Drivers wanted!

July 17th, 2010

My summer has been go-go-go!!!  I haven’t found much time to just sit in front of my computer or craft desk…which I miss!  Sorry for the long break between blog posts.  I really miss working on fun & creative projects for all of you!

Here is where I’ve been almost all summer…

…in a (hot) car driving kids to camps, Vacation Bible School, swim lessons, soccer, karate, library, friend’s houses or traveling somewhere far away to visit family.  But, it has been a good summer!  When the kids are busy, then the summer flies by!

So here’s a fun little project to keep your kids busy!

3-D CARS

- Bright white quilling paper, 1/8-inch wide

- Black quilling paper, 1/8-inch wide

- Leaf Green, Blue, Yellow and/or Red quilling paper, 1/4-inch wide

- Needle or slotted tool

- craft glue

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

1.) For a car, use the wider paper or 1/4-inch wide quilling paper.  Roll a 12-inch strip of paper into a rectangle and roll a 6-inch strip of paper into a square.  Glue them together.

2.) For the wheels, use the narrow paper or 1/8-inch wide quilling paper.  Measure and tear a 6-inch BLACK strip of paper and a 3-inch BRIGHT WHITE strip of paper.  Glue the two strips together by placing a small dab of glue at a paper’s end and overlapping the second strip.

Use a straight edge to make sure both strips are straight!

Starting from the BRIGHT WHITE end, roll the 9-inch strip into a tight circle.  Repeat for the other wheels.

3.) Glue the wheels to the side of the car.

Hope you’re having a great summer vacation!  Safe travels!

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Posted in 3D Miniatures | 1 Comment »

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Not your typical tie for Dad!

June 6th, 2010

Are you getting a head start on Father’s day gifts?  Here’s a fast and simple project you can make with the kids.  It’s a “Father’s Day Quilled Tie Sticky Note Pad Holder” (that’s a mouthful!). Dad will love this decorative and functional gift!

Last year I taught this project to a group of second graders. They loved it and dads gave it rave reviews!  At least it’s a different twist on the usual tie-giving occasion!

- 1/4-inch (6 mm) wide – Light blue quilling paper

- Slotted tool

- craft glue

Other Supplies:

- Printed scrapbook card stock: stripe pattern

- Card stock: blue and white

- 3-inch x 3-inch Sticky Note Pad

- Scissors

- Black pen

- Adhesive tabs

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) Cut out a 7-inch x 3.5-inch (17.5 cm x 8.7 cm) rectangle from printed card stock.  Center two score lines at 3 1/4-inch and 3 3/4-inch to create the fold lines.

2. ) Cut out a 3-inch x 3 inch (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm)  square from blue card stock. Mount the blue square to the folded striped printed card stock with adhesive tabs.

3.) Trace or print out the shirt pattern.  Fold down the collar. Mount the shirt on the blue card stock.

4.) To make the quilled tie, roll a LIGHT BLUE 16-inch (40 cm) strip of paper into a loose circle and pinch it into a marquise.  To make the knot, roll a LIGHT BLUE 4-inch (10 cm) strip of paper into a loose circle and pinch it into a triangle. Glue the pieces to the shirt.

5.) With the black pen, write “#1 Dad”, “Happy Father’s Day!” or your own fun sentiment.

These decorative sticky notepads make great teacher gifts too!!

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Posted in Cards | 3 Comments »

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Kaleidoscope Flowers – Quilled Card Project

May 27th, 2010

Our Circle Template Boards are finally back in stock!  So as a celebration, I designed this “Kaleidoscope Flower” card project that shows you why it’s such a useful tool! Here’s an incentive to get one…a 10% off coupon for our tools! Order online and use coupon code: EM5K (expires May 31, 2010, retail orders only).

If you want to stretch your creativity, then see how many things you can make with one of our “Sampler Quilling Paper Packs“. These 8-inch lengths of rainbow goodness can go a long way!  I use them for classes and give them away at trade shows. With just three Sampler packs you can make these kits, “Flower Sampler” or “Quilt Block Sampler“.

- 1/8-inch (3 mm) wide Quilling Paper – Sampler Paper Pack

- Slotted or Needle tool

- Fine Tip Tweezers

- Circle Template Board

- Square Window Tri-Fold Card

Other Supplies:

- Glue

- Green leaf pattern scrapbook paper

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) To make the kaleidoscope flowers, you’ll need 8-inch lengths of:

- RED SHADES: 3 Crimsons, 3 Reds, 3 Blushes

- YELLOW SHADES: 3 Deep Yellows, 3 Yellows, 3 Pale Yellows

- PINK SHADES: 3 Fuschias, 3 Pinks, 3 Pale Pinks

- PURPLE SHADES: 3 Grapes, 3 Purples, 3 Lilacs

You could use shades of greens or blues too!

TIP: Tear the ends of the paper.  The feather or torn end will leave a more seamless look when you glue the papers together.

2.) Glue the 3 different colored strips together, end to end, by placing a small amount of glue at the end and overlapping the second strip.  Use the board to keep them straight across and press them together. For example: Crimson to Red to Blush.

3.) Roll the paper strip and place them in a Circle Template Board to make them all uniform in size. Glue the paper’s end to the coil. ** Notice I rolled two strips the same way, starting with the darker color…then the last strip the opposite way, starting with the lighter color (or vise versa) **

4.) Pinch your coils into teardrops or marquises (see finished card photo). To make “pretty” teardrops or evenly pinched coils, use the following technique!

LEFT PHOTO: Hold the coil with the paper’s end (arrow) is facing out.

CENTER PHOTO: Pull the center of the coil over to the side so that the coils are evenly spaced.

RIGHT PHOTO: Pinch a point at the paper’s end while the center is held off to the side.

5.) To make the stem, use four 4-inch (10 cm) strips of FOREST GREEN. Fold each strip in half and roll the ends outward.  Place glue near the fold and press together.

6.) Mount the green printed scrapbook paper behind the window card. Place your quilled pieces inside the square cutouts. Here are two variations I came up with.

7.) Glue the pieces down with tweezers.

I could spend an hour fiddling with these pieces!  So many possibilities.

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Posted in Cards, Product Review, Techniques | 2 Comments »

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Spiral Rose Quiling Kit – Giveaway & Winner!

May 20th, 2010

With summer almost here, it suddenly hit me that I have to start thinking about teacher gifts/thank you cards, bridal and wedding cards.  This can be a really busy time of the year!

So, here’s my secret to making cards within minutes:  Spiral Roses!

I made a video clip on how to make them on the Quilled Creations’ website.

Win a “Spiral Rose Quilling kit” by leaving a comment!

Winner can pick a kit color of their choice: Pinks/Ivory/White,  Burgundy/Red/Purples, OR Orange/Peach/Yellows

I’ll randomly pick a winner in a week!

WINNER IS…(picked by random generator at random.org)
“Barbara” who left the comment:
—
Barbara says:
May 21, 2010 at 12:52 am
I’ve loved quilling since I was young and did some in school!! Now I do all sorts of things using them!! LOVE IT!!
—
Congrats! Email me at alli@quilledcreations.com and we’ll hook you up with a Spiral Rose Quilling Kit!

Thanks for all of the great comments!

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Posted in Cards, Inspirational, Product Review | 32 Comments »

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Eat Your Veggies, please!

May 13th, 2010

I hope you had a nice mother’s day.  My mom is an amazing cook!  She definitely shows her love through her incredible homecooking.

For me, as a mom of two young children, I think my kids will only remember me saying “Please, eat your veggies!!!!” at every meal.

This adorable veggie-printed papers came from Cookbookin’.  I met the owners of Cookbookin’, Patricia Fletcher and Keri McCafferty, earlier this year at the Craft & Hobby Association tradeshow.  We were all excited about how their papers could compliment some of my quilled designs!  They even have recipe cards, stickers and stamps to match!

I’m hoping to play around with more of their fun designs.

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS:

- Square Window Tri-Fold Card

- Slotted Tool or Needle Tool

- Fine-Tip Tweezers

- 1/8-inch (3mm) Quilling Paper: purple, brown, orange, leaf green, moss green, red

- Circle Sizer (on cork or foam board)

- Scissors

Other Supplies:

- Cookbookin’ Scrapbook Paper: “Eat Your Veggies”

- Adhesive tabs or double stick tape

- Pins

- craft glue

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS

1.) On the backside of the veggie-printed paper, trace the square window cutouts from the tri-fold card.

2.) Use a ruler and exacto knife to cut out the squares.

3.) Attach the printed paper to the front of the tri-fold card with double-stick tape or adhesive tabs. Don’t use glue or it will wrinkle the paper.

4.) OFF-CENTERED CIRCLE TECHNIQUE (EGGPLANT & TOMATO)

The eggplant is made using the Off-Centered Circle Technique (or eccentric circles).  First, mount your Circle Sizer Ruler onto your cork or foam board with two pins as shown:

Roll a 16-inch (40 cm) strip of purple into a SIZE 1 hole on the Circle Sizer. Remove the coil, glue the paper’s end to the coil and place it back into the Circle Sizer.  Put the pin in the coil’s center, pull it off to the side and push the pin into the cork to hold it in place (left photo).  You can use tweezers to fix your coils so that they’re evenly spaced (center photo).  Spread glue near the pin where all of the edges are pressed together (right photo).  Let it dry.

For the leaves, fold a 2-inch (5 cm) strip in half.  At the fold, trim a leaf shape.  Separate or fan out the two leaves.

To make the eggplant, shape the off-centered circle into an oval.  Glue the leaves on top.  Roll a 2-inch (5 cm) strip of brown into a tight circle and glue on top.

The tomato is made like the eggplant.  Just use a 16-inch (40 cm) strip of red, add more leaves and a 2-inch brown stem.

5.) PEA POD

The pea is made by rolling two 6-inch (12.5 cm) strips of moss green into loose circles (SIZE 5 hole).  For the pod, fold a 4-inch (10 cm) strip of paper in half, then fold it in half again.

Glue the two peas together.  Shape and glue the pod around the peas.

6.) CARROT

Roll a 12-inch (30 cm) strip of orange into a loose circle (SIZE 2 hole).  For the leaves, roll two 2-inch (5 cm) strips into “V” scrolls.

Pinch the orange coil into a long triangle.  Glue one “V” scrolls inside the other and glue on top of the carrot.

Glue the veggies to your card!

Get your 5 servings a day! I guess I need one more…

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Posted in Cards, Techniques | No Comments »

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Class Results!

May 6th, 2010

I just came back from the North American Quilling Guild conference in Long Island, NY.   Thank you Kay and all of the Long Islander guild members for organizing it (great job on the quilled gift tags, favors, nametags)…it was a fantastic weekend!  I met so many wonderful and talented quillers. It was really nice to be with like-minded artists that appreciate this paper art!

There was a huge selection of classes, but we were limited to 5 classes.  I taught one class and attended four classes.  Here are pictures of the final projects:

FLOWER TREASURE BOX (Alli Bartkowski)

For my class, we made this cute treasure box.  We used a Curling Coach to roll the tight coils and shaped them to create a box with a cover.

A little Hershey Kiss can fit inside.

A similar, but BIGGER version of this flower treasure box is in my Miniatures 101 kit.  (I promise to make a video clip on how to use the Curling Coach to create these boxes!)

MINIATURE ROSES (Maggie Nakatani)

Maggie is an amazing quiller from Japan.  In her class, we made a mini flower pot that stands about 2-inches high.  It’s made with a combination of punched flowers, tight coils and fringing.

MINIATURE BEAVER (Sherry Rodehaver)

Sherry is the “master” of quilled miniatures! I took her class on miniatures at my first quilling conference and I was just blown away by her skill and innovative techniques. When I wrote my first book, “Paper Quilling for the First Time“, the publisher said I could feature a few quilling artists in the gallery section.  Sherry was my top pick!

We made this adorable little beaver all out of paper.  The beaver is New York’s state animal. Too cute!

STENCIL QUILLING (Charlotte Canup)

Charlotte is a wonderful quiller. I love her southern charm! She’s really good at explaining quilling techniques…check out her blog!

For her class, we quilled with 1/16-inch wide quilling paper to create this beautiful “see-through” sailboat. I love looking at BOTH sides of this ATC (Artist Trading Card). The stenciling idea is a great way to highlight the intricate beauty of quilling.

SPIRELLI (Carol Gancorz)

I’ve always admired spirelli.  So, I couldn’t wait to try this class. Spirelli is wrapping embroidery thread around a scalloped punch paper piece.  It’s really simple and a great way to frame your quilling. Carol prepared so many beautiful card kits for us to practice this technique! Wouldn’t it be cool if you could spirelli with quilling paper?

Here were some of the other classes that I didn’t have a chance to attend…

Iris Folding, 3D Tree, Braiding, Sunflowers, Feathering, Bead Quilling, Earrings, Snowman, Matting, Lighthouse, Terns, Butterflies, Floral Design, Husking, Paper Quilting, Sailboats

Hope to see you next year!

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Posted in Inspirational | 4 Comments »

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No tools? Try the vortex.

April 28th, 2010

This entire butterfly was made with fingers…no rolling and no quilling tools!

The shape is call a “vortex coil”. A talented quiller, Licia Politis, from Australia invented this new shape!  It actually looks really cool when it’s done with a longer strip of paper (16 inches or longer), but I wanted to experiment with  graduated papers. Graduated papers are only 12 inches in length and they fade from white to a color.  I love the effect of this paper…but here’s my attempt with the vortex coil.

- 1/4-inch Graduated Paper (pink, purple, bright green)

- craft glue

- scissors

BUTTERFLY INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) The vortex coil is like making a wheatear or continuous loops. First, make a small loop.  Then make a slightly larger loop by wrapping the paper strip around the first loop.  Keep the loops close together and evenly spaced. When you get to the end of the paper strips, glue the paper’s end to the base (or point) of the wheatear and trim off any excess paper.

2.) Hold the base of the wheatear. Then push the round end inward.  Release the coils near the base and allow the coils to shift into the “vortex” shape.  You can play around with pinching and reshaping during this step!  (I’ll have to show you what it looks like with a longer or bigger wheatear in a future post! Shorter papers don’t show enough of the vortex shape.)

3.) Make 8 bright green, 4 purple and 4 pink vortex coils. Glue them into groups.

4.) Wrap a 12-inch purple strip around each groups.

5.) Make a body and an antenna.  Glue the pieces together.

Definitely a unique shape and I didn’t use a tool!

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Posted in Inspirational, Techniques | 10 Comments »

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ABC’s of quilling scrolls

April 21st, 2010

I just taught a group of kids how to quill alphabet letters to spell their name. Many of them said they were scared and nervous (complaining)  “this looks way too hard!”. But, after I gave them these simple tricks, they totally changed their tone!  “It’s sooooooo easy!” said a 8-year old…mission accomplished! It is. Hope you’ll try it!

So, here are some basics in rolling…

Quilled scrolls are different from making loose coils into teardrops or marquises. Instead, it’s a combination of rolling both ends of the paper and reshaping the coils with your fingers. Here are some examples:

For the letters “S” and “C”, I first rolled both ends of the paper toward the middle of the paper strip (the smaller “lowercase” letters). Then I unrolled the coils and re-rolled or shaped them to form the “uppercase” letters.

For the letter “R”, I broke up the letters into simple scrolls and basic quilled shapes (half circle).  Then I glued them together.

If you fold a paper strip in half and roll both ends, then you can create a bunch of different letters and shapes! Adding a dab of glue near the fold will hold shapes like the letter “Y” or “L”.

Here are a few pieces that I made (years ago) with different styles of quilled letters.

To learn more about quilling letters, check out the “Alphabet Letters” quilling kit!

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Posted in Product Review, Techniques | 5 Comments »

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Under the Sea…quilling and kids

April 14th, 2010

The North American Quilling Guild is having their annual conference on April 30 & May 1. If you’re in the area, stop by to see some amazing quilled artwork! There are many talented quillers that attend – my work looks so simple in comparison to some of the elaborate pieces that are displayed. It’s a wonderful conference to see if you want to be inspired!! I’m planning to teach and demo miniature treasure boxes or maybe the little basket.

The conference is in Long Island, New York…by the ocean! Kay Shockley, the co-ordinator of the conference, told me on the phone that they quilled a bunch of sea life using my “Under the Sea” kit as part of the conference decor. I’m excited to see the results!

If you want to see how a child views the “Under the Sea” kit, then enjoy this interpretation by my youngest daughter (7-years old).

She was sick for a whole week in December. So this is what we did together at home to pass the time. The overall size is about 5-inches x 7-inches.

We used 1/4-inch wide quilling paper. The wider width is much easier for kids to roll!  She didn’t want to read my instructions or use my suggested lengths/circle sizes (kids are so smart!). Instead, she just used the front cover picture and eye-balled the size coils she wanted. It turned out great!

“Nemo needs to have his own anemone!”

She scolded me for not putting that in the kit!

Post a comment and let me know what your kids like to quill!

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Posted in Inspirational | 4 Comments »

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Quilled Lemonade Anyone?…quilling and kids

April 7th, 2010

At a young age, I scored fairly well on spatial relations, 3D visual learning…or something like that.  I think it meant I had an eye for drawing objects with depth, perspective, and proportion (but please don’t ask me to draw people!). I’m thankful for my art teachers who helped develop and fine-tune these skills! Skills that are perfect for quilling!

In return, I love teaching kids how to quill. With kids, there’s something exciting that happens when they pinch little rolls of paper strips into something wonderful!  They see paper in a whole new light! So if you get an opportunity to teach or show a child how to quill, then take it!

Here’s a quilled lemonade stand that my daughter made when she was 8 years old. Those are cars zooming across the road, not turtles!

She even made a “boom box” off to the left. The two girls are wearing dresses made from a large tight coil.  The technique is similar to the Easter Basket project.

“She’s doing a split because she’s happy to buy some lemonade!”

Gotta love their creativity!

(I’ll be posting some other projects made by kids!)

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Posted in 3D Miniatures, Inspirational | 3 Comments »

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