Some very last minute gift wrap ideas....

Here are some last minute  gift wrapping ideas for a small box, a big bow and some gift tags...you can use these ideas all year round or immediately for Hanukkah and Christmas!

Gather up some paper towel or toilet paper rolls and misc. card board and you have material for tags and small boxes

Thanks to my mom for always having crafty supplies on hand this paper tube box lives on . These are  decorated  with wall paper, measuring tape, book pages and a paper bag. I used a fiskar punch to punch out the heart and multiple scallop punches stacked for the flower. I glue gunned a button in the middle of it. Just push in the ends of the tube to close the box. You can put jewelry, candy or money in the box.

I save card board and make gift tags out it. I grabbed some wine box dividers at Trader  Joes. They are perfect  for this.

Here are the repurposed gift tags from the card board heading to the recycling bin. I die cut the medium one using a Sizxix Big Shot machine and die. The small tags were punched with a fiskar punch and the large one was just cut with a scissor and I stamped a "to" and "from" on it. I added some twine, thread and yarn and they are ready to put on a package!

 Next up is a short tutorial about how to make a paper flower for gift boxes  from  coffee filers. I bought mine at the dollar store and there is enough in the packages to make about 20 bows.  Start out by folding a single filter in half and then in half again three more times. 

Once you have the folded filter you can choose how to cut the tip of the "flower".   I am showing a pointed shaped and a more rounded tip. Both look great. I usually use 5-6 filters per flower.

These are the results of cutting a pointed petal and a rounded petal. After cutting five or six of desired design take a glue stick and put glue in the center not touching the petals. Stack your filters on top of each other. When you get to the last one put a little glue in the center and "fluff up the flower.  You can add a stamen with book pages (or yarn, fringe)  cut into strips and glue gun to the center. If you have time you can also dye the filter in tea, onions, even beets for color. Boil water and drop in the filters and chosen "dye". Beware you will have to air dry them and they will be all over your kitchen. I am going for the white for now. Or buy the recyled filters that are a brown color. I haven't spotted any of those at the $ store yet.  Have fun!  Off to wrap my last minute packages!!

We gave another workshop at FabMo on Sunday. An eco gift wrap using mostly Fabmo materials. We wrapped with a lot of beautiful wall paper from FabMo. I did bring along a stack of coffee filters to make some festive bows. Everyone did a great job and were excited to "wrap out of the box"!

Jenny, Megumi, Shaui, Jake, Kristin, Monica,( Front row) Miles (her grandson) and Dorothy

Happy Birthday Dorothy!!!! Last Saturday was a special day since it was Dorothy's 70th Birthday. Megumi  Inouye and I were giving a second Scrap Wrap workshop at Scrap and Dorothy helped us as always. Scrap staff friends, Shuai, Jenny, Jake and Kristin surprised Dorothy with a cake. Later that night a bunch us of girl friends took her out to dinner at B Star. Finally we got do do something for her!!!  You do SOOOOOOO much for all of us Dorothy!

Scrap wrap! Wrapping gift with all sorts of unusual material! Using the Scotch wrist tape dispenser!

Surprise!!!!!!!

Make a wish Dorothy!

I made goodie bags to pass out at Dorothy's dinner. I used french bags and stamped butterflies on them and filled them with  Sizzix  die cut gift tags and mini envelopes to use over the holidays. I used old books and maps and found card board to make it all.

I made the DOT envelope for Dorothy's gift. Here she is with friend Kenan.

Happy Holidays to you!

I collaborated with Dorothy with a sampling of our zipper pins and felted flower pins to make a wreath. We were preparing for a photo shoot to promote a future workshop at the SF Tech Shop. I originally wanted to make a permanent wreath and then came up with the idea to just "stab" the pins in the wreath form so you could take the brooches of and off to wear them. I am happy with the way it came out.

Another morning at our almost private beach....

No one in sight except the bridge that morning.

Last week I walked at Baker Beach with my friend Yuriko and her dog and my dog. We often walk after we drop our sons off at school. That day was so windy that only one other person was on the beach that morning. Look what they missed.. You could see for miles since it was so incredibly clear.

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Herby strolling with his ball and pal Mohawk who is eating his breakfast of seaweed. (no kidding)

The sand was incredibly deep leaving big tracks when we walked. These are Herby's tracks...off searching for something.

Second find of the week

 I was going to see the Houdini show at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and stopped by the Craft and Folk museum but it had closed already. I spied a wonderful Christmas tree in the window made out what looks like magazines. Of course I want to make one for next years Christmas. I know better than to think I could make it for this year unless I made it sort of small.....hmmm

Bernard Maybeck Architect

We attended a book signing Sunday of Bernard Maybeck Architect of Elegance by publisher Gibbs Smith.  The author Mark Wilson and Joel Puliatti the photographer are friends of our family.

The book signing and presentation was at a Bernard Maybeck home not far from our house.  It was lovely home and a treat to be able to see the interior of a Maybeck home.

 I have photographed quite a few Maybeck homes over the years. They are not easy to photograph and Joel did a beautiful job.  His interior shots are amazing.
 I have known the author Mark Wilson for almost 30 years and he is an expert on Maybeck and so knowledgeable on architectural history. We worked on two books together. The first book was a architectural walking tours book called Living Legacy and was published in the nineteen eighties  and more recently the book Julia Morgan Architect of Beauty. Joel photographed all of the interiors and I photographed the exteriors and details for the Morgan book. That is the last big job we did with film....

Mark and Jonathan relaxing in the living room of a Maybeck home

Author Mark Wilson signing books

Photographer Joel Puliatti and Olivia Teter

Congratulations to Joel and Mark on a beautiful book. I saw it first prominently displayed at the SF Museum of Modern Art bookstore.

Red Carpet!

Friday night our daughter Elana's film REM was shown at the Ocean Avenue Film festival produced by Maria Fe Picar of the Oceanview Merced Ingleside Cultural Participation Project (OMI-CPP) It was the first public showing of her film. She was the youngest filmmaker selected to show her work in the festival this year. Next Saturday it will be shown again at The Urban School of San Francisco at their first film festival. She again will be the youngest student to have her film screened at the event. It was great to see it on a big screen and to a bigger audience. She worked very hard on the film  and we are very proud of her.

A scene from REM

A Q & A session with the filmmakers  after the screening of films

  

Sunnyside Conservatory Holiday Card Party

The second annual Holiday Craft Party was a huge success on Saturday. The weather was wonderful and the Sunnyside Conservatory was filled with children and adults all busily making holiday cards, envelope and a lot of ornaments! Dorothy Yuki never left the ornament table-clearly a favorite new table this year! It was a fun and busy day spent using all materials that were repurposed to recreate special handmade cards. We are doing our part to support the U.S. Postal Service this holiday season! Send mail! SCRAP generously donated materials to the event and Carly was there to spread the word about SCRAP and help maintain some order at the die cutting, punch and rubbers stamp table! Thank you Stacy for making the event happen. We will see everyone again in February for the Valentine Card Party.

My sister Dana helping me set up for the event.  We brought a van load of paper, cutters, stamps, scissors and glue to the event.

Dorothy Yuki, myself and Stacy Garfinkel at the popular ornament table we added this year making ornaments from toilet paper tubes,  leftover wall paper, calendars, envelopes and  tickets.  See below some samples.

Carly from SCRAP explaining what SCRAP is all about.

Steve's ornament fitting since he is a musician and works in radio.

Chester's ornament made from an outdated calendar page.

Ruth's Table Craft NIght with Tomoko Lipp

We had a huge turnout at Ruth's Table for our second Craft Night with guest artist Tomoko Lipp from 3R Art Paper Rose Project. Almost 50 people turned out to make wonderful paper roses from the colored sections of newspapers. It was a wonderful evening of food and art and all of us joining in to spread the words of Tomoko "Let's Reduce, Reuse and Recycle". Thank you Tomoko for all your hard word and teaching us all how to make a paper rose. You will see by the photos how great all of them were-- everyone of them different and beautiful.

The Paper Rose team for Ruth's - Dorothy Yuki, Monica Lee, Tomoko Lipp, Megan Coss and Lola Fraknoi

Tomoko demonstrating the paper rose project.

Lily, Olivia, Corey, Leslie, Dana, Yuriko and Megumi making thier first paper rose.