Mar
06
2010
While looking around the web for St. Patrick’s Day craft inspiration I ran across
Pumpkin Petunia’s free lucky penny template. Jo-Ann, a very crafty mom, created the template for her kids to use as a classroom handout for St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, after seeing the template, I knew that it was the perfect background for a little bit of quilling, so I added the quilled shamrocks. This time I made them with 4″ teardrop coils (using 1/8″ wide paper) that I paired into hearts, just like the ones used for the
Upcycled Valentine’s Day Quilling project. When you glue three hearts together, you have a shamrock. I added a small flat-back gold crystal for a little extra bling.
I must have had the lucky penny handouts still on my mind when I went to bed because I woke up thinking how fun it might be if the children could pretend that they were the king or queen of the leprechauns handing out the pennies. That, of course, meant that they would need a crown — a crown decorated with quilled shamrocks and precious jewels! The one I made, using 3/8″ wide quilling paper with a gold edge, is for your inspiration only. A child would do a much more creative version. Throw in some crayons, markers, and glitter and this crown would truly be fit for royalty.
Quilling Tip: I found references on the web to a National Lucky Penny Day celebrated on May 23rd in Canada and Great Britain. My international readers might like to make a batch of lucky penny cards to give to friends and family at that time. The crown (minus the shamrocks) would be a fun children’s project for anytime of the year.
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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 ePattern,
click here or select the ePatterns link at the top of this blog.
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Feb
21
2010
Top ‘o the morning to you! I missed
Mardi Gras and the Chinese New Year, but my Scots-Irish heritage
wouldn‘t let me skip St. Paddy’s Day without a
quilled project or two.
In the United States, St. Patrick’s Day has become a celebration of everything Irish — and what could be more Irish than shamrocks and a leprechaun’s pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? I combined these traditional Irish symbols into a fun quilling design sure to bring the luck of the Emerald Isle to all those who quill it or are lucky enough to receive it.
I dressed the quilling up with green glitter on the shamrocks and filled the pot with flat-back crystals for the gold. A piece of variegated ribbon stapled in place finishes the tag.
You’ll find the free quilling pattern for this lucky design, along with instructions for creating the tag and the card I put it on, in the next newsletter. So, if you haven’t already subscribed to “The Art of Quilling News,” be sure to sign up today. (You’ll find the enrollment form in the upper right-hand corner.)
I leave you with this traditional Irish blessing:
For each petal on the shamrock
This brings a wish your way-
Good health, good luck, and happiness
For today and every day.
.
Feb
06
2010
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.
To make a quilled heart, roll two teardrop coils the same size. Glue the sides together, starting at the tip and ending just before the curve of the teardrop. If you are new to quilling, learn how to make a teardrop coil
here.
Quilled Heart
Additional quilling instructions, hints, and information can be found in the Beginner’s Corner. The quilled hearts used on the scrapbook paper bottle wrapper were made using 8″ strips of 1/8″ paper for the teardrop coils.
The tag is a collage made from a dictionary page, a February calendar, and more quilled hearts.
Abbie at
The Vintage Moth has been kind enough to post free antique and vintage images for mixed media artists. I found her post containing several pages scanned from a vintage dictionary. 
The word “love” was on one of the pages, so I copied the graphic into a photo editing software program, cropped the section I wanted, enlarged it a bit to fit a standard small white tag (3-1/4″ x 1-5/8″) and printed it out on white paper. I glued it to the tag, trimmed the edges and punched out the tag hole. The graphic already had a nice aged patina, so I just grunged the edges with brown blending chalk. Next, I found a free calendar page for February courtesy of homemadecalendars.blogspot.com. Again I copied the graphic, resized it, and printed it on white paper. I cut it out and glued it on an angle to the tag, trimming the edges, and highlighted the calendar with light pink blending chalk. I glued a 3mm flat-backed red crystal on top of the “14″ of the calendar to mark the date. I then quilled three small hearts, one each light pink, red, and brown (teardrop coils made from 3″ strips of 1/8″ paper), and glued them randomly on the tag. Red fiber string was used to tie the tag onto the bottle.…
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Quilling Tip: Use the same graphics and quilled hearts to create a fun ATC for your sweetheart, or use the tag as an embellishment for a Valentine’s Day card.
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Jan
15
2010
In my last post (
Groovy Birthday Wishes) I talked about the very popular technique of filling in an outline with quilling to form a design.
Normally, your piece of quilled art would be glued on top of your background surface like I did with the boot.
But, what happens if you place the quilling under the background, cutting out pieces to reveal the quilling?
You get a very striking piece of art that almost resembles needlework.
The method is quite simple:
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Find a stencil that you like and lightly trace it onto the card stock you will be gluing the quilling shapes to. Remember, this paper will show through the coiled pieces, so you’ll want to choose a nice neutral or coordinating color that will go with your design.
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Trace the stencil onto the paper you want as the cover for your quilling and cut it out with a craft knife. (Note: the piece is easier to frame if the bottom card stock and the top cover sheet are the same size.)
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Roll your quilled shapes to fit slightly over the outline and glue to the card stock. Once finished, glue the top paper over the guilling, lining up the cut out stencil with your quilling and covering up any rough rough edges of the quilled design.
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Frame your masterpiece and wait for friends to Oooooh and Ahhhh over your latest artistic endeavor.
Quilling Tip: This would make an awesome home decor DIY project. Add coordinating art work to a room that has a stenciled border. Use the same stencil for wall art and a coordinating pillow. Or create a stencil from a fabric pattern already in the room and bring it up to the wall with your own quilled piece.
Dec
29
2009
I was browsing through the bargain bins of ribbon and found a funky retro paisley design in yellow, green, and orange that simply screamed mini skirt and go-go boots.
I wasn’t a teen during the Mod 60’s, but I do remember having a pair of white go-go boots when I was in kindergarten (thinking I was quite the femme fatale) and watching Hullabaloo and Shindig on TV.
I used the ribbon as my inspiration for a fun retro birthday card featuring a quilled go-go boot. The boot was created using an “outline & fill-in” quilling technique. You can use this technique to create any design you wish by following these simple steps:
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Draw an outline of the desired design, or find inspiration on the web. Resize the pattern as needed and print it out for your work board.
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Tear several strips of paper (I find 6″ to be a good length) and quill them into loose coils. Starting at either the top or bottom of your design, pinch the coils into shapes that fit within the outline of your design. Glue the quills together where they touch and pin into place.
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Continue filling in your pattern with pinched loose coils. If you are creating an elaborate design, you may want to “draw” lines within the pattern using paper strips or “paint” with your quills by changing the color of the quilling paper used for the coils.
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Glue a strip of paper along the outside of your quilled piece to finish off the edge and complete your design.
Quilling Tip: Try coloring books and needlework patterns for designs with simple outlines.
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Dec
09
2009
There is still time to embellish your Christmas crafts with quilling. This sweet little angle works up quickly and would add a heavenly touch to your Christmas projects.
You will need
Quilling paper, 1/8″: white, yellow, gold metallic (solid gold on one side of the paper strip)
Gold leaf pen (optional)
Free Quilling Pattern — Heavenly Angel
(1) 20″ teardrop, white (body)
(1) 10″ loose coil, white (head)
(2) 10″ shaped teardrops, light yellow (wings)
(1) 2″ strip, metallic gold (halo)
Instructions for making the teardrop and loose coil can be found
here.
Using the photo as a guide, glue the 10″ loose coil (head) to the pinched tip of the 20″ teardrop (body) to form the angel. Shape the wings by curving the teardrop around your index finger as you pinch it, or roll the tip of the completed teardrop around your quilling tool. If desired, run the gold pen across the top of the two 10″ shaped teardrop wings to gilt the edges before gluing them to the angel body.
To make the halo, fold the 2″ strip of metallic gold paper in half and glue the two sides together. You now have a 1″ strip with gold on both sides. Overlap the two ends and glue together to form an oval loop. Glue the halo flat (with the glued ends down) onto the background, slightly at an angle above the angel’s head.
Last year, I used this little angel on Christmas cards. I used the same blue scrapbook paper that reminds me of a winter’s night that I used on the snowflake cards in the previous post and added a homespun feel with the golden gingham held in place with mini brads.
This year, I designed a scroll ornament from the sheet music of a familiar Christmas carol, “Angels We have Heard on High.”
If you want to try making your own scroll ornament, there are many carols and hymns in the public domain.
Try a Google search for images or you can visit
openhymnal.org to see if they have any you would like. There are also many scrapbook papers and stamps with music backgrounds that would work nicely.
Quilling Tip: The metallic coating on the paper used to make the halo causes the glue to take longer to set. I find it helpful to use a pair of tweezers to hold the ends of the halo strip together until the glue dries.
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Oct
23
2009
We had a fun time quilling at the recent Mommy & Me quilling class. It was the first time I had taught a class with children, but they did great, as you can see!
…I will be teaching a beginner Christmas quilling class on Thursday, November 5th, from 6:00-8:30pm at the Marietta Community School, the continuing education division of Marietta City Schools. Check out the MCS online course catalog for complete registration information. There are still spaces available, so if you would like to get a head start on your Christmas decorating or gift-giving projects, please sign up and join us.
Newsletter Teaser
The second issue of my newsletter is almost ready. You’ll receive a free quilling pattern — this time for a popular late summer flower — along with complete instructions for turning it into a sunny card. You’ll also learn of a wonderful charity that will welcome all of the cards you can quill. So, if you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet, do it now. You won’t want to miss it!
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Oct
18
2009
My youngest daughter would tell you she is craft-challenged when it comes to the actual execution of a project, but she is as crafty as they come and has great ideas. The other day we were discussing Halloween and she suggested that I quill a face for a pumpkin. I’m thinking, “OK, I can quill some yellow triangles for eyes ….,” which didn’t seem too exciting so I put that idea away.
When Jen asked me if I had made the pumpkin yet, I knew I needed to take another look at the possibilities. And then it hit me — I could quill real features for the pumpkin, just like a Mr. Potato Head!
I used a tiny gourd-type pumpkin found at the grocery store. There is no pattern since you would have to adjust the quilling shapes to fit whatever size pumpkin you had, but here is a list of the coils I used:
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Eyes: Tight coils starting with black for the pupil, then blue for the iris, and finishing with white. The eyelashes are fringed from a 3/8″ wide strip.
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Nose: Teardrop
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Mouth: Two half-circles on top with one large half circle on the bottom. Glue them together and pinch the sides.
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Ears: Two curved teardrops; larger on top, smaller on the bottom.
I accessorized this stylish Miss with jump rings for earrings and a blue bow tied to her stem to match her eyes. I glued the features directly to the pumpkin using Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue, but any strong, thick glue should do fine.
This would be a great project to do with children. If you need further inspiration, simply surf the Internet for additional photos of decorated pumpkins. Turn your pumpkin into a scary monster with jagged teeth or a beautiful princess with a crown. You could color your pumpkin first with markers before gluing on the features if you’d like. The possibilities are endless. Just pull out your quilling papers and let your imagination go wild!
Quilling Tip: The idea isn’t just for pumpkins. You can quill faces for all sorts of fruits and vegetables. How about a yellow squash bird or an eggplant clown with a big red nose? This is one time when it is fine if children play with their food.
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Oct
09
2009
Next week I am teaching my first basic quilling class with a Halloween theme. It will also be my first Mommy & Me class (mother & daughter pairs), so I am really looking forward to it. For each class, I provide my students with three original quilling patterns along with all of the materials necessary to complete three projects. After making the basic shapes for their take-home chart, we complete one of the projects in class. They can then keep quilling at home with the other two projects… and get hooked on quilling (I hope)!
I was looking around the web for inspiration and ran across a card that spelled “boo!” using a chipboard letter “b” and exclamation point “!”. For the letter “o” they used jack-o-lantern stickers. It was so cute and I knew it would be just perfect as one of the class projects since each pair could make the card together, with the Mommy quilling one of the pumpkins and the child quilling the other. I wanted to put a photo of the inspiration card on this blog, but it is on a major site and I honestly couldn’t figure out who to ask, so I am including the
link here so you can click over and take a look.
I am very happy with how my quilled Halloween card turned out.
Being creative doesn’t have to be expensive. All of the supplies for this card came from my own stash, except for the ribbon that was on sale this week at Michaels. Use what you have to make quilled cards for each season. The lucky recipient will thank you for it.
Quilling Tip: The idea of using objects for letters is not new. An arching black cat would make a perfect “h” in Halloween. And a
quilled witches broom could be the “l”, or used as an exclamation point. You could even quill the
spider from the last post and use it for the “o” in “Boo!” instead of the pumpkins. Just make its body out of a larger loose coil and shorten the legs, making him more of an “o” shape.
If you have been inspired my card, please take a moment and leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you!
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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, 
