Roses and a Butterfly

I got the "how to make flowers" book thinking that it would be handy for backgrounds. But for some reason I decided I needed to learn how to make the kind of roses that require wider, folded paper, and I decided to make a framed piece out of them. I had a hard time with them at first. The best advice I had was "patience and practice," and that was good advice. But one tip I figured out is to use a beading tool if you have one, instead of a regular quilling tool. The beading tool is just deeper and hangs onto the rose better. Here's what I made:

I just basically made a quilling art rose bush and mounted it on carding that looks like a garden shed wall. (At least it does to me.) I decided to make a butterfly to go in the picture, but needed a little something for balance off to the right, so used dried flowers.

Unfortunately I cut the carding to fit a frame I had in mind, but the roses were too deep for this particular shadow-box frame. (Second time I've done this. Must learn a thing.) I had to use a larger frame, so I had to make a border for the piece. So some good luck to offset the bad, I had some medium dark green card that looked great with it. I mounted the butterfly too.

An original verse finishes the piece prior to actual framing. Burned around the edges... just like to do that.

The finished piece. Simple... somehow the word classic springs to mind. But I think I'll focus now on some pieces that will fit in those smaller frames. ;o)

So I looked at for a few days and decided the bottom corners needed some finishing... and it needed one more rose. NOW it's finished and reframed. Time to move onto some of my other ideas. Will post anew when I've done some. :)

What do you mean, BUY a card?

Happy Valentine's Day!




Here's the other one. Yep, simple. But not only did I leave it till the last minute, I'm something of a rough-hewn ol' Earth mama and if I started getting all frilly, gushy, sweetness and light with the famly just for Valentine's Day, they'd think I was having some sort of fit and cart me off to the hospital. ;o) Had fun making the paper flowers, but I'll save the fancy stuff for pictures. :)



Have fun everyone!

Added later: I came across this anniversary card I made last year. I like it better than the Valentine cards, even tho it's even simpler. Just needed to try those roses, but I think I'm over florals for the moment. ;o) Back to dragons.

Some Nature Crafts

I'm going to interrupt the quilling art for some nature crafts today... fun for kids, families, groups of all kinds. You just need to collect some milk weed pods, golden rod galls, acorns and pine cones when you're out on one of those nature hikes you take for fun and good health. Keep an eye out for stray feathers too, if you can find some gifted to you by wild birds. Of course, the golf tee is only found in nature if you're walking on a golf course. ;o) Otherwise, you can probably get those at dollar, craft or sports stores.

This is the bird... I love the shadow in this photo. Choose a longer milk weed pod for the body, and two slightly curled ones for the wings. The golden rod gall makes the head... leave the stem longer on one side to be glued onto the bird body, and create a nice "beak" on the other end. Then affix the feather for the tail. The tail can also be made with strips of paper which you can curl with a knife or a blade of scissors.  Use a glue gun for all gluing.. it just works best. Just a little craft glue gun is great. The kids might like to add some glitter sparkle for fun too. You can use a little fish line to hang this in your window, or just set it into a plant, or of course, on the tree at holiday time.

This is the angel. Pick out two nice milk weed pods for wings. Glue the acorn onto the top of the pine cone. You may have to clip the top piece of the pine cone off first. The acorn is the head of course, and the golf tee should be glued on to look like a trumpet. Then glue the wings on at a nice angle and you have an angel! I like to paint my angels white and the trumpet gold with craft paint. My mom used to paint hers all gold. It's personal preference! You can add a piece of ribbon, string or line for hanging it, or just set it on a table for decoration. If you're going to do this, be sure to choose a pine cone that sits nicely.

  Again, if you don't have feathers, you can also make the bird tail out of strips of paper by gluing on several strips and curling them with scissors or a knife. I usually toast the galls, acorns and even the pine cones in the oven to make sure they're clean before I put them in my craft supplies. Just spread them out on a cookie sheet and toast them at 250 degrees for 20 mins. Since the milk weed pods are generally still on the stem when picked, I just empty the seeds outside and brush off the pods. But the cones and acorns are usually picked off the ground. The golden rod galls are formed by insects, so I even though they're on a stem, I toast them too, just to make sure there are no tenants. ;o)

Enjoy those nature walks and have fun with the crafts!  They make great little gifts, either made up, or all the makings put together in a "kit" for the giftee to enjoy making. 

Some Interesting Pieces

I wanted to do an eagle to go with a poem I wrote about an experience with one of those very beautiful large hunter birds. This is what I came up with, mounted on a piece of cherry wood that I had around.

I took me awhile to get my snowflakes to turn out not lopsided. I put my best four on this great photo my hubby took of a snowstorm at our door. So simple, yet one of my faves.

~more to come~ I hope. :)

Guitars and Musician Tributes

I made some electric guitars in quilling art and they've been quite popular. This is a bass guitar that hangs in Bud's room. Below is a tribute to Jimi Hendrix with one of his fave guitars recreated in quilling art, along with a quote from him. I created the background starting with a record cover image which I changed to a b&w image, then made a stencil from, to make a ghostly image in the background. At least, that was the idea. ;o) Yes, I'll be doing more tributes to other musicians.

In the meantime, this is all I have right now. Again, forgot to photograph the others. :( Y'know, I knew better too. Mom always photographed her quilling art pieces.

Kids' Stuff and Jewellery

I love making pictures for kids. I've made a whole series of dragon pictures and am about to make some more. This is one fish picture I've done. I have an idea for another and sold one that I don't have a photo of. (Keep forgetting.) I find art for kids very satisfying. :)

Quilling art is a great way to make beautiful, intricate, unique jewellery. Here are some examples:

So far I've only made floral earrings because I like them best.

But there are other designs that can be made as well. I will explore those at some point. More to come.

Cards, Tags and Gift Embellishment

Gift tags can be made for all occasions. Birthday, anniversary and other occasions are often made with flowers, balloon or hearts, with stamping to create a greeting and the "To: From:" on the inside.

Holiday gifts tags with a magical touch. Lone designs or fancied up stamps make really beautiful, colourful tags. The reindeer is a stamp. I quilled the antlers and nose and put googly eyes on it too. Great for kids of all ages.

I love doing mixed media cards, with photographs, stencils, stamps, and quilling art to give them that something special.

A Get Well card.

Special occasions can be commemorated by embellishing photographs, invitations, or announcements with quilling art....

...and a frame!

Butterfly and Frog

Mom made some beautiful butterflies and I have a couple of them in my home to help me with the design. Here is my first one.

The butterfly wings; body to come.

Have to create a background for it.

Butterfly gets a body, and is mounted on background.

Matted and framed. A little hard to see because of shadows, but I was pleased with it.

This frog seems to be a fave with people. I neglected to get a picture of him finished and framed before I sold the piece, so I'm going to be making another. Although the new frog will be a different design... also my own. Just like to try different things. Will blog the new one when it's done. It will be the same basic picture, just with the different frog. You'll see. ;o)