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 - 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

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