This is another one of my attempts at making quilled alphabets :). Yes, a customer of mine requested me to make a birthday card with quilled alphabets of her friend's name on the card. She insist that the alphabets be in Bookman Old Style fonts. The colors of the alphabets has to be the same colors like the V032 quilled heart card I made before. And the pop up inside, has to be like the pop up Manchester United cake I made in my HB087 felt hearts card.
I did have problems figuring out how to do the quilled alphabets at first.....because I didn't know how to make it exactly the way she wanted it to be. So in the end I had to come up with my own way of doing it....something I'm comfortable with. And this is how it turned out :). I'm pretty happy with it and so is my customer. Thank God she likes it a lot hehe! Phew! :D
The part I love the most about this card is the small red seed beads that I glued along side the quilled swirls...I had fun adding them on the card :). From a far it looks like teeny tiny quilled circles but actually they are just seed beads :).
Finally!! I did it!! I've been wanting to do a tri-shutter card since last year but it never really turned out the way it's suppose to be! haha! I've looked up in Youtube on how to make it but it seemed so difficult to make and it demotivated me to try it. Until one day I saw for the first time how it's done by my fellow card maker Miss Azilah from Kadkukisor formerly known as CupCakeCraft & Handmade Card during our 2nd Quilling gathering in KL. I was so excited to watch her make her tri-shutter card. She did it really really fast! Seriously! Before you know it, it's done! :) Do check out her blog to see her amazingly gorgeous tri-shutter card at the link above.
For my first try, I did a big one, a half A4 sized card. I didn't decorated much on it apart from pasting different pattern papers I got from a good friend of mine who gave away her paper scraps some time ago to me. Thank you Sandi!! :) So I used them wisely in this card combining similar shades of blue, orange and green paper. I was thinking of adding some quilled shapes on it but was a bit lazy to do so right now hahahaha. Perhaps in my other tri-shutter cards I'll do that ;).
At first I thought that the tri-shutter card was so thick it wouldn't fit in my handmade envelope, but surprisingly it fits!! Perhaps because I didn't paste anything that's 3D a lot on it. Well, will do more experiments on it for my next try and see how it goes.
I know now that if you really believe in your dreams, you can do it! I sure proved it by making this card and so can you!! ;)
In a week when the power of social media has been widely discussed in the mainstream news, I find this fascinating...
Handmade jewellery (Etsy store tre.che) was ripped off by retail giant Urban Outfitters in the US, who then had to backtrack after being attacked on Twitter and Facebook. Read the story here (via Sarah McNeil).
First time ever I got a request to quill alphabets on a card.....and in this case it's a love theme card. My customer was interested in the love birds card with the pop up inside but he wanted me to quill white alphabets instead of having those love birds on the card. And so that's what I did.
It was pretty tough because I've never done it before.....and didn't know how to go about it. He requested that I spell their names with combination of big and small alphabets "KaMiL <3 SyiMa". Now that it's done, I wish I had done it on a bigger sized card....I feel like this card is a bit small for those alphabets....oh well.....it's already done and I can't turn back....lesson learned.
I hope that I will have more chance to practice quilling alphabets in future on my handmade cards. I feel like it's even more difficult than quilling those love birds :P....seriously! haha! Now I really respect those who can quill alphabets so well. :)
Last night I had a quick look at some of the Sew Mama Sew! giveaways (I have been entering blog giveaways for a year now and have not won anything yet...) and found the sweetest story. On the blog WiseCricket, a 7 year old girl is making a quilt for charity by collecting sponsors at $10 a square (she is in America but I just paid by paypal - love paypal!).
My daughter is only 4 but I hope she will one day be this empathetic and industrious - check it out here.
This winter the colour and fabric trends are all about wrapping ourselves in comfort and warmth and nostalgic, happy feelings.
As you’ve no doubt seen in coming out in the shops, the women’s and men’s wear fashion colours for Autumn – Winter 2011 are quite dark, warm, rich and regal. There is still a layered, boho French Parisienne flavour – with stripes,spots, vintage florals, and the 1950s longer hems to skirts. The top most used colours in fashion are camel shades of brown, with warm red berries and purples. Add layers upon layers of knits as the key wardrobe look, along with gold, lace, military and aviator styled coats, platforms, boots and wedges.
Overall, the fashion looks are much more reserved than we’ve been used to in Winters’ past. It’s as if the world’s natural disasters and economic situation is keeping us in check, stirring up a desire to hold onto treasured trends, comfort, grace. Of course with a little bit of luxe to perk us up!
The fashion world’s influence on crafting and interior decorating trends in fabric is really literal this season. The colours follow fashion’s lead exactly with the hot new trends in printed fabrics focusing on nostalgia, French inspiration, and cute, old fashionedhappiness.
If you’re a crafter, designer or interior design home decorating fanatic, read on for my take on the fabric and print trends.
THIS SEASON’S FABRIC COLOUR STORY:
Pantone’s Fall Fashion Report for 2011 surveyed once again all the fashion designers in New York Fashion Week and came up with a colour palette for the season that rotates around ‘camel’ or as they call it, ‘bamboo’.
Pantone called the season’s look “sensible, but spirited”. “Designers take a painterly approach to fall 2011 by artfully combining bright colors with staple neutrals, reminiscent of how an artist would construct a stunning work of art,“ said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Much like a painter's masterpiece, there is a certain romance to this season's palette.
“Taking cues from the great masters, sepia tones of old Hollywood, Chinese opera, cityscapes and countryside, designers are paying close attention to texture, contrast and color for fall 2011 – pairing menswear with feminine twists, warm prints with cool metals, incorporating both old and new influences, and creating an intriguing balance between colors."
Check out their top 10 palette below, and my mood board (top of this blog post) I’ve put together to illustrate it. My favourite new colour in the palette is the gorgeous deep ocean-inspired teal greens and blues – so amazing and such a modern take on the winter dark forest green we’re used to.
I’ve just got to get that shade into my next home project – or maybe a new lily pad?
Just the names of the palettes alone make it clear what the home trends are.
In terms of a favourite colour combo for roomschemes, the American home and design magazines and blogs like Apartment Therapy have picked grey and yellow as their favourite interior colour scheme, and Ty Pennington’s first collection includes this palette. I’ve also noticed design leaders in New Zealand such as Homestyle magazine , LÃl Magoolie and crafter Dear Colleen highlighting the sunny yellow trend.
However downunder in both Australian and New Zealand interior magazines we’re still seeing the bright red, black and white combination that’s been strong for a couple of years now continue.
And how jealous am I of this 'office in a cupboard' in white, teal and red:
TRENDS IN PRINTS In both fashion and interiors, everyone’s looking for texture, so we’re seeing tartans, houndstooth and checkers. The tribal ikat from last season has become more refined, often resembling casual stripes and spots.
The French influence keeps nautical stripes in vogue, and large print spots from Parisienne blouses and scarfs comes in too. Supporting this theme is an astounding number of US and European quilting and craft designers bringing out prints with Eiffel towers; fleur de lis; poodles, French postage stamps, and love words in type.
The other key quilt and craft fabric theme is a fluid, bohemian group of patterns that include some abstract florals and damasks, flowing circular patterns, and styles emulating the lace look that’s so central in the fashion trends.
Following on from last season, typography continues to dominate in prints – mostly showcasing old style postal stamps, war posters, and coffee sacks.
CHILDREN’S PRINTS
For little boys, the nostalgic trend introduces patterns such as view finders, old fighter planes, rustic robots, bicycles and buses. For little girls, the French theme provides a range of patterns, with gorgeous poodles, cute cherries, apples and spots.
KEEPING IT LOCAL
This year I love that New Zealanders have also invented their own special, localised theme - with “Kiwiana”, prints, typography, place names, and heritage images really hot on t-shirts, baby clothes, cushions, tea towels, wall art like bus roll canvases, and more. The ultimate style symbol this winter: appliqued cushions made from old fashioned, snuggly upcycled New Zealand woollen blankets!
Alhamdulillah......it's all done! I've managed to get all the quilled shapes done today and it's ready to be posted soon. :) I just hope that my customer is happy with it hehehe. :)
I got this order a while back but had trouble getting it done on time due to my ill health. Been sick for quite some time now. One health issue after another. Currently it's fever, flu and sore throat! :(
What I love most about this tool box is the lady bugs hehehe.....it's a little smaller than the one I did before for my first tool box.....and the best thing is, I glued black beads on it as it's dots. I love that effect on the lady bug. :) And this is also the first time I made butterflies like this. I mean the middle part of the butterfly....a simple technique and I love it...simple to do and cute :). The ones I did before were too time consuming...hehe.
My first ever cushion cover has been posted today to Australia, I hope my swap buddy likes it! Her blog has a lot of rainbows, so I dug out the brightest prints I could find in my stash, and used an old upholstery fabric sample for the sunny background. After appliqueing the large hearts I noticed a small blemish in the golden fabric - one small panic attack later there is now a little pink heart (on the right) to show which way up I designed the cushion to go.
Not brave enough to try a zip, I did an envelope-type back, but did try snaps thanks to this tutorial on Make It and Love It.
There are some awesome cushion ideas at Punky and Me where everyone is posting their finished covers. My favourite so far is this one by Lola Nova.
I received a request to design a birthday card using felt as part of the design on the card. I did freaked out a bit when it comes to using felt because I am not an expert when it comes to using felt as embellishments on cards. I've only tried my hand at using them early this year and still have a lot to learn about it. So I did feel a little scared using them especially since it is a little expensive and therefore I can't afford to make mistakes when cutting them up otherwise it would just be a waste.
When my customer told me how she wanted the design to look like on the card, I was worried as well. Arranging 15 circles and 15 red felt hearts on the card and making sure they are arranged neatly on the card is not as easy as I thought it would be. It had to be precised.....I needed to make the correct measurements. I had a hard time figuring out how to cut the felt into heart shapes too and making sure they are the exact same size. I don't have a special machine to cut felt in the same size and so I decided to make a template for it instead. That solved the problem and I managed to get them all in the same size. Yippee! :D I also used the circle template to get those circles for the heart. If I had a circle cutter, then cutting up circles would be a breeze! :)
Another problem was how to write "HAPPY B'DAY ~SYG~" on the hearts. At first my customer wanted me to stick letters sponge stickers on it....unfortunately they were a bit too big for the hearts. So at the very last minute, I got the idea to use glitter glue instead. Yup, they worked perfectly on felt. I never knew that before! I knew that you can use glitter glue on smooth type of fabric but didn't know that it's great on felt as well. Now I know! I experimented some silver glitter glue on a small piece of felt and after 10-15 minutes, they dried so nicely on it! So I finally could write those letters on the hearts as per request. Phew! Another problem solved!
Then I made a small pop up cake inside the card as per request and decided to put the MU logo on the cake itself as she wanted me to add some MU elements inside the card since her BF is a MU fan :). Simple....really simple :) I'm so glad she loved it so much! :) and I love it too! ;)
Since my last Spoonflower post (here) I have got completely hooked.
Every Friday there is a new contest so just signup and you can vote for as many fabric designs as you like (my daughter and I go through them together which means anything with cute animals gets a vote from us).
My 'black and white' entry
I have even entered a couple of competitions myself, despite my very limited vector-drawing experience... and not come last, yay!!!
My 'alphabet' entry
It is really fun to come up with an idea from the contest theme, and then see how everyone else had completely different ideas.
'Backyard Baby' by Patty Sloniger
The Project Selvage competition to design baby boy fabric for Michael Miller has just finished and the winner was Patty Sloniger, she is AMAZING (designs here), and her winning collection 'Backyard Baby' is so original and cute.
The next competition has the theme 'ice cream' and my entry - 'Choc Tops' is the picture at the top of this post. I can't wait to see what everyone else has done. The week after that will be 'folk tales', can you recognise this one?
I haven't been doing a lot of cards with quilled roses for quite sometime now. So it's nice to be able to get an order to do it recently. I've forgotten how tricky it is to make these. Sometimes it comes out nice and sometimes it doesn't. So I had to make a lot of it and choose the best ones for the card :).
What I love about this card is that for the first time ever, I'm using a gold colored card. Recently I found a really nice gold metallic paper stock and it really caught my eye....I just had to buy it! I've seen some gold paper stock before but I like this one the best...and it's really great for making cards with.
There isn't any pop up designs for this card....so I simply decorated inside the card with tiny red hearts around it. A simple touch. I also drew with a black pen swirling lines at the side of the card.....loved playing with that hehehe.....just simple swirling lines for the roses. I should practice more with the drawing....no matter how nervous I always get when doing it. Afraid of spoiling the card in the process....hehe...well, at least I tried ;).
I've got a serious crush. On all things Tinch Design Studio. And it's official, my house is now totally Tinch-ified. Seriously, there's not many more places I could put Helen's gorgeous creations. They now adorn:
- the baby's bedroom door
- the fridge
- the magnetic noteboard at the back of my craft cupboard
- my bedroom wall.
Neat aye? The re-stickable photo frames are my latest purchase, and Helen still has a 10% preorder discount running, hop on over.
I wonder if my house could do with just a tinch more? The "quote marks" could be cool too...
I have seen lots of pretty houses on the interweb this week - somehow looking at amazing houses isn't frustrating like looking at the local ones just out of our reach!
We write about Amy Butler a lot because we love her fabrics - Apartment Therapy has a tour of her house and it is so beautiful.
Lovely blogger Retromummy is considering a move from Sydney to the country, and her weekend open home adventures (with four children!) have produced some gorgeous photos.
Have you seen Sophie Dahl's cooking show? This is the London house where it was filmed, clean and white so you can imagine what you would do with it... on the show it was filled with vintage china, candles, bunting and snuggly furnishings... (via Meet Me at Mike's)
And finally, my favourite new website, Unhappy Hipsters. 'Mid-century modern' decors with dream furniture - and tongue-in-cheek captions (like this one). I even spotted Karen Walker's house...
'Things I'm Loving' - Fridays at Paisley Jade's :)
