Aloha! I love this crafty version of the Hawaiian lei. I see them on everyone everywhere here in Waikiki. I think it's wonderful. This instructable, by user zigglau, has great photographs and easy steps. I think the petals look like butterflies! Plus, you make an everlasting lei that might fade, but will never wilt!

These new kits from Lego combine two of my favorite things: Lego and paper crafting.

MUJI partners with iconic building-block company Lego on a super fun new concept. Together they're encouraging us to think outside the blocks ... by punching Lego-sized holes in paper... Available November 27th at MUJI Japan - just in time for the Holiday season. US and European MUJI locations have yet to confirm stock.

I'll be coveting these until they reach the States! [via @allthingspaper]

The backdrop of Hawaii is overwhelming with inspiration. Colors are everywhere, and in full saturation. The sunsets are the exact reason why I brought my travel art kit. I've never painted in my life, but have been wanting to dip my toes in. We took our supplies down to the water's edge tonight to set about putting color to paper.

My uber talented husband Nat added a palette of simple watercolors to the art supplies. He sketched with the paint and black pen to render this pretty little painting.

I'm a novice, and so the clever watercolor crayons were a perfect introduction to the medium. I scribbled out the color, then blended it with the wet brush. It went from drawing to painting in an instant. I can't wait to play with the rest of my materials, including the sharpies and the oil pastels, to create a new sunset every night!

"Easy! No gluing or cutting required" says the cover of the book Make Your Own Paper Flowers. So I decided to make my flowers in a place where craft supplies are sparse: an airplane. Before my trip, I stashed the Klutz Chicken Socks book in my purse. Without any scissors in my bag, I cleared security in a breeze! After takeoff, I folded down the tray on the seat back in front of me, and set to work.

As I put together the project, a million childhood memories came rushing back to me. I vividly remember so many fun Klutz books. I had the juggling one, the dollar bill origami one, the magic one with the special coin, and my personal favorite, the friendship bracelet one. And seeing Klutz triggered memories in more that just me. All the stewardesses paused as they walked by to check on my progress and talk about the best Klutz books which, after much debate, it was decided was the braid one!

These Fill In the Blank Cards let you make a custom message by punching out the perforated dots in a pattern of your choice. [via Teagan Tall]

My amazing friend Sasha is only 11 years old, but she already has quite the body of artwork and graphic designs under her belt. I just love this sketchbook cover collage that she made of a robot, using paper that she cut out of Vogue magazine. With some glue, scissors, and some recycled media, Sasha was inspired and worked on this notebook mod for several hours yesterday. Under the username Toxic_Panda_Crayon, she has posted tons of her creations on deviantart. I am so impressed that at her tender young age she has such a portfolio of photoshop drawings too! After we checked out her journal last night, she taught me how to download and install brushes even! She is totally a Super Crafty Kid, and I promise to keep you updated on her projects in the future!

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This week's CRAFT Pattern Podcast is the Jumping Paper Frog by Matt Hawkins, featured in CRAFT: 05. The PDF includes full instructions as well as the template for the paper frog. All you need to do is cut out the template and glue the tabs together. Then simply add a paper clip to create a spring so your paper frog can now JUMP!

Matt is the creator of Custom Paper Toys and you can find more downloadable paper toys and info on his site.

Download the Pattern PDF | Subscribe in iTunes

I love this sweet matryoshka doll card from Jessica at Zakka Life. The fold out design to mimick the nesting of the dolls is brilliant! She's provided a template and a how-to so you can make some of your own!

For folks interested in the intersection of arts and science, the PBS series Independent Lens is presenting a fascinating in-depth look into origami titled Between the Folds. The film documents "a determined group of theoretical scientists and fine artists who have abandoned their careers and scoffed at their graduate degrees to forge new lives as modern-day paper folders."

Featured in the film are MIT's youngest-ever tenured professor Dr. Erik Demaine; mathematician, sculptor, puzzle maker, and self-taught computer scientist Marty Demaine; master free-style folder Vincent Floderer; pioneering Israeli educator Miri Golan; mathematics professor Dr. Tom Hull; trained artist and instructor Paul Jackson; one of the most technically accomplished folders in the world, Eric Joisel; one of only a few handmade origami papermakers in the world, Michael LaFosse; origami "hyper-realist" and physicist Dr. Robert J. Lang (who was profiled in CRAFT Volume 05); material artist with a masterful understanding of patterns and geometry, Chris K. Palmer; and the father of modern origami, Akira Yoshizawa.

Screenings are part of the Independent Television Service's (ITVS) Community Cinema series, which are free, followed by discussion panels and access to resources.

Between the Folds will be showing in the Bay Area in Oakland on Tuesday, November 17 at 6:00 p.m. at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and in San Francisco on Wednesday, November 18 at 5:45 p.m. at the San Francisco Main Library. For a list of screenings taking place across the country, check out the film site.

Here are a couple of interesting excerpts from the documentary to get a flavor for it. The following clip features Paul Jackson, an origami artists and art teacher living in Tel Aviv, Israel, speaking of the "one fold":

And this clip shows Michael LaFosse, a master artisan who not only makes origami, but is one of the only handmade origami paper makers in the world, providing a window into his workshop and processes:

Maria Merlino, of Crochet Living, has transformed the peacock papercut into a fillet crochet pattern! Her work in crochet is creative and skillful, and she just happens to also be a member of the Guild of American Papercutters. Maria's pattern is the perfect intersection of two distinct craft medias, and I love that she created the crossover. And I love even more that she has offered to share it with all of our readers! A PDF download of the pattern, with two graphs and detailed instructions, is available for everyone, with only the condition that it be used for personal, not commercial purposes. For more of Maria's amazing crochet patterns, please visit her etsy and her blog. Cheers, and happy paper crafting!

Remember the amazing paper cutouts that I found at the thrift store last week? Well, I went back and picked up 10 sets to mail off to some lucky readers. Just leave a comment on this thread about your love of paper crafts for your chance to win one! The paper cuts are in pretty vintage envelopes, with multiple designs and colors in each. And their crafting potential is endless! The winners will be selected tomorrow so please enter by noon PST Thursday. And please include your email in the form field to be eligible (emails will not be published). Good luck!

Gareth @ MAKE writes:

Eric Testroete, a 3D character artist from Vancouver, sent us this awesome self-portrait costume, an homage to Big Head Mode in videogames.

More photos at Eric's Flickr.

The folks at Nice Package have a new tutorial showing how to turn plain metal-rimmed gift tags into stylish, more personalized tags with simple supplies you likely have on hand. They've even provided a free download of vintage images and prints in case you want to save time or don't have images of your own you'd like to use.

Instructables user prixprix went as The Old Gray Lady (a nickname for the New York Times) for Halloween this year. In her tutorial, she shows us how to pleat and sew newspaper by machine to make this newspaper dress.

Kazuma Takahashi made these little sculptures out of common packaging materials. [via BoingBoing]

Sean @ MAKE points us to studiokmo's 3x4 feet panels, each intricately cut maps depicting Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx, down to the block level. Holy wow! The collection is for sale as a complete set only.

I found these truly stunning pieces of cut paper at the thrift store this weekend for $.60 each! I can't imagine how painstaking these must be to make. They scanned into very perfect pieces of art. I was thinking of using them to burn some screens for screenprinting, and then framing them.

Paper Bag Luminaries
By Marie LeBaron

Halloween is a fun time for spooky lights in the night. These Paper Bag Luminaries can help lead the children up a pathway to some tricks and treats. They're fun to make and give a glowing charm to your home.

Head over to the Canon web site for a bevy of printable Halloween paper crafts, ranging from jack-o-lantern buckets to table decor and paper garlands. [via How About Orange]

The gals at Nice Package have a new video tutorial up for making these playful twist tie pom poms to add a little fun to your gift wrapping. I think it's their candy stripe twist ties that really make the project!

Like Regina of Creative Kismet (who lives in Arizona), we don't get much of an autumnal change here in central Texas. Occasionally, we'll see some color variation in the leaves, but more often we just leave summer and slam right into our "winter." I often wish we had a bit more fall foliage happening around here. I'm loving Regina's tutorial for making colorful fall leaves from paper bags. Her technique for mixing colors and adding small amounts of spattered paint create incredibly realistic leaves. I'd love to have a garland of these hanging in my home. Then, I could really feel like fall had arrived!

Artist Kiel Johnson made this cardboard twin-lens reflex camera, which works as a pinhole camera. The build video is adorably edited. From BoingBoing:

His next exhibition, opening October 17 at the Mark Moore Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, is dedicated to the printing press. The centerpiece of the show, titled "Publish or Perish," is a huge metal and cardboard of a printing press with a 70-yard drawing fed through it. For more, see the upcoming print issue of Hi-Fructose, Volume 14.

Jie Qi made this whimsical, magical interactive electronic pop-up book using the paper arduino prototypes coming out of Leah Buechley's new research group at the MIT Media Lab. Syuzi at Fashioning Technology did a nice report on some of the different pages and what they do. She used conductive paint, thread, and fabric to make innovative switches. I truly think that children's books will have functionality like in the not-too-distant future.

I love the bright, simple, fun style of these printable pennant cupcake toppers from Rachel at Fog and Thistle.

Cathe of Just Something I Made has found a fantastic way to incorporate the lush images of her vintage SINGER sewing machine into other projects. After taking detail shots of the machine's decals and cleaning them up in Photoshop, she created printable decals that she used to decorate her Moleskine notebook. Brilliant!