My Life As A Magazine: Tokyo

Tokyo

Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts

Birthdays and special occasions are a great time to experiment and get creative with gift wrapping.

The process always starts with me raiding my hoard of newly purchased craft materials. The above is a Neko (cat) and gingham themed wrapped gifts for a family birthday. Pink stripes and Hawaii was the inspiration behind the above Mother's Day wrapped present. I also made a 'Paper tissue pocket'and attached it to a card.

I just adore Japanese fashion, fabrics, accessories and zakka label Curly Collection! How can I not love their kawaii polka dot designs! It will be my first place to visit when I am in Japan next, to stock up on fabric! Lots of sewing craft inspiration here; sweet tissue pockets, book covers, bags and pouches.

I watched the Japanese film 'Patisserie Coin De Rue' last weekend. It follows the journey of Natsumi (Yu Aoi) who heads to Tokyo to find her boyfriend, but instead falls in love with the art of making delicious, mouth watering sweets and desserts. A beautiful tale, filled with scenes, in the quaint back streets of Tokyo and lots of glimpses of yummy treats and cosy cafes.

Japan's cookie artist rightly called cookieboy has just released his first book titled; リアルでアートなデコクッキーレシピ　クッキーボーイのアイシングクッキー It contains some of his works from his cookie exhibits seen in Tokyo as well as a 'How to' on making your very own cookieboy creations. Here are some page snaps of my fave cookies! Food art at it's best!!

A little video of a special surprise ball I made using some of the Japan memento's featured in my new zine 'Japan In A Collection'. Below, some sold zines that I packaged up with

self-made polka dot paper decorated with washi tape.

Hope they enjoy it on the other side of the mailbox!

So I screamed when I saw what was on the cover of the October issue of my fave Japan travel magazine Oz! Koenji's cute treehouse cafe Hattifant! The whole issue is dedicated to Kichijoji, Koenji, Mitaka and Asagaya's cosy book, craft, zakka shops and cafes. I love the Amelie movie style photo story pages. I went to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka when I travelled to Japan, which I mention in my new zine.

Yay! Its finally here my new zine 'Japan In A Collection' is now available to buy in my online store!

If you love Studio Ghibli, Blythe, Sanrio, Disney and Japan mascots you may love this! A travel guide, with a twist on the best places to shop within a collection of my own trip mementos.

A little sneak peek of the cover of my new zine

'Japan in a Collection'!

Travel Japan with me in 62 mementos! ‘Japan in a collection’ is a little travel guide with a twist!

Discover the best shops for buying; character goods, stationery, books, magazines, gadgets, kawaii collectables, anime, fashion and yummy treats. Japan locations include; Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagano, Yudanaka, and Hiroshima.

I travelled all over Japan in 2009 during Cherry Blossom season. Everywhere I went I picked up brochures, catalogues, magazines and souvenirs like; napkins, and business cards from shops and restaurants as well as pretty packaging and train/admission tickets to put in my journal when I returned home. Ha! many bags in my suitcase were filled of these things.

Hope you enjoy these pictures of pages from my journal during my time in Tokyo. Please excuse the very messy writing! Eeep!

Warning kawaii overload! I found these wonderful photos and video via one of my fave blogs Tokyo Fashion. It's a new music clip called 'Ponponpon' by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. The whole clip is themed around what it means to be a Harujuku girl, and that means lots of bright candy kawaii outfits, Popples (had these in the 80's) and products from the ultimate kawaii brand 6% DOKIDOKI!

My latest love is Tokyo Potted Plants whether they are sitting outside in front of quaint Tokyo houses or cafes and indoors among zakka. They are potted in colourful and patterned pots, white ceramics, terracotta or used household items like milk bottles and food cans. They can also be seen hanging on walls and used to decorate the usually mundane outside wall pipes - so clever. I am now inspired to make my own indoor plant area at home and am now on the look out for some cute Bonsai, Succulents and cacti for my garden.

A few posts ago I mentioned I made these 'Snap Tokyo Girls Bunting' DIY Kits for the A4 Paper Festival.

I now have a couple of these DIY kits available to buy from my Etsy Store. Below is a photo tutorial of me putting the 'Snap Tokyo Girls Bunting' together.

I found these amazing pictures of this mt wrapping school via a BNN books tweet.

It was held in Tokyo a month or so ago, it would of been a dream to attend this being a mt tape lover and crafter!

Love the wall installations of mt bags and hanging bottle flower baskets and the polka dot mt tape store - I would of gone broke here!

The A4 Paper Convention Collective festival begins tomorrow night! The opening will be held at Sydney's Paper Mill from 6pm. Along with Kit I will be helping at the A4 zine stall selling zines from some of Australia's most loved zine makers and artists. I too will be selling some handmade wares like my new 'Little Book Of Mt Masking Tape' Zine as well as a special 'Snap Tokyo Girls Bunting DIY Kit' that I have designed and made just for the night!

The 'Snap Tokyo Girls Bunting DIY Kit' includes an how to instruction sheet as well as Tokyo Girls stickers, Fluro coloured pieces of cardboard, twine as well as Washi (mt) tape - all to help make your 'Snap Tokyo Girls Bunting'!

I thought this would be a nice project for Tokyo fashion lovers to make, that will also pretty up the place and bring a little sense of Tokyo home!

The MCA Zine festival is 'the ultimate' zine event of the year, so as a zine lover and maker it's not to be missed! Like always there was so much to choose from! Here are a few pictures of the day and some of the lovely zines I purchased. I also took with me a couple of copies my new zine to sell; Little Book Of Mt Masking Tape'. Was also super excited to see Susy from distro Bird in the Hand selling copies of my first zine; 'My Life In Biscuits' on her stall.

I already had Hiki's Tokyo photobook and 'Inside Garden Plant' zine on my list of 'must' purchase as I am a regular reader of her Jollygoo blog and shopper at her online Japan stationary/zakka goods store UGUiSU. Hiki takes beautiful photo's that capture her life and travels in Tokyo. Just love the strawberry store in the above picture - Only in Japan!

Lee Tran Lam's 'Speak-easy #12 Food issue' zine was the perfect accompaniment to my warm hot chocolate and sit down at the Rocks Guylian Belgian Chocolate cafe in Sydney. Filled with top chef interviews, quotes, reviews and observations on restaurants from around the world make a 'foodie' must read. Its the little extras that come with Lee's zine that make it special like; stamped post-its and original photographs that are mt taped to the pages. How cute is this paper sandwich (above) made by Grace Lee.

For me a zine festival would not be complete without a copy of the latest issue of 'Spoonful'. Created by the delightful Thea, Spoonful is a happiness companion which puts the spotlight on unique crafters, writers and illustrators. I always enjoy reading the 'spilt milk' feature which is always an up-lifting story about failure. Issue #4 also includes elephants and musings on tea.

I have an on-going 'blog-crush' on Japan's Polkaros. Ros a lifestyle product designer based in Tokyo has made her first zine dedicated to traditional Japanese crafts. It was so popular that it sold out in the first hour of the fair! It's a 28 page zine filled with photos, illustrations, motifs/patterns, a make your own Hyottoko and Otafuku face masks and it's pages have hand-stitched binding. See here for a page by page video.

The Bird in The Hand zine store! Susy was lovely enough to sell my zine 'My Life In Biscuits' and made me feel extra special by giving me a shout-out in the MCA Zine Fair program - Thanks Susy!

Had a great chat to long-time friend Katerina Valentina who makes her own accessories and lingerie at her Salon Chaton stall. There was also some great zines found on the Beef Knuckles, Michelle. b, Erin Space and John DC table.

Here it is fresh from the printers, my 'Little Book Of Mt Masking Tape' zine!! 20 pages dedicated to my love of Japanese mt (washi) tape which includes craft projects, collages, gift wrapping ideas and my own little 'mt tape story'.

I will be selling copies at the upcoming A4 Paper Convention Collective opening night on the 31st of May - more details here. I'm still trying to find a table to sell my zines at the MCA zine festival this Sunday, so I will keep you posted about that in the next day or so.

'Little Book Of Mt Masking Tape' is now available to buy at my online store.

Yes! Finally got around to making a photographic printed book of my Japan 2009 trip that I went on with my now hubby.

I must say it did take some time to put together as we had LOTS of photos to choose from. I really enjoyed designing the front and back cover as well as the backgrounds the most. We ordered our photo book through picaboo. Here you can download a program to turn your travel photo's into a book. Much better then having a heavy photo album and makes it easier to take around to show family and friends. Ha! I am still working on the written journal part of things, so when that is done I am thinking of turning it into a little self-published travel book.

1. A post-it note itinerary of our travels 2. My fave place in Tokyo- Ikebukuro! 3. Namja Town food theme park! Situated on top of Ikebukuro's Sunshine City mall 4.Gibli museum at Mitaka! 5. Harajuku 6. Shimbashi/Ginza 7. Nakano Broadway- anime heaven! 8.Osaka 9.Peko Fujiya patisserie in Kyoto 10. Kamakura 11. Kyoto Shops 12.Disneyland 13.Disneyland Hotel- that's right! had Mickey Mouse head pancakes and salad bun!

Tokyo based artist Mogu Takahashi's child-like paper, collage zine creations are truly one of a kind. Now you can purchase these sweet Tiny House postcards from my favourite Japan stationary/book/magazine/zakka goods online store UGUiSU! They come in three different designs and are sure to look adorable on a bookshelf or shadow box once built.