Japanese Flower Kusudama Ball

So today, we will be making a Japanese Flower Kusudama Ball. It's not actually that fitting for our 1-2-3 Thursdays since it takes a lot of time to make these, but then, we can squeeze it in from time to time.

The good (and bad) thing about maintaining servers is that I've got lots of free time when nothing is happening, so I decided to kill time by making these awesome flowers and made them into a ball! It's also a good way to curb hunger, sugar crash and sleepiness during work hours. ;)


These balls have so much potential! I even think they'll look great in weddings, a bouquet that my bridesmaids will carry, perhaps?

Materials for Japanese Flower Kusudama Ball

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Tools for making Japanese Flower Kusudama Ball

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How to make Japanese Flower Kusudama Ball

A huge factor in the outcome of this the color of paper you will use. I made my flowers from the pages of my Garfield Calendar which I received last Christmas. All I did was to cut them into squares to make the traditional square Origami paper. Since the paper is thin glossy paper, it's really easy to fold.

Ideally, you would want to use a larger paper so that the flowers look prettier. I suggest using magazines or old note and sticky note papers to make these.

I'm working on making a flower out of my used note papers here in the office, It will probably take a long time to complete, but at least I was able to upcycle my paper.

Over all, it took me about 5 hours to do this, of course that's with work going on in between making these. It also depends on how fast you fold and how quick your glue dries.

Check out these easy to follow tutorials on how to make the flowers and the Kusudama

Balls From Folding Trees (Photo Instructions):
1. Part 1: Making the Flowers
2. Part 2: Making the Kusudama Ball

From S Forrest in YouTube (Video tutorial:)
1. Part 1: Making the Flowers
2. Part 2: Making the Kusudama Ball

Baguio Country Club Christmas Village - Eco Friendly Christmas Decorations

Last weekend was a long one, with Bonifacio Day falling on a Friday, my family and I decided to go up to Baguio and have a vacation.

On of our itineraries was to visit the Baguio Country Club where we can buy the famous raisin bread that people keep raving about. We can buy this inside the Christmas Village that the Baguio Country Club created.

I was surprised with what I saw, a real delight! Most of their decorations were recycled! AWESOME! They were also very pretty! Something that you wouldn't mind displaying in your home, and you can proudly say it was recycled!

Most of the materials used were from plastic bottles and aluminum cans. It's either the top half, the bottom half of the can, the bottle caps, the bottoms of the bottle.

The way the decorations were used were really lovely. I heard my mom exclaim that she'll start collecting bottles so that we could have cheap decorations for Christmas!

 Lovely bells made from half bottle tops with caps on, painted white and gold, with a sprinkle of silver and golf glitters to make them sparkle

 A huge tree made from plastic bottles with red caps that have dyed (green) water inside. Leaves and flowers were made from huge, painted plastic bottles (1.5L-2L)

 A wonderful string of flowers made from plastic bottle (300mL-500mL) bottoms, painted and glittered. Angels were made from small lotion/soap squeeze bottles. Heads are made from bottle caps and the halo from the bottle cap rings. Painted white and glittered

 I'm not really sure what kind of decoration this is, but they sure are lovely. They are made from aluminum soda cans, i think you can make a top and a bottom from one can!

 Golf ball tree is made from halved golf balls which were bedazzled with glitters. Poinsettias made from plastic bottle tops and bottoms with plastic bottle caps. The glass bottle tree was made from glass (wine) bottles painted and bedazzled with glitters

 A very pretty star that is made from 2 large plastic bottle bottoms (1.5L-2L)

Another neat idea for stars. 5-6 500mL Gatorade bottles, painted and bedazzled with glitters