Quilling is making a comeback!

I'm ready to pick up quilling again after taking a long break. My life is back to enough normalcy that I feel like I can quill again. I am taking orders for commissioned pieces. Just shoot me an email at iflookscouldquill@yahoo.com if you are interested. Please note, however, that quilling takes a long time - it's definitely not a quick turnaround art medium. Quilled creations take sometimes several weeks to complete dependent upon the size of the piece. I will be filling orders on a first-come first-serve basis.

Life Update

My life has been quite hectic over the past few months - hence, no quilling since February. My baby was sick for a while, had a surgery, but is doing great now. He is starting to walk and gets into everything, so long gone are the days when I can set him on the floor with some toys near me while I quill.

Also, my second oldest son has dyslexia and needs a lot of one-on-one instruction to help him become an independent reader. So, raising four children (ages 9, 7, 3, & 1), plus with the extra needs they have, I don't know when I'll be able to get back to quilling again. I hope it's sometime within the next year or two. I definitely don't want to take a three year break like I did when my daughter (3 yr old) was born.

Thanks for supporting me and following my blog. I'll get back to it one day - I promise!

Kind regards,
Brenda

Quilling for Profit

Recently among the quilling online groups, discussion has been about quilling as an art and people's perceptions of it. Rather than get into it here, I'm redirecting my readers to Pat Caputo's Whimsiquills blog. She's put into words many of the same thoughts I've had. Enjoy her post!

Scottish Terrier - Head Study

I just finished the Scottish terrier today - it measures 5.5" x 8.5" - my client is going to frame it in a 7"x11" custom frame. The picture next to it is from a "real" Scottie - I altered the photo to make it look like an oil painting so I could better design a pattern for it. I know it doesn't look exactly like the original - I added an eye - it just didn't look right covering up the second eye completely, and I didn't make any neck on my dog - it's strictly head! Also, as you can tell, the angle is a little bit different, too. Mine is a bit more shaggy, too. I got kind of carried away. LOL. Oh well - all that matters now is that my client likes it.

I'm SOOO glad she's done - yes, it's female - my client had a female Scottie named "Dolly" who lived 14 years and this is done in memory of her. I am really pleased how she turned out - I was worried for a bit, not having ever done anything this shaggy. I used the wheatearing technique for the shag and layered it - some tucking into the first layer, some laying directly on top - using both 1/16" and 1/8" width paper. I also used black, pearlized black, and charcoal black colored strips. The picture doesn't show well the disparity of colors, but believe me it looks really nice in person.

Shoutout to Sheetload!

I just found the most amazing site/blog for card makers EVER!!! It's called "Sheetload of Cards". They have card sketches and....this is the best part...the measurements for a bunch of cards (anywhere from 6 to 10 dependent upon the layout) and/or for a single card. I love it because (1) I am not good at making card "sketches" (never knew that's what they were called prior to finding this blog) and (2) it really does cut down on the amount of leftover scraps when making your own cards.

So, this post is dedicated to my SHOUT OUT TO SHEETLOAD contest - anyone entering has a chance at winning cool Fiskars border punches! Your opportunity to enter ends February 28th. The current issue of SheetLoad of Cards is out now : February '09 - Unity Stamp Company sponsors the February '09 issue.

Check out this site. Truly worth your visit if you enjoy making your own cards.

Franklin Intermediate Quilling Class

Here are pictures of my students and their work from Saturday's class - with their permission, of course. Joyce left early, so we didn't get a picture of her completed project.

Above from left to right: Marti, Joyce & Helen. Small class, but loads of fun!

Above, Marti and Helen working on arranging their flowers for the wreaths.

Marti's completed wreath.

Helen's completed wreath - sorry the image is so blurry. I didn't realize I hadn't gotten a good shot until after I was home and reviewing the pictures. The wreath turned out beautifully, nonetheless!

Purple Wreath - Directions

I decided to post the directions for this wreath I'll be teaching in my class this Saturday. Please note, however, that I am horrible at writing techniques (it's so much easily just to demonstrate to a live audience) - so I'll just tell you the size strips you need rather than explaining the technique for roses and fringed flowers. If you don't know how to do these things - most good quilling books have the techniques explained. One of my favorites is Alli Bartowski's "Paper Quilling for the First Time" - it explains both folded roses and fringed flowers in it.

Supplies Needed:
5”x10” lilac (I used Bazzill Basics “Cool Heather”) cardstock folded into 5”x5” card
5/8” wide quilling strips (lilac, purple)
3/8” wide quilling strips (lilac, purple, deep violet, blue, ivory)
1/8” wide quilling strips (yellow, green)
4 ½” diameter vellum circle (printed greeting optional).

Fringed Flowers:
3 – 6” lilac fringed (5/8) with 6” (1/8) tight roll yellow centers
3 – 6” purple fringed (5/8) with 6” (1/8) tight roll yellow centers
3 – 3” deep violet fringed (3/8) with 3” (1/8) tight roll yellow centers
3 – 3” purple fringed (3/8) with 3” (1/8) tight roll yellow centers
3 – 3” lilac fringed (3/8) – no center
3 – 3” blue fringed (3/8) – no center
Roses:
4 – 6” purple folded roses
4 – 6” ivory folded roses
4 – 6” deep violet folded roses
4 – 6” blue folded roses
Greenery:
10 – 4” green marquis
5 – 8” green marquis
9 – 3” green loose scrolls
6 – 4” green v-scrolls
6 – 2” green loose scrolls

Directions:
Glue vellum circle to the card (using a clear adhesive roller) - I use a ruler to make sure it's centered on the card before sticking it down. Assemble flowers around the edge of vellum – prior to gluing them down. Assemble large fringed flowers first. Then, assemble other fringed flowers and roses as looks good to you – keeping in mind that you want to have a fairly even “thickness” for the entire wreath. After flowers are assembled as pleasing to you, glue down flowers. Finally, add greenery, again I suggest dry fitting it around the wreath prior to gluing it so you make sure you have it where you want it.

Have fun with it! The only thing I ask is that you use this card/wreath for your own personal use only. Unless, of course, you want to sell it at a local craft/art show. In that case, go right ahead! Please don't sell it online. It wouldn't be fair to me as the designer.

Purple Wreath - Mother's Day Card

I am going to teach how to make this wreath at my next quilling class - for intermediate quillers. The colors didn't photograph as well as I had hoped - although it still looks pretty. The darker blue is really a deep violet (but you can't tell in the picture). Oh well! I'm also going to be making other wreaths for my students to choose from - same amount of each kind of flowers, but different arrangements and color schemes. I will post them as they are finished - all the flowers are quilled, just not arranged yet, so they will be coming over the next couple of days. Thanks for looking - feel free to comment!

Insomnia - Sometimes not such a bad thing!

I was up with the baby at 4am this morning and then couldn't go back to sleep. So, doing what I do all too often - instead of trying harder to get sleep - I got up and quilled two new cards. I particularly like how the cream and gilded cream LOVE card turned out. If you want to know where my inspiration came from - it was another free font - this time called "Fontanessi" - I adapted it slightly for quillability. I just downloaded several more quillable fonts yesterday, so I may try more later.
I really should be quilling the Scottie dog, but as you can see, I've been avoiding it. I will repent and start probably this weekend. I still have two more cards to do for a friend and then I'll be done with my excuses. Although they aren't really valid as I could have worked on the Scottie this morning - other than fill-in work isn't all that fun. It's end result is worth it, but I guess I'm too young - feeling young - mid 30s really, but feel like I should have been born a decade later - to want to do much of it other than with my drive to earn some of my own spending money so I don't have to dip into our joint account and we can pay off student loans. Card making is much more enjoyable as I can get a card done in a couple of hours versus a couple of weeks of fill-in work (for projects as big as the Scottie which will be approximately 5"x7"). It feels more like real work and with four kids AND homeschooling the oldest two, don't I have enough work already? Like I said, money drives me - petty, I know, but how else am I going to be able to stay home with my kids and still buy fun stamps, paper, punches, etc, etc?

And, that could have segued unassumingly (until I had to open my big mouth) into....These cards will be for sale at my Etsy shop (by tonight - I promise), but once they're gone, they're gone. Those of you in the US, do you remember from Saturday Night Live about 15-20 years ago?..."If you drop your keys in hot lava, man, once they're gone, they're gone." I still think it's funny. I guess you'd have to have my warped sense of humor to think that is even remotely funny. I'll just laugh by myself at myself with myself. Obviously I need some sleep...Until next insomniac stroke of genius...

Hooray for Bartering!

Okay, so you are probably sick of seeing these different filigree heart cards, but I promise none are the same - I'm not recycling old pictures over and over again. These two cards are especially great because I bartered a sweet deal - 5 slotted tools for a few filigree heart cards. My friend Janet (see today's earlier post) had purchased the slotted tools for a quilling class I taught to the young women (ages 12 - 18) at our church. I had been just borrowing the tools for other quilling classes, but then thought I really should just purchase them from her. I tried to pay for them and being the lovely person that Janet is, she didn't want to accept payment for them. Well, that doesn't fly with me when I know that taking advantage of someone's generosity isn't something I intend to make a habit of, SO I bartered. Yep, good old-fashioned bartering! I love bartering and am thinking about starting a campaign to reinstate the system (tongue in cheek).

Three cheers for bartering! Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Quilling Queen Doll

Yet again I have a post where no actual quilling will be shown (but I promise to update with real quilling later this week - I'm working on some more Valentine's cards - maybe too sugary sweet and not even Valentine's day - I know, but it was a great barter for me - traded four quilled Valentine's cards for 5 slotted quilling tools to use in my quilling classes).

Now that's been explained, on to the reason for posting a "non-quilling" item. My dear friend Janet made me a "Quilling Queen doll" - her title for me, not my own - I realize there are far better quillers out there than me and - it's not a competition anyway - we do what we do because we LOVE it and that's that!

My new avatar shows part of the doll. Here's the full-length picture below - notice how she got the slotted tool looking so perfect? The ones from Michaels stores have the same blue handle:

Can you see why I had to post about this? Who wouldn't be thrilled about getting a replica paper doll of themselves? Especially when it's so flattering!

THANKS JANET!!!!

Cards for a Child Cancer Patient

It was brought to my attention on my "quillers" online group that there is a little girl in Pennsylvania who turned 5 last Friday who has a brain tumor and her "wish" for Christmas was to see how many cards she could get. At last count, she received over 160,000 cards! She had an MRI done on Monday (1/19/09) to see how her tumor was responding to treatment,and the results show that it has grown, instead of shrinking, so she has had her last treatment. The saddest part, is that Hannah was born early,so that her mother could receive treatments for breast cancer. Her mother died two years ago, and now the family is facing the loss of Hannah, too.

I will be sending her a couple of quilled cards. But, the cards she receives don't have to be quilled - any card will do - any theme. If you, my readers, want to participate and send little Hannah a card, you can mail it to:

Hannah Garman
704 Orchard Rd.
Lititz, PA 17543
USA

Also, if anyone is interested, her dad is keeping a journal. The link is
www.caringbridge.org/visit/hannahgarman.

Although it may not be a big thing for us to do this, it can bring little moments of happiness into this little girl's life. I know as a parent, if I were to have a terminally ill child, I would be so overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and feel immense gratitude towards anyone willing to give my little girl her Christmas wish.

Unmounted Yorkie Pup

I just completed a yorkie pup and have fallen in love (keeping with the "love" theme of late)! I don't have any pets myself - unless you count my four kids (sometimes, I wonder if they are animals or people...), but when I saw that one of my Etsy customers loves terriers of all breeds, and saw a picture of a teacup yorkie, I couldn't resist quilling him. Although, he's bigger than a teacup yorkie head would be - his measurements are 6 inches wide by 5.5 inches tall/long.

I think I'll just sit and adore him awhile before selling him (of course, I've got to mount him, too). It's kind of a strange phenomenom, but sometimes quilling comes alive and grabs hold of part of your heart. That's what this little guy has done for me.

Lovebirds - Filled In

I just realized that I never shared the completed lovebirds card. I decided to leave the background heart unquilled and filled in just the birds and their perch. Also, I didn't make another one like I said I would. I'm just not one that likes doing the same thing twice (unless paid for it - petty, I know, but I've got to earn some money to support my quilling habit!)

More Valentine's Cards

I got an order from a friend to make her a couple of cards, but once I got started I couldn't stop. It helped that my kids were all sick and slept most of the day yesterday so I was able to quill a lot of the day while they were all sleeping. I know - kind of sad reasoning, huh! But, since we don't watch TV, what else was I going to do with my time - dishes? Quilling...dishes...quilling...dishes - obviously quilling won out in that race!

Here are my newest creations:

And these, too (see? I told you I was quilling all day):

Love/Valentine's Day cards

I got up early this morning to make a card for Laura's wedding reception this afternoon. This is the result - its completely easily frameable and I added that in my message hoping that it doesn't get tossed, but will be framed - if nothing else but for Valentine's decorations in her new household.

And, also I made another filigree heart card for Janet - my one true fan - who is a self-proclaimed stalker of my quilling work. If there ever was a good kind of stalker, she's it. I appreciate her loyal following (*smile*).

Enjoy the quilling "eye candy" (as one of my fellow quilling friends calls it)!

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

This choo choo train is for a little boy's birthday. He has a huge fascination with trains, so I thought a quilled train wall art would be appropriate - and fun for me as I've never quilled a train before. I tried to be creative with the cars, but as I was up until 2am finishing up this dandy piece (I wasn't watching the time and it passed right by me), I made the orange one kind of bland - so I added the gold accents to give it at least a fighting chance to be similar in complexity to the other train cars. I was going to make it a "name train" but was given great advice from a veteran quiller who said that perhaps something less personalized would be better as this gift can be handed down after the little boy is over his fascination with trains.