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 Forty-Nine: Rose Pattern Card

This week I've taken a different approach to roses than my usual 3D quilled roses.

And it's a pleasant vintagey sort of look. I love it.

 

 

The way I made it I ended up with it all solidly attached without being a part of the card yet. It was very cute as a sort of doily on our table.

 

 

These took a lot of paper and time. I used three shades of pink and two shades of green.

It's wonderfully pink, soft and elegant.

Next week I'm going to get started on Christmas fun early to get a few Christmas themed projects into the end of my quilling challenge. Only three projects left!! I've got far more ideas than that though, it won't be the end, I'll just perhaps not be quite as reliable with my posting. Unless asked nicely.

xnata
 

Week Thirty-Nine: Dragonflies

So, I'm over a week late, but as no one asked I'm not explaining why, HA!

It seems that plenty of people have been visiting the blog anyway, so that's lovely, nice to know that my little place can hum along on its own without me. Let's get on with it then.


This (or last) week I've used my butterfly technique to make some pretty dragonfly cards.

 

 

 

Anyway, they're cute, I'm in a hurry, I'll be back soon-ish to put up this week's post, so see you then.

 

xnata

Week Thirty-Eight: Ferris Wheel

Those of you from Brisbane will already know why I've chosen to create a Ferris Wheel this week, but for those reading from afar, this week will see the start of the Brisbane Exhibition, otherwise known as the Ekka.

 

The quote came first, and the ferris wheel popped into my head as I read it, and I just had to make it right away. It's actually been made for about a month, but I wanted to save it for the Ekka theme, but it's been hard keeping it a secret!

It won't fit behind glass unfortunately, but personally I think that would reduce the impact of the piece. I love this sooo much, both image and sentiment, I think I might keep the original, but I'm sure I'll make more to sell!

I used plain/metallic scrapbooking paper for the structure of the Ferris wheel and the carriages, then silver quilling paper for the actual wheel, and more quilling paper to edge the carriages and the love heart at the centre of the Wheel.

I wanted the quote to be small and in a simple sort of font, so as to not compete for the initial impact of the quilling.

I went for softer, pastel colours in a bit of a rainbow colour scheme, though I think one with shades of red and pink would also work.

Next week we're going to take a walk in the rain...

Have fun!

xnata.

Week Thirty-Five: Butterfly Nursery Mobile

This week I have attempted something a bit different, and I gave a clue a week or two ago on the Facebook page, and I must say I'm quite chuffed with the end product, it is gloriously sweet.

A Rainbow of pretty husked flutterbies for little babies to watch as they fall asleep!

 

 

The fantastic thing about these husked butterflies for this purpose is that they are so light and seem to catch the teeniest tiniest breeze, so it's basically constantly moving, which is perfect for the little bubby watching, it's quite mesmerising and so happy and bright.

 

 

I've used the classic husking technique as displayed in Week 7, in various sizes and all the basic colours of the rainbow.

The frame is made of the inside ring of embroidery hoops of two sizes, and I've painted them with a pearlescent white paint, then it's all put together with white embroidery thread, nice and thick to hold up the rings but one strand thick for the pretty butterflies. I've sealed the knots with fabric glue to avoid it unravelling, and I've sprayed the butterflies with 'preserve it' to avoid colour fading and make them a little tougher. And it's all held up by a simple silver ring.

I've seen ways to make the structure to attach it to a crib, but as it's so delicate I would suggest hanging it from a hook in the ceiling would be much better, and you can add string to the ring to have it lower down without it ending up within reach of your little munchkin/s as even a baby would crush these within seconds.

Here's a shot of what the little ones will see...

It was hard to pick a photo of this nursery mobile, as the breeze changed it so often that each picture was different in a lovely way. Getting this to hang evenly was the hardest part of this project I must say, it took a few tries and lots of wasted thread, but now I've got the hang of it I am sure I won't have so much trouble in the future.

So, that was lovely wasn't it? Makes you wish there were more real live butterflies around. We should do something about that. Having said that I found one in my kitchen last week, perhaps she saw these others and knew we were butterfly-friendly. Anyway, next week we're going to see something really purple!


xnata

Week Thirty-One: Love

My husband and I have been married for 5 years as of this coming Friday! We've made a pretty good team so far, he's my best friend, and the most awesome little boy, so I would say it's been a very successful 5 years.

Did you know that the traditional gift thing for 5 years is wood? We didn't really need anything made of wood, so we are just going to go on a date one night instead. But my craft involves paper, and paper comes from wood, and this week's project is to celebrate our anniversary, so that counts right?

I saw this design in teeny-tiny calligraphy form in my calligraphy book a while back, and instantly wanted  to quill it, but nice and big.

I got clever for a moment and drew it in the size I wanted, then quilled the shapes using the husking technique (for those not aware of what the husking technique is, check out my week seven butterfly post). For this it was a good way to get the shapes just right for the lettering, though the transfer process was a bit tricky as they all link together and didn't retain their shape so well once I took the pins away.

Careful gluing to the card was required to get them sitting just right, but it turned out just right. I briefly toyed with the idea of adding swirly bits and fill to the letters, but the thought was very brief indeed because I just love the simple look to this, and I think them being swirly bit free keeps the focus on the heart and just really makes the card pop.

This is a fun mod card and I'd happily make more despite the complexity. Now I can't wait to get this giveaway going, I've been working on one of the choices (yes, the winner gets to pick their prize!) and it's so special and exciting I'm going to give you a sneak peek at it on my Facebook page, so keep an eye out for that pickie and then next week we'll get the 100th Blog post celebration and giveaway underway!

If you're in Brisbane Australia remember to come see me at the All Saint's Winter Markets, 501 Hamilton Road Chermside this Saturday (the 22nd) from 7am to 12pm.

xnata

Week Thirty: Dolly Decor

Are you ready for some tiny and adorable things?

These could be great as a gift to a little girl (or boy, some boys like it too) who likes to play house with Barbies or one of those Sylvanian families or something. Though you'd have to make sure to tell her (or him) to be gentle and never let them get wet. Or maybe someone would like these for their miniatures collection, and put it in a cabinet with all their other tiny pretties.



We've got two tea sets and some flowering pot plants! With my quilling tool in the background to give you an idea of their tininess. Adorable right?

The pink one is tea for two, with two little cupcakes on a plate.

 


The purple one is a big tea set for six little people to have tea together.

 

 





Then we've got a pot of sunflowers...

...a potted rose bush...

...and gerberas in a little purple pot.

All very sweet don't you think? The flowers would look nice in a doll house, or maybe outside in the doll's garden. I'm surprised with how well the gerberas look. The leaves in this shot are still drying, I coated them in glue to make sure they don't become misshapen. I actually had to look up what they look like, I couldn't remember the leaf shape!

Next week we get all lovey-dovey because my 5th wedding anniversary is coming up!

xnata

Week Twenty-Seven: Two!

This week my son will be turning two years old, so this week's project was to make two two cards!


One is blue and green and probably suited to a boy, but I didn't want to show a bias and ignore all the beautiful two year old girls out there, so the second is pink and purple.

To make these numbers I printed off a flipped number two, and used the husking technique again, but with some modifications. I used dress pins instead of berry pins, so that the heads of the pins wouldn't get in the way...

I loved the simple design of this balloon card. I once the balloons where in place I decided to just add a layer of crimped blue paper inside the two, and then it just looked perfect to me.

 

 I love it. It just makes me smile.

 

I almost made the girl's one the same design as the boy's one, but I wanted a bit more variety so I went full on girly with it.

 

Ruffles and polka dots...

Pink crimped rainbow, a flower and a love heart. Could it be girlier? I don't think so. I love the bright colours of both.

Next week we're moving reluctantly on from the theme that is my wonderful boy and all things baby, and celebrate the changing of seasons!

xnata