Vellum Flower Card

I absolutely fell in love with the flower on this card from Crafter's Kitchen. Of course, I cannot find the punch locally and I'm too impatient to wait on an order for it. So, I took a quick run to Archiver's on the off chance they had a similar flower punch. They did, by Quick Cuts, but they were around $20 and I wasn't in the mood to spend that much. As I wandered the store, I found a package of chipboard flowers called Jigsaw Flowers by Making Memories in the Hot Spot ($1.99) area. I could see a flower with a similar shape to the petals in the inspiration card and figured $1.99 wasn't too much to try my hand at making the flower. I know it isn't quite the same, but I still like it a lot!

What I did was trace the flowers onto white vellum and cut them out. I erased any residual pencil marks. Then I sponged Baby Pink ink onto the vellum so it would look more pink. It needed a little darker color too, so I added some Hollyhock. If I owned a lighter shade of pink vellum, I might have used it. Actually, I love the look I achieved, so I'm a little glad I didn't have any in my stash. I tried to get the petals to stand up a little more by rubbing them with a large balled embossing tool, but it didn't come out quite the way I'd hoped. Still...I think it looks nice. Then I cut a strip of vellum, inked it with Baby Pink and Hollyhock. Then I created the fringed flower in the center using a quilling tool. I glued it to the center of the flower. I also didn't own the same punches as were used in the inspiration card, but I think the Martha Stewart punches I own did the job well. Using that lace paper from Basic Grey, I didn't think the card needed anything more added to it.

Paper: Vellum (Hobby Lobby), Porcelain (Basic Grey), white
Ink: Baby Pink, Hollyhock (CTMH)
Ribbon: Pink Carnation organdy (CTMH)
Accessories: Martha Stewart punches, Jigsaw Flowers~chipboard (Making Memories), quilling tool (can find at Michaels, Joann's Hobby Lobby), glue, sponge,  large ball embossing tool (found at Joann's in the Sculpy clay area)

I hope you've enjoyed the projects I created today. Thanks, as always, for stopping by! Hope your week is a good one!

Jeanne

Quilling!

I REALLY should be working on cleaning up the house, but before I get started on that I just HAVE to share something with you.

First, I have to say a grateful THANK YOU for all the sweet comments on my recent foray into different crafting techniques. It warms my heart to know that you appreciate the different things I am trying/getting reacquainted with.

I can't remember if I shared this before, and if I have, forgive the repeat, but I have been a crafter most of my life. I've done all sorts of different crafts, counted cross stitch, plastic canvas, crocheting, knitting, beading, tole painting, just to name a few. I have my mom's wonderful influence to thank for my love of crafting. She was always working on something and exploring new things. I don't think I remember a time when she didn't have a project going. She taught me to crochet, knit, and sew and really to just love creating things with my hands. She never got into painting, though. She said her hands would shake too much when she picked up a paintbrush. She even did a latch-hook rug, a huge one, that sits in the living room of the house I grew up in. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. It helped keep us warm in the addition, as the flooring was cold.

So anyway, I drifted away from lots of crafting after she passed away. Maybe it was just too painful in some ways...when so much of my creating was closely linked to her and our time and mother/daughter. Then, I discovered and became obsessed with scrapbooking and that's where my interest was for a good 15 years or more-a craft my mom never really focused on. I dropped all my other crafting efforts. After I quit being a CTMH consultant last February (can you believe it's been a year already?), I started rediscovering the joy in creating all sorts of different things. It feels like I am honoring her memory and influence now. Plus my girls are getting to the age that I was when I started crafting with my mom. I want them to experience the same joys I did.

Okay...got off on a tangent there, sorry. What prompted this post is a comment I got on my quilled Lavendar  card. A very nice lady named Pat Caputo left a comment and included links to her blog, Quilling With Whimsiquills and online store called Whimsiquills. I checked them out and was completely blown away by the artwork I was seeing. I have just scratched the surface, but I can tell you this, I've added her blog, plus the ones she's linked on her blog to my Google Reader. I never really thought about exploring blogs for Quilling. Oh. My. Goodness! You have to take a peek. I will definitely be exploring (and practicing) for a long time to come. Pat, if you read this, thank YOU for commenting and opening up a whole new avenue for me.

That's what I wanted to share today. Now I really must get some housework done or I will start feeling guilty that it's looking so dirty and cluttered. LOL

Jeanne

Sweet Lavendar Card

Happy Sunday to you!

After I got my Sunday Stuff done, I was able to head to my corner and finish the card I started yesterday. Boy! Was it ever time-consuming, but worth the effort I think. I decided to try my hand at creating the card that is on the cover of the Paper Pierced Cards book by Patricia Wing. She gives a step by step on how to create the pieces to this particular card in the book.

I was able to quill all but 6 of those teardrop shapes yesterday. All that was left was to make the stems, leaves and put it all together. I say all, but it took longer than I thought it would to finish it. LOL Especially because I was antsy to get to the next card I wanted to create (which I will share in a separate post).

I've been mini obsessed with locating some of the templates that were used in the book. I managed to get an email address for the author (who is super nice and so is her associate, Tony) and by week's end had three templates from the book on their way to me...from England! Pretty cool, huh? The embossing template I used is by Anna Griffin and can be found at Quirks of Art. I was excited to find it and another one that I'm sure I'll find a use for. The shipping was super quick, too. I don't have the template to pierce those corners you see (yet-it's coming), so I tried photocopying the cover of the book and using that as my template. It worked pretty well, but some of the corners aren't quite even. I ended up putting the top layer on pop-dots so it's not as obvious. And yes, I glued those seed beads in place, too! The purple mats are Hydrangea cardstock from CTMH and I also used their Colonial White cardstock. The other colors are from Michaels, their value pack cardstock. It's solid color and thin enough to quill pretty well, I think. The only thing I couldn't find were those pearly looking leaves, but I think it looks okay without them.

I'm happy to have gotten this card done and off my brain. I've been wanting to create it since I got the book!

Thanks for reading if you got this far, and for stopping by. It's time for a yummy chili dinner with cornbread. I'll be back with the other card.

Jeanne

Quilled Posy Card

I'm back! We ended up going out to Chili's for dinner~yummy! That was a nice, unexpected treat.

I picked up a book called Handmade Paper Pierced Cards at Joann's recently because the cards inside are just gorgeous. I loved that the author showed paper piercing and quilling together. The drawback to this book is the lack of usable patterns to do the paper piercing and the labeling of the stencils used is very lacking. However, I managed to create one of the cards myself by looking at the picture. It took me the better part of the day to complete it, but I really, really like how it came out.

I think you can see why it took so long. It wasn't hard, just detailed. I cut the 1/8th inch strips myself (3 inches long) and found some seed beads in my stash of craft stuff from the time I used to do some beading. (There's something to be said for hanging onto one's supplies for a long time...who knows when you'll use it again). I found the image for the paper piercing here (it's number 45) and just followed the picture in the book as best I could. Sorry, I don't have a link to the inspiration card. I used Vanilla Cream cardstock (CTMH) and sponged Parchment ink (also CTMH) on the edges. I also used the Oval Nestabilities. To glue down the pieces, I used PVA glue that I picked up long ago at a scrapbook store. I used a toothpick to dab small amounts of glue where needed.

I'm not sure what else to say about it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

There's not much else to report right now, since most of the day was spent on the cards I shared. I'm going to go snuggle with the girls before bed and work on a yarn project for the evening. Oh wait! I DO have something else I've been meaning to share...a recent project!

I found the pattern for this (I did make a pair of them) in the Nov./Dec. 08 issue of Crochet Today magazine. I showed the magazine to my friend, Susi, and she fell in love with these wristlets. Her birthday is coming up, so I decided to make them for her for a gift. It probably looks a little more complicated than it actually is to create. Each of those centers is done as a square motif and you join them. There are 6 motifs for each wristlet. Thank goodness I had experience doing the joining from one of Amy's ponchos, or I might have been hopelessly lost. The pattern was just a tad confusing on that part. LOL

That's all for now! Thanks again for stopping by. I hope your weekend is going great.

Jeanne

Quilling on Cards

Happy Sunday to you! I hope you have had a nice weekend, winding down from the holiday hustle and bustle.

I had to clean up my corner today before I could do any new creating! Yikes, it's amazing how much stuff can be piled onto a table. LOL

I picked up a book today, with a 50% off coupon, called 50 Nifty Quilled Cards by Alli Bartkowski. I have been interested in quilling (or paper rolling) for some time, had the tool, but for some reason or other my previous attempts didn't come out too well. I tried again today. Here are the results....

I also stopped at Archiver's on my way home from Joann's and picked up some shimmery blue cardstock. I had a coupon for 5 free sheets and I guess now you can pick out any paper and just pay the difference of what they allot for the free cardstock.

I think they are pretty straightforward cards, used the Snowflake folder in the Cuttlebug, used a Martha Stewart snowflake punch and some bling. I had another 50% off coupon and picked up some inexpensive cardstock, that didn't have a white core, at Michaels. I got a variety pack. The quilling paper they sell in a tube is $6.99 for just a few colors (granted you get a total of 250 strips of 5 colors in each tube), but with the coupon I got 70 sheets of all the colors I'd want for $6.50 (with the coupon), a better deal I think. I just have to cut the paper into 1/8th inch strips, which isn't a big deal.

This is all I got done today. I guess you could say I'm "easing" back into creating cards. LOL

With that, I'll close for now. I hope you have a great start to your week and you are happy, healthy and creative as 2008 winds down.

Hugs,
Jeanne