Let's Make! String Letter!

When we send letters to friends, sometimes they are read and then placed back in the envelope and hidden away in a cupboard or drawer. With this cute string letter, your receiver can hang it on their wall like a garland and continue to enjoy the letter in the future! I hope you will enjoy making this 'Let's Make! String Letter'.





Take some old magazines or cute vintage books and tear out some pages with nice images. I have focused on a picnic theme here so I can send my friend a 'picnic in an envelope', but you don't have to have a theme!





Allow a little bit of space around your image and then cut out roughly around the image.




Next, use tape nori (tape glue) to glue the cut out images onto a piece of cardboard of a colour of your choice. It’s cute if each of the images are stuck on a different coloured cardboard, too!




Now that your image has a cardboard backing, it’s time to cut out around your image.

Once you have followed the above techniques for the other shapes of your string letter you can lay the pieces out to arrange them in the order of your choice. It’s a good idea to have a nice balance of a smaller image next to a bigger image and so on.




Attach the images to a piece of cute string using masking tape. I usually fold over the masking tape so it doubles over itself.


Enjoy writing cute messages and doing cute little drawings on the back of your string letter. You can also add some collage papers and decorate with masking tape and stickers. This is the fun part!



After you have enjoyed writing cute messages on your string letter it’s time to put your string letter inside your envelope. 




Finally, enjoy sending your cute letter on a string to your lovely friend!

Love Love
Hello Sandwich

xoxo

Yoyogi-uehara

I took a ride around Yoyogi-uehara today taking photos with my 50mm lens in 32 degree humid Tokyo heat.  Yoyogi-uehara is about a 5 minute bike ride from my apartment and some of these photos might make it look a little more grungy than it actually is, but don't be fooled, it's really a cute little area with a few cute cafes, bars and one or two second hand bookshops. Pop into Levain in nearby suburb Tomigaya for the best toast sandwich plate (the kitchen here is the cutest you'll ever see!) (Thanks Boco-chan for showing me this cute place!). And if you don't mind a ride up a hill you could have lunch at Katane Cafe. I really like the old world charm of Yoyogi-uehara and if you fancy taking photos like me, you'll enjoy a few hours here. You might even like to make an afternoon of it wondering through Yoyogi-hachiman popping into Little Nap Coffee Stand on your way to Yoyogi-koen.

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

I'm still working on my new Tokyo Guide but the original version with more tips like this can be purchased here for $10.

Hello Sandwich x mt summer school in Kagawa

Hello Sandwiches!

My favourite brand mt are flying me down to Kagawa to host more Hello Sandwich x mt workshops this weekend! I've always wanted to go to Kagawa and the chance to be flown down and stay at a lovely ryokan and explore the area with the mt creatives will be too good to be true.


The Hello Sandwich x mt workshops at Kagawa are sold out (we are thinking of adding a third workshop so stay tuned to the mt website) but the lovely staff made this little text book for the people who missed out and I thought you might enjoy it too. I hope you will enjoy making a mt wrap and plastic bag mt pompom!

Simply make a bag from mt wrap (using these techniques) , layer some mt tape around the top edge, cover your handles with mt tape, and make a cute pompom from mt covered layers of plastic bag. (The full tutorial for the pompoms are in my Gift Wrapping Guide available for $10)






The mt factory is super close to where the workshops will be hold and amazingly the Kamoi staff will give me a private factory tour!!! kyaaa~! I'm so excited! If you want a peek around the factory stay tuned to my instagram account.

By the way, did you know that in addition to the cute mt x uniqlo t-shirts, there is also a super cute range of mt x uniqlo scarves? Be quick!



And, I had a nice little surprise (and a funny little career highlight ha ha) when I saw my artworks featured on the front page of the mt website!

AND, in two days, I'll be holding advance copies of my brand new Japanese Craft Book in one hand and toasting some sparking wine with my editor in the other hand. OMG. I can't wait to share the book with you!


Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

Tokyo Photo Studio

Sandwiches! Hello!

I hope you aren't mad at me. I haven't been posting much lately :( BUT...the reason why is because I'm shooting my Japanese craft book at the moment! It's incredibly fun and sometimes (well, most of the time) I can't believe that this is all happening, but, it will be out next month and I hope you will enjoy it.

We did our third day of shooting today. It was a 12 hour shoot! I really love being on shoots. I feel really comfortable there. It reminds me of my 11 years at VOGUE and shooting for VOGUE Living with Gordo and Gem and it kind of feels like home, you know? But, I don't think I ever did 9 pages in 4 hours at VOGUE Living! That was a speed record today!



I am working with the most incredible team. There is always someone styling, shooting, ironing, packing, checking off cute Japanese excel spreadsheets (they print an 'Eigo version' for me! ha ha!)...
I'm learning some Japanese photo shoot words too like, DPS, deep etch, 3/4 shot, overhead shot, left hand page...the key word of the day was kiri nuki! Coffee on arrival, katsu for lunch and in house vending machine coffee cans in between.

There have been moments of 'lost in translation' where I've been trying to ask for bubble wrap but not known the Japanese word for it...a few embarrassing reenactments of me popping invisible bubble wrap, and then resorting to google images on my iphone, and finally our props made it to the shoot safely. Speaking of finally, I also learnt the word for finally. ha ha. We were so tired when we finished we said 'finally' and then laughed that finally in English in Japanese sounded similar. Naturally, the jokester Aussie in me launched into a rap...but in hindsight this was very un-Japanese and chotto hazukashi.


Another highlight of the day was me thinking I did a reasonably not too bad (I can't even speak English anymore) job chatting to my taxi driver all the way from Meguro to Shimokitazawa in Japanese, but then after my driver assuring me my Japanese was skillful, he noted 'I could understand your meaning'. a.k.a. You sounded terrible but I get what you were trying to say! Bless him. He was very sweet. I thanked him for putting up with my Japanese all the way home.

Below are some shots from the two beautiful studios we shot / and are shooting my book in (last shooting day is Wednesday). Aren't they so lovely. I want to live there! And the lovely Miyuki-chan at Commune Gallery also let us shoot in her gorgeous gallery last week. Thank you Miyuki-chan!

So, I hope you don't hate me for lack of posts lately, but I promise I will try to make it up to you with my new book next month.　よろしくおねがいします。























P.S. Follow my instagram 'Hellosandwich' for some behind the scenes book shots.

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

Hello Sandwich x Craft Victoria

Sandwiches! Along with my residency at Harvest Workroom, I'll also be in Melbourne to present a lecture at the "Craft and Design as a Career" event at Craft Victoria. I will be talking about my work at VOGUE Living, the move to Tokyo, and my current work here in Tokyo. I hope you can come along.

NGV International
16 Aug 2012

Craft and Design as a Career is Craft's annual professional development seminar for artists and designers, led by industry experts. Each year Craft and Design as a Career involves an illustrious list of speakers from a variety of background including fashion, jewellery, publishing, sustainability, online retail, fundraising and more. Give your practice an inspirational boost with this day-long professional development seminar led by industry experts and network with your peers over morning tea.
WHEN 9am-4pm, Thu 16 Aug 2012
WHERE Clemenger Auditorium, NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
BOOKINGS Click here or call us on 03 9650 7775 - hurry places are limited!
COST $90 / $40 Craft Members and groups of 10+. Price includes morning tea.


And good news for those who missed out on a spot to my Harvest Workroom workshops, I will also be hosting two workshops at Craft VIC.

Handmade Notebooks

UPDATE - SOLD OUT

Workshop
Craft
18 Aug 2012

Create a unique handmade notebook with Ebony Bizys of Hello Sandwich in this exclusive series of workshops at Craft.
Let's enjoy recording our daily life in a cute way with this scrap booking techniques workshop. In this workshop you will make your own staple bound handmade notebook and notebook cover. You will also learn scrap booking techniques such as making your own photo corners, small pockets, fold out mini notes and other cute scrap booking ideas to make your scrap book more original. You can enjoy decorating the pages of your notebook with mt washi tape and craft punches.
All materials provided, but feel free to bring along any of your favourite papers or photos to use in the workshop.

Call Craft Victoria to book a spot: 03 9650 7775


Creative Stationery

UPDATE - SOLD OUT

Workshop
Craft
17 Aug 2012

Create beautiful stationery with Ebony Bizys of Hello Sandwich in this exclusive series of workshops at Craft.

Let's enjoy bringing back the art of letter writing and be inspired in this creative stationery workshop. In this workshop you will learn the techniques to make various creative letters. You will make your own letter on a sting which can be displayed as a garland after the receiver has read their letter, and afterwards you will make a folding letter with cute little pockets to hold photos and small notes for the receiver.
All materials provided, but feel free to bring along any of your favourite collage papers or photos to use in the workshop.

Call Craft Victoria to book a spot: 03 9650 7775

Be quick though as the workshops only have a maximum of 10 participants!


I hope you can come along and cheer me on at the lecture too! Public speaking in front of 250 people is chotto scary!


Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo


P.S. Hello Sandwich now has a facebook page! Come and join us xoxo

Hello Sandwich in Peppermint Magazine

The lovely team at Peppermint magazine commissioned me to make a 'recycled gift wrapping' spread for their new issue on sale today! It was a lot of fun working on this shoot from Tokyo! Be sure to head out to your local newsagents and try out some of the tips written up in the Recycled Gift Wrap instructions.
Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo

A walk home from Ebisu

Today's weather is way to lovely to catch the train so I took a little walk home from my workshop in Ebisu to Shimokitazawa and snapped up some instagram shots along the way. It's one of my favourite pastimes, wondering around looking for photos.

Hope you're having a nice weekend too.

Love Love
Hello Sandwich
xoxo