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.

Think Spring!

 I don’t know about you, but I am SO done with this winter . . .  so I am thinking butterflies. I like to make realistc looking butterflies. I don’t use a pattern for those, I just look at the pictures in the Audubon book and try to duplicate the look with quilling,, but I also make “fun’ butterflies.

This is a very simple quilled butterfly made with ring coils. You can make a ring coil by wrapping a strip several times around anything round (ballpoint pen, the handle of a wooden spoon etc.) or you can use one of the many quilling templates  available. There is also a cute little item called a circle sizer which serves the same purpose as a template (it’s just smaller.) Once you’ve made your ring coils, pinch them into the shapes you want for the wings. Make a 6” marquis for the body, a 11/2” tight roll (squeezed into an oval shape) for the head, and a 2” open heart for the antenna. I used a new Fiskars butterfly border punch  on the card and glued the little “fall” butterflies around the ring coil butterfly. On the inside of the card I glued a strip of 1/8” quilling paper and a wider strip of colored paper which I also punched. 

The next card is made using a different technique. It is called alternate side looping. I used three strips for the wing and back half of the butterfly. The body is a 6” marquise. The head is a 1 ½” tight roll. The antenna is a 1” strip folded in half and both ends curled in the same direction. The daisy has a 3” tight roll for a center, flattened into an oval. The Petals are 6” teardrops. The stem is just a 2” strip finger curled with 3’ open coils on either side. Enjoy!

Another Quilled Heart

Have you made your Valentine cards yet? No? Well, here is one more Valentine pattern for you. Once again, I started with a lightly pencil drawn heart outline to follow. I then arranged 5” open S scrolls around the outline to be sure I could get the “fit” right. After gluing the S scrolls down, I added 2” tight rolls on both sides where the S scrolls meet. I added a 5” teardrop at the bottom of the heart. To finish the card, I used a heart border punch on both sides of the card and backed it with a contrasting color. I decided to do this card in pastels rather than the traditional red, I think it is too pretty to use just for Valentines Day. Enjoy!

FYI Heart border punches (the one shown as well as the circle heart punch and the heart corner/border punch) are on sale until February 11th)

A Special Quilled Heart

I promised you a different kind of heart this week. This couldn’t be any more “out of the box” than our typical quilled hearts.This week I’d like to introduce you to Sarah Yakawonis. She contacted me after seeing the picture of the 3-D quilled scull that Kim Wallace sent me that was posted on this blog. Sarah said that she had done a two dimensional scull and would like to try a 3-D scull. I checked out her blog (http://yakawonis.blogspot.com/ )and was amazed at her anatomical quilling. I asked her permission to feature her here and share her work with you. She graciously accepted.

Sarah is a graduate of the Maine College of Art and works as a graphic artist in a publication design studio in Portland, Maine. “We make books, it's really fulfilling because I love everything about books.”

I asked her how she learned to quill. “, I learned quilling on my own. But I used the skills like flawless glue work from school. My teachers were really hard about stuff like glue showing, it taught me to hold everything I make up to a level of scrutiny I would have never know existed if I hadn't gone to art school. . . . I fell in love with quilling early last summer and played around with a lot of the traditional quilling motifs. While I did learn the techniques of quilling by doing this, none of the traditional themes held my interest for very long. I was looking for a subject that would. I guess I was looking for a something that was more macabre than the traditional flowers and letterforms. I came up with the idea of anatomical quilling while in the wilderness of Maine; it just kind of came to me like being hit by a lightning bolt of inspiration! I did a few pieces and knew I'd do a lot more. I really love repetitive tasks, and I enjoy how long each one takes. For example my quilled heart took about 33 hours to complete. Each part of the body is so complex! I love figuring out how to take the illustration I work from and translate it into quilling! It's so much fun and so satisfying to see the finished work!”

I asked Sarah if she planned to “market” her work, she replied,” I'm trying to figure out how to get my work into galleries. I'm preparing to approach galleries in Portland and nation wide, First Friday is a big art day in Portland so I'm waiting for gallery Curators to be a little less busy when I approach them. I hope it's a fruitful endeavor!

I may start selling them online, I'm looking for the best platform to showcase my work. I also have to figure out how to price my work, no small task when there is nothing out there to compare it to.

Be sure to stop by Sarah's blog to see some great close ups of her work. Good luck Sarah! I’m happy to have made your acquaintance.!