Friday, April 10, 2009

Sakura


Attic Gal Alysa says:
Cherry Blossoms outside of the National Cathedral
(Picture compliments of my dear friend, Doreen Wallace)

As I've been teaching my 4th grade Japanese class this month, we've been discussing Sakura -- Cherry Blossoms. If you have ever been to Washington DC during this time of the year, you've hopefully experienced the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It is a two-week festival that celebrates springtime. Back in 1912, Japan presented Washington DC with more than 3,000 Cherry Blossom trees representing the two countries' friendship. Check out thewashingtonpost.com for some amazing pictures.

I was visiting Attic Gal Rachelle the other night and saw that she made a faux-cherry blossom tree. Since I'm homesick for DC and we don't have many cherry blossoms in the desert, it was the perfect craft to make my homesickness go away. I had to do one for myself. Easy peasy craft -- I love those.

1. Find a branch. I found this on the ground while I was out running.

2. Have dark pink tissue paper and light pink tissue paper. Cut a messy circular shape. Make the smaller ones with the dark pink and the large shapes with the light pink.

3. Wrap the dark pink smaller shape around the eraser part of a pencil. Attic Girl Rachelle used the point of her pencil. Either way. (Sorry for the fuzzy picture. It's hard to take your own pictures when you are the crafter.)


4. Wrap it around the end of the pencil. (Ahh, much clearer. My daughter helped.)


5. Put a drop of elmer's glue on top.



6. Put the large light pink shape on top of the glue.


7. Wrap this one of the pencil and on top of the dark pink.


8. Add another drop of elmer's glue.


9. Place the blossom somewhere on the branch.


10. Let it sit there for a bit to dry.


You can add a few blossoms like I did,

or add a lot of blossoms like Rachelle did. Fun craft to do even with children.



Enjoy bringing a little Japan and a little DC into your home.


8 comments:

  1. Lovely post!

    When I saw that branch of cherry blossoms in the magazine, I knew I wanted to make one, but a search of my yard left me without the perfect branch. Then the other day my three year old walked in the house with this huge branch covered with dead leaves that he had picked up who knows where. My first reaction was "Get that messy thing out of here." Then it dawned on me that it was curvy and lovely, and would be perfect for my cherry blossom branch. "Wait, bring that thing back in here!" I stripped off all the dead leaves and did my project. I just love my big cherry branch. It really looks real.

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  2. Thank you so much for posting this! I was born and raised in Japan and I am missing the Cherry Blossoms very much!!! We have a festival back where I live and it's currently going on :( I will have to do this!!!

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  3. Yeah Alysa! We love the Cherry Blossoms!!! Your tree is so cute. Makes me miss our office days. When did you get so craftsy??

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  4. that is really cool. i want to try that. first i need to find a cool twig to do it on. thanks for the ideas!!!

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  5. I am totally doing that. Beautiful!!!

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  6. Wow!! What an incredible project. Thank you so much for sharing. I've never seen anything like it before. How perfect for Spring.

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