Orikeshi Keshigomu (Original)

So, when I was in Japan, I had the feeling that this is what heaven must feel like. You have all the fun craft and toys at your disposal, if only life is just like that. Oh yeah, it can be, if I win the lottery or something... sigh.

Anyway, one of the kits I picked up, and snuck by my mom (who wasn't allowing me to buy stuff) was the Original Keshigomu kit, gesundheit... haha, I know. Mind you, I'm a grown woman, and my mom still has that hold on me... go figure.

I highly recommend any beginner to get the starter kit. Not only it's a good value, it is also has all the basic stuff to get you started and not have to fuss with all the little parts and buy them individually.

I decided to do a tutorial because first of all, I don't read a lick of Japanese. Second, there's no clear instructions anywhere on the Interweb to show me how to do this. And while there are videos (more like commericals) for the product, and the kit does come with instructions, it doesn't help me when I try to decode Greek without knowing what I'm doing.

That said, first off, where to get this kit? I got mine at Laox store in Akihabara, which is right outside of the station. The area is known for Anime, Video Games, and Electronic mecca. The Laox store is a giant department/electronic store. Think of Best Buy but 7 stories high and packed full of stuff from movies to TVs to office supplies.

If you're in Japan, I'm sure the easiest ways to get the kit is to go to any toy stores. If you're a US user like I am, I did fine them on eBay. Another online vendor is Hobby Link Japan (http://www.hlj.com/). I have not tried either one of them, so can't tell you how they ship, but merely they are available out there.

I also thought that there's a limited release of this type of kit by FAO Schwarz, distribute throught Toys R' Us, don't mark me on that, I just saw it in passing and not sure if that's still available.

Ok, on to the tutorial!

As the first photo showed you what the kit looks like. Obviously, I would pick something Hello Kitty related. Duh!

The 2nd photo shows you what's included in the kit. It has the setting piece, a teezer looking piece to help steady your hand while placing the pieces. Cards, more like templates, and the gum pieces themselves.

If you remember way back when, rubber erasers are really made out of rubber gum. So, in Japanese, they call these pieces gum. You can use them to erase things or make something like these cool erasers.

The 3rd photo shows you the type of templates they have included in the kit. Since this is Hello Kitty based, obviously they have HK. But there are kits based on other cartoon characters. I also bought a glow-in-the-dark kit as well. Each supplement kit comes with additional gum sticks and templates, assuming that you have the holder (the pink thing).

The templates, as you can see, comes in 2 sizes. Large and small. If you're creative enough, you can make it bigger and combine pieces. You can try to make it smaller, but the difficulty lies in the fact that the little pieces will tumble over and not stand still together. I know, cuz I've tried. I do know that they have a newer kit that has spacers, so you can make a true heart shape or something else.

What you need to note is that for the smaller size it's a 10X10, which means 10 rows down and 10 columns across, that's 100 little pieces of gum for you to piece together. The larger size is 13X13. There are template on in the kit so you can draw your own, and you can get it here. That way you can design your own eraser.

On the upper left hand corner, look at the 4th photo, you see different color w/ a number next to it. That is a guide to tell you that you need that many pieces for that color. So you can peel them apart ahead of time and go w/ that guide (see 5th photo).

Once you had the pieces together like the template (see 6th photo). You are ready to pack it in. Make sure you remove the template. Since it's a cardboard, pretty sure it's not a big deal if it went thru the microwave, but if you have the eraser piece in w/ the template, it will stick. Use the 90 degree L piece to squeeze in the pieces. That way it will not move during transport. Where are you transporting it to, you ask? We're moving it to the microwave. Yes, how else did you think they would seal together?

Before you put it in the microwave, put a tablespoon of water over the pieces. (see 7th photo)The water is going to help bind the little pieces together. Do make sure that the entire piece has some moisure. No need to dump a cup of water over it, just make sure the water is spread out evenly. Once that's done, you're ready to close the holder and pop it into the microwave.

Since the instructions are written in Japanese with the assumption that the user will be using a Japanese microwave, which is between 500 - 600 watts. In US, most average is 700 watts. So, instead of melting your piece unnecessarily, you can use this guide I found on the internet. Basically, if you were to use the 500 watt microwave, you put it in for 1 minute. So, if you adjust it to 700 watts, it'll be about 45 seconds. Check your microwave on the wattage before putting this in there and melt the whole thing off...

If the eraser came out too loose or easily peel apart, then you need to pop it back in for 10 more seconds, if it's melted like wax, then you should've subtract 10 seconds. Play around w/ it, until you like what you got.

After you take it out of the microwave, put the holder in a bowl of cold water for 10 mins. As you can see, I put a towel down just in case I make a mess.

Once you open the holder, there will be some moisture that didn't get heated up and evaoprate into the rubber eraser. So it will be slightly damp, just dry off w/ the towel.

Then, ta da! Here's your final product.

As I said before, there are different kits available out there. You can drool about them here. They have glow-in-the-dark kit, Deluxe kit, sweets, tamagotchi, beans... and so on.

Hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed playing w/ it and making these cool little erasers.

Sewing project...

I know this is a stamping blog, and I haven't have time to stamp... ironically I have time to sew. haha. No, not really. I have a very good reason to do it.

These past few years, I've been teaching craft and crochet at Sew Crafty here in Houston. I've actually have taught stamping classes there. I think that's a hit more for the kids than the grown ups. I think since there's more and more locals that does scrapbooking that they got their exposure to stamping than the kids do. I think that's ironic because I learned how to stamp when I was a kid. That's how my mom kept me busy for hours. Nothing fancy like they are now, but still got the idea....

Anyway, since the store was closing, we wanted to show our gratitude to our boss/owner - more like a friend, Sarah. She's so awesome that you want to drop your to-do list and make something cool for her.

So, each one of us did a block, and since I was the crazy one who wanted to do this quilt, I ended up sewing it together. Don't look too close because I know that there are alot of non-straight lines out there.... lol.

This is a block from witty front desk lady, Alex

This is a hand-embroidered block by Shawn, one of the sewing teachers.

This is a block by Melissa, our knitting teacher

This is the Sew Crafty Logo, center of our piece.

This is our group photo.

I did a crochet block.

This is a block from Alanna, our all powerful ops manager that keep tabs on everyone.

This is made by our other sewing teacher, Jenny.

I will miss those girls, every single one of them are awesome, smart, and talented, most of all they are all so kind, funny, and overall awesome. :)

Mea culpa...

My bad, I know I haven't posted in ages. I've been doing alot of crochet work lately. No, I haven't abandon stamping, as a matter of fact, I bought some new stamps. Some are arriving, and some are still waiting for the vendors to play catch up from CHA.

Anyway, if you're in Houston and you craft you probably have heard that Sew Crafty is closing (sad face). Why it's important is because I've been teaching there for the past 2.5 yrs or so. I've taught stamp classes, craft classes (magnets & bath), but what took off was really the crochet classes.

As that popularity grew, there are more interests in special classes, which led to more research and more work. I found that stamp classes are over-saturated in the Houston area, but crochet isn't.

SO!!!! That led to me taking a leap. I'm going to do classes in the Houston area. I can do stamp and soap classes too, so tell your friends. I'm posting class info at Penguin Luau, you can also Like me on Facebook for the up-to-date class info.

Wish me luck!

p.s. will post what I got from Japan soon, I promise!

Crafting on NPR

You have to listen to this Amy Sedaris w/ NPR's Market Place interview.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/29/pm-amy-sedaris-on-crafting-for-poor-people/

There's an excerpt from her book, they have a project for you to try, and here's her Commandments:

The Ten Commandments of Craftting

I. Remember the crafting day, to keep it hobby.

II. Thou shalt not attempt crafting beyond thy intellectual capacity — a nitwit can’t knit.

III. Thou shalt not craft graven images of thy neighbor’s wife.

IV. Thou shalt remember to replace the glue cap so the top of the bottle doesn’t dry out and then thou hast to get a pin to poke a hole but thy glue never really flows as well as it did before.

V.Thou shalt not fill envelopes with glitter and confetti and send them through the mail.

VI. Thou shalt remember that Popsicle stick crafts only have the illusion of being structurally sound.

VII.Thou shalt not force a mollusk out of its shell by boiling it alive but rather coax it out with a fork when making a shell necklace.

VIII. This craft book, which towers above all other craft books, is a jealous craft book. Thou shalt have no other craft books before it.

IX. Remember to honor thy crafting and pastimes for they are a great way to get your mind off all the damage that thou parents did.

X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s crafts, even though those crafts look like they are supposed to and thouist crafts resemble a random pile of yarn.

I know it's been a long while, no excuse but life and work blocks the Blogger site. Argh!

Anyway, this was intent to be a mothers day card, but somehow that became just a Thinking of You kinda card.

This stamp is the new series from Stampin Up where they are die-cut but not supposed to mount on a wood block. I must say SU finally caught on that people carrying wood blocks from place to place is horrible and finally realize the space-saving thing to do is to not have wood blocks.

I know and love my woodblocks, trust me. But, the moving of blocks and space it took up , it's just became clumsy. My drawers that holds the wood block, while it's plastic, can't hold alot. Not to mention the space, it had became too heavy and when I pull them out, it rips the drawer open.

I would love it if they do the clear cling, but I also know that it will sacrifice the image and how long it'll last. Give and take, I supposed.

Supplies:

Cards & Stamp by SU

Butterfly by Making Memories

Circus

Circus
Originally uploaded by Patty_kins

I know I haven't blogged like forever. Truth be told I haven't had the time, nor was I in the mood to stamp. I love to re-arrange my stamps and supplies just therapeutic enough for me.

Anyway, I got this new Anya set from The Greeting Farm, and thought it'd be cute to go w/ the circus animal. I really wanted to use the lion and the elephant, but as you can see, I was running out of room.

What else would be perfect would be the 'Announcement' stamp from A Muse. Either way, the My Cute Stamps has great quality and really cute stamps. I would say some are closely resemblance of SU. So, that's interesting.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper by Making Memories
Anya Stamp by TGF
Animal Stamps by My Cute Stamps

Kid's activity box

So, I know I've been slacking on posting cards. I do have cards done, just haven't taken photos of them and put them up online.

That said, the other day, my co-worker was just baffled at what to do w/ her 3 year old. They were looking at the craft camps and theatre camps and music camps. The main thing was that they want to line up things to keep the little girl busy whenever they have some down time.

I was inspired by the Bored No More Box , it was not different than the rainy day box that I've seen people sell, but this is cheaper.

What's inside?
This is alot of stuff, but to be honest, that didn't even fill up the box.
There are some fuzzy stuff, like pom pom of different sizes. The pipe cleaners.
There's lollipop stick people, googly eyes, feathers and foam stamps.
Washable markets, color pencils and crayons.
Scissors, glue sticks, Elmer glue, and foam stickers.

The idea is that she can create something, all they need to add is paper and imagination.

If you are doing a box of your own, here's a few tips:
1, look around at the clearence section, there's tons of stickers and stuff on sale for 50cents and the kids will get enjoyment out of it.
2, while Crayola is the brand of choice, I *heart* them, their stuff ain't cheap. RoseArt is just as competitive, and frankly the kids don't care what brand they are.
3, anything that moves or different texture helps (i.e. the fuzzy stuff)
4, these are good for independent activities as well as parent/kiddy activity, so it is not limited.
5, Decorate the box too. I used PermaColor to color the box, you can stick things on there and use markers to draw on them.

Sky is the limit.