Mar 22 2010
I finally took the plunge and have opened a store at ArtFire.com! Now you can purchase my finished quill art online.
Mar 15 2010
“March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes, and a laugh in her voice.”- Hal Borland
In honor of spring, I thought I would show you an egg ornament that I made. It is a paper maché egg embellished with a quilled peach blossom. This egg is the size of a hen’s egg, but you could use one larger if you like and adjust your quilling accordingly. I used the narrow, 1/16″ wide quilling paper since I find it does better for me when I am gluing it to a curved surface. 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.Feb 24 2010
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, Enhance Your Quilling with Blending Chalks. 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.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.
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 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.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.
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 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:
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. 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.
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.
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. Oct 23 2009
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