Check out the inspiring Japanese blog Champagne Chair Place for very inventive seats.

Fabulous aren’t they?

Hope you’d enjoyed my daily serving of champagne. Have a fun weekend!

[p.s. I've added 3 paper crafting books in my Japanese bookstore. They're very inspiring!]

Recently I made some Sunshine in citrus shades as favours for a garden tea party. How befitting isn’t it?

Anyone else like a bracelet or two? Free shipping from now till Friday.

Incidentally if you’re not aware of the story behind the Sunshine bracelet, this intro will help.

I admire beautiful packaging and love to collect inspiring ideas. When the time came for me to decide how I should pack orders for the Sunshine bracelets, I went with brown paper bag sealed with a handmade recycled-paper seal (not shown) and to that, I designed a tag-cum-bookmark (with a quotable quote behind) that gets tied up with washi string. I wanted a simple package with some uniqueness.

I made a few knotted brocade brooches which were sold to benefit Project Sunshine as well.

In the meanwhile, thanks for taking part in the giveaway. I’ll be sending set A to MandaPanda and set B to JaimeM.

Many times I have been asked about this set of flower beads that are prevalent on the Sunshine bracelets. So I thought why not show how it’s done, which incidentally was something I accidentally discovered while playing around with the beads. I adore how intriguingly cute it looks.

The bracelets are still waiting for happy wearers! And they are for a good cause – to help 2 homeless families, if you haven’t already heard from me. It’s no fun losing your home and everything you’ve got.

Do you wish to see more of them? I’ve begun keeping track of some of the design varieties (and I’ve made more than 80 bracelets thus far) on this Flickr set.

Since I started working on my Exposing Garlic project, I’ve accumulated a little pile of garlic paper (aka outer peel). One day I wanted very much to know what would happen if it came under a paper puncher. Being curious also if it can withstand like a nori sheet would. And as you’ve already seen from my previous post, it turns out not too bad at all!

So what can you do with the punch-outs? You can glue them onto all sorts of paper crafts. Or maybe as confectti? Just a thought. No one will know that they came from garlic :-)

I’ll have more punching scenes to show in time to come. Watch out this space!!

Leandro Erlich is a contemporary artist who creates showpieces that are interactive and engaging to the young and old alike. His art installations are based on scenarios everyone can relate to, but he adds that twist + mischief + illusion. See more of such interestingness on his website.

Swimming Pool (1999)
21st. Century Museum of Art, Kanazawa, Japan

Bâtiment (2004)
Nuit Blanche. La Cour de l’Observatoire de Paris, France

Hair Salon (2008)
2nd Singapore Biennale, Singapore

I’m sad to say I actually missed the whole biennale event and of course including this hair salon setup (mirrors are fake!) while it was held here in my home country…how could that have happened?!!

[Images courtesy of Leandro Erlich. Hair salon images courtesy of Haupt & Binder]

Thanks for the company this week. I’m taking some time off and will be back here early next month. If you’re on my email list, look out for September’s newsletter real soon.

Happy weekend and thanks for the company! See you next Tuesday. Our little island is celebrating National Day on Sunday.

[p.s. If you haven't seen my latest e-newsletter, please sign up (see left column) for it. It's free and filled with crafty projects you can make!]