Week Fifty-Two: Framed Christmas Piece FINAL WEEK!

We've done it! We're skating over the finish line, we've got the medal clutched in our fist, we're tired and need a rest. But no! There won't be rest yet, not until after Christmas, as I have quilling to do for loved ones for that day.

It has been a long and very rewarding journey. I have at least tripled my loyal viewership, I have about doubled how many views this page has had, and I have a massive, massive pile of stuff ready for my next market. It's been wonderful.

To my Pinterest followers, you are a delight and I get a huge thrill out of seeing someone pin one of my projects and they didn't pin it from me, it's been on a magical journey to find them without me. Art can move through the channels of our web community, isn't that inspiring? Makes you just want to make and share more stuff I say. Speaking of which, I will be starting a new board for my quilling and leaving the challenge board to sit with its contents as is, I've called the new Board PDPD Quilling, so come have a look and follow it to keep up the fun and inspiration! Seriously, I thought I would be out of ideas and totally over this whole quilling thing after this challenge, but I'm not, I've got ideas pouring out of my little ears and I'll be going strong long after this challenge.

You'll see I've changed my blog header and Facebook page banner to display all the quilling challenge, or at least one thing from each week.

Anyway, enough gushing and happy-ranting from me, let's get on to our last project of the quilling challenge!!This week we're ending on one last framed piece and it's Christmassy to boot.

Santa is off on his busiest night of the year, with his trusty steeds ahead. There are only five visible, but let's just agree that magical flying reindeer are probably so in tune with the reindeer they fly beside that their movements are matched, and all nine reindeer are there, with Rudolph leading them all onward.

Perhaps this is part way through the event, Santa's tummy looks like it is full of milk and cookies!

I used the husking technique for all of these, with the one reindeer drawing to create all five, but they still came out with slight differences and I like that, Rudolph obviously having one very intentional difference.

This is a lovely way to depict the magic and wonder of Christmas.

I'll be back soon, some time in the next couple of weeks to show you the stuff I've made for loved ones for Christmas and get some pins in that new board on Pinterest.

Until then, Merry Christmas to all, and to the Quilling Challenge year, a goodnight.

xnata

Week Fifty: Christmas Card Pegs

It seems that Christmas is thoroughly here, you only have to go into the madness that is shopping centres at this time of year to know. As I only have three weeks of my quilling challenge to go, it's good to get a few quilled items in.


This was supposed to be next week's project, but I must do a bit more planning for what I was intending this week. Instead we've got an incredibly easy, simple and cute idea to help display your Christmas cards:

Christmas card pegs are such a nice way to display cards without them clogging up space on your sideboards or bookshelves. I've always thought they were adorable and nifty, and when I saw a pack of tiny wooden ones I realised how easy it would be to make little sets of quilled card pegs!

I have nine designs here, twenty pegs in all, but others that could be added would be tiny snowflakes, reindeer, candy canes, santa's face, elves, Christmas lights, letters to make them spell out 'Merry Christmas' or some other holiday message, etc. I could go on all day with ideas for these, they're just so quick and easy and cute. They were each topped off with Crystalina glitter glue and given a quick spray with Crystal Clear Acrylic.

I love the little angels...

...and the mistletoe is pretty cute....

and this shooting star is quite dazzling too. As I do with my usual snowflakes I added some glitter glue here and there to add that extra Christmas magic.

Super adorable right? Yes. Here's proof that despite their tiny size they can hold up a card, though these are all blanks as I don't have any Christmas cards immediately on hand just yet. If they were larger than the average size there's a chance you'd need two, but they held these up without any sign of difficulty.

Next week I'll hopefully have worked out what would have been on this week, but if not I'll push it to my final week of the quilling challenge! I've got so many other projects to work on after these three though that it'll probably seem like I've barely stopped at all.

If there's anything I've learned from doing this year long challenge apart from new quilling techniques and an overall improved ability, it's that this is a really good way to establish a blog, a following and help you decide if your craft of choice is for you. And quilling is for me, I love it, so that's good. Though I now have a massive supply of stuff to go and sell at a market, and no market actually planned yet! Hmm.


xnata.

Week Thirty-Four: Blowin' Bubbles

This week we are getting into my framed pieces, there will be several of those in the next few weeks (apart from next week, which will be a whole other story) we get a reminder to enjoy the simple things in our lives. It keeps you young.

 *Before we continue, I have announced the winner of the mask or frame competition, the winner's name is up on the Facebook page - the winner chose the frame, so the mask is now available for purchase! I'll be mounting it to a stick, and it will be $18 + postage*

This design is fairly simple in terms of the quilling, bubbles don't take much to look good, but what is great about them is the impact of lots and lots of them! I've got them gradually increasing in size on this one.

I think he looks a little like Christopher Robin, don't you? I think it's that scruffy head of hair.

H. Jackson Brown has some fantastic quotes, I'll be doing others with his wisdom involved, all taken from a book I own that he wrote called 'Life's little instruction book'. It was written for his son, so I think it's quite fitting that we've got a boy involved in this piece.

The bubbles are in all the colours you might see in the surface of a real bubble.


We've got lots more framed pieces coming up in the next couple of months, all to end up for sale along with masks and other items on my madeit page (currently under construction, will put up a link when it's up and going again).


Next week though we're not doing something framed or a mask or a card! It's something very special and beautiful, for which I've left a photo clue on the Facebook page...

xnata

Week Twenty-Nine: Imagine...Create!

 I've done something a bit different this week, it's a framed piece that involves an inspiring quote...

The quote is one I've seen many times, though from what I understand it's actually paraphrasing what William Arthur Ward said, because he was quoted saying 'achieve' rather than 'create'. I particularly wanted it to say create, so I've gone with the paraphrased version, but I've still listed his name as the credit for the quote.

The silhouette is drawn by me, as are the words, so it's a bit of a mixed media piece. I decided to give her flowing curly hair and a bit of a wintery outfit as I didn't like her to look scantily clad and I wanted a sense of movement in her and the hair and stance got that working. I threw in the not coloured in headphones on a whim and I really like it.

The idea is that she's walking along and just trailing this amazingly colourful creation behind her, letting it out of her hand. I liked that because it's like she imagined it, planned it, and then let it out into the world on this confident stroll while she listened to music.

 

Here are some shots of it as it was being created...

I've already got ideas for a few others like this, one involving a little girl, the other involving a dancer...I'll see what people think of this one first, but I'm pretty sure I'll make the other ones whether this one catches people's eyes or not. It's my art and I imagine it I can create it ;)

I really like the idea of this being bought by a crafty person or artist who finds it inspirational. There's nothing I love more about quilling than the thought of it inspiring someone else to make more beautiful things. That's why I loved my quilling teaching gig, and I think one of my students was keen enough that she'll have taken it up as her new hobby, which is amazingly excellent and just what I was hoping to achieve.

I think it looks better when it isn't behind glass, but I wouldn't want to have it gathering dust for its owner (whoever that may be) so I thought it needed glass to protect it and keep it easy to dust.

So there you have it, and I might make more like this but different designs in a couple of weeks. I've got less than two weeks of the uni semester to go, so I'll knuckle down through that and then get into this theme again.

Next week we're going for a 3D project again!

nata
 

Week Twenty-Five: 3D Quilled Mouse

This week I've tried to add to my 3D quilling collection, with a sweet little fellow that I hope no one would set a trap for.

I don't know why I decided he should be reading, but the idea grew into him reading The Lion and The Mouse of Aesop's Fables. The book actually does contain that story, though it is just that one over and over. I went to far (as I tend to do) and even made it an inside cover page, which no one will ever see without destroying it, as I've glued it so that his hands hold the pages open.

I imagine he's a mischievous chap, seeking wisdom and information from one of the great mice of history. Perhaps it's his favourite story.

Here's a look at the book before it became the permanent belonging of the mousey.

 

He has to lean up against something, because in my magical mind he would be leaning up against the trunk of a tree, reading in the sunshine one lazy afternoon. I don't have a small tree at my disposal though, so I've put him up against walls mostly.

It's nice to have a mouse about the place that makes me smile rather than scream and leap up onto a chair.  

 Would you welcome this little guy into your home?

 

 

This month is the month in which my son was born, so next week's project is baby themed (also partly because I'm all out of baby cards and I need to replenish my stock!).

 

xnata