papercrafting (and a bit more)

In an effort to add more crafting to our lives, I recently checked out Papercrafts Around the World by Phyllis Fiarotta and Noel Fiarotta. I am absolutely in love with this book and the possibilities it presents, which is great because I've never been particularly interested in papercrafts before. I think I checked out the book before we went on vacation and that means it's due very soon. I'll either be checking this out again (and again and again) or I'll be searching for a used copy online (I'm not really in a position to be buying new books at the moment, and I have mixed feelings about this...I'll get into it another time).

I started out by making a list of the projects I might be interested in doing in this book, but I was writing down every single project. I kind of hope making the projects in this book will be a long-term deal for us.

Today, Pic and I started out very simply. I wasn't feeling so hot and I really just wanted to go back to bed and sleep. Our first project? Tangrams*:



According to the Fiarottas (the Fiarotte), tangrams are Chinese puzzles in which seven specific geometric shapes (the tans) are cut from a square and are then used to create pictures. Traditionally, the pieces are red, but I went with green and Pic went with black, her favorite color. The shapes from the book are a square, five triangles (of various sizes) and a rhombus. Hello, geometry discussion. I'm not sure if the shapes are traditionally always the same.

I arranged my tans to create some of the animals pictured in the book. I also made something that might have been a lantern and might have been a houseboat. Pic made a fox with a skirt (with an added rectangle left over from my paper) and promptly taped it together to hang on her bulletin board. She made one set of tans and I made three, so although her pieces can't be rearranged, there are still plenty of pieces to play with.

I recently bought a roll of magnetic paper stuff for us to cut up into geometric shapes for mosaics. I was thinking this could be great for road trips. We could bring the pieces and a baking sheet and we could create pictures on our drives. Tracing shapes and then cutting and coloring them will be a nice project to follow our tangrams.

Now, for the 'bit more'. This past weekend, Pic chose a hula hoop at a yard sale. She and I are at the exact same aptitude level with the thing: we can hoop for about 3.5 seconds. I am predicting lots and lots of practice in our future. Wish us luck with that endeavor.



Other than a post-rain/post-hail walk today, we didn't do too much around these parts. We spent about five minutes painting the previously-unpainted parts of our pinch pots and paperweights. Nothing much seemed to hold my interest for too long today. Well, until I went on something of a baking trip beginning well after it should have, but I'll write more about that later.

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* I swear that I have vacuumed that rug since the last time I posted a picture of it. I'm not sure why I bother, though.