Kusudama

These are the kusudama flowers I've made in the last two days - aren't they gorgeous?  I love them! 

I've been using pages from old sewing pattern catalogs, so my flowers have an almost fabric-like look. 

If I'm making a small flower, I can get all the petals from one page, so the color schemes

often compliment each other.



Tragedy!



Cardstock was a bit too heavy.  The paper cut and folded nicely, but my double sided

photo squares weren't strong enough to hold it together. 

I hate photos that don't give you any scale, so I'm including this one of my camera lens cover.  The small flowers were made with 3 inch squares of paper, the large ones were 6 inch squares.  Each flower has six petals - but the large flowers are slightly different.  On the left one I used the standard directions. 

 The one on the right, I tried the alternate directions - the result was a flower with only a single 'point'

in the center of each petal.

If you've got a few minutes and you're feeling crafty, I highly recommend this tutorial. 

 Be forewarned, though; these are addictive.  I've had an old Simplicity pattern book on my dining room table for a couple of days and each time I walk past, I feel compelled to rip out a page

and fold a petal or two. 

Last night Bryant and I were at a fast food place and I tried to fold my napkin into a flower

 (flimsy paper and a not quite real square made it virtually impossible)!

If you do make some, I'd love to see them, so snap a picture for me, okay?