Earrings are everywhere!

It seems that many of us who are quillers are now creating jewelry!  I guess once you're in the holiday spirit you can't help but think of things to wear that match all of our favorite holiday outfits and colors.  I'm certainly no exception.  I made up some poinsettias a couple of months ago in a variety of sizes.  Two of them just seemed the perfect size for earrings, so I made them up.  But then I put them away safely and sort of forgot about them.  But I found them again and here they are!

I'm still working on the photography issues or practicing to get them looking good, but I am slowly getting better.

I really love poinsettias, they just make me think of Christmas and love and closeness.  The colors are so warm and these earrings just turned out the way I wanted them to.

I wish for all of you a fantastically successful, warm, loving, family filled and safe holiday season.  Get busy now!


Until next time!
Shelly

Hello my friends!  We've gotten the first week of school behind us now and are settling into our routine.  I was able to get a lot of creative work done last week and that makes me feel good.  The card I'm sharing today is from a challenge I participated in on the Paper Craft Planet site.  Anything But Cute (or ABC) challenges have been great to participate in.  The most recent challenge was to create a round card.  Of course with Christmas looming the first thing I thought of was a wreath.

I used brown kraft paper for the base, but must admit I think it would have looked better if I had used white.  I used two shades of green to create the leaves.  The leaves were a bit of a challenge in themselves. I have fat stumpy fingers and some of the pieces are small, so getting six points on those little babies caused me to think a bit.  But I managed!  It was fastest to pinch the coil into a marquis, then taking my tweezers I held the middle and used my fingers to hold the pinched part and push in toward the tweezers thereby creating two more points.  Then I flipped it over and repeated.  The berries were easy enough using a tight coil and ever so slightly pushing up in the middle to give them a slight roundness.  The gold bow finishes it off.

I wanted to take a minute to share an article I read on another blog.  If you can, please check this out:

http://allthingspaper-annmartin.blogspot.com/     Ann's article on Pavlos was inspiring to me.  His work emphasizes my point that there are no rules to quilling.  You can bend that little strip of paper and make it come to life!  I just love the way he used the paper to create and it doesn't look like quilling, it looks more like painting or even that he used textiles.  I just found his work to be inspiring and hope that you do as well.

Best wishes to everyone!

Shelly

Back to a Routine!

Here in my area of Florida, we are back to school now, and hopefully, I will be able to get back into a routine soon as well.  I think I had too much off time this summer as I was keeping busy keeping the grand-baby busy!  But she's happily started the first grade and now I can turn my attention toward getting projects done!
The first card I've done this week is one I have titled "A Nest of Roses."  As you look you will see that it is created by allowing a large quilled circle to go awry.  Then I made yellow and white roses and stuck them all about the inside and outer edges.  I put a few short strips of browns down to create a tree branch look.  I added just a few leaves to give a spring time budding effect.  I like the paper I found for the background, as it gives the thought of being in the tree and having a great deal of sunlight peering through the other leaves in the tree.  It was a fun project.
I've also started in on a wreath card project that I think will be a lot of fun and perfect for the holidays.  More on it later!

 
So in addition to getting ready for the holidays, it's time to get ready for the colorful fall season.  And I've got a couple of ideas on that as well.  I just love fall colors!


So until next time, best wishes to all of you.

Shelly

Amuzeing Yet Humbling

I know I've been away for quite a while and I apologize.  I know everyone understands when day to day family life becomes more important than creating.  Although creating is often an escape from the day to day pressures, sometimes it just has to take the back seat to getting life in order.  So enough with the excuses!

I think it is truly marvelous how those who quill seek out one another.  Like so many other groups that band together and start sharing information and techniques - it helps us grow to share .  It always makes me smile when I get a compliment about a card or picture that I have quilled.  It humbles me when someone new thinks my work is beautiful while I look at the work others have done and strive to be as good as they are.

Because I'm self taught and haven't been quilling more than 7 or 8 months, I feel like a true amateur.  I spend hours creating shapes that don't do what my mind has in store for them.  I don't like doing the same picture over and over so if an idea doesn't work out after a few tries, well, I just give up.  Of course, sometimes I begin with an idea in my head and although it doesn't work out as I imagined, I end up with something even better.  But the point is that both amuses and humbles me that I can be so new and yet appreciated at the same time.  And I think that at this point in time, that is a very inspiring thought!

I haven't created anything different, but I did create one card to meet a lesson requirement.  It is done on a background of watercolor paper that I created.  I don't have paints, so I wet the paper and let the markers bleed on the paper.  Once it dried I was able to trim it to size and add my quilled pieces.  I used the same color strips as I did markers so that it all matched up.  I made it a friendship card with the stamped sentiment.  It turned out to be a very colorful card!

If you have a chance to do so, let me know about your beginning days of quilling.  Were you self taught or did someone show you the tips and tricks?  Do you have a favorite other person that inspires you or do you look around at nature for your inspiration?  At what point did you feel you were no longer an amateur?

Old or new at quilling, I hope you enjoy being creative and that you have a fantastic week!

Best wishes,

Shelly

I just love to quill!

I've been studying a bit lately, as mentioned before, on improving my business and I've hooked up with Paper Craft Planet for the card challenges and I've really learned a lot.  But what I think is most important is that I know now, even more than before, just how much I love to quill!  While I'm constantly looking for new ideas of what to quill, I know that if you try to use your imagination and skills you can come up with a way to quill just about anything.  To me that's an exciting idea.

Most anyone quilling can do a flower.  Daisy shapes are very easy to master.  The folded roses are a bit more challenging.  But have you tried making something different? Have you tried making something no one else has made?  Who makes the rules about how quilling has to look?  How wonderful is it that you can twirl, twist and manipulate a thin strip of paper into a shape and no one can say, hey that's not quilling!  I love that you can alter that thin strip into anything you can imagine.

So I've been playing around with some ideas.  I like the idea of adding to patterned paper.  I like the idea of using something more iconic than "picture perfect."  I also like the idea that I can take a traditional card format and turn it into a beautiful personalized quilled card.

The picture below shows the card style with an oval cut from the center.  I put a piece of patterned paper that I like behind it.  Then the flowers that I quilled are my interpretation of those flowers from the pattern. The colors match as closely as I could get them to.   I think the "s" swirled shapes are great, so I added them in a pale green.  The choice of brown card stock to base it on is because of one of the challenges, and I like the way it came out.

Notice that the leaves are a little different as well.  The entire front is utilized, yet it is still airy in appearance.  One of the other things I have definitely learned is that pictures are so very important and everyone can learn more about taking good pictures.  I know I fit into that category!

So I encourage all of you to start experimenting with your quilled shapes.  Try something you already know how to do, just a little differently than you normally do.  Who knows, you may fall in love with quilling again too!

Best wishes!

 

You're Never Too Old To Learn

 While I certainly don't want to call myself old, I think it's fair to describe myself as very mature!  I've definitely been out of school for many years now.  But recently I have been trying to do a lot of studying.  I've participated in an online class to help me build my business/business plan.  I've joined an online group of fellow card makers to challenge me and teach me new techniques.  I've learned a good bit.  I've certainly enjoyed learning some new techniques, getting new ideas and meeting a few very nice and talented people!  But one of the things I've learned is how much I enjoy making my quilled cards.

So I've begun getting ready for the holiday season.  I've made a few cards and tags.  I've put together a few ideas and purchased the items I need to create according to my plan.  So now I'm just getting busy.  Below I'm sharing my quilled gift tags and a friendship card.  I hope that you enjoy them.  Very clean and simple items that make their point on their own.  Enjoy!

                 
                                                                                                  

Blessings to all of you!

Shelly

June 2010

June has been a busy and interesting month.  School let out for the summer, of course, so now I find myself challenged with keeping my grand-daughter busy - daily.  We've been doing some crafting.  She's quite creative and enjoys making cards along side me.

My oldest daughter celebrated a milestone birthday.  She wasn't pleased about it, but she did enjoy the surprise party that her dad and I put on for her.

One of my friends, who's son is my grand-daughter's friend as well, moved away.  Far away.  It was sad.
But her best friend is now more available!  So there are day visits and overnights to enjoy.  And that's not only fun, but a lot of what summers are supposed to be about!

And I'm still creating.  I've done another pair of earrings.  Trying out some different shapes this time.  Also a card.  A card challenge on Paper Craft Planet asked us to use words - something that inspires us - to create the card.  I don't know the author of this because I found the words on some paper I purchased.  I liked the way it sounded and saved back the paper for the right occasion.  It seemed perfect for a new graduate or someone who has received a promotion.  And I used bold colors and patterns to match the idea.  I also hand penned the sentiment, because after all, I enjoy writing!

 

Quilled earrings.  I used teal and brown papers and shaped them into a diamond.  The dragonflies are antiqued gold looking and swing freely in front of the diamonds.

Show the World Who You Are! card sports fall colors, but they are bold.  Based around brown, you have cream polka dots and multiple colors, then a rust card stock layer with a splattered cream with rust and gray layer.  I used royal blue and deep brown ribbons to break up the lines and topped it with the sentiment on a light blue card stock.




So June has been a good month.  I'm getting better organized, finding ways to meet the time challenges and enjoying time with my grand-daughter.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful summer and that you find ways to meet your challenges as well.

Best wishes,
Shelly