Another Birthday Card...

I made this card last weekend for a friend of mines birthday. It took me longer to make, as I didn't use any of my already made stock of flowers and leaves. Again, I used the Cuttlebug 'Happy Birthday' Folder. The quilling is all done with 1/16" narrow strips from Jane Jenkins line of papers. I find I am using more narrow strips to quill with lately, and am finally getting accustomed to using them. For both the sheer ribbon and the little satin ribbon, I used a Bic 'Mark it' permanent marker in color Tropical Teal. These markers are wonderful!!! You can use them to color peel-offs, and ribbon, and they are permanent, and dry fast, because they are an alcohol base. They come in many colors. The Sharpie permanent markers also apparently work the same way, but I have not tried them yet. I especially like coloring ribbons and peal offs as the ink doesn't come off. They work well for coloring over stamped images as well. I buy mostly white sheer and satin ribbons so I can custom color them to match my cards.

Something Simple....

This card is a simple design using just 2 teardrop flowers. Both, the white and pink squares are saved from all of the window cards I had cut last fall at a local scrapbook store that has since permanently closed :( . The background was made with the Cuttlebug ‘Swiss Dots’ folder. And the side embossed border was from the Cuttlebug ‘With Love’ border set (there are five border folders in a set). It is actually a strip of card stuck to the inside panel of the card, and then I trimmed the front of the card to show it. I use double sided tape to adhere my layers. The white squares have foam pop up squares to give them added dimension. 1/16" punched dots are used for the flower centers, on both the quilled and embossed flowers. 

A Couple of Birthday Cards....

I made this card last Sunday, after I made the sunflower get well card. Again, I was using pieces that I had made. It really helps to speed things up when you have a nice little stock of flowers and leaves already made. This way you can just deal with the layout, which for me sometimes takes as long as the quilling!  The only pieces I made at the time of putting it together were the quilled tendrils, which are open scrolls. I tend not to keep too many of them on hand, as they sometimes get damaged easier than other shapes, because they aren’t glued. 

This one is a floral piece, using yellow shades. For some reason, I don’t often use yellow shades, but just wanted something sunny…  Also, it had been a while since I had made a card using folded roses, and fringing together.  Again, I used the same Sizzix texturz plate from set #19 as I did for the sunflower card. 

I made this card a couple of weeks ago for a card making friend of mine. She loved it, and thought it was so pretty. Although she likes the look of quilling, she’s tried it a couple of times, but has decided it isn’t for her. The background is a nice shade of green, as that is her favourite color. The flowers and leaves, were part of my stock, so I just had the stems and scrolled tendrils to make. I used the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug Folder. The butterflies were punched from a handmade paper that I had bits of…again, trying to use up scraps… I finished it off with a tiny little green satin bow that I tied, and glued to the stems.

My New Adventure In 3D Quilling!

3D quilling is something I never thought I would care to try. I have seen some that I don’t like the look of at all, and then I have seen some that are just amazing; such as Sherry Rodehaver’s 3D quilling, and most recently this site, which I believe is a Korean blog. No one seems to know whose site it is, but check it out, as the miniatures are absolutely amazing!  Well, all of the quilling on there is awesome, not just the miniatures! http://blog.naver.com/nizelprim 

  

Besides my Blue Morpho butterfly that I made in 3D, I made a quilled tractor twice, once on a birthday card, and once in a shadow box frame. It was very dimensional, but was not a free standing item. When Sherry saw it, she started to try and talk me into doing 3D quilling. This is my second tractor that I made for an order back in 2006. It is my own original design.

I have a good online quilling friend named Sherry Rodehaver. She does beautiful quilling, especially in 3D! She has been encouraging me for years to try 3D quilling. So, with her help, I finally completed my first 3D miniature. I have done 3D butterflies and such, but nothing quite like this. This is Sherry's design, and after making it, I have an even greater admiration for her work. It is a hen in a teacup, from her Teacup Critters Collection. It took me a few years to complete. Sherry and I used to chat fairly often on yahoo instant messaging. It was through there, that she had given me basic instructions. I made the big pieces, and put them aside, and then I got busy with other things, and didn't get back to it. Then, when I wanted to complete it, I realised, I didn't have my chat messages archived anymore, due to reformatting my pc, twice since then... So, I had no recollection of the lengths for the comb, beak, and feet, which make the whole project! Then a couple of weeks ago, I caught up with Sherry on Yahoo again, and she generously provided me with my measurements again. So, I finished it last Friday, and this is the result, of my little hen in a teacup.  It stands just 1 1/2" tall.  Please check out Sherry's ebay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/sherry-rodehavers-quilling-corner?refid=store She sells various items for quilling and  punched flowers. 

Thinking of You & Get Well Cards! ......Extra bits....

I'm slowly building up a stock of sympathy; thinking of you cards and get well cards. These are both for me to give and also sell, as they are always good to have on hand, just like any other occasion. This first one is a design inspired by a birthday card I got from my friend Joan in Victoria. I changed it somewhat, and of course used embossing to give it a different look as well. But it is still similar to her design.  The embossing folder is Cuttlebug,'s Floral Fantasy folder. and, the butterfly punches are a Martha Stewart punch.

The second one, I just made today. I used a Sizzix texture plate for it from set # 19. The cardstock is a yellow parchment  type. The flower is made from pieces I quilled a long time ago, and figured I should get them used!  The flower pot is embossed with a Cuttlebug 2x2" folder from the 'Thinking of you' set.

I’ve got several little cases, with quilled flowers, leaves, birds, & butterflies etc… But, so many compartments are just random colors of extra shapes, in all different sizes. This is what I am trying to use up….I must have hundreds of quilled shapes and bits waiting to get used... Just like various strips in all lengths, hundreds of them too... I'm trying to use them up, so they don't just sit there, while I take out yet another strip, use 1/2 and put the left over in a box, to just sit.... I can have a clean table, and then out of no where, it seems... there are quilled bits and assorted strips all over it! And once again my table can no longer be seen, for all of the papers on it! Every time, I clean my table, I tell myself, I am going to get all these bits used up, but next time there is even more. I'm sure many of you can relate to this at one time or another!

A Little Chalking....& Lots of Embossing!

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a tiny break from quilling, and do some chalked and embossed cards. This is the result. I don't do this technique as often as I would like, so am a little rusty add it, but like how they turned out, for the resources I had at the time. The chalked picture is a brass template, which I embossed. And yes, I did the embossing in my Bigshot machine. It does a great job at embossing with brass templates!   For the flowers, in the corner of the butterfly picture, I used my light box, as it was a seperate brass template, and I can't emboss both at once.  The butterfly background is a Fiskars texture plate, and it works pretty well in the Bigshot, but you have to add a few cardstock shims, so the pressure will emboss it deeper. The background behind the hummingbird is a Sizzix folder, called Damask. And, the one for the rose background is again, the Victoria folder by Cuttlebug. All work well in the Bigshot. The chalks I use are pearl chalks, by Pebbles Inc. I love these chalks!!! The pictures don't pick up the subtle shimmer, which they give off. For the Sympathy peel-offs, I color them myself, using Bic felts, which are alcohol based permanent markers. I'm told that Sharpies permanent markers work as well. Both them and the Bics, come in wonderful colours, so you can match your peel-offs to your cards, instead of just having standard gold, or silver! Oh, and I also colored the ribbon  on the rose card with a Bic felt as well!  So, you can also match your ribbons with these markers! 

More With Looped Quilled Teardops

I made another card in blue with the Looped Quilled Teardrops, similar to the pink one that I recently showed. I also want to show a birthday card I made last fall in which I used this technique for a butterfly. I love how it turned out, but the picture doesn't show it nearly as well as how it actually looked. The background is again done with the Cuttlebug Victoria embossing folder. And, in case I didn't mention it last time, I stuck the white square on with double sided tape, and then embossed it, so all the pattern matches. This gives a really nice effect, and I do this often. I used pearl blue chalk on the white square, but it doesn't show that well in the picture

Now, here is the butterfly card, using the saphire metalic papers for the fringing, and emerald metallic for the leaves and scrolls. The butterfly is the sapphire metallic, in which I used Luminarts twinkling H2Os paint on the edge, and then I used white holographig edged strips by Jane Jenkins. You can get these at www.whimsiquills.com  I told you they made gorgeous butterflies!   Again, all comments appreciated!

More Christmas Cards!

Well, I've got some more Christmas cards, and am now ahead of my one per week, which is a good thing! I have a couple of quilled ones to show, and a couple of cards I made from kits, that aren't quilled, but I did emboss the backgrounds, which really dressed them up.    All are embossed with Sizzix Texture plates from set #5.  These work really nice, but I use 3 cardstock shims to get them to emboss deeper. This first one is a design by Jane Jenkins © 1983.  It is a Christmas caroller, and I used 1/16" wide strips for her.  For the 2nd one, I again used Jane Jenkins designs© 1983, but modified it by changing the corner design, and adding more scrolls, and holly leaves.  She have quilled mistletoe in the top right corner.

The next 2 are from a kit, in which I bought a few of these, and then changed the layouts, and added the embossing. Besides, the texturz plates for the backgrounds, I took strips and embossed the 'Season's Greetings' & 'Merry Christmas' using the Cuttlebug Season's Greetings folder, that has has rows of different greetings.  So I just used strips,of leftover pearl card, and embossed these two certain ones. The kits come with everything, from pearl cards, which I cut, and put onto my white cards, which makes them go farther. They come with all the embellishments, and even the foam tape squares. I've had these for a while, so thought I should make use out of them.