumbled around for a tutorial for paper flowers and came across Helen Croft's Scrap a Little blog and this paper flower tutorial! What I love so much about this tutorial is that it combines a little bit of craftiness and a little bit of folding -- the perfect combination for Japanese chiyogami paper! And it is easy for people like me to understand which is always a definite plus in my book.

So this is what I came up with! I did not have any cute buttons to glue on top, so I tried to make a little flower center with hot glue, seed beeds, and wire. I made the clear and purple part first by threading beads onto the wire, and then made a little mound of hot glue on top to which I sprinkled the seed beeds. I think it looks pretty cute and gives a different texture to the center. You can get a better idea by looking at the close-up photo below.

I think this would look awesome on top of packages or for use in any scrapbook that doesn't mind a little extra volume on the page. I could also see it being used in some kind of paper sculpture or card!

I am excited to some her other flower tutorials to get rid of this ever-growing pile!