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 Six: New Year's Celebration

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and if you're like me the Christmas celebrations are still ongoing! I hope all of your celebrations are wonderful.

This week's project is in honour of the next special day we're all heading towards at a rapid rate, which of course is the New Year!

To welcome in 2013 I went for a cityscape with fireworks

 

I went for nice bright colours to make the fireworks nice and celebrate-y

 

 

So, I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you have a great time celebrating the beginning of 2013! See you next year/week for a project that might flutterby...

xnata

A belated week 3: 3D Gnome!

So, as you may have read in my week 4 post, this post was intentionally not shared until now because I wanted to give this quilled item to someone on Christmas day, and I didn't want her to see it until then. So, now that she has him in her possession, I can happily share pictures of him with you all!

He's a happy little Gnome!

He's so tiny he's only just taller than the grass! His pointy little hat helps him to stand out though. I told his owner to make sure she doesn't add him to her outdoor collection, he's a bit to delicate for the work of a regular gnome. Maybe he can guard her desk?

I love his curly beard, and the thoughtful look on his face. I don't know if gnomes normally have pointy ears, but I thought maybe he could be a gnome-elf hybrid for the sake of Christmas.

He was worth the wait, wasn't he? Next week, we are going to see fireworks to celebrate New Years!

Merry Christmas everyone :)

xnata

Week Five: Nativity Scene

A day late, I know. I'm flakey. Let's move on.

This week's is short, sweet and simple, and is in theme for this week's coming special day.

It's simple but I think it does the trick. I added extra stars with a gold pen as I didn't want other quilled stars to complicate the scene.

 

I think the minimalist imagery is appropriate, a more detailed depiction of the scene would need to be done on a much larger scale to be done well.

 



I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, I hope you have a lovely week. Next week's project will celebrate the New year!

xnata

Week 4: Christmas Wreath

You may be wondering, 'What about week 3 Renata, you said something exciting about 3D quilling, and then it never showed up!'

Well, yes. You are correct, I have not posted last week's project yet. I did it, and it was successful, and adorable. But here's my dilemma: I want to give it to someone, and I don't want her to see it ahead of time. I'm going to give him (there's a hint for you) to her for Christmas, so I've decided I'm going to wait until after she has received him to post about it. It'll be out of order, I know, but it'll be worth it.

I considered coming on last week to explain all of this, but I hate putting up posts without any pretty pictures to look at, so I decided to wait for this one to explain.


Now, on to this week's project:

I've made Christmas Wreath cards before, and this is almost exactly the design I usually do, so it's not been an exciting new venture like the orchid or 3D quilling, but I'm happy with adding a Christmas classic to the stockpile :)

This time I added some mistletoe on top with a different leaf technique to my norm. What do we think?

Next week we're in our last week of Christmas Quilling for the year, with a nice little nativity scene card, nothing too fancy as I'll be busy getting ready for Christmas Day!!!

xnata

52 Quilled Items in a Year, Card Two: Angel

As we are now officially in December, it's time to start doing more Christmas quilling!

This week our quilled item is this lovely angel:

I wanted to have her play some sort of instrument, but I struggled to work out how to do the one I wanted, but I've put it down as a possible future quilling project, and had her hold a little rose instead.

I'm also filling some orders for my paper snowflake ornaments this week, busy busy busy!



Stay tuned for next week, when I'll be taking my first step into the world of 3D quilling!!!

xnata.

A Quilling Reprise

I've been quilling again!

When my lovely mother in law suggested I crack out the old quilling stuff and join her in a table at a Christmas craft market, I happily accepted.

 

my top seller: snowflake ornaments

But, I am a slow quiller. I don't know how long it takes other quillers, but to make a really nice card it can take me about three hours in total, and I imagine that would be slow. Maybe I just need more practice.

Which brings me to the point of this post: after weeks of scrambling to make as much as I could for the market, I ended up with 23 cards, 24 snowflakes, and a bowl full of gift tags, and that's it. Some of the cards were lovely, but several were definitely not up to my standard as I had rushed through making them. While the amount was plenty to fill my little space, if I was ever to take part in one where I had more space, I would be horrified to have had that little stock of such varying degrees of quality. As I thought about this a marvellous idea came to me: what if I had made just one card a week for a whole year before I do a market again?

I'd end up with at least 52 cards to sell, of a good quality, and I wouldn't have to panic or rush myself. Snowflakes are easy, quick, and fun, so I could handle making lots of them in the weeks leading up to a market, and not needing to spend nearly as much of that time on card making would mean I would end up with more of the snowflakes made too!

So that's what I'm going to do, starting this week: one good quality card a week, and I'll share them here on my blog.

I'm compiling a list of themes/subjects for these cards as a sort of 'inspiration bank', so that during the semesters next year I don't end up in a busy school week with no idea of what to quill, I can just make a withdrawal from my inspiration bank and get going. Is there anything you'd like to see me create?

 

I've already decided that one week I'll do a framed piece instead of a card, as one of my ideas is just a bit too complicated for a card, but framed items can go up for sale in a market too.

I hope you're all looking forward to watching this challenge unfold!

One customer suggested that she'd like to see an orchid, so I've popped that at the top of my list. Need to do a bit of research on that one. Please let me know, either here in the comments or on my facebook page, what you'd like to see in quilled form. When I've got all 52 card ideas I'll share it.

Stay tuned also to my Facebook page for a Christmas give away!

xnata

Beach Christmas: Invitation Design

I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to find some way to incorporate beach huts into our Christmas theme, and I've come up with at least one of the ways we'll do it: the invitations!

I drew this in Paint (the computer program, not the artistic medium), and did a few of the tricky bits in Photoshop. Beach huts decorated with wreaths and Christmas lights! This will be on the front of the invites. It makes me smile :)

Inside will be a silly little poem I've written to explain (at least part of) the reason for our theme. I may use the beach hut picture in other ways too, perhaps I could turn it into little paper cutlery holders? Not sure yet.

Fiddling in Photoshop, as I like to do, I was trying different filters on the picture, and while this in no way fits my theme and I won't be using it, this one was just so cute I thought I'd share it with you.

Isn't it fun? So bright and magical, like they're made of brightly coloured rope lights.


I'll be back soon to share more fun with you. There's another Pinterest-related post on its way, this time of a foodie nature!

xnata

Beach Christmas - Paper Ornaments

*If you have been directed here from my Facebook link blunder, click here to see the Christmas Wreath.

Yesterday I took the afternoon off from university to spend some time crafting, and I'm really happy with some of what came out of the day.

We'll start with my favourite:

keeping with my colour scheme, we've got the aqua/teal colour in the pinwheel at the back, with some flowers made of napkins (sticking to my attempt to avoid buying very much for these ornaments!), and a quilled circle centre. You can't really see the glitter but the pinwheel is edged with glitter glue and then the quilled centre is coated in glitter also.

A paper ornament honouring the land of the language I love so much, we have a Paris doily ornament, hung with ribbon.

Now this skinny number is made with a tassle I removed from another purchase that it just didn't suit (in my opinion). I made some little quilled beads, and added a little doily (current squished up against the cabinet there, but it won't sit like that on the tree), and a ribbon up top. I change between loving this and thinking it's bin-worthy. We'll see what happens.

I've already got about four other quilled snowflakes that I made a long time ago, but now I've got these two as well:

 

 

 

Loving the stripey peach paper I used for the first one. So bright and fresh.

I haven't made the rest of my burlap/hessian and lace placemats yet, but there'll be time for that in the near future, I'm sure, and I'll post photos of them when I have.


Have a lovely day,

xnata

Christmas 2012: Baby-Proof Beach Theme!

I am the Mummy of a clever, mischievous toddler. And a small house.

For a moment, I considered skipping decorating for Christmas at all, but that was too sad. He deserves a magical Christmas every year of his life.

Plus, this year one side of our family will be having the Christmas gathering here, so we really couldn't skip decorations or a tree. So I have started planning...

First, how do we avoid the whole tree getting knocked over or falling on top of baby? Well, we don't have room for my prefered method of putting a play pen around it, so I'm using my own unique method. There is this weird banister thingy in our house, and the tree will be tethered to this. Problem one solved.

Next, I would be sad (not to mention panicked, stressed and possibly bleeding or being bled on!) if any of my glass ornaments broke. It's just a hazard I'm not willing to risk. So, how can I do christmas without my ornaments, and without spending lots of money on new ones?

As I was stewing on this, inspiration came from a random place - my new tablecloth.

I'd bought a matching table runner for the table on the patio, and some other knick-knacks to match. I loved the colour scheme so much I decided this would be the colours of alterna-Christmas.

Looking at those colours made me think of the beach. Theme found! That way, the majority of decorations are made from free things like shells and driftwood. That certainly fits my budget!

Note how this tiny collection that I already had includes pieces that look like angel wings? It's all coming together...

But, I don't want sand in or near my house. No thank you, so how could I incorporate the colour of sand without it? Hessian/Burlap!

Before I knew it, I'd come up with these hessian/burlap and lace placemats. Aren't they simple yet puuurrrdy?! And the best part - so easy to make, and they work out to cost about $1.20 each, if that :) so making 20 is no big deal!

I'm attempting to make it so that no two placemats are decorated the same.

I'll be using the hessian/burlap and lace and other ribbons and such within my colour scheme to make ornaments for the tree (though some lace will simply be tyed to the tree in bows), all of which I will share with you as I make them. There'll be quilled ornaments again too! I also have plans for lots of paper pom-poms, a paper lantern or two, our usual fairy lights, and a lighthouse :) I've pinned a million pinterest things too, and hopefully I'll find time to do a couple of those ideas too. Still trying to dream up a way to have old fashioned beach huts somewhere in the theme (not life-sized of course!).

Lovely candle holders and pretty smelling tealights will also be on the tables.

I am looking forward to doing some beach combing for shells and driftwood, but I feel weird about using real starfish, because it makes me sad to think people might collect and kill living starfish and seahorses just so I can decorate my table : / so I'm seeking a way to make them instead. Where there's a will there's a way!

I'm only about half way through my placemats, but I'm so glad I thought of it and could do it now, 'cause I really wouldn't have time in December!

Stay tuned for more Beach Christmas decoration prettiness :)


xnata.

Vintage Finds and Christmas Drama

As it is December, on Tuesday I started to put up Christmas decorations, starting with changing my tablecloth to a Christmassy red one and stringing up tinsel around the house. My husband, being the romantic and sweet man that he is had brought me home a bunch of ten red roses the night before. Then, this weekend I'll be singing a song with my mum, and had laid the sheet music out on the table to practice...

...leads to a very dramatic looking table doesn't it? Pretty, but an oh so dramatic Christmas scene. And what would Christmas be without drama, it always seems to show up at some point.

Anyway, on to the main point of this post. A couple of weeks ago my aunty/shop lady challenged me to go on a hunt for vintage items to start contributing items other than my quilled creations to our little shop. I did so last week, and would you believe the items sold?? Being the goose that I am I neglected to actually take photos of the items before they went to the shop :s

So, given that it seems I have an eye for this vintage finding thing, yesterday I went off and did it again.

The vase full of flowers is not for sale obviously, I just thought my dramatic table was a good backdrop for the photos.

These candlesticks were actually bought in the first vintage hunt that I did, but they were in need of a good cleaning so they didn't make it to the shop last week. I also added some lovely long pink candles and tied two tiny white roses around each of the candlesticks to make them more delicate and girly.

This tiny teacup is so sweet, I'm guessing it once belonged to a children's teaset, and perhaps a teddy bear drank imaginary tea from it. It was in bad shaped but I gave it the cleaning of a lifetime and it came up just lovely.

I love etched glass, and this bowl with its little flowers was too pretty to pass up.

No one can have too many tiny vases in my opinion, and I can see this sitting on someone's windowsill with a few wild flowers sitting in it. I added the little rose to the bottom for decoration.

This little nun thinks its all such a scandal! I realise that being a religious figurine it may take just the right buyer to find her a home, but the look on her face made me giggle and I just couldn't resist her.

This little china vase is charming, and almost matches the next item...

A little china trinket box! The detail engraved on the edging is beautiful. I can see this and the vase on someone's nightstand, holding little flowers and the owner's earrings or something.

Now, while I love all of these items and look forward to seeing how they go in the shop, I must not forget my quilled items in this post. I've been meaning to post about my quilled snowflakes for over a week, and while there's little to say there is plenty to see.

They've been very popular and today I'll be busy making more. I put glitter along the edges on both sides of them, so that they sparkle in your tree. They're lots of fun to make and I think I may keep one for my tree too, they're just so pretty.

I realise that living in Australia its quite ironic to be selling snowflakes at Christmas, given I've never seen snow I am very aware. I just love the design and the look of them, they are beautiful and are good for those Christmases where you wish it wasn't 37c degrees and would much rather be rugged up by a fireplace for the day.

I think that they deserve their place on anyone's tree just for how pretty they are, and somewhere in the world it is snowing on Christmas, we can't just represent our country when we celebrate Christmas, it is a world event, so snowflakes belong on trees anywhere I say.

That's for all the stick-in-the-muds who scoff at wintery items at Christmas time. Hmmmppphhh.

I guess I did have something to say about them afterall.

Okay, I'm off to quill, have a lovely lead up to Christmas my loyal readers.

xnata