Shorties: December 2014

Origami Floral Fiesta by Pegasus Toy-Kraft

Origami Floral Fiesta

Folded Flowers - Forever Fresh

"Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper to form intricate 3D designs.

The word 'Ori' in Japanese literally means to fold and 'kami' means paper.

('kami' becomes 'gami' when combines with 'ori')"

The Pegasus Toy-Kraft company based in India

offers a wide range of toys such as this beautiful Origami Floral Fiesta Kit.

Providing children with a stimulating platform that fosters

personal expression and intellectual growth.

The box comes with the following items:

48 sheets of square origami paper

20 paper stems

1 adhesive glue and an

illustrated instruction booklet.

The clearly illustrated instruction booklet makes it easy-to-follow for young children and runs through the basic origami folds before teaching them how to complete a full flower.

The Iris, Lily, 4 Petal Flower, Berry, Tulip and an Origami Rose are some of the flowers

you will learn how to fold in this kit.

As an example, I tried following the instructions booklet to fold the Tulip and Kusumuda Flowers

step- by- step below.

The paper comes in a variety of colours and designs such as this sweet ombre

magenta which gives your folded flowers a more dramatic 3D rendering effect.

Origami brings children's minds a new fascination while still being an educational tool

through creative and assembling skills.

By learning each fold and tucking in corners, it helps them develop 3D construction techniques.

(This is the closed Tulip pictured above)

By pulling down the outside layers, opens the Tulip and now you can see this step creates each petal.

There is different ways you can finish the flowers either by using the paper stems,

learning to fold the leaves or by making an origami vase or bowl included in the instructions.

Here I have chosen to use the paper stems.

And below is an example of using a folded origami leaf and it's clever how they have printed the paper using a close up image of a real leaf.

The Kusumuda Flower does require more time as it requires using glue

to stick each of the 5 folded origami petals together.

For younger children, this may need some supervision.

I found the glue didn't take too long to dry and it is recommended

that each petal is attached one at a time.

You can gift a bouquet of origami flowers to someone special

or to be used as party / at home decoration!

For Ages 5 and Up

Available in store at Shorties and online for $12.00

Post by Mel.

The Big Book Of Anorak has landed!

What can you expect to find in the The Big Book of Anorak?

A unique and fun collection of beautifully illustrated stories, features, interviews, games and activities guaranteed to inspire and entertain any little ones aged 5+. All carefully selected from Anorak's archives.

Fun stories such as“Leonardo The Shopping Tiger”, “Gary the lovelorn Giant”, humorous profiles like “Harrold the Hiccup”, “Louis the Knee” or “Sally the Smile”, colouring pages, mazes, word searches

and recipes (“Let’s Make Mr Happy Bread”) etc..etc..

The Big Book of Anorak is the perfect present for anyone who enjoys silly fun, reading and drawing.

224 pages (we said BIG book of Anorak..) HARDBACK.

The Big Book of Anorak is $39.95 and available instore and online

Daisy

Shorties Dress -

Saltwater Surfer Sandals - $69

Coq en Pate Bag -

Straw Hat -

Styled and photographed by Ingrid

Wooden Loom

Want to learn how to weave?

This weaving kit is perfect for beginners! It lets not only kids but adults as well to learn how to weave cloth and allows them to be creative with colour form.

Comes with well illustrated instructions.

Now we can begin!

In this blog, I have also included how to make sure your weave does not come apart

This is not included in the instructions page.

(For this purpose I have not used the full width of the loom.)

To make sure your weave is super secure, firstly reverse your loom so the grooves are not visible and tie a knot on the first string on the right. (We will knot right to left.)

Make a back to front D and pull the long strand of wool through the D loop. Make sure you do this twice on every string until you get a row of knots.

Now you can start weaving your wool under, over, under and over! (See the green wool.)

This is great for kids to learn hand and eye co ordination and will help with their concentration skills.

Weave bracelets, pencil cases, scarves and more.

The possibilities are endless!

You can use the wooden comb to bring your weave together so that it looks more compact.

Be careful with your tension!

You can create stripes of colours or create basic shapes within your weave.

The kit features a wooden loom, 2 piece weaving shuttle and minimal wool to get you started.

Make sure you trim some of the ends once the weave is completed.

Dimensions 26.5cm x 17.3cm x 3.5cm

For Ages 4 and Up

Available in store at Shorties and online for $9.00

Post by Mel

Christmas gift guide

This, our 10th year is a very special one and we're proud to say it's our busiest yet.
We have been hard at work building wonderful categories into our NEW Online Shop so you can find shopping a breeze this Christmas, all with added bonus of FLAT RATE POSTAGE of $8.95* and the new option for FREE INSTORE PICKUP.