Paper Elephants

Well, I found an excuse to be crafty this past weekend! My roommate's birthday was earlier this week and I decided I want to make her something.

She has an affinity for elephants (a tasteful affinity, of course), so I wanted to do something along those lines. Mostly because I've only lived with her for a few months, and I haven't got her totally figured out yet. Elephants come up enough in our random conversations that I decided it was appropriate to follow that theme.

If I'd had more time (maybe next year) I might knit her an elephant, or a hat with an elephant. But, being short on time I needed to come up with something else. Cue my bin of craftiness.


The first thing I pulled out: a packet of miscellaneous oragami paper. Bingo. Oragami elephants it was!

time to fold the paper

Oragami packets usually come with instructions for several critters or objects. Unfortunately in the three sets of instructions I happened to have there wasn't one elephant. Thank goodness for google. I was able to find a couple of versions of oragami elephants, and went with the one that seemed slightly less confusing.

how to make an elephant

Four elephants (and a bit of trunk-wrestling) later:

and I was nearly there.

I had a frame in the box of crafting fun that had a mat with ever-so-slight depth to it, which was perfect for the three-dimensional elephants. I used a couple of pieces of the same pattern paper in a different color as a background, taped the little guys down, reassembled the frame and the masterpiece was complete.

a herd of elephants.
what a happy littlefamily!

She was superpsyched: "I LOVE the Elephants! Thank you!!"

I think I've found my new last-minute go-to gift.

When I haven't been crafty, or teachery, or parenty, Zoe and I have found time to do some hiking. I have to say, the colors are really lookin' pretty good right now.

this doesn't even do the colors justice

zoe loves the trails at mt. ellen