The tree frog design from the Mitsui website (commissioned from the Kei Craft paper craft studio) was the most enclosed model I'd tried yet, because it doesn't have lift-off or pull-down access to a secret compartment. I actually had to alter the design a bit to give me more access to the inside while I was making it.

Given how much I like embroidering mice and rats, but also given that I couldn't find any semi-realistic paper models of either (and, honestly, a realistically-sized mouse would be incredibly fiddly because they're so small) I decided I would try to design a paper model myself. I failed a few times before deciding that maybe I should try an easier method, given my lack of experience.

I was not too pleased with how world politics were going, and neither is my rabbit, based on a paper model from the Canon website and designed by Yukari Nakayama. I did change the model a bit, to make it have fewer sharp angles on the head, and that made things a bit more complicated for me because then the head didn't fit the body, so I had to improvise and change the way the head is attached to the body.

The 3D paper model I used came from the Canon website and was designed by Ayumu Saito. This was my third attempt to make the guinea pig from the same model, and in previous years I'd failed. I'm including a picture of the evolution of my attempts as it shows how I improved as time went on. The first attempt was using just medium interfacing, and it couldn't keep its shape so that ended badly pretty quickly.

This is a pretty small model (I've included a thimble in the photo so that the size is more obvious), but that doesn't necessarily make things easier or faster! The 3D paper craft model had been made available on the Maruman website (the parts are shown here) and was designed by Watabe Tetsuya of Kamimodel.

Another challenge, though I don't think it turned out quite as well as the parrot. Still, I did like the fact that I could use embroidery (Turkey rug stitch) to make the tail and ears fluffier than they are in the model. The original paper model was made available by Canon and was designed by Katsuyuki Shiga.

Encouraged by my success with the big fish, I wanted to try something really ambitious. The red parrot paper model from Epson is definitely that! Also designed by Chan See Lik Paul, the pieces took up two pages of A4 and I had to adjust quite a lot of the underside of the bird to create a compartment inside it which could be opened.

This is half of the large "Black Goldfish" model provided by Epson and designed by Chan See Lik Paul. I was intrigued by the construction of the eye, which stands out a lot from the body. However, I didn't feel I had enough practice at making 3D models to try making both sides, and also I thought a flat version would be easier to display. It's just been placed on some fabric here. I've added another photo, with a side view, which shows the extent to which the eye protrudes from the body.

Finished in April 2023, this 3D dragon with moveable legs is based on a paper model designed by Keisuke Saka and downloaded from the Canon website. The original has paper inside which allows downward pressure on the tail to move the head. However, I didn’t think that would work in my materials, so I changed the tail, made the neck area more solid and put a ribbon from the head down to just behind the tail.