[Day Service] Spring Take-Home Crafts: Ideas to Warmly Brighten Your Room

Kabuto hanging ornament

Origami-style helmet decoration [Tsumami-zaiku] for Boys’ Festival (Children’s Day) – Kanzashi flower Tsumami-zaiku tutorial

On Children’s Day, we display kabuto helmets, whose stylish appearance carries the wish for children to grow up strong.

This project recreates a kabuto decoration using tsumami-zaiku (pinched fabric craft), paying close attention to fabric patterns for a colorful finish.

The base is made from thick paperboard: cut it into triangles, cover them with fabric, and then add the kabuto embellishments.

By combining folded parts, you can add volume overall and create a more three-dimensional helmet.

As the number of parts increases, the work becomes more intricate, so aiming for a thoroughly decorated kabuto is recommended.

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kappamaki

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Hanging decorations for Children’s Day

[Felt] How to Make a Children’s Day Hanging Decoration (No Sewing) — Just Cut and Glue! Perfect with Koinobori 🎏✨

Speaking of May, it’s Children’s Day.

Let’s make a hanging decoration to boost the festive mood! This idea uses felt, but since you assemble it by gluing instead of sewing, it’s easy for seniors to try as well.

First, make a template—thick paper or cardstock works fine.

Trace the template onto the felt and cut it out.

Carefully finish each piece by gluing it together.

Try making lots of Children’s Day–themed motifs like carp streamers (koinobori), oak leaf rice cakes (kashiwa mochi), samurai helmets (kabuto), and festival banners.

They’re so cute that your grandchildren would love receiving them as a gift!

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moko

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Making a calendar with cherry blossom posters

[Day Service Functional Training] April Calendar Creation

Let’s make a calendar decorated with cherry blossoms made of paper.

Use long, narrow strips of paper, folding and bending them into the shape of cherry petals.

If you want to make a more elaborate version, paper quilling is recommended.

You roll thin strips of paper around a tool and build your piece as you go.

Prepare pink or red construction paper or origami paper beneath the folded cherry blossom petals to enhance the cherry blossom atmosphere.

Creating this may also help some older adults recall memories of enjoying cherry blossom viewing.

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Nakajima Junko

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bamboo shoot

Introducing an easy way to fold a bamboo shoot with origami! Why not fold some during the spring season and use them as decorations? [Ori-Tsuku]

Bamboo shoots, which you often see around springtime.

It’s the season when they’re sold not only in bamboo groves but also at supermarkets and greengrocers.

Bamboo shoots are one of spring’s seasonal flavors.

Some older adults may look forward to freshly harvested bamboo shoots in spring.

Let’s make a calendar that perfectly matches the spring image using bamboo shoots.

Make bamboo shoots out of origami or construction paper and stick them onto a calendar.

You’ll create a calendar with a spring feel.

You can also use the bamboo-shoot pieces made from origami or construction paper to make wreaths and other various crafts.

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Nakajima Junko

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Making a dandelion calendar

April Calendar Making 🗓️ Magokoro no Kōbōan

In April, you can sometimes find fields and parks filled with lots of small, yellow dandelion flowers.

Just looking at them makes you feel the warm, cozy spring weather.

Let’s add some handmade dandelions to an April calendar.

You can make them by accordion-folding and cutting construction paper or using origami.

Creating a calendar with a dandelion coloring page would be lovely, too.

Since you can do the craft while seated at a table, it encourages conversation with those around you and helps promote communication.

It’s also nice that you can display the finished calendar at home.

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Nakajima Junko

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Sakura in tsumami-zaiku

Tsumami-zaiku: How to Make Cherry Blossoms #shorts #craft #CherryBlossoms #handmade

Cute little rounded tsumami-zaiku are perfect for recreational activities for seniors because they make good use of fine motor skills.

They help train focus and creativity, making them great for dementia prevention as well.

Fold small pieces of chirimen fabric to create round petals.

Make five round petals, attach them to another piece of fabric, and arrange them into the shape of a cherry blossom.

The key is to work carefully using tweezers.

Fix small flower stamens in the center of the cherry blossom, and your tiny sakura is complete.

You can attach it to a keychain or a hair clip, or make many and turn them into a lovely sakura bouquet.

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moko

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Koinobori made with tsumami-zaiku

[Tsumami Zaiku] Let’s make carp streamers to display in a frame! Children’s Day – Tango no Sekku

Koinobori carp streamers swimming majestically across the fresh May skies.

In some areas lately, chances to see koinobori have been decreasing.

For many older adults, Children’s Day and the Boys’ Festival may bring to mind these carp streamers.

So let’s make a koinobori frame decoration that looks as if it’s really swimming.

If you use the tsumami-zaiku technique for the koinobori’s body, it will give a scaly look.

Tsumami-zaiku is one of Japan’s traditional crafts.

The maru-tsumami, made by folding small pieces of fabric into triangles, seems perfect for the scales.

Craftwork that uses your fingers can also be expected to stimulate the brain.

If you also make iris flowers with tsumami-zaiku and arrange them in the frame, it will turn out even more lovely.

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Nakajima Junko

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