Takara Town

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Welcome to the official Takara Town Blog! 

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www.takaratown.com

Super Cute Deco Pocky Sticks!

Introducing another great item from Japan - Deco Pocky! (Also called Decotte Pocky)

Deco Pocky Official Website 

 チョコレートやトッピングで色々なデコポッキーをつくろう！

Introducing Deco Making Pocky recipe! Make Deco Pocky chocolate and various toppings on!

If you enjoy creating cute decoden stuff, you will probably enjoy making these totally cute snacks. 

Here is a little preview of the fun tutorials they provide on their official website: 
( all tutorial instructions are in Japanese with the translations below. I am learning Japanese now, so I want to start including Japanese text in my posts! ) 

 Deco Pocky!  - click here to go to the Pocky Website

2色のチョコレートペンでラインを引きます。

Draw a line with two chocolate-colored pen.

星のシュガーをならべます。

Arrange the sugar of the star.

星の上にアラザンをのせます。

Place a star on argent.

星と星の間にアラザンをならべてできあがり！

argent finished side by side between the stars and star!

 

 Super Kawaii Pocky Tutorial - click to visit pocky website! 

種のポッキーを交互にチョコレートペンでくっつけます。

Pocky chocolate Kuttsukemasu alternating the two pens.

チョコレートペンで名前をかきます。

Write a pen name in chocolate.

チョコレートペンで虹をかきます。

Write a chocolate rainbow pen.

チョコレートペンで雲をかきます。

Write a chocolate cloud pen.

アラザンやトッピングシュガーで飾ってできあがり！

Finished and decorated with sugar topping argent!

 

 Advanced Deco Pocky Tutorial - Click to visit Pocky website! 

 

 

種のポッキーをチョコレートペンを使って交互にくっつけます。

Kuttsukemasu alternating with the five types of chocolate Pocky pen.

チョコレートペンをぬったアーモンドクラッシュポッキーを両端に積み重ねます。

Stacked across the almonds coated with chocolate Pocky pen crash.

ハート型にカットしたいちごをならべます。

Arrange the strawberries and cut into heart-shaped.

いちごの間にホイップクリームをしぼります。

Squeeze the strawberry whipped cream between.

スライスアーモンドやアラザンを飾りつけて、できあがり！

Decoration and argent with a sliced ​​almond, finished!

 

 Here are some great photos I found around the web of more Deco Pocky: 

How Kawaii! I found this here: 

  Super Cute Blog!  

The girl who wrote this blog made these herself, in four hours! She says " I am genuis" and she is right, they are great arn't they! 

 

 

 I found these ones here: 

 Tobidasu.wordpress.com 

I found this one here: 

 Sweet Deco Tumbler Photos 

(They also have some great Kawaii Deco Nails to check out!)

I found these here: 

  Drop Dead Kawaii  

 Okay and finally, from a great Decorated Pocky contest, and here at lots of pictures from the entrants to get you inspired to make your own: 

The Winner! (above)

 

 For the Love of Pocky! 

This following section was made so that you can go completly nuts and geek out on all that is Pocky: 

 Pocky Wiki Page 

 Glico Company Website 

 A website with a whole section dedicated to Pocky! 

 DIY Pocky Recipe 

 Bonus: 

 Kawaii Pocky Free Online Game 

And why not finish this post off with a couple of Japanese Pocky Commercials! 

Decoden Blink Artist - Hiroko Yamada owner of "AtorieKiko"

 

                           

( blinkies are from featured artists blog!)

This is part one in a series I am doing about the Japanese Blink ( Bling ) Artist School! This is an amazing school in Japan where students are taught and become certified to create beautiful Decoden Art Pieces. 

My first featured artist is : Hiroko Yamada of "AtorieKiko" (Shop Name)

After studying illustration at the Nagoya University of Art Design, She joined a company in Nagoya at the Planning Office and was in charge of handeling product development. Yamada enjoyed working there for 5 years but left to pursue her passion of Deco Art.

 

Once qualified as a professional artist from the  Blink Japan Society of Artists  she became an Independant Artist creating and selling her artwork. 

 

"AtorieKiko" ( her store ),Opened in March of 2009 for a limited time in Nagoya Kanayama.

Yamada later expanded production and had to move to Saitama to open a studio wear she could produce and fufil all of her online orders. She now works from her production studio in Fujima City, Saitama Prefecture. 

 

Yamada now works as a special instructor giving lectures at the Professional Artist Association of Blink Japanese Artists.

  Full gallery online can be view here: http://www.a-kico.com/works.html  

  Here is a link to her Blog which spans back from 2009 to the present can be read here: http://kicolog.blog.shinobi.jp/ 

I read that works are created using Swarovski Elements crystals, and I believe this applies to everything she makes!

She will begin accepting orders for Deco Suites ( Fake Sweets) in January of 2012! 

 

These rhinestones are in my favorite colorway 



 And her dog is everywhere, in the shop, on the website.....so cute 

 

Now lets take a look at this bulldog in bling: 

Read more about this project here: http://kicolog.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/163/#comment1

Contact Information

atelier KICO (Atoriekiko)
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays + α (HP, guide the site's blog)
Hiroko Yamada
4-12-12 Minami-ku, Nagoya city Hosho 〒 457-0828
Fujimi, Saitama
080-3680-4983
info@a-kico.com

 

Kobe Yasai Tomato Cheese Cake!

Sometimes you find something online that just blows your mind:

 

I think many people will imagine a tomato dishes and Italian speaking, was introduced to Europe in the Age of Discovery since the South American native vegetable surprisingly.  Is transmitted to the Edo period in Japan, but seems to be eaten from the Meiji period, as did fixing time is difficult.  Thereafter, breeding is made, now, "Momotaro" is many things out of a high sugar content, represented by. Among the vegetables, nutritious tomatoes are carotene , vitamin C ,lycopene include more. Particularly strong antioxidant lycopene, as well as young women, making it the leading cause more actively choose to include all generations are concerned about health. Spread in western Japan, are quite common to use a tomato meat sauce or curry, etc., this is the tomato, "glutamate" on the grounds that it is a vegetable rich in amino acids and contains a lot of flavor ingredients The. Melts in the mouth with soft fluffy, creamy cheesecake, spread tomato refreshing apple flavored jelly and then faint. Please feel Served with Italian basil and mint accompanied by your favorite tomato and cheese go great together.

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/manabou/agli_tomato_4/?scid=af_ich_link_tbl#agli_tomato_4

Kawaii Swiss Cake Roll Tutorial - Japanese Book Review : Chao Roll Deco Building More!

As if the Swiss Cake Roll was not pretty and cute enough as it is, now you can make the cutest darn cake rolls ever with the help of this great book:

Chao Roll Deco building more! 

Roll Cake Patterns, By Junko

 This is a beautiful Hardcover Book with 87 pages of wonderful pictures, recipes, and inspiration! 

This is the second book by this author who released the first book in 2010. After an insane response from readers who loved these patterned swiss roll cakes, this second book was released in 2011 featuring cute animal patterns and ultra kawaii kid patterns!

Some of the designs include; Relax Bear ( Rilakkuma Bear), Pikachu, Kappa Flower, Panda, Rabbit, Smile Faces, Trains, and much much more!

Relax, Pikachu, Kappa flower, panda, rabbit, Smiley Face, trains, etc. 

Here is a close up showing how to pipe the little smile faces! So simple, so cute. 

 

I love just the plain polka dots on the right too! How perfectly kawaii is that! 

The Author, Junko has a Blog which she started in March of 2008 called "Cake Cute Twist a Little". 

Not only are these cakes really really cute and kawaii, but they are also super tasty. The author took great pride in making sure these recipes are moist and delicious. 

Scroll to the bottom of this post for a video promotional for this book from the author! 

Each Recipe comes in an easy to cut out format, so you can take it out of the book, and keep the book super pretty while you are cooking with your recipe. 

Notice the creamy center! When I make these cakes, I love to use my own version of whipped cream which is only very lightly sweet, and has gelatin mixed into it to keep it stable. I am not sure what this author is using for her filling?

I usually make my rolls to be a little thinner with more of a spiraling inside, but I am very intrigued to try to make them in this style. I think it works so well for putting fruits in the center of the cream! 

Same design with two different colorways. This book will inspire you to take her designs and turn them into many different styles to suit your own personal preference. 

Okay people in case you have not been inspired enough for one book, now lets check out all the amazing toppings she puts on the these bad boys!  Ears, really - how freakin'cute is that!?

This is a beautiful topping! 

My Favorite :

Pink cake, with little bunnies, filled with strawberries and cream, then topped with strawberries, blueberries, candy bunnies, and chopped pistachios! 

As usual delicious and beautiful. 

This picture actually also got my thinking about how much those strawberries look like little gnome hats...I am getting inspired here people! 

Alright are some images of the back cover so you can get all the info you need to go out there any get a copy for yourself! 

Okay and one more parting shot for ya  : 

Here is the promotional video for this book: 

 

Thanks for reading. If you like what you read please leave a comment! 

                              

Japanese Craft Book - Miniatures from Clay - Miniature tutorial

The first miniature craft - made ​​from clay and familiar material - Paperback

Author: Kumi Oikawa

Pages: 128

This book is about how to make miniature food from clay, with really great photographs to help you understand how to make them. 

This is a great book for teenagers, and beginners! 

The front cover alone is filled with many great pictures to inspire you!

I especially love the roll cakes! This book is all about using clay, and other items to make your miniatures. These cakes are a great example of this. You can see how small peices of foil, which you most likely have in your kitchen, are cut into little rounds to hold the cake. 

The tissue paper to hold these miniature tulips is perfect! It looks like tiny newspaper. Any tissue will do, but if you can find something like this in your next box of chocolate candy save it, and use for this application. 

To make tulips : shape with your hand, and then snip the petals in with a little pair of scissors! I like to use the little cosmetic scissors - you know the ones for your eyebrows? Yeah those...they are great! 

Here is a picture from the book that shows the clays and tools they use. 

Here are some great inspirational way to make tiny little plates from clay. Any flat plastic can be used to press the clay flat. It does not have to be clear, but it is much much easier to be know the thickness of the plate to be, if you can see it. 

Anyway you smoosh it flat, then using a little cookie cutter, or shot glass, or something else you can find around the house you cut out the plate so it has clean edges. 

You can then use something like a bottle cap, or essential oil jar to make an impression which will shape the plate into a slight bowl, or give it a rim. 

Here is a really simple and fun way to make a tea cup. This picture is very rustic, but if you were to put a little more time and effort you could achieve something very nice! 

Step One: Shape clay into a ball. 

Step Two: Find a rounded ball point pen to smoosh into the ball of clay to make the cup.

Step Three: You can fill with brown clay to mimic coffee, but for a more realistic effect use some glaze. 
I like Sculpy brand glaze for this. All you gotta do is use a razor blade to scrape some brown pastel chalk into some Sculpy glaze, and stir and stir and stir until it looks like coffee! Then fill the cup with that, instead of the clay, and wait at least 24 hours for it to dry.  

I love some of these easy ideas for working with everyday items, like making this plate from a coffee creamer! It is a great project to do with kids, that is super simple, and cheap. 

If you want something more permanent and sturdy, use this little plate with some mold maker. Once you have the mold made, use polymer clay to make a sturdy and cute little plate. 

Here is another idea of how to make a plate from something you might already have. You can find these little drinkable yogurts on the top shelf over all the other spoonable yogurts at the grocery store. Just cut off the bottom and walah! 

Using the same rounded ball point pen cap as before, you can shape a wine glass! Try using transparent clay for a frosty glass, and don't forget to finish the edge with scissors for a very clean finihsed look. 

This is one of the easiest little teapot tutorial I have ever seen. 

Here is some transparent clay mixed with color to make little frosty glasswear. You can also color with paint. 

This is a great little tutorial on how to make a miniature cucumber for your Japanese Deco projects or dollhouse. The clay is slightly color with a pen, but agian you can use paint or pastels to color it. The clay it semi-transparent, which I agree looks best. The the outside is painted and finally sliced! 

You can also use this method to make a kiwi slice..! 

Once sliced use a Sakura Pen ( fine tip permenent marker) to add some detail! 

 

Next this book teaches how to make the cutest teeny tine raspberries. Simply form with your hand, then use a needle or toothpick to impress little seed texture to the surface. 

 

I hope you enjoyed this book preview! If so please leave a comment. 

Padico Silicone Whip Cream for Decoden - Review

Padico brand fake whipped cream is my favorite stuff in the world world! 

It comes in three "flavors" ( please do not eat!) ; Strawberry, Milk, and Chocolate. 

Oh, and I almost forgot - now they also have clear!

Although the clear comes in a great usable tube, I prefer to squeeze it out of the tube into a pastry bag, then sprinkle a whole bunch of pretty glitter inside, then mix! To mix just massage the bag until it is all mixed. Then cut the end off and tape a pastry tip onto the outside, and you are ready to go. 

If you do plan to use the whipped cream in the tube ( which is great!) each box comes with a little tip that screws right onto the tube and will give you that pretty pastry bag real whipped cream look when you use it. You can also purchase additional tips incase you lose yours, or if you want a larger tip. Tips come in three sizes. 

Best of all when you are done using the whipped cream, you just unscrew the tip and put the cap back on. Let the tip dry, and then pry out dried silicone and it is ready to use agian. 

When you are using a pastry bag, you need to use the entire amout you put in there, because it will dry up and cannot be saved. These tubes are great for saving whipped cream, and not having to fuss with measuring out the perfect amount everytime. 

Agian, even though the tube is great and reusable, sometimes you just gotta take it out of the tube as seen above. Sometimes the chocolate is to dark for what you want, so you might want to make a lighter cocoa color. All you gotta do is add some of the Milk flavor to the Chocolate flavor! 

You can also save a little cash, and try adding paint to the white to get more colors like strawberry and cocoa. This is a nice way to get multiple uses out of your Milk tube. 

See here how a little paint makes a really pretty Green Tea flavor! Beautiful. 

You can buy Padico Whip Cream here! 

 

Japanese Craft Book - Tutorial on how to make French Macaroons in clay

This is a great 80 page book from Japan, on how to make fake sweets. This is a paperback book, which is part of the Lady Boutique Series # 2960. 

Author: Bell Mountain Flour 

 Ah yes another great Japanese Fake Sweets book. Love it! 

I love that great white truffle chocolate. I think it would be a super cute ring, or perhaps look very nice on a decoden case with fake strawberry whipped cream! yum.

This book has tons and tons of items to make, 100 to be precise! 

So many great ideas all in one little book! 

I think number 5 is wonderful. I want to make these for reals, and in clay! I really like the idea that you do not have to use the same color ont he top and the bottom! 

This picture shows how to use Grace Clay in white, then add Grace color clays in red and blue to the white to make this pretty plum purple color. You can use any type of clay for this, but resin or polymer clays are best for something wearable. Paper or other air dry clay is super easy and good for display or dollhouse items. 

Buy air dry clay for making pretty french macaroons here

I love Mermaid Clay, because it is super soft and easy to work with, and comes in great colors like chocolate and biscuit!

You can color your clay with paint, or ground up pastels if you do not have coloring clay and want something other than what you have. 

Once mixed they use a clear acrylic plastic to smoosh the clay flat. You could use anything that is nice and smooth for the smooshing, but if I were you I would make sure it is clear. When it is not clear it is hard to judge your thickness as you smoosh. 

Then once you have a nice smooshed ball, use an old tablespoon measuring spoon to make the macaroon. You can use a teaspoon too, if you want a smaller macaroon. 

Don't have either of those items, try a lid, or the metal holder for a cheap tea light. 

it is important not to press your measuring spoon all the way through the clay. Press down and make an impression, then use your hands to tear away the remaining clay. 
This gives you a more natural macaroon to start with.

Finally using a toothpick or needle or something pointy ( or even a couple of pointy things) start poking little holes into the clay. Do not go too deep, this is meant to mimic the natural bubble holes that are achieved when making real edible french macaroons. Also try to make your holes as random as possible.
You do not want an even line of all the same size holes.

 Finally you will want to fill your macaroons with fake whipped cream. 

I personally prefer Padico Brand Whipped Cream which comes in four "flavors" ( do not really eat people!) ; Strawberry, Milk, Chocolate, and Clear. 

Buy Padico Whip Cream Here! 

You can also color this whip cream with paint if you prefer a different color such as mango or green tea. Just put desired amount into a piping bag, and smoosh until all mixed up. Then snip off the tip, tape on a piping tip and you are ready to fill the macaroons. 

Also try filling the macaroons with clear whip, that you have added sparkle or micro beads to. 

You can also use hardware store whipped cream, and I do that sometimes when I am totally broke. But that stuff is totally toxic, and smells terrible. I never use it when I am working with kids cause it is so nasty smelling. But it works, and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Word of advise though, the clear stuff from the hardware store does not dry clear, and it only gets murkier over time, so I would stay away from the hardware store clear if I were you. Trust me I have tried! 

Anyway this is a great little book, and it has many many more items you can learn how to make in it. I think it is a must for your Japanese Craft book collection! 

Thanks for reading, please comment if you enjoyed this post!

 

Japanese Craft Book - Felt Sweets with no sewing!

Sweets felt put off - take sweets to make every recipe without thread and needle (Lesson Series) Paperback

Author: Sachiko Haraguchi

Publisher: Patchwork Communications, Inc. (2010)

Pages: 81

This is a great little book about making felt cakes and cookies. Many of the techniques require tedious cutting of many many peices of felt and glueing them together. For example the Cheesecake on the cover requires you to glue together 17 triangle peices. The chocolate cake asks you to glue together 22. While very time consuming the end result is very fun, and pretty.

This is not a book for children, or for making childs toys. This is for adults who want to make pretty things to display. 

The other technique used a lot is painting the felt. Sometimes it is painted with varnish, or glue, to give it a nice saucy look. Agian very time consuming but worth it. You can see the look here very well on the little flan puddings. 

The finished products are very small, like palm size or smaller,  but you could easy make larger if you want. Even the small projects use very much felt, so large items will use lots and lots of felt. 

Here you see where the books is showing you how to make all the many layers of your cake. 

 

Here you see how to paint the tops of your cakes to make the shiny glaze. You also see how to finish them with pretty little fruits and such. 

Here you see some ways to make a hollow item and stuff with cotton filler to save felt! 

Look how amazing the glaze on this apple looks. The wool in the felt while painted looks quite pretty. To get this affect many layers will need to be painted on, and it will need ample time to try. 

Japanese Craft Book - making mini fake fruit sweets

 

Corina fruit Paperback by:

Bell Mountain Flour 

Here is the official book description: 

What is making arrangements to infinity Deco fruit! Using this "clay" is colored by paint colors that can be represented for real, and kneaded clay paint to show you how to color white clay and how to color! ! ■ ■ recipe blueberry macaroons · · Boat pineapple and grapefruit bavarois · Orange Watermelon Tropical Punch • The peach and cherry shortcake · · Banana pancakes with kiwi fruit cocktail • The melon ice cream · Apple Strawberry Parfait · · fruit parfait parfait · Drilled 

This is a great book for getting inspired by some really great photograhpy! I just love all the juicy little fruit desserts, and feel completly inspired after flipped through it!

The cover alone will inspire you to try making something totally tasty, and sweet! 


I love the idea of adding some pretty little fruits to a plain macaroon! 

 

I like this idea, but I am thinking a little coconut with a bendy straw, and a slice of pinapple would be more my style. I like the shiny liquid effect seen here. This can be re-created using clay varnish piled on thick! 

 

Same thing here, with this pretty saucy and wet look. I like to use Sculpy brand glaze for this sort of thing. You can shave some color pastels into the glaze and stir really well if you want a tint of color in your liquid. 

I also love this little chocolate dipped banana slice. Check out this tutorial on how to make a banana .

Then use this great chocolate Deco Sauce to top it off : 

Chocolate deco sauce made in Japan by Padico Brand. 

 

Here we see a nice demo for some clay called Freely. I have never seen or heard of this clay before. I tried to do a bit of googling and found nothing. So if any of your reading this know something about this clay, please comment! 

Lastly here is the back cover and information. 

 

New Items for sale at www.takaratown.com

Here are just some of the great new items that I just put up for sale at Takara Town

Kawaii Air Mail Pouch $4.95

This is a great little french airmail coin purse. It is about the size of a postcard. It has a little fabric loop so you can add it to a key-chain, land-yard, or short wrist loop to it. You could also attach to something like a camera with your cleaning cloth, and memory cards inside?

 

Squishy Bread Memo Pad $5.75

Why use a regular Memo Pad, when you could use one that looks and feels like a sandwich!? 

 

Kawaii Little Red Riding Hood Purse $7.95

This is a little two compartment wristlet. Made of Cotton.  Front has super kawaii little red riding hood and the big bad wolf and reads: " look at the sunny side of ererything and make our optimism come true."

Sticker Memo Collection $5.89

This is an amazingly cute and Kawaii Memo Pad Set!

These little memo pads are great for in your purse, or on your desk. This deluxe set includes full size post-it-note style stickys, bookmark tabs, and more! 

There are several different sets available, this one has the Orange Grid Pattern at the top!

  ( See pictures )

 Trade em, use em, or give em as a gift!

Large Rilakkuma Deco Tape! $6.95

Par Avion Style Air Mail Deco Tape roll. It is the size of  regular roll or clear packaging and shipping tape. The big stuff! 

Large Rilakkuma Deco Tape  $6.95

Large Deco Tape! 

Orage with white polka dot deco tape roll. It is the size of a regular roll or clear packaging and shipping tape. The big stuff! This Roll says " Happy Day" on it, and "friends".

Large Deco Tape! $6.95

Pink with homes, and carnival scene. Bears, and pink sheep, and trees and flowers all adorn this pretty tape! Says things like : " In Dream Homeland".  It is the size of  regular roll or clear packaging and shipping tape. The big stuff! 

Large Deco Tape!  $6.95

This tape says "you don't know how much I miss you. Please come back and complete me. I am still waiting for your gentle touch." and then in BIG letters it says: " A Lettle Prayer" ( thats right: Lettle - so amazing!).

It is the size of  regular roll or clear packaging and shipping tape. The big stuff!