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Like most crafters these days, I am saving bottles, wrappers, and other packaging pieces for use in future craft projects.   I was looking through my stash for Valentine’s Day inspiration and found a wonderful glass bottle that used to contain a marinade.  I decided to dress it up and fill it with M&M’s (my husband’s favorite candy) for a great Valentine’s gift.

 

I didn’t want the gift to look too frilly or girly, and was pleased when I found heart scrapbook paper in shades of beige, pink, and brown (American Craft’s Romance collection, In Love, #34582).  I cut a band of the scrapbook paper to fit the bottle like a wrapper and grunged it up with brown blending chalk.  I kept the quilling embellishment to a minimum, using simple light pink, red, and brown, quilled hearts, inspired by the scrapbook paper, glued down the center.

 

Blending chalks are an excellent choice when you want to add a bit of color to your quilling.  Made by several manufacturers, they come in a wide array of colors from soft pastels to bright jewel tones.  Some even have a bit of shimmer mixed in (Fig. 1).

Tip:  Blending chalks are actually quite inexpensive and last a very long time.  They are softer, however, than the sidewalk or blackboard chalks you might have played with as a child and they crumble easily.  Also, I found out the hard way that the individual pieces of chalk are not glued inside their trays and will fall out if dropped, making a mess on your carpet if you are not careful.

Twice a year, my local library system conducts a book sale of hardbacks, paperbacks, children’s books, magazines, and tapes, that have been either culled from circulation or donated by patrons for the sale.  With the emergence of online used book sales through ebay, Amazon, etc., the lines are long and the sale is crowded, but if you are up for it, attending one of these events can lead to awesome treasures at a fraction of the price for new books (from $0.10 - $1).  

 

I limit myself to two tote bags — if I can’t carry it, I can’t have it.  Others, however, show up with rolling carts and suitcases!  I have purchased some really nice old Christmas craft books along with some new ones on rubber stamping which provide wonderful inspiration for card layouts I can use with my quilling.  For those into altered art, the possibilities are endless.  I was raised in a household where books were revered and you didn’t mark in them, let alone cut them up, so I have a harder time thinking about books as potential art material, however I did pick up a pocket-sized 1978 World Atlas full of maps.  I think that pieces of it would make a wonderful addition to a bon voyage card or scrapbook page of that special trip.

 

Contact your local library or visit their website to see if they have annual book sales.  For me, I find it well worth the effort.

 

 

Quilling Tip:  Readers Digest condensed books, or other nicely bound books, look wonderful as props for your quilling.  Stack two on their side and top them with a piece of your framed quilling to create a bookshelf display you’ll be proud of.

Puffy Velvet Fabric Markers by Marvy® Uchida are, as the name clearly indicates, made for fabrics.  However, paper crafters have discovered these markers and the product packaging now states that they are also “great for paper crafts.”  I was introduced to these markers through a very creative Yahoo! Group I belong to called the Scrapbook Lounge and have long wondered if the markers could be used with quilling.  Now that I have my blog I just had to buy some and try it — all in the name of research, you understand.  LOL!!!

 

Like many markers on the market, when you first open one, you need to shake it and then press the tip down on some scrap paper so the color can fill the tip.  Once the color flows, you are good to go. 

 

Continuing the rose theme from my last blog entry, I made two red rose buds.  I left one plain (Fig. 1) and painted the other one with the red marker. 

 

After letting it dry for 30 minutes per the instructions, I heated it with the heat gun and it puffed — a lot (Fig. 2).  While I didn’t like it enough to use it on my quilling, I found the effect very interesting and wanted to give it another try.  I quilled another rose bud and applied the fabric paint, but this time I immediately patted it with a paper towel to remove any excess paint. 

 

When I applied the heat gun, it didn’t puff nearly as much (Fig. 3).  The instructions tell you not to rub it after the puff-up effect is achieved, but I just had to touch it and it does, indeed, feel very soft and velvety.  I thought that this rose was worthy of finishing and made it into a card, just like I did with the plain one.

 

I next tried the yellow marker, but experienced very different results.  I couldn’t get the yellow paint to “puff.” 

You’ll see in Fig. 4 that the top rose is plain for comparison.  The middle rose has the puffy paint on, but it just didn’t do anything.  Trying to be fair, I made another yellow rose and gave it go.  In trying to get the paint to puff, you can see that I held the heat gun on the rose too long and burned the paper.  Oops!  I really don’t know if the problem is with the puffy paint marker or the user.  

 

My pack of markers includes the color black and you might just see this product again as I try it with some spiders and bats at Halloween.  If you would like to give it a try, you will find the Puffy Velvet Fabric Markers in the fabric paint section of your local craft store, not with the paper craft markers.  

 

How about you?  Do you know of a product that might work well with quilling?  Leave me a comment and I’ll investigate the possibilities.

 

Quilling Tip:  It is better to quill the rose bud, apply the paint and puff it with the heat tool before finishing the rose with the calyx and stem to avoid the possibility of the puffy paint bleeding onto the calyx.

 

 

 

The first issue of my newsletter is almost ready.  I don’t want to give away all of the surprises, but I can tell you that it contains a free quilling pattern for the rose featured in this blog, along with complete instructions for turning it into a romantic card for that special someone.  So, if you haven’t yet signed up for my newsletter, do it now.  You won’t want to miss it!

The Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) is THE trade organization for craft manufacturers, designers, and instructors.  It sponsors huge trade shows twice a year and almost all of the new crafting products that later show up in the craft stores and online are introduced at these trade shows.  For those of you who remember, Carol Duvall used to do a special each year on HGTV where she would walk the trade show floor and give a sneak peek of what was to come.  I watched each one with the excitement felt by little ones at Christmas and dreamed of the day when I, too, would make a trip to the show.  The problem is — and it’s a big one — the show is open to the trade only.  You must must meet their stringent qualifications to attend.  I am working each day toward this goal, but in the meantime something quite fun has happened…

 

For the first time ever, the CHA is sponsoring a retail show immediately following the trade show! 

 

I went into a local scrapbooking store yesterday and found a darling magnetic mini frame.  It came in several colors and I started pondering the possibilities.  When I saw the red one, however, one word came to mind — ladybug — and I knew that I just had to have it.  I had originally thought that I would quill the ladybug, glue it to the center frame area, and seal it with an acrylic sealer since the quillwork would be exposed.  Upon further investigation, however, I discovered that the back pulled off and there was enough space inside for the quilling if I used the thin 1/16″ quilling paper.   

 

The pattern, as written, is really better suited for an intermediate quiller since it does call for 1/16″ wide paper which can be a bit tricky to work with.  However, if you aren’t comfortable working with the thin papers, by all means, please use 1/8″ quilling strips. 

 

The ladybug quilling pattern introduces a new coil called a “half circle.”  To make a half circle, roll a loose coil and pinch it into a teardrop.  Next, instead of pinching the coil again directly opposite from the first point (which forms a marquise), pinch the paper a second time closer to the first point.  You can vary the height of the half circle by placing the two pinched points closer or further apart.

 

 

(2) 22″ half circle coil, red (wings) 

(1) 6″, half circle coil, black (head)

(1) 10″, teardrop coil, black (body)

(1) 1″, V-scroll, black (antennae)

(6) 1/2″-1″ tight coil, white (spots)

 

Using the photo as a guide, glue three white tight coils randomly inside the first red half circle coil forming spots on the wing.  Repeat for the second wing.  Glue the two red half circles together at the top only.  Glue the black teardrop between the two red half circles to form the body.  Glue the 6″ black half circle coil to the top of the ladybug body for her head.  Attach the black V-scroll to the top of the 6″ half circle for the antennae.

 

This little ladybug would be so cute on a card or decorating a scrapbook page.  I framed mine.

 

(1) Magnetic Mini Frame from Bazzill Basics Paper (holds a 1-3/4″ x 1-3/8″ photo), red, or similar frame

(2) 6″ pieces of 3/8″ ribbon, black with white stitching

(2) 3/8″ black buttons

(1) 1/2″ white button

Small piece of red floss

Scrap card stock:  white, green

Small leaf stamp (See-D’s or similar)

Black ink (StazOn or similar)

 

Cut the white card stock 1/4″ larger than the opening.  Stamp the leaf onto the green card stock and cut out.  Glue the ladybug to the leaf and attach both to the white card stock.  Glue the white card stock to the back of the frame with the leaf and ladybug showing inside the opening.  Tie the two pieces of ribbon together to form a decorative knot.  Referring to the photo, wrap the ribbon around the bottom of the frame, centering the knot, and secure the ends in the back.  Clip the ribbon ends at the knot on the diagonal.  Tie the red floss through the white button; clip ends.  Glue the buttons onto the upper left-hand corner of the frame.

 

Sit back and admire your quilling.  Don’t forget to sign your artwork!

It is very easy to change the size of a quilling pattern to fit your specific background — simply use a shorter or longer strip of quilling paper to make your quills.  (A “quill” is just a generic name for your scrolls and/or coils.)  With some practice, you will discover the size of the paper strip that will give you the size quill you need. 

 

For example, I found the cutest matchbook notepad template from Mirkwood Designs and thought that the floral pattern from ”Quilling a Twinchie — Beginner Pattern” would be perfect on it.  After printing out the matchbook template I discovered that the actual space available for the quillwork was only 1″ x 2″ which was too small for the twinchie pattern.   To make the quilling design fit the new project I needed to reduce it, so I cut the length of the quilling strips called for in the pattern in half (except for the tight coil used for the flower center — I kept that at 1″ since smaller than that is difficult to work with).

 

So instead of:

 

the quilling pattern used for the matchbook notepad is: