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.

It's Super...

I've been up to another crafty project in the last couple of weeks, and it isn't quilling.

My toddler needed a costume for some parties that we attended this weekend, so for the last few weeks I've been creating a second identity for him...

...The felt pieces were cut and then backed with iron on interface to firm them up a bit and prevent them from coming apart as I stitched. I hand sewed the whole lot, even the hem of the cape as sewing machines and I just don't get on.

One layer of felt was sewn to the next from the top down, and the shirt was bought and the symbol sewn over the top of the shirt's own little symbol. The socks were plain so I added a star to jazz them up a bit. I added some little Velcro squares to the back of the shirt and the top of the cape to keep it in place and avoid having the ribbon tug at his throat, which would surely have been guaranteed to bother him and have it end up thrown off within a matter of minutes.

He LOVES it. Especially the cape. he swooshes it around and loves to be picked up to 'fly' around, and on the swings he wants it out so it can flap in the breeze. He didn't try to take it off once, and it all survived the day very well.

Worth every minute of hand stitching.

I'll be back in a day or two with this week's quilling project, which is the beginning of Christmas fun!

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 Forty-Eight: Poppies

In Australia today is Remembrance Day, 11/11, when we remember all those who have died in battle to protect others.

See you next week,

xnata
 

Week Forty-Seven: Bees

I'm back! My university studies have delayed my challenge by three whole weeks, but at least that means there are six more projects still left, and lots will be Christmassy as we head closer to December! I'm finished with uni for the year, yay! Now I can focus on quilling in my son's nap times instead of desperately cramming information into my tired head. It's going to be a lovely three months.

This week we've got some sweet little 'buzzies' as my toddler calls them...

Bees are lovely. So interesting and colourful.

Five quilled bees, and the rest are drawn on, and then the hive is made of quilling paper too. I put some shimmer and glitter on their little wings to make them extra special.

They make me happy, and they're in short supply these days! My husband and I want to have bees when we're old and our kiddies are all grown.

Next week we've got a flower that is very important this time of year...


So happy to be back!

xnata.