Time for Craft

The 2nd time into the Sony Creative Science Award 2011 competition, and we grabbed away the Merit Prize with this recycled project titled - Pursuit of happiness. Months of researching, brainstorming seems worth it. We're considered the 'lucky' (when opportunity meets preparations) ones, out of a few thousand pieces of projects submitted, we were shortlisted. The whole idea was inspired by the karakuri , automata concept. I started building the 3 seagulls with popsicle sticks. Duplicating a few copies of the same body shape on the popsicles, three pieces were glued together to get the thickness (body) of the seagull. Small little piece of white felt were sticked at both sides of the body as an extension from the wing to the body to give it the flexibility to flab. The whole setup was a A4 paper carton box, waves pieces were cut out from trash cardboard, wine cork was used as the t...

My son has been pestering me to buy a dog house for his pet dog, Richie, ever since he arrived at our home last November. But I just couldn't bring myself to spent on something that may bring me more work to clean up. I might also end up buying something that the little creature dislike. After all, who will be moving in to the new apartment if this happened?? So after months of playing 'TaiJi' (delaying his request) with my son, I finally found this carton box that I can turn it into a temporary yet economical dog kennel. You know about 'test the market' right? So this is the way to test a dog on how he except his new home, heex. I started out by cutting the pointed edge of the two sides of the roof. Bending the front and the back pieces of the roof to meet at the top of the roof, fixing them all together with masking tape. And next, I cut out the door and the heart shaped window... Getting the kid to do the painting make them more involved in the project he hoped...

It was a competition hold by the school to make a toy from recycle materials. After attending the Sony Creative Award Prize Presentation held in July, we certainly gained more insight on the awarded toys children have made. For this reason, I wanted more contribution from my son this time. So he suggested on a number of designs, drew it out and explained to me on how to play with them. With all his ideas, I brought in all the 'free' materials that I have, we fixed them up and tested on the toy several times. We used toilet paper rolls and some bottle caps on the trial run. It was until we used the little green balls recycled from chinese medicines as one of the materials, then the idea of a war site striked our mind. Initially, the bomb loader that we came up with was unable to 'work' probably. We opted out a number of possibilties and finally decided to use two containers, a chopstick and a rubber band to do the job. It was an enjoyable process making this toy. The wh...

This is one of the little DIY project with recycled stuffs I did back in the ol' days, sometime in 1997. I collected the wooden blocks and boards from grapes carton. The wood texture was quite smooth and nice, I just feel 'sayang' (in Malay it means 'a pity') not to 'tap' on its potential:> haha! Making use of the woods, I made them into a toilet roll holder with some nails, hot glue and paints. I even sticked a few decorative tiles and a plastic dog toy for an added fun. So if you're a reading this, feeling stuck to have not enough capital for your home renovation, or things have been stagnant for years in there at home, something just need to be done etc... Make use of the resources that can be found in the surrounding, tap on them to transform into the unlimited possibilties. A little at a time, you just need an eye to look at things differently to make it a great difference to your world!

Inspire by my friend, Mindy, I couldn't wait further to put my hands on making a pinata for my two nieces on their coming birthday celebration at the beach. From the old old story, Pinata was first started by the Chinese. They celebrated New Year by making figures of cow, buffalo, covered with colored papers and filled with seeds. Though the point of the game is to get the goodie inside, the underlying meaning of such game symbolizes 'hopes'. As the pinata is hanging above your head, its just like you are hoping something from the sky above. Besides, it also symbolizes 'charity', as everyone will have their share of the goodie inside the pinata when it's hit opened. It took me a few days to have it done and a couple of minutes to have it 'destroyed', but I enjoyed making it and seeing the kids having fun and laughter hitting it. The happiness and memories that left behind is enough for this craft to be continued after generations. ...

As a mum with young kid, we tend to wake up in the middle of the nights checking on their safety, whether they are well undercover with a blanket or have our pet dog taken over their pillow and bolster and having a rolling good night... There're so much that we couldn't stop getting worried. To save me from fear that my boy might roll down from the bed one day, I made this bedside falling guard for him last year. We call it his guardian angel. Even though I'm not quiet confident how it will work out when I first started working on it, wondering how tolerant it will be to withstand his weight in the night, but months of quality checked - Passed!, He did not roll down- Relived! And I have more peaceful sleep all this while. These are all you need to get started: 1 huge, thick and durable carton box (I got mine free from a neighbor who bought a LCD TV) Cutter &...

This post is specially dedicated to a friend, Mindy, a big applause to a great mum who created this castle pinata for her kids at their birthday party! Didn't take a good picture of it before it's gone with the hitting and smashing from the kids for the goodness in it to explode. By the way, pinata has been a significant tradition 'toy' suspended from a height, intended to be broken by blindfolded children with a stick. It symbolises hope to look upon and has been a way to celebrate special occasions such as Birthdays, Christmas and New Year. Basically, a recycled carton box to form the shape of the castle, rounded hollow tubes were added on the corners as the towers and cone shapes were topped on the tops. Colored crepe papers were cut and decorated. It sounds as simple as it is, but it's time, effort and loves that contributed to the making! Great to share awesomeness from friends here...

Since the beginning of 2007, I've been actively involved in my son's pre-school class teaching them craft as a form of parental involvement. As the journey from home to school takes at least 2 hours to and fro, I must as well make use of the 3 hours waiting time to do something more meaningful. I remembered the very 1st craft I taught was a goodie goodie basket made of red packets. Handling 18 kids all at one time blows up your head. They just go 'Aunty this... Aunty that... Aunty blah blah blah...' But, to see them bringing back the crafts at the dismisal hall after the day, is what you called it a fulfilment. They showed off to their parents as they approached them and walked back home with it in their hands... This is Satisfaction!  During the September school holiday, I was approached by two teachers to help in a project about traffic, a topic that they're teachi...