Origami: Dinosaurs

It’s been a bit rainy the past few days so what’s the a fun thing to do when you’re stuck inside? Origami! I’ve been on an origami craze! I have the honor to work for HMNS in Houston Texas and when I’m not writing copy I get to help out with the Membership events at the Museum. That includes helping plan out events for the young professional group, HMNS Catalysts. I mostly help out with the crafts, and I’ve already included origami at two events!

Back in January we had our first Catalysts event of 2017 and our theme was dinosaurs, featuring our great Hall of Paleontology. Not only did I teach myself how to make three different types of dinosaur origami, I was also responsible for folding tons of larger paper dinos that were used as the backdrop in our photobooth. Let’s just say I had a lot of fun folding these dinos, and I had the chance to learn something new.

I really enjoy teaching others how to craft, so I had no problem being in charge of this table. And the Members appeared to have a great time folding these cute little dinosaurs. I tried to find dinosaurs that varied on level, starting with a bit easy and working it’s way to a bit more ambitious.

• First up is Brachiosaurus:  This one is pretty easy, it does require some scissors to cute out sections of the dino, but nothing too complicated. I suggested this one for the members that were a bit intimidated by the thought of origami.
• Next up is what looks like a Raptor to me: This was actually the first dinosaur I learned how to fold, but I figured this one might have been too complicated for some. But I like how this one looks, mine just always come out looking as though they are doing the splits.
• Lastly, Maiasaura? I didn’t know this dinosaur name until just now so don’t worry if it’s not familiar to you. This has to be my favorite one out of the three. I learned this one last minute and I’m so glad I did. It’s a bit more difficult than the raptor, but I’m glad I decided to look for one more dinosaur.

I had a lot of fun learning how to make these little paper dinosaurs. I found each of the tutorials online, it might take you a few tries but it’s pretty fun once you get the hang of it.

Happy paper folding!

This post was written by:

KIM VERA - (view all posts by Kim)
Kim works as a museum Copywriter and helps out with events from time to time. When she isn’t working or blogging, she is probably off taking a nap. Feel free to email her at kim@mind-speaks.com

Free Calendar Download

I created another free planner download for you guys! This time I am bringing you a blank calendar just in time for organizing for the new year! There are two download links – one for A5 and the second is for personal size. At the moment those are the two most popular sizes. If you use these, be sure to post the pics on Instagram on how you customized them using #mindspeaks.

This is a start of a new design series. I am going to make a notes pack, weekly pack and some matching stationery to go along with this theme. I will be calling it Hello Rainbow! The colorful design is part of a themed set that includes, Calendar, Notes and Weekly inserts. I also have some matching items on our Etsy shop. Link in main menu under Store.

A5 calendar.pdf (1095 downloads)

personal size calendar.pdf (1011 downloads)

For those who don’t like dealing with printing or cutting, we have the hard copy of the A5 calendar cut and punched (6 hole punched) listed over here.
We will be adding new designs to this series soon. If there is a template you’re needing, please email us or comment!

This post was written by:

MIJA VERA - (view all posts by Mija)
Mija has been a designer for the last 15 years. She is a paper obsessed fiend and loves working on new projects while listening to her kids and Maine Coon cat chatter around the house. You can email her at mija@mind-speaks.com

Currently: Yarn Testing

I’ve purchased some new knitting needles that I’ve only been able to slightly use. They are round needles in the US size 50 and are surprisingly easy to use.

The reason for the larger needles is because I wanted to knit a nice comfy blanket. You need extra chunky yarn….and a lot of it. I’ actually not too certain how many skeins I need in order to make a decent size blanket. My original plan was to arm knit this blanket, there are quite a lot of tutorials going around and I just had to try it out. I think I need extra extra chunky yarn in order for it to work the way I want it to. Either that or buy regular chunky yarn in even more skeins. I just wanted to save myself some hassle and buy X amount of skeins once instead of multiples of smaller skeins. It made sense in my head. The yarn I bought was from Hobby Lobby, and it’s from the brand Yarn Bee. I couldn’t find it on their site but I’ll keep browsing the net so that I can link it later.

I also purchased the needles from Hobby Lobby and the reason I bought circle needles is because the loop was long enough to knit a blanket. All of the straight needles were much too short, plus round needles allow a more comfy knitting experience. More movable? The arm knitting, although easy to learn, just wasn’t progressing the way I had hoped. The stitches just weren’t as tight as  I wanted them to be so I switched to the needles and since I needed the needles to be pretty long I just went with the circle needles.

I prefer wooden needles because of how light weight they are…believe me you’ll noticed the difference after switching. I wanted to test out the needles with the chunky yarn I had purchased and that’s when I noticed it will take many more skeins to finish the blanket but I’m looking forward to testing out more skeins and finding the right yarn in order to knit the blanket I have in mind.

Until then, I will gladly try out tons of yarn. More updates to follow.

Any projects you’re currently working on, or do you have any tips when dealing with yarn and round needles?

Thanks for reading.

This post was written by:

KIM VERA - (view all posts by Kim)
Kim works as a museum Copywriter and helps out with events from time to time. When she isn’t working or blogging, she is probably off taking a nap. Feel free to email her at kim@mind-speaks.com