"MyPaperCrane" news and stories

Give a bunch of super-crafty DIY types the theme of "indulgence," allow time for their creativity to fester, and what do you get?

You get Sugarcraft, more than a month of sugar chandeliers, felted ice cream cones, watermelon earrings, and any other food-cum-craft project that you could dream up. The designers range from Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane fame, who crochets food items complete with googly eyes and facial expressions, to the UK's Alison Tennant, who makes confections out of polymer clay - at a 1:12 scale.

Any way you slice it, these artists have some great ideas about indulgence and how it is represented in various mediums (sand art, sugar, paint, needlepoint...the list goes on and on). Go ahead: indulge yourself in a few photos from this year's Sugarcraft. And if you want to see them in person, get over to Chicago - it's going on through August 9.

It's springtime, and for My Paper Crane, that means new teeny keychains made to look like breakfast food! The company teamed up with hipster toy company Kid Robot to bring us a happy coffee in a to-go cup, a cheerful strawberry, and a stack of pancakes complete with butter pat nose.

I've blogged about Kid Robot before, but a new line of plush accessories just has to be celebrated (sorry, sometimes girliness just gets the best of me). And admit it: even the toughest, most cold-hearted person alive would have to struggle to not crack a smile at these cute little guys. If you're embarrassed, just tell people you're ordering them for a kid, and then hoard them for yourself. At only 5 bucks a pop, you can definitely afford both the grapefruit half and the cinnamon roll, and still have room for lunch. (And the keychains can be removed to turn the toys into rad zipper pulls).