Here is a simple card for all of the graduates in your life. Just change colors and maybe the punch borders to make it a little more feminine for a girl graduate. I used the Upper Crest Border Punch because I wanted something that wouldn’t be too fancy for a guy. I used a removable adhesive to place the two punched strips back to back, then I glued down a 3/8” strip over the seam and centered a 1/8” over that.

My “graduate” owl is easy to make, it only uses two shapes. The owl’s eyes are 6” tight rolls wrapped in a contrasting color. The owl’s “ears” (I know they are not really ears, but they are where they would be if they were ears, confused?) are 6” teardrops. A 3” teardrop is glued point down between the “ears” as shown. Use a 4” teardrop for the beak. The sides of the owl’s face are 6” tight rolls with 3” tight rolls to fill the space next to the beak.

Fringe and glue a 1” strip of 1/8” paper for the tassel. (TIP-if you use a fringer, fringe a 1” strip of ¼” or 3/8” paper and then trim down to 1/8”.) glue tassel to back of head with a tiny piece of string. A triangle cut from 3/8” strip of black makes the top of the “mortar board”.

The “Congratulations “ stickers come in silver or gold

Mother's Day

Those of you who know me, or who have watched the video on my web site, know that I am a tea drinker. When I was growing up, my sisters and I would buy bone china tea cups for my mother for her birthday or Mother’s Day; today I proudly display her tea cup collection in my home. Over the years, my mother and I shared many cups of tea . . . I even managed to find a McCormack teapot like the one she had when we were growing up. (She sent away for it and told me it cost her $1.25). Today, my mother (who is 87) and I still share many cups of tea, but now it is usually over the phone. She lives in a beautiful assisted living center in Florida near one of my sisters, and I live here in Connecticut. We always give each other tea related gifts; in fact, that is what inspired me to make the quilled tea cup featured on the website and here on the blog. This year I am going to get to have tea in person with her in Florida, but I still decided her Mother’s Day card should be tea related. Here are the directions in case you would like to make one.

I started with a Pink card since that is her favorite color. I trimmed the card to exactly 4”x5” so I could use the Quilted Corners combo corner/border punch on it. I cut a piece of light green parchment paper and attached it behind the cover of the card to make the scallop show. Then I quilled a little white teapot. I used two full strips which I rolled together and then formed in to an eccentric circle for the body of the pot. I used a 12” strip to make the half circle for the base. A 12” shaped marquise made the spout, and a 6” open S-scroll made the handle. You will notice I made one side of the S-scroll larger than the other. I then made a 6’ crescent for the top of the pot and flattened a 3” tight roll for the handle.

The flowers in the bottom corner are made with a tiny heart punch. I put a drop of tacky glue on a ¼” hole punch and then fold and arrange the tiny hearts. Once they were dry, I arranged them with a couple of small leaves. I don’t make very many punch flowers, but I love these because they are so delicate. i do have an instruction sheet that includes directions for the little flowers. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

Easter Quilling

It has been a long time since I did any “Easter” quilling. I have some eggs I put out at Easter time that I decorated with quilling some twenty years ago. Thses were real eggs that I cut and dyed and then put some Easter/spring quilling inside. Back in 2003, I did some cards and decorated some wooden eggs for Family Circle Magazine, but I don’t think I’ve done any real Easter quilling since then.

While standing on line at the grocery store, I noticed some Easter eggs decorated with what looked like punch flowers and thought maybe it was time to decorate some new eggs. I stopped over at Michaels and found some wooden eggs for $.50 each and brought them home. Here are a couple of designs I came up with . . . pretty basic. These would make cute place setting favors for Easter Dinner.

I first applied the strips to the blue egg. I used my fine tip glue bottle to put a tiny line of glue on 1/8’ white pearl paper, after I finished the vertical strips I glued a horizontal strip around the egg starting and finishing at a vertical strip so the ends would be covered by a flower. I used 1/16” strips to make the flowers since I wanted them to look dainty. For the pink and blue flower on the top of the eggs, I used a 2” tight circle for the center and then glued six teardrops around the centers points facing out. For the blue flowers, I used four closed hearts pointing inward and then glued a 1” tight roll in the center.

For the lavender egg, I glued a ¼” strip around the egg. I think I should probably add something to that strip, but I haven’t decided what yet (and Easter is almost here!) For the center of the design, I rolled a 12” graduated lavender strip and then glued eleven 6” marquises around the center. Next I made eleven raspberry teardrops which I glued (point in) between the marquises. I then added 4” tight rolls which I placed between the teardrops. I used 1/8” strips on this one. I think this one is still a work in progress. I have one more that is almost done but I am taking a time out to have my entire family come and celebrate my husband’s 75th birthday. If I get the third one done, I will post it.

Baby Card

Does someone in your family have a new baby on the way? Here is a baby card that works for either baby boy or a baby girl. The baby rattle is easy to make and can be done in any combination of colors. I used pink, blue and yellow. The head of the rattle is made by gluing six 6” open hearts in a circle. Using a contrasting color, make six 3” teardrops and glue them into the points of the open heart. Next make eleven 1 ½” tight rolls and glue them all around the open hearts as shown. The handle of the rattle is made by gluing two “double scrolls with flags” back to back (If you are not familiar with this shape, simply fold a 6” strip in half and then roll the open end. As you roll the open ends, the folded end of the strips will open a little bit. Make two of these and glue them back to back.)

The border on this card is made using the Leave it to Weaver border punch. The punch makes 3/8” inch slots, so you can weave 3 1/8” strips through the slots to create the border. Another variation here would be to weave a 3/8” strip through the slots and then weave a 1/8” strips on top of the 3/8” strip. Enjoy!

SPRING!

I am still thinking spring, even though it is SNOWING in Enfield, CT today. I like having a bunch of quilled cards ready whenever I need them; but if I run out, I need something I can put together in just a few minutes. Here are a couple of simple “spring” cards that only take a few minutes to make.

I started by using a leaf border punch along the bottom of the card, I glued a ¾” wide strip of green along the bottom of the inside of the card to accent the punched border. I made two dark yellow 2” sculptured rolls for the centers of the flowers. I then arranged six light yellow 3”shaped teardrops around one of the sculptured rolls (rounded side toward the center). To make the smaller daffodil, I put the sculptured roll on its side and glued four 3” shaped teardrops along the bottom of the sculptured roll (this time pointed side toward sculptured roll.)The leaves are wheat ears (I used 3 loops) and single strips of finger curved paper makes the stems. Quick and easy!

Even though daisies don’t bloom in Connecticut until June, they say “spring” to me. I used the Isabella multiple shaper punch for the back ground behind the daisies. I put a 6” strip of yellow paper through crimper and then rolled it to make a center for the larger daisy. I then arranged ten white 6” marquises around the center. For the center of the smaller daisy, I crimped and then rolled a 3” strip of yellow, squeezing it into an oval. I used four white 6" marquises for the smaller flower. I finger curved two green 1 ½” strips for the stems and then used two 4” open scrolls to put on either side of the stems. Happy Spring!

Tool Lending Program

Are you considering teaching a quilling class; or do you know someone who is? Then read on, perhaps I can help you.

As a long time quiller, and one of the original members of the group that went on to become the North American Quilling Guild, one of my goals has been to ensure that this beautiful art form we all love is passed on to future generations. This was the reason I started this blog, to pass my experience on to other (hopefully much younger) quillers. Over the years, I have taught many people to quill, giving classes, workshops, and demonstrations. Now that I am running Whimsiquills and still doing custom orders for customers, I no longer have time for classes so I decided it was time to help others teach. More teachers mean more students . . . which mean more quillers . . . it’s a “no brainer”.

I have come up with a program which I think is pretty unique, a tool lending program. (I have to thank the people at Paplin Products who are working closely with me to make this possible.) This is how it works; when I talk to someone, a scout leader or teacher who is planning to teach a group to quill, I tell them about our tool lending program. Most of these groups have a very limited budget (if any at all), so we send them the tools they need for their class at no charge, along with some other goodies like mat blanks, bookmarks, whatever we have on hand. When they are finished with the tools, they return them to us so we can send them on to another group. If any of their students decide they want to keep on quilling, they have the option to keep the tool at a discounted price.

We try to keep the costs of teaching as low as possible, suggesting students bring scissors and tweezers from home, using corrugated cardboard or Styrofoam covered with waxed paper as a work board, the old “white glue on a piece of waxed paper with a toothpick trick “etc. We give teachers a discount on any supplies they decide to purchase.. We also make sure they have links to our free patterns and instructional sheets which include things like a basic shapes chart and are all free and downloadable. We also encourage them to visit our blog www.quillingwithwhimsiquills.blogspot.com where we have all kinds of helpful info like teaching quilling which is a four part series. Our hope is that some of the students will decide to continue quilling. We have had an excellent response to this program; if you know someone who might be interested, please feel free to pass this information on.

Just in time for St Patrick's Day

Just in time for St Patricks Day, here are a couple of really simple designs you can use on greeting cards, place cards or table decorations.

The first card is made by arranging nine 5” black squares to make the hat. A black strip folded over makes the “brim” and a small strip of yellow is added for the hat band. A 1 ½” ring coil folded into a square makes the ‘buckle’ for the hat band. The shamrocks are simply 6” open hearts arranged on the short stems. I used the Marta Multi-shaper punch for the border.

The second card has a shamrock made using the alternate side looping technique. I worked with three strips at a time so there would be more “loops’ inside the shamrock. The stem was a 9’ shaped teardrop. I used the Marta Multi-shaper punch for the back ground on this card.

The shamrocks on the third card were made using 9“ heart shapes and 6” shaped teardrops for stems. I used the Quilted Corners corner/border punch for the border on this card. Of course any of these designs can be made larger or smaller by changing the length of the strips used.