Week Forty-Five: Lavender

After this week there are only seven projects until the end of my 52 weeks challenge! I can't believe I it, I hadn't noticed that until today. It's gone so quickly, and I certainly have more than seven projects left on my list of ideas, so don't worry, I'll still be quilling and posting after the challenge is complete, just maybe not as often.

This week we've got some lovely lavender cards.

On the bigger one they're growing wild...

...and on the smaller one we've got a bunch of them on a nice metallic purple background.

These are lovely and simple, yet all those little purple dots end up taking a lot of time! I didn't expect they'd be all that time consuming.

They're very softly feminine. I loved the different shades of purple I used in this card, the purple section of my paper supplier's range is one of my favourites (the blue range is the best though - and I seem to be constantly needing more green!)


Next week we've got another 3D quilling project inspired by a furry friend I made a few weeks ago...

Remember that even if I am nearly done with my year of quilling challenge I am happy to hear any suggestions you have of other quilling project ideas you'd like to see me tackle. I am also happy to do some more 'how to' posts with step by step photos by request, I might do a how to on another 3D project I have planned for around Christmas time.

xnata

Week Forty-Four: Dragon

I'm finally fitting in another request subject this week, and it's one that two people actually suggested. Let's see if I have met people's expectations shall we?

He's red and scary, at least for a dragon that hasn't got his fangs out. And he's got a bit of a belly on him. But you're intimidated, right? Even the cute dragons can breathe fire.

Here he is before he became all colourful. I went with red as it's the colour I immediately imagine when I think of dragons. I suppose he'd look equally lovely in green or blue.

I know he's not in line with my usual style, but I like to be diverse in my creativity and I'm quite pleased with the result. Especially his wings.

Next week we'll go back to my usual super-girliness with a type of flower I haven't quilled before (hard to believe there are many types of flower left, but there you have it! And I won't stop until I've done them all).


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 Twenty-Six: Baby Fever!

We're half way through my year long challenge! Holy wow that's gone fast!


This month I've caught baby fever, because I'm the mother of an almost two year old and it's making me terribly nostalgic and clucky. I can't believe I'll never get to cuddle the baby version of my boy again! On a positive note, he is a fantastic kid, fairly obedient as far as toddlers go, clever, cheeky and hilarious.


I'm not alone in my baby fever though, I have several pregnant friends, and friends with babies, and my baby cards are always bought on their first trip to a market, so I guess the fever is everywhere!

I wanted to make some baby boy and baby girl typography cards, and then that led to me making a bunch of baby themed gift tag cards too!

I added a bow, a flower and a love heart to the super pink it's a girl card...

I really like the addition of the bow to the I.

 

 

And a hat, a cricket bat and bouncing ball to the lovely blue it's a boy card.

The hat on the O has the same magic as the girl's bow.

 

For the little gift tag cards I added squares of scrapbooking paper in the classic colours, then added the words, punched a hole, added the string, and quilled some little tiny feet...

These would be nice to add to a bag of goodies to give to a new mummy when you get your first cuddles, or at a baby shower. I like small cards like this for my own gift giving purposes, because it keeps your message inside short and sweet. Big cards make me feel obligated to write a big long message, which probably leads to rambling.

I want to make sure I have heaps of baby cards available for my next market, because they're such good sellers and I hate to disappoint my customers when I run out. This lot has me off to a good start!


The text I've used on these are rub-on stickers, and I love them, they are perfect for the look I want for my cards, and I've just discovered today that the 'it's a boy' and it's a girl' of these have been discontinued :( so I hunted around online and found some at one shop and bought five packs of each in two different colours, so I've got 100 of each which arrived in the post today, and for only 30 cents per packet  :) hopefully by the time I run out I'll have found a new design that I like.


Next week baby fever continues, with more of a focus on my soon to be two year old.

xnata.

 

Week Twenty-Four: Water Fountain

I finished it! Yippee!

This week's project is the one I was making while at the markets, before my many students came to learn quilling. I'm a couple of days later than usual, I apologise, but I've been swamped with uni studies. It's getting to that really unpleasant half of the semester.

 

I decided to keep it fairly simple, and just filled in the fountain. I did toy with filling in the bushes, but I found that detracted the focus of the card and made it look too busy.

 

I'm loving the movement of water. It's given me an idea for another project actually, but it won't be for a while because I like all the ideas for the next few weeks too much :)



 

We have a painting in the hallway of our house of a fountain, it was painted by my husband's grandmother, and it's lovely. I'm guessing it seeped into my subconscious and that's where the idea for this one came from. Or water is pretty.

 

I've been working on next week's project today, and it's very complicated but booooy is it going to be adorable.



Have a good week!

xnata

Week Twenty-Three: Rainbow Fish

One of my favourite books when I was a kid was "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister, an excellent 'sharing' lesson and a beautiful and entertaining story too. When I was searching my brain for subjects to quill for this year long project this came into my head, and while I didn't want to try and create the actual fish (groovy mirror paper isn't easy to come by anyway), a fishie of some sort sounded good.

But then I kept putting it off. I saw a quilled fish on pinterest that was far better than anything I could do, and then made the mistake of Google image-ing it and seeing a few more that are beyond me, and I slinked back to my corner and hid from the quilled fish idea for a while. But I got over it. I'm here to make my own creations, putting my personal style on things and entertaining all of you and making my customers happy.

I wanted colourful, with a beautiful tail. I got just what I wanted. I chose a deep blue card to set him in the sea (yes, it is a he, I made it so I get to decide these things), and I like how that makes the colours really pop.

When I came to the tail I floundered (oh I can't resist a pun) a bit, not sure what to fill each strand with, but eventually decided that a different pattern in the strand's colour would be the most effective. I got to use my paper crimper as you can see :) the checker-print fin was the hardest, but the red one is my personal favourite.

I really like this chap, and I am quietly glad he didn't sell at the market on the weekend because I'm not ready to part with him. My husband loves this one and suggests I make a framed version.

I am sad to have sold off several cards from the 52 weeks project collection and have ear-marked them to be made again once I've finished the mission. Obviously if they sold they're worth making again!


Next week you'll get to see the end result of that project I was working on at the markets. See you then friends!

xnata

Market Day Tales

Yesterday's market was a grand success, from the cards sold off to new owners, to those who've now tried quilling for the very first time, to the lovely people and the picturesque setting. We had a lovely day and it was really good to be back at a market.

 My goodies all set up on the stall, with the quilling lessons table up the back.

card I worked on while waiting for the doors to open and the eager learners to appear. It's a lot more finished now, but you'll have to wait to see the finished product.

Our whole market table, complete with the creations by Rosey So pretty. Thank you for all that you did Rosey! We make a good team.

The amazing church spire. What an inspiring spire it is. Though it was all fenced off, apparently the church is so old that bits of stone are falling off! An incredible sight nonetheless.

The door to the hall in which our market was held. This stained glass window cast a beautiful green-blue glow over our market stalls towards the end of the day. Very magical.

This was the card design that I taught for the day. I learned a lot from this market, including not assuming that you'll have the space to teach six people at a time, and therefore should have a quicker, simpler project to teach so that more students can have the opportunity. Some were naturals and created lovely pots of tulips, and to some it was best to describe their work as impressionist art... I had written instructions for it, so some stopped when they were about three quarters of the way and took their kits and instructions home to finish.

Now to dream up an easier card design...

Some of these goodies are gone now, and I hope that their new owners just love them. Mr Bunny is still with me, he looks a bit out of place here as the only 3D quilling. I have plans for some friends for him though! He won't be alone at the next market, whenever that is.

I'll be back in the next couple of days with this week's project.

xnata

 

Week Twenty-One: Treble Clef

This week's project was actually a lot harder than I expected!

To make the outline I used berry pins in styrofoam with my design drawn on paper and covered with baking paper, but it was very fiddly, as was adding in filling such as the lines behind the musical notes. It required tweezers, so you know it was serious.

Despite the difficulty I am very happy with the result and I think with practice I would get good at this one.

For colouring I didn't want it all black, or just black and white, so I added in a few shades of grey and one duck egg blue type shade. I think it gives it the softer look I was hoping for that black and white just wouldn't have given it.

Next week we're going Up!

xnata

Week Seventeen: St Patrick's Day

This coming Sunday is the 17th of March, which means two things in my world: St Patrick's Day and my husband's 28th birthday! As much as he likes my cards and admires my creative talents, he's not really the type to want an elaborately hand crafted card for his birthday (not many men are in my experience), so I thought I'd make one about St Patrick's Day instead.

I've made it a 'Good Luck' card, because not many people that I know give out cards for St Pat's, but the four leafed clover is a symbol for luck, so I thought that would work in nicely.

I went for the all green look of course, and it looks very nice now that it's done, but I got a bit sick of staring at that one shade of green! I ran out too actually. But I made a big order to my quilling supplier last week and it arrived yesterday, 18 different shades of loveliness (she threw in a couple of freebies for me too!) including a new batch of this green, so future projects won't miss out.

I like that this happens to be the 17th  week's post for a special day on the 17th, it adds to the lucky feel.

 Next week we'll be kicking off Easter preparations (I can't believe it's Easter already, it feels like Christmas was only a month ago to me), with a sweet widdle 3D Bunny I've made, so stay tuned.

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

xnata

ps - here's a look at that quilling order I mentioned - it's a lovely selection from my favourite paper supplier :) I'm looking forward to playing with all of them. If you are an Australian quiller you might want to check them out, great prices http://www.quilling.com.au/

 

Week Sixteen: Autumn!

It's officially Autumn, yay!

I love this time of year. In fact I love the whole time of year that isn't summer. I wish my birthday was some time in autumn, I think it's the perfect party weather in this part of the world.

So to celebrate saying goodbye to the hell that is Australian summer, I have made this week's project a lovely autumny tree. This is not new to my reportoire, but I've done it differently to previous trees and you can tell me what you think either way.

The leaves are different to my usual style, I really like this look for leaves at the moment.

We actually don't get a lot of deciduous trees around here, but it is a classic symbol of autumn and reminds me of some of my favourite towns in Australia that are populated with many deciduous trees.

Looking at it before I added the leaves, it was like the pins were drops of snow, and it was really sweet to me.

I'm thinking of doing more of this by making a four seasons art piece version. My main concern is where to get a big enough deep set frame to fit what I'm thinking...

I hope you enjoy this time of year as much as I do!


xnata