It's hard to believe, but nearly a year and 50 posts have passed since the start of The Cardboard Collective!
I'm so thankful to all of you!
The blog has been a space where I have used cardboard to find solutions to all kinds of creative challenges that we face in our little family. You have cheered me on with your comments and kinds words of encouragement to keep innovating and creating.
My home has morphed from a tiny Tokyo apartment into a full-blown cardboard lab!
A place where boxes are stacked in corners to their tipping point, paper bags full of cardboard scraps are stuffed into empty closet spaces, and little paperboard models of future designs wait patiently on my bookshelf.
Where will another year take us?
Hopefully to better control of the cardboard stash, and new ideas! But in the mean time...
Are you ready to Celebrate?????
Aren't these little cardboard fireworks the perfect symbol for all of the dynamo qualities of cardboard?
These cardboard pom-poms are a prime example of what can come of fiddling around with beautiful colors and textures that might be hiding in even your recycling bin.
I love that they look like little bursts of cardboard energy strung neatly in a row.
The tools I used for this project include needle nose pliers, wire (I used large paperclips), and a cardboard cutting tool like a utility knife or these corrugated roofing sheers that I like to use for heavier cardboard projects.
I cut the cardboard kiwi boxes into 1 cm strips and bundled about 30 together with a piece of wire.
After I tightened the wire as much as I could, I started gently bending and fanning the cardboard pieces out, exactly the same way that you would if you were making a pom pom from yarn. As you bend the cardboard you will want to tighten the wire more to help the pom pom maintain it's shape.
Lastly I threaded a piece of paper cording through the middle of the pom pom and just kept adding to my string.
Where are the cardboard hats and kazoos? Well I haven't gotten that far yet, but in the meantime...
Happy 50th everybody!
Here's to another year of making cool cardboard stuff.