Sep
08
2011
We were blessed with our fourth grandchild, Daniel John Morgan, on July 21st, so to say that I have babies on the brain is an understatement. When I ran across a free “cute as a button” graphic on the Papercraft Inspirations website, I was inspired to make a card featuring quilled buttons — for a baby boy of course!
If you haven’t visited the Papercraft Inspirations site, you are in for a real treat. This is the online site for the printed magazine. Besides all of the ideas provided by a team of extremely creative designers, you’ll find free templates, downloads, and papers you can print off to use with your own creations.
If you would like to make your own “Cute as a Button” card, you’ll find the free button card back graphic (designed by Jo Kill) in the free download section.
Jul
01
2011
Here is a delightful card that uses an empty ribbon spool as the card base. A message strip is attached to the core, wound around the spool, and secured with a piece of ribbon tied into a bow. The lucky recipient then unties the bow to unroll the greetings. I guarantee that this card will be a keeper! Since I wanted larger flowers, I used strips of scrapbook paper cut to various widths and hand fringed them.
Since I firmly believe in giving credit where it is due, I must mention that I ran across this clever idea by Alison Eads in the paper crafting book, Retro Mania, published by North Light Books. The quilling design that decorates this card, however, is all mine.
Apr
13
2011
I enjoy making and giving quilled cards to friends and family, but sometimes I simply run out of time to make a card from scratch. I end up giving a store-bought card, but feel a twinge of guilt because it seems so impersonal. Sound familiar?
To help with this problem, I have begun looking at commercial cards in a different way. I have found that by adding a little quilling, I can change a commercial card from ordinary to extraordinary. And best of all, it only takes minutes to do.
For example, I found this colorful birthday card with candles printed across the bottom. By adding quilled candles right over top of some of the printed ones, I added a layer of dimension and the crystals glued to the flames makes it pop even more.
The second card shows a cute little bear holding a bunch of balloons. I glued some quilled balloons (tied with a black string, of course) over the existing ones. It was so easy.
For those on a budget, this is a great way to dress up inexpensive boxed cards or thrift store finds. And it’s a great way to use up bits and pieces of quilling paper left over from other projects. Give it a try. It just a few minutes, you can create a special card any recipient will love.
Jan
23
2011
I love shopping the clearance section of craft stores. You never know what goodies you might find. This was the case with a pack of unfinished wooden hearts. I had no particular project in mind, but purchased them anyway — they were on sale! As with all of my treasures, they went into my inspiration bin.
With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, I starting going through my bin and rediscovered the wooden hearts. The ideas started bouncing around in my head. I could paint the heart red … decoupage a sentiment across it … add a quilled lace border …
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The result is this handsome Valentine’s Day card perfect for the man in your life. The tailored color blocked squares of red and black contrast nicely with the lacy quilled border around the heart making this card flirty and fun.
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I enjoy mixing various elements together with my quilling and this heart’s 1/8-inch depth makes it a great companion element for the standard 1/8-inch width quilling paper. The next time unfinished wooden items go on sale, I’m going to take a closer look at the other shapes available.
Nov
07
2010
We had “snow” much fun quilling this past Saturday at the Christmas Quilling Workshop. I just had to take a moment and show off the wonderful projects the students made. They did such a great job!
Our next class will be Janaury 22 when we’ll learn more quilling techniques (like pom-poms and fringed flowers) to make Valentines.
Oct
18
2010
I was wandering around my local Jo-Ann recently, and I do mean wandering — they have totally changed the layout of the store, moving the merchandise and shelving. The entire store is now different.
I managed to find the scrapbook department and discovered a wonderful 4.5″ x 6.5″ bound stack of Halloween papers by DCWV, Inc., called
The Midnight Spell matstack®. It contains 72 heavy card stock sheets with wonderful Halloween prints (half of them have foil or glitter) that are just the right size for card making. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but just had to have it. I had a coupon, but when I went to pay, it was on sale, so it only cost me around $5.00. What a deal!
Some of the papers have all over patterns and some have wonderful scenes on them. As I thumbed through the stack I discovered this delightful haunted house and knew it would make a great card with quilled ghosts flying out of the windows.
To assemble the card, I layered the printed card stock onto black and then attached it to a purchased blank ivory card. The scene needed a big orange moon, so I punched one out and stamped it with happy halloween. Then I glued it to some scrap black card stock and cut around the circle with my pinking sheers. I then glued the moon in place.
You won’t believe what I used for the strip of spooky ground fog — a torn dryer sheet, already used, of course! I happened to be going back and forth between doing laundry and working on the card, when I saw the dryer sheet in with the clothes I was folding and thought it looked a bit spider-weby. However, when I went to stretch it out, it was far too sturdy. I was playing around with the torn strip, wondering if I could use it like a ribbon on the card, when I realized it made great fog. How’s that for recycling?
All I needed to add to finish it off were the quilled ghosts and a large black bat flying in front of the moon. I was going to add wiggle eyes to the ghosts, but they didn’t look right, so I added a pair peeking out of the upper window instead.
Sometimes all it takes are a few paper quills to make a simple card extra special.
Jun
28
2010
My sister and I were going through some boxes of old family photos when we discovered four manila envelops full of vintage postcards. I was so excited … it was like Christmas had come early!
There is very little correspondence written on them, but it appears that from 1912 to 1915, Miss Harriett E.
Prizer of Brighton, Iowa, was being courted by a gentleman named Arthur residing in Becket, Massachusetts. We are not sure where Miss
Prizer fits into our family tree, but we are now very curious.
One card, postmarked 1915, pokes fun at Women’s Suffrage and depicts what those opposed thought might happen if women obtained the right to vote. Thank goodness the 19th Amendment was proposed on June 4, 1919 and ratified on August 18, 1920. I thought it would make a fun graphic for a July 4th card. The postcard reads:
WILT THOU LOVE, HONOUR, CHERISH, AND VOTE AS THY WIFE DICTATES?
The sentiment inside the card …
For this card, I created a 5″ square top fold card out of white card stock. Next, I scanned the postcard and resized it a bit smaller, printed it, then double matted it on red and navy card stock. The “ribbon” is actually fabric from my stash that I tore into strips. The red and blue buttons are tied with string and held on with glue dots. I was going to just attach my quilled bottle rocket in the upper right-hand area, but it got lost in a sea of white, so I created a double mat from the same red and navy card stock and glued the rocket to it so that it would pop.
The rocket cone is a triangle made from a 12 inch strip of 1/8 inch wide navy paper. The body of the rocket are C-coils made from 3 inch strips of red, white, and blue 1/8″ wide paper that are turned on end and glued coil side down. The rocket “stick” is simply two strips of white paper glued together for added firmness. To finish off the rocket, I glued a small piece of the the same white string used with the buttons to form the fuse.
A big THANK YOU to all who serve our country — both military and civilian — and who work hard protecting our many freedoms.
Have a happy and safe July 4th.
May
15
2010
Back in the 1980s, it was all the rage to stiffen strips of large-print floral fabrics (usually mauve) into bows to dress up wicker baskets. While that decorating look has come and gone, it’s still fun to stiffen fabric, especially if you are a
crafter who likes to get her hands a little messy once in a while. Stiffened fabric has a wonderful paper-like quality making it an interesting textured background for your quilling projects. The key is to keep it flat as it dries. The stiffened fabric can be easily trimmed to size using your paper cutter and simple folds are possible.
To create stiffened fabric you will need:
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fabric (I have found that thin cottons or cotton blends work best)
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fabric stiffener (I used Stiffy by Plaid Enterprises, but there are several on the market)
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foam brush
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throw-away plate or container to hold the fabric stiffener
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heavy plastic to protect your work surface (I used a transparency sheet and it worked like a charm. If the plastic is too light weight, like plastic wrap, it will wrinkle under the fabric as you apply the stiffener)
Now that you have assembled your supplies, let’s get started. 1. Cut a piece of fabric (smaller than the plastic) and place it right-side up on your work surface. 2. Pour some of the stiffener into your container. 3. Using the foam brush, apply the stiffener to the fabric starting in the center and working your way to the edges, being sure to keep the fabric flat. You want to make sure that the fabric is totally saturated with the stiffener, but not gloppy. 4. Pour the excess stiffener back into the bottle, discard the brush and container (or wash them for the next time).
That’s it. Now just kick back while the stiffener dries. Depending on how much stiffener you used and how large your piece of fabric is, it might take 30 minutes or longer. This process can be hurried along with a hairdryer.
If your new fabric paper is a bit wrinkled, I found that it can be ironed flat. Use an iron setting appropriate for the fabric used (cotton or cotton blend) and do not use steam. Be sure to protect your ironing board surface and iron by using a dry pressing cloth over and under the dry stiffened fabric (a piece of the cloth you haven’t applied stiffener to works well).
One word of warning — do not get the stiffened fabric wet. It will turn limp like, well, fabric.
The fabric “paper” I made accents this colorful birthday card. I used a dry adhesive to attach the stiffened fabric to the paper surface of the card. The small amount of regular glue I used to attach the
quilled coils directly onto the stiffened fabric caused no problems at all. I repeated the circle theme with a silver paper clip bought in a set from the Dollar store. Small silver half-pearls embellish the upper left-hand corner of the card.
Quilling Tip: The fun swirly doodle designed fabric was some that I had in my stash, but this would be a great way to recycle fabric from old clothing too worn to give to charity.
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Apr
08
2010
I have been sitting on this news for several months now, but the May issue of CardMaker Magazine finally arrived in my mailbox yesterday and my quilled Father’s Day card, Sail Away, is featured on page 18 in their Quill It Easy section. Needless to say I am thrilled to see my card in print, and yes, I do plan on purchasing an extra copy of the magazine so I can frame the article for my workroom. 
My card isn‘t the only one featuring quilling in this issue, however. Alli Bartkowski shares a lovely card perfect for that special sister, and Ann Martin has designed a handsome Father’s Day card that could be used for any occasion simply by changing the sentiment.
If you are not familiar with
CardMaker Magazine, I encourage you to seek it out at newsstands, or, better yet, order a subscription. I was talking to Ann Martin earlier today and she said that, “Tanya [the editor] is great about including quilling in every issue – as far as I can tell, it’s the only U.S.
papercraft magazine that features it regularly.” If you are eager to see this trend continue, I encourage you to write a
letter to the editor and let Tanya know how much you appreciate seeing quilling in the magazine, and support the magazine by ordering a subscription for yourself or your crafty mother, sister, friend, etc.
On a personal note …..
I would like to thank Alli Bartkowski for taking the time to talk to me at the 2009 NAQGCON held in Tampa last year. She encouraged me to submit a card design to CardMaker Magazine and for that I will always be grateful.
Ann keeps a close eye on the paper art community and her blog posts on
All Things Paper are a constant source of inspiration.
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Feb
24
2010
Whether you want to embellish a wedding card, create a handcrafted framed wedding gift, or create a special card for your sweetheart, this versatile heart made of quilled flowers is the perfect way to express the beauty and magic of love.
To learn more about this 12-page downloadable PDF quilling pattern (ePattern),
click here or select the Quilling Patterns link at the top of this blog.
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After numerous requests, I am pleased to announce the release of my Quilled Floral Heart Wreath ePattern that was recently featured in the blog post, 
