Week Eleven: 3D Hello Kitty Figurine

This week's project was a gift for my lovely sister in law Weez's 21st Birthday.

It was hard to pick what figurine to make, but I decided on Hello Kitty!

She actually wasn't nearly as hard to make as I had expected. I found that the head shape was the trickiest part, but once that was right it all just worked. I put her in what I understand to be her classic outfit, though during my research I found that she has quite an extensive wardrobe!

I forgot to measure her, but I'd estimate she'd be about 8cms tall. I think she's just cute as a button.

I had so much fun making this, I think 3D quilling might be my new obsession! There are so many things I could make in 3D that I'm having trouble picking what to do next!

Later this week I'll post about something (not quilling)) that I made, and then next week we're preparing for Valentines Day!

xnata


ps - as you know I am not the creator of Hello Kitty, and I would just like to be respectful to the creators by providing the following disclaimer.

Disclaimer: Hello Kitty is copyrighted to Sanrio, I take no credit for the design of this character or any likeness of her. I will not take any compensation for this piece of fan art or any future productions made of this character. All credit of the Hello Kitty design and brand belongs to Sanrio.

Week Ten: This is Australia

Happy Australia Day!...For tomorrow. I know, I said I would leave you hanging till Saturday, but I can't help myself, I just want to show you things and I've managed to keep it to myself for several days now, so I say I'm improving, don't you?


I thought I'd do a quilled Australia for this week's project to celebrate!

See that greenish piece? That's where I live XD

I just took a basic outline of the land down under and put some baking paper on top, then quilled lots of little shapes in my chosen colours (next time I would go with less colour variation, maybe just two shades), joined them all together until I filled the space, keeping it in position with berry pins, and then outlined it with olive green before moving on to the water.

I thought it should be girt by sea, so I girted it...I don't know if that crosses over to a verb, but yes. I girted it with some bright blue to make sure Tasmania doesn't drift off anywhere.

To all my Australian readers, I hope you have a great day of celebration and or relaxation, and to all my international friends, I hope you enjoy looking at the pretty quilled map of our country!

Next week is a surprise for someone (yes, another thing I'm giving to someone, I know. I'll make up for it I swear!), so no cheeky hints.

xnata

Quilling Inspirations: The Quilling blogs I Read and Admire

*gasp!* A blog post without any photos?

Yes, it is so. I thought it would be nice to share with all of you some links to a few quilling blogs and websites that I frequent as an admirer. I don't go hunting to copy anyone as that's not my idea of creativity, but I find it so motivating to look at the wonderful things that other people create through this craft. A few that I follow would have to be moved from the category of 'crafter' and into 'artist', as they are breath-takingly exceptional quillers, a level I don't quite foresee in my own future, but they still inspire and motivate me to continue with my own quilling.

My first piece of advice is to take a wander over to the right of the screen
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and check out the fantastic quillers listed in "Amazing crafty and artistic blogs". These are a good bunch to watch if you are a quiller yourself, as many of them provide 'how to' info, which I did have here at one point but found that not a single person had looked at it for over a year :s so I though it might just be clogging up my site rather than providing valuable information. These crafters all probably explain it better than I could anyway. Now I'm just going to highlight a few of these and more.

As you may deduce from the title, All Things Paper does not solely focus on quilling, but Ann does a lot of quilling herself and frequently features other amazing quilling artists in her posts. She provides a lot of excellent tutorials in quilling, so if you're looking to learn the craft that's a great place to go!

One I found through All Things Paper and one of those quilling artists I mentioned is Sabeena Karnik. Her quilling is used in advertising, and when you have a look you'll see why I say it is an art in her hands. Truly amazing work, a delight for the peepers.

Quill Centre is the place to go for beautiful floral work, though flowers are a common subject of quilling in general, her work has a charm to it, sometimes of the vintage variety.

If you are looking to join a community of quillers, Creative Quilling is a good place to go, you can buy supplies there, participate in the forums and read about quilling on the site's blog.

There are more, but I'm going to save them for a part two later in the year. I don't want to overload you with quilling sites!

I've actually already finished this week's quilling project, but as it is themed for a special day at the end of this week I'm going to hold off until the day to share it. Go look at the sites I've plugged, they'll keep you entertained until Saturday!

xnata

Week Nine: Tulips

Yesterday I announced the winner of my facebook fan page giveaway on my facebook page, and I've already sent it off on its way to the winner. I'll be doing another giveaway later in the year when I do my 100th blog post, so if you missed out this time you might be the lucky one that time. It'll be a one click entry that time, two clicks seems to have been a bit too complicated for some people. I'm learning, I'm learning.

This week's project is focused on my favourite flower, the tulip.

*sigh*

I really enjoyed making this card, so I thought I'd make a few mini gift cards too, and I figured that seeing as this quilling challenge is supposed to be to build a stockpile of items for the next time I do a market stall, I should occasionally make more than one of something to make up for all the times I give one of the projects away to special people in my life...like one a couple of weeks from now...ahem.

If you ever see a quilled project that you would like to buy on here, please contact me, you absolutely can buy them from me, I'll just have to make another one to add to my market stock!

I don't have envelopes of the right size for the little ones, so I've punched a hole and added some string so that they can be added to a gift much like you would with a little gift tag. I liked these simple little cards, I might do this whole making mini versions of a card thing again in the future.

The main card has two layers of flowers, and thanks to my new expandable envelopes that won't cause any problems!

These cards are just like their subject; simple and elegant.

Next week we'll be celebrating Australia Day!

xnata

Week Eight: Pink Fairy

This week's project was suggested by one of my lovely sisters in law, Weez! You should really check out her nail art blog http://weezysworldofnails.blogspot.com.au/ and like her facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/weezyxx?fref=ts to see some fantastic nail art and beauty tips on her youtube video posts!

Weezy said "I would love to see something very pink, very glittery and very girly. Like a pink glittery fairy or something ". So, without further ado, here is a glittery pink fairy!

I didn't like the look of quilled body parts, so I went with a funny flat folding technique, so it is quilling paper, just not used in the traditional sense. The want however is made of a cut up toothpick to give it a nice straight handle.

I'm happier with it than I was with previous quilled people projects, but it really bothers me that she looks more like she's running than flying : /

So there we go. It's very very pink, it's glittery, and she's a fairy. How'd I do Weez?

Don't forget to pop on to Facebook to 'like' the page and the photo of our beautiful giveaway card! We're just one fan away from 100, and once we get there our count down will begin.

Next week will be a floral affair!

xnata

Facebook Fan 100 Likers Giveaway!

Surprise, it's finally time for a giveaway!

Well, not quite. I haven't quite hit the 100 likers mark, but as a favourite tv quote of mine goes, I tried being patient but it took too long.

I've made a blue version of the butterfly I did last week (well, a bit different actually, but a butterfly using the husking technique), and if you like my facebook page and the giveaway picture, you could win it!

Here's some pics of it being made...

I decided this one belonged resting on a nice big leaf...here it is being propped up by the frame of my glasses while the glue dried   :)

And here's the finished card that could be yours!

this is the exact photo you'll find on the Facebook page.

So, now we just have to wait for the facebook page to hit the 100 likers mark, and then you'll all have five more days to 'like' the photo of the blue butterfly, and then I'll draw the winner out of an umbrella (for reasons that should be clear to you all) and then I'll announce the winner! Remember, if you want to win it you have to 'like' the page AND the picture of the butterfly that will be marked 'GIVEAWAY!'


Good luck!

xnata

ps - stay tuned for this week's project!

Week Seven: Husked Butterfly

I always fret about posting on a Saturday as it usually seems to be the day that no one goes on the internet, but unfortunately I didn't manage to finish this week's project in time for posting yesterday.

To those of you who've followed my quilling for a long while, you may have taken my hint last week to mean that I'd be making another one of these: https://www.facebook.com/PolkaDotParasolDesigns/posts/490773770965994?ref=notif&notif_t=like#!/photo.php?fbid=118570614852980&set=a.118569684853073.7599.118568908186484&type=3&theater but I'm wanting to try new things in this quilling year, so I've gone a different way, I hope you like it!

The reason it took longer than I expected was that I was learning an advanced quilling tehnique, and this was my first attempt! The technique is called 'Husking', and involves the use of a pattern and pins to construct the piece. I've included some 'during' shots to show you what I mean.

Here's the finished product!

 Love it.

So, this will give you an idea of what husking is. 

I drew a basic outline of the wings on a piece of card, and put a foam board underneath it and a piece of baking paper on top, then placed pins at extreme points on the design. Then you put the paper around and glue it in place, and so on and so forth. 

I only did it for the outline, then removed the wings from their little pin frame and filled them in by hand. The cool thing about this is that you can get the shape just right, and as it's independant of the card, potentially I could make freestanding butterflies, much like the snowflakes! I see the making of a butterfly mobile in my future...

I made the body with a normal quilling tool, making a series of cone shapes and then gluing them together. I then mounted the body to the card, and glued down the wings on a tilt so they don't sit flush on the card, to give it a bit of life. As you can see below I used a bunch of quilling strips to prop them up until the glue dried.

The wind knocked it over during my little photo shoot, but I noticed that would be a good way to show the angle that the wings sit at.

Oh so pretty.

Voila! I know I'll be making more of these.

Week eight will be here before you know it, and it brings another winged creature!

xnata.