While on You Tube, I came across my new favorite channel, Cooking with Dog, a Japanese cooking show complete with a poodle host/sidekick. Makes me love Japan even more now. It also reminds me of one of my favorite Nintendo games, Cooking Mama. Watch this video on how to make a bento box.

By Lindsey North, projects intern

On my first day as an official CRAFT intern I entered the lab for the first time. It was like entering a new dimension, a creative person's dream. There were supplies everywhere; you could build just about anything out of what you found in there. And in this lab I received my first assignment: I was to build miniature kittens dressed in little dresses.

I was later shocked to see my mini kitties featured on the cover of Volume 03 of CRAFT magazine. Turns out they're Japanese imports: we excerpted the patterns for White Cat, Striped Cat, and Black Cat from Aranzi Aronzo's The Cute Book (Random House).

When completed, each of these little creations made of felt were smaller than the width of my hand. It's surprisingly difficult to sew small pieces of felt together when you plan on stuffing them. You have to sew close enough to the edge so that you still have room to fill with stuffing, but you can't get too close to the edge or else the stitches will pull out when you try to stuff the mini kitty.

I ended up making six of these little fellows, and it took me several days to complete them all. Your fingers can get really sore trying to sew through layers of felt, so take breaks in between kitties if you choose to make a litter.

These cute little creatures make amazing presents, the purrfect addition to any gift. It's fun to play around with the felt colors. Try crafting a few!

Your CRAFT intern,
Lindsey

Japanese artists' Daito Manabe and Motoi Ishibashi have created an "esoteric" programming language called Pa++ern that translates input from visitors to their exhibit or from virtual visitors through Twitter and turns them in to graphics that can be embroidered on t-shirts.

Visitors to the gallery enjoy the movement and sounds of this highly used but rarely seen machines and can choose to operate them or witness how they are controlled by virtual visitors using twitter to send their Pa++ern program; an esoteric experience in itself.

Their Pa++ern program will be on display at the Beams Gallery in Tokyo, Japan.

[ via Today and Tomorrow ]

With our Crafty Travels theme going on this month, I thought we could take a little trip to Japan courtesy of this week's flashback. CRAFT Volume 03 was our Japan Style issue, and it offers a ton of Japan-inspired projects and articles. One of my favorite is the tiny sewn kitties by Aranzi Aronzo that graced the cover of this issue (as remade by our talented intern Lindsay North).

From the profile by Dave Coustan: "Sisters Kinuyo Saito and Yoko Yomura founded Aranzi Aronzo in 1991, as an extension of the imaginative play they've engaged in together since childhood. Their stable of characters comprises dozens of players, including moody and mischievous animals like a terrier (Tetsu), fish (Uo), monkey (Mankey), and Warumono, the "bad guy" who does bad things. The characters are featured on an ever-expanding line of clothing, home goods, stationery, and books."

For years, Aranzi Aronzo's books were only available in Japanese, but some are now available in English. The project we featured is an except from The Cute Book. Find out more about them by visiting their site (yes, it's adorable).

Here is the project as a downloadable PDF just for you.

You can still pick up a back issue of Volume 03 in the Maker Shed for lots more super cute Japanese style.

The fabulous Lisa Katayama points to these adorable felt speakers on her equally fabulous TokyoMango blog. Whether they're Russian stacking dolls or Kokeshi, they definitely seem like something you crafty, techno-savvy readers could easily re-create at home. Send us some photos if you do, or post them in the Craft Flickr pool.

I had never thought about using needle felting with soft circuits but Yoshida Tomofumi has! She makes and sells these small kits with LEDs, conductive thread, battery and a snap. I love the little tail-biting snake! If you're looking for a stateside kit like this, try my similar kit or the Sparkfun e-sewing kit. Via Fashioning Technology.

Zen Crafting shares a tutorial for making these modern-looking star decorations from origami paper.

Zakka Life shows us how to get started using Mizuhiki cord with this gorgeous gift-wrap project.

The knot on the box is called an abalone knot. It's also referred to as awabi musubi, the Josephine knot, or a good luck knot. This is one of the easier mizuhiki knots to make.

At a recent MAKE: Tokyo meeting, these LED Dia De Los Muertos-themed tote bags with embedded LilyPad Arduino boards made an appearance. Mike Dixon, MAKE's Japan liason found an excellent quote on their blog about the event:

We made our bags controlled with LilyPad Arduino (kawaii microcontroller board designed for wearables and e-textiles), we were enjoying to succeed blinking our products.

Zakka Sewing by Therese Laskey & Chika Mori (Stewart Tabori & Chang)
Buy the Book ($24.95)

If you've ever wished you could understand the patterns in those wonderful Japanese craft books, you're going to love Zakka Sewing, the new book from Therese Laskey and Chika Mori. "Zakka" means "household goods" in Japanese, and the term has become synonymous with simple yet beautiful hand-sewn items that are both attractive and useful. Zakka Sewing is the first English-language book to explore this culture and its traditions, presenting 25 one-of-a-kind patterns from Japan's best zakka creators. Projects range from a squirrel-shaped teapot cozy to simple felt flower coasters, and you can even learn to stitch up a pair of cozy slippers. The variety and quality of the projects will have you coming back to the book again and again!

One lucky Craftzine reader will win a copy Zakka Sewing! Just leave a comment on this post by 12pm PST on Saturday, November 1 telling us why you need this book. (Please make sure your e-mail address is included in your profile so we can contact you if you win.)

Get your feet wet in the world of Japanese crafts by downloading our CRAFT Pattern Podcast, featuring an excerpt from Zakka Sewing. Learn to make your very own bunny pencil case, a handy and cute zippered pouch complete with ears and a tail.

Download the Pattern PDF | Subscribe in iTunes

I-Wei, a robot maker we usually see more on MAKE (as Crabfu), is having a baby boy. He painted this really adorable mural featuring Totoro from Miyazaki's equally fun and kid-friendly animated film. The umbrella's going over the crib. Check out the Flickr set to see the other elements around the room.

From the CRAFT Flickr pool: user FromJapanWithLove made this totally awesome tiny bento box ring, which opens to reveal its tiny (and possibly delicious?) contents.

Belinda writes:

[Japan Craft Journal] was created out of a desire to have a central source for all things relating to Japanese craft. It will also have details on where to find crafts and craft resources in Japan - for those of us lucky enough to travel there. We will also be featuring links to blogs and sites that offer great information too.

Instructables user Lizzio has a great recipe and photo tutorial up for making ichigo daifuku, or Japanese sweet bean and strawberry balls. This dough-covered treat looks light and refreshing for summertime, and it's strawberry season!

There is a huge variety of crafts that can be made from a humble piece of paper: origami, paper art, quilling, papercutting, recycled paper crafts - to name just a few. Our aim is to collect the best tutorials we have found on the net, inspire people by highlighting amazing paper creations from talented artists and crafters, and share our own paper crafts and tutorials. We invite people to share links to their own tutorials or point us to inspirational paper crafts they have seen. Everyone is also welcome to join the Folding Trees Flickr group and share photos of all their crafty paper projects with us! We will feature some of the submissions on the site.

These hair hats are made by Japanese artist Nagi Noda out of human hair, made to look like various animals. They're very arresting, in my opinion. Via Monochrom (Thanks, Matt!)

Related:

My Hair Barbie

Craftster member Jeebles created this inspiring, modern-looking mobile from nothing more than hand-folded paper cranes, thread and ribbon, and a few chopsticks. Paper Crane Mobile

Related:
• HOW TO - Make an Origami Mobile
• Nursery Mobile
• HOW TO - Make a Paper Mobile

Check out these tentacled animal finger puppets with... cute hats? Ok, I admit it, I have no idea what animal these are, but they're certainly neat!

I'm also excited to announce that HP will be at the Maker Faire (May 3 - 4)! At the HP booth, you'll be able to get hands on and make some fun printable craft projects like the 3-D origami finger puppets, crafty cards, photo matchbooks, and more! Kids can also get a free photo taken with Po from the movie "Kung Fu Panda". Visit the HP booth when you are at the fair and get ready to get your craft on!

Related:
Craftzine Projects on the HP wiki

Here's an incredible crochet glove that makes your hand look like a forest of fallen logs and mushrooms. I can imagine it being used very well in a puppet show. This creative lady's blog is in Japanese, but her pictures aren't hard to translate! - Link.