Sculpted Flowers

This one was a while in the making.  It's my mom's combined mother's day and birthday gift and it was still late on both counts.  Oh well, I think that hand-delivering it to her in Texas makes up for that.

This is easily my favorite of all the pieces I've made recently, and that favoritism is directly proportional to how much time was poured into it.

The peony alone took a couple of days.

After seeing some of my flowers in other work, Mom requested a floral piece in 'Tuscan' colors, and I think that I delivered.

Because I couldn't find any 'Tuscan' frames with enough depth behind the glass for the flowers, I decided to give frame-making the old college try.  I picked up some trim lumber, a miter saw, and wood glue and went to town.  I also added decorative hinges to the corners of the frame to add a bit of detail.  It's certainly not perfect, but it was quite a learning experience.

Anyone have a good source for frame-making supplies and/or instructions?

Wedding Papercut

Some friends of mine were recently wed (on a lavender farm!!!), and I decided it was the perfect time to do a little papercutting.

Font used: Cafe Lounge 19

(As usual, I printed out my text and then altered the text and flourishes with pencil before using it as a cutting template.)

The butterfly, poppy and water detail are all elements in some of the couples' tattoos.  And I chose an art nouveau looking font because the bride was using that style in her invites.

So... I'm that weirdo that made the bride open her gift at her wedding.  I love gift-giving because you get to see people's reactions to something I usually put a lot of thought into.  Then my friends and I styled this as it sat at the wedding party table.  Good thing the bride and groom are laid-back.

Did I mention the wedding was at a lavender farm...

And this is where I mention how much I miss the Pacific Northwest... so beautiful.

Wedding Monogram

My cousin recently wed her sweetheart, so I whipped up a monogram for the happy new couple.

I really like the little heart in the bottom of the 'L'.

To make this one I drafted the letters onto the paper, taking lettering styles from some old calligraphy books given to me by an aunt.

I'm excited that my work is getting a little cleaner, which brings me to a favorite tool; eraser pencils.  They're so handy for cleaning up lines in tight spaces.  Just remember to clean up the lines before any glue goes over them, glue will just seal that pencil line in.

For Helen

My grandma's best friend, Helen, passed away last week.  She was a spitfire up to the last and I'm very grateful I had the opportunity to visit with her while I was in Texas over the holidays.

She had white hair and beautiful blue eyes, and I always remember her loving pastels.  Her living room was bright and airy with white wicker and florals.  So I made this piece for my grandma, in memory of her.  I'll do my best to carry on her feisty ways.

I did a watercolor wash for the background and used different colors of Canson Mi Teintes papers for the flowers, stems and leaves.

The stamens are yellow trace paper, and some of the petals have watercolor washes or prismacolor pencil details.

The lettering is a lighter colored paper with prismacolor pencil over the top for a little bit of texture and depth.

I think you can see that I was influenced by Carol Gearing's Paper Cut Florals, Just as I was back during my wedding for my paper flower wall.

I was pretty happy with this frame job, I just have to find a decent frame first and size the artwork to it.  The other way round is very difficult.  This way sort of limits my layout and such, but the end result is cleaner.

Quilled Cross

My cousins' Opa (grandpa) passed away recently, and their family collects crosses, so I made a memorial cross for them.

He was a deacon and the family were all Texas Aggies, so a cross done in maroon seemed an appropriate way for the family to have a reminder of him and his warmth.

I drafted the cross onto the paper and then just went with my gut for the fill and flourishes.  I even did some intersecting lines for the interior, that was new to me.

I printed the text out and free-handed some details and connected some letters until I liked it, then I cut it out with my x-acto knife and raised it off of the paper for a shadow effect.  I simply cut very thin strips of the ivory paper (about 1/16") and glued it to the back to stand the text up off of the paper.  The dates were simply glued to the paper.

I made my own quilling paper for this project; the outline of the cross is done in 1/4" thick strips of black construction paper and the colored paper is 1/8" and 1/4" thick strips of Canson Mi Teintes paper in maroon, and a bluish grey.  The white is pre-cut quilling strips.  The background is an ivory Canson paper, it's thicker than the Mi Teintes, but I don't remember what it's called.

I then framed it and sent it off, but I'm still behind on the learning curve for the framing part.  Any quillers out there have tips on where to get decent quality frames?

I Quilled Again

I've been sucked into quilling, it's so fun and there's so much of it to look at on the internet.  I'm loving 'All Things Paper' for inspiration.  Everything from quilling to papier mache and some pretty great links to artwork.

I've been seeing couples monograms paired with prints of their home states lately, and loved the idea.  Alas, T and I are from the same state, but we are from two different cities.  So I quilled the great state of Texas with hearts in our hometowns and our initials below.

I still don't think I've achieved awesomeness with this one, but it's my second quilled piece ever, so that's okay.  I do like this one a lot more though.  I like the mixture of tight and more open curls and flourishes and I started out with the outlines printed on the paper this time, much better for accuracy.

I'm still encouraging people to try it, such low start-up costs and so easy to do (not master, but do).  Now I have to think of what I'm going to make next.

My First Time: Quilling

The other day, I pinned this quilled piece by Sabeena Karnik, and then I immediately ordered a beginner's quilling kit from Quilled Creations.

Sabeena's heart is utter perfection and her typography is awe inducing (so, go look at her site), but I wanted to give it a go myself and this is what I came up with.

Not nearly as cool, but definitely fun and a low cost craft.  It will take a lot more practice for me to come up with anything amazing, but that is just about time.

And, in the kitchen, I made these scones for our V-day breakfast today.  They're from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and they are T's favorite scones.  We're not vegan, and we totally consumed them along side bacon and eggs (and some fruit), but damn near everything I've tried out of that book is amazing.  I added cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger to the recipe and, for half of the batch, I added about 1/3 cup of oats and 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips, then I sprinkled the tops with red and gold sanding sugar for a little bit of a festive feel.

Internet Ephemera

I found my absolute favorite printable from the internet today on Apartment Therapy.  It's a calendar of miniature scenes made from paper for each month.  Simple: just print, cut and glue (or use double-stick tape, as I did).

You can also take a gander at all of the work they've created for their marketing clients.

Handmade: Valentines

I participated in the Weddingbee Valentine Swap this year, and to be honest, I feel like a gross underachiever.  I thought mine were so cute, until I saw the ones made by just about everyone else.  Anyway, I still think mine were kinda cute, so here goes.

Step 1: Buy lots of pretty pink and red paper from Paper Source.  I used the A2 size in Fuschia, Blossom and  Red.  I also used fancy, flocked paper for texture.

Step 2: Cut into funky shapes. Get out those pinking shears.

Step 3: Sew around the edges  I used the largest zig-zag stitch on my machine.

Step 4: Cut out a heart to tuck into the card.  I taped on a pinked strip of paper for interest.

Step 5: Write something you'd like to read on a Valentine.

Don't worry, it's a blank white card on the back, with plenty of room to write about your undying love for that special someone.

What I learned:  It's hard to sew through 4-5 pieces of cardstock, so for the rest of them, I arranged the pieces so the most layers I'd sew through would be 3.

Handmade: Easy Ornament

So, I had a bunch of response cards after the wedding and I didn't want to just toss them, so I made ornaments out of them. I used a large circle punch, double-sided tape, leftover cards, beads, beading string, clamp rings, pliers and a bit of hot glue for this project.

Start by punching out 8 circles and then fold them all in half.

Tape all of the halves to eachother to create a sphere.
String some seed beads on your beading wire and create the teardrop at the bottom. Thread a large bead over both ends of the wire to hold the teardrop in place. Thread both through your paper sphere and add another large bead at the top.
Use your pliers and clamp rings to hold the large bead in place and to close the two ends of the beading wire at the very top of the loop. I also dabbed some hot glue at the two ends of the paper sphere to hold the large beads in place and at the top of the loop just for a little bit of extra stability.
Yeah!