Our favorite - Part 1

Welcome to our new Bloggu!
We're here to offer you fun ideas, inspiration, design tips and crafting techniques. We're here to remind you to make some time to do things you love and that inspire you in your daily and weekly routine. In a time where so much is digital and virtual, we long to return to for the hand craft of our early childhood days. We invite you to take any or all of these ideas and tips and share precious time with your kids, nieces, nephews, sisters, mothers friends and even husbands in creating things with your hands.

Today we're highlighting one of our favorite pastimes: Origami!
At Shoppu, we love folding paper. At every opportunity, we fold. At every excuse, we fold. We sit customers down (usually male tag-alongs) to fold. And they really get into it! Because it is addicting and fun fun fun! Whatever it may be - butterflies, flowers, boats or even dreidels, we find comfort and joy in the art of origami and we hope you give it a try as well.

With each holiday and season, we change our origami creations and store display to reflect the essence of the season.
Here are a few projects we made since we opened our doors one year ago:

For the summer season we chose to make colorful sailboats with pastel colored origami paper and double sided bright colored paper. We added some beautiful washi tape for added dimension and fun. Each boat is made of one standard sized origami paper small strips of washi paper for decoration.

Pairing the boats with Shinzi Katoh's brightly colored thermal bottles for our window display gave a true feeling of summer. Being that our shop is only a 15-minute walk to the Tel Aviv beach makes it a great reminder to take advantage of the sea and soft sand.





For the Autumn season we made these gorgeous flowers, made of five pieces of small origami paper squares. We chose the most fall-like colors in the pack and in keeping with the atmosphere of Autumn, we paired the flowers with a display of Shinzi Katoh's beloved Red Hood character, also in the same color scheme. Instead of hanging them from above, we scattered them on the table like fallen leaves. Makes you want to put on a scarf and take a stroll in the forest on a blustery day, doesn't it?





For Hanukah we were lucky to find a tutorial on you tube for dreidels. And the best part is that they actually work! We had a great time making them and playing with them over and over. We just couldn't believe that they would spin! For the box wrapping the body of the dreidel we chose a color scheme that would match the color of the soft golden flame of the candles in a Menorah  - soft yellows, peaches, pinks and soft oranges, and as a contrasting complimentary color for the body, we chose turquoises and teals. Each dreidel takes 3 pieces of standard sized origami paper and a small strip for the stick.





With Hanukah comes the winter rain so we saw it as fitting to make fun umbrellas alongside our dreidels with our round Dot mania paper from Mark's Japan. The round paper makes it a breeze to make the folded part, although you can easily make them with square paper as well. The umbrellas take one sheet of round or square paper and one sheet for the umbrella handle. If you're looking for round paper for origami, Midori Japan makes some good options. The paper that we used here is not made for origami but works well for this project.The only tricky part was getting the handle to stick to the folded paper, but then again, we're not much with glue.

Thanks for reading. We hope these projects inspire you to make some of your own and please feel free to share your projects with us here.

For our selection of origami papers by Midori Japan, click here.

Coming up:
Purim, Christmas, Passover and Spring!