New blog!

So, we have moved our blog to www.luluandbean.wordpress.com.  We hope that you will continue to follow Lulu and Bean there!

EK Success Punches

I just have to rave about my new EK success punches.  I purchased four of them and even with all the positive reviews had little hope that they would be any easier to punch with than my Fiskars.  I'm happy to report that I was very, very wrong.  The EK Success punches go through paper like nothing, no red and cramped hand after an hour of punching and their storage mechanism makes them so easy to keep with my crafts.  I adore these punches!  Between these punches and my new stamps sets I should be set to make a multitude of different shaped and colored tags!  My next attempt is going to be aging my paper to give it a vintage feel.  Stay tuned for photos!  :)

Sales

Don't you hate when you go somewhere and everything is on sale?  ;)  It just forces you to buy everything, at least this is what I tell myself, because you could potentially miss out on a good deal.  I'm currently in the process of organizing all my "good deals" and trying to sort out why I purchased some of these papers.  Expect to see some new boxes, tags and cranes pretty soon, at least once I get it all together and such.

New materials!

I'm so excited to announce that my new materials came early, don't you just love when things come early?  Prepare to be overwhelmed with stamps and lovely design based origami boxes.  Also new paper from Korea and new tag designs should be in by the end of the week so check back then for new listings.

New box design!

New box design, love it!  Working on many more!

The only downside of online ordering

I love online ordering, as you can tell by my shop.  It's convenient, easy, and provides you with countless options without the mileage.  The only thing I don't like about it is the wait.  Isn't it funny how we all like instant gratification?  If there was a way to pull items off the screen once you order them it would make online shopping perfect.  However, since we are not quite there yet, I try to ship my items out the next business day after receiving an order.  I also make sure to add tracking to all my US orders (I would do this for you international folks if it didn't cost a small fortune to do so, blame the mail system for that one) because I know that I love to track my orders as they come to me.  My policy is to treat my customers the way I like to be treated as a customer!  The usual wait time for postal mail here in the US seems to be 3-5 business days depending on where you are located.

For those of you who simply cannot wait, I can do express shipment.  Just convo me for a price quote before ordering an item.

Stamps!

I got a little too shopping happy during a sale and ended up purchasing a ridiculous amount of stamps.  They should all be arriving by the end of the week, so expect to see plenty of cute stamped tags and boxes in my store in the next few weeks!

New listings

I have finally put up some of my new creations.  I am venturing into tags for wedding favors.  I think these tags would look wonderful with my cranes and it gives me an opportunity to expand my horizon.  I absolutely adore the cardstock paper I got for these tags and boxes.  Each of my cardstock boxes are hand scored before folding so that the lines and edges are clean and crisp!  It takes a while longer but I think the quality is worth the work.  Check out my new listings in the link below.
www.luluandbean.etsy.com

Going a little origami box crazy

Absolutely adore these miniature boxes that filled my night last night.  The bottoms are made from 100% cotton in a thicker weight for sturdiness.  The tops are made from decorative origami paper.  Featured in the photo are just a few of the boxes that I created.

Once I actually get motivated to photograph all the items o have made and waiting to be posted these little boxes will be up in my store.  They are perfect for little gift boxes or favor boxes for parties!

Origami boxes

I'm so excited about this new creation of mine!  I have created a box!  I absolutely love that I went through over three different types of boxes before I was pleased by one.  I have ordered card stock paper to make these little gift boxes so you should be seeing them in my store within a few weeks!  :)

An idea for Easter

Easter is months away but we say that about every holiday.  Oh Christmas is still months away and then all of a sudden it is December 20th and we are scrambling to buy gifts.  So, this year I'm determined to get ahead of the holidays.  Pictured is a fun little origami Easter basket.  This is a miniature version.  I am considering making these for the store using cardstock paper for durability.  Wouldn't it be nice to have your kids use the Easter basket, collect the eggs and then have it be disposable so it doesn't sit around your house for a year?  These could also be used as decorative features during Easter or maybe even for an Easter event, say brunch?

Also featured are some water lilies that I learned to make.  These little jewels are perfect for weddings!  Not only are they adorable but that also float on top of water!  Sure, you say but for how long?  Well, I'll tell you I've tested it out and so far they lasted 4 days before I got tired of having the little cup out all the time.  I also moved the cup while the flower was in there and it survived the jiggling.  I can just imagine these in clear glass bowels floating delicately along.  Something I am considering for the shop.

Specialty papers

Excited to see my new Korean papers come in today!  I love the Easter colors, just finished up a new set of boxes.  I will post them when I get a chance to take some photos.

I'm also looking into some specialty washi paper that I will be buying in bulk.  I love getting new paper, especially washi paper.  The issue becomes when people list something as washi and it turns out just to be regular origami paper.  The texture of true washi paper is what makes it so unique and so costly.  It definitely should only be reserved for special occasions.

Also, I had someone ask me, "what do you do with origami?"  Lots of people enjoy decorating their homes with origami for events and parties, or decorating a venue with them for special occasions.  They can be hung on Christmas trees, threaded onto mobiles for children, or used in weddings.  Below is a photo taken by Zuzanna Audette and Dave Brewer that shows my own wedding featuring origami boxes that were handmade for all of our guests (they contained candy in a little plastic pouch) and origami crane wedding cake toppers that my husband and I each made.  These toppers were a perfect solution for us, we wanted something to represent us, but since I am Korean and my husband is Indian we had trouble finding the appropriate wedding cake toppers that showed a Korean and Indian couple.

Movable origami, the new frontier!

Movable origami, who knew?  Well, in all reality it is not truly origami because it has loads of tape to keep it together and flexible.  However, I still think it is pretty awesome.  I haven't quite figured out video yet, but this cube actually forms into two separate cubes when pressed in the right direction.  It took 6 hours and 96 sheets of origami paper to make, yes 6, I was really determined to see it to the finish.  Needless to say, I won't be making these for my origami shop, because I would have to charge a fortune for them between the time and materials it takes to make them.  I might be selling this one...maybe.  Anyway, let me know your thoughts on my movable origami and anyone interested in purchasing it, shoot me an email or message me on etsy.

Also, I just received a large shipment of fantastic washi paper that I am very excited to start folding, so be sure to check the store soon, I will be adding them as soon as I finish making them.  Thanks for reading!  

Welcome to the Lulu and Bean blog!

Welcome to the Lulu and Bean blog page, where you can find up to date creations and find out more about what is happening with Lulu and Bean!

For those of you who don't know Lulu and Bean and have just happened to stumble across my little blog let me introduce you to my store.  Lulu and Bean is an online etsy store featuring origami, with a strong focus on origami cranes. To reach the shop and purchase items click on the store front in the right hand corner.  Lulu and Bean really started years before my etsy shop ever made an appearance.  I worked for a paper company years ago and fell in love with paper.  If you've never had a love affair with paper before it is a difficult thing to understand.  The touch, the smell, the texture and materials of each unique paper, I loved them all.  I worked in samples for part of my time at the paper company so I was exposed to a variety of papers and brands.  During this time I was also struggling to find my craft, I went through knitting, crocheting, sewing but none of them brought what I was looking for.  Even though I would often try to give up the crafting all together something always pulled me back to it.

Finally I fell into origami.  It's kind of funny because origami has really been a part of my life long before I picked up crafting.  I met my husband because of origami and he used it in his proposal when we got engaged as well as in our wedding as cake toppers and also for our favors.  For me origami really is a labor of love and it makes me happy to know that my creations are spreading happiness to others.

I promise to try to keep this blog up to date and show off new creations as well as items I am thinking about adding to my shop.  I value any input all of you might have in this.  If there is something you would like to see added to my shop let me know, I am always up for a challenge and I am happy to do custom orders!  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, I am a very friendly person and I promise to get back to you with an answer as soon as I can.

Check back soon for updates and thanks once again for visiting my blog!