You all know I’m crazy, right? Well, I am. I spend a lot of time on little projects because I’m too detail oriented. I see the trees and Ben sees the forest, so we’re a great team. Sometimes, I care way too much about the trees, though. So, I take on little, time-consuming projects like this origami crane shadow box that is currently on the recently refinished bookshelf.
A side note: If you like the alphabet painting, you can buy print versions for $15.00 in my Etsy shop.
Back to the topic. To create a flock of seagulls paper cranes, first cut thin paper into 1 inch squares. I used light weight scrapbook paper, but you can use anything that will fold well. Use an origami crane tutorial like this one, to learn how to fold the cranes. If you don’t know how to make an origami crane, you may want to practice by making several larger cranes before you go onto small cranes.
Create 25 small paper cranes in the colors of your choice.
Cut a piece of cardstock to fit in your shadow box. My frame is from IKEA, but I can’t find it on their website. It measures about 6 inches square. Using another sheet of paper, draw the spacing of your grid. Then, use a thumb tack to poke small holes at the intersection of your lines. Place this template on top of your cardstock and draw a dot inside each poked hole.
To keep the cranes flat against the paper, I cut off the back wing. Use small pieces of foam adhesive to attach each crane to the cardstock, centering over the dot. I think it would look really cool to create a grouping of cranes as if they were flying, too. Attach all cranes and place in your frame.
See what I mean about being crazy? To add to the crazy, I even made a 1/2 inch paper crane. Notice the little blue one? Yep, I might be committed soon.
If you like the look, but don’t want to make the cranes, you can buy some from this lovely Etsy seller. Speaking of Etsy sellers, Thrifty Little Blog is hosting a handmade gift giveaway, including one of my prints, so check it out.
What is the craziest, most time-consuming project you’ve tackled? Am I alone in this? I can’t be. Please make me feel a little normal.
ourhumbleabodeblog.com 
I love the owl!
I’ve played with one photo, on photoshop, for 12 hours straight. My eyeballs hurt =(
i love the cranes! esp. next to the owl and tree painting – its a cute little match-up!
xoXOxo
I got a little nuts making crafts for my wedding. I made over 200 table decorations with glass beads and little wedding sayings. Style me pretty actually published the tutorial. It took me forever to make so many.
Chandeen,
That’s awesome that it was published! I would love to see the link, if you have it. I’m glad I’m not the only crazy one 🙂
I made 500 cranes to decorate our Xmas tree one year. That was absolutely nuts. Nuts, but no match for everything we did for our wedding. We’re still recovering.
That’s one thing that’s on my list. Origami reindeer for a Christmas tree. If anyone can find a good tutorial, I would love to see it. I want one with antlers. If you have a photo of your tree, I’d love to see it!
Thanks!
Amanda
You might be a little crazy…but that is also a sign of genius is it not? Well done, in my opinion.
I don’t know if that’s true or not. Perhaps only the crazies say that to feel better about the crazy. They say genius’ pick green, though. At least DeNiro did. Thanks, too!
I’m just finishing up my 2nd set of 1,000 paper cranes, and have been going NUTS trying to figure out how to arrange them correctly in a frame. Thank you so very much for sharing an excellent idea on how to mark the space for placement without leaving pencil marks!
I love this! I would love to recreate something similar for my daughters room especially since we are currently living in Japan…would be so fitting!